Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[velo]

Alright, you've sold me on Steel Assault. Been eyeing it for a while and it's been too long since I played an action platformer.

I've been trying to NOT drop money on Steel Assault and Huntdown, and you guys are really no help at all

[Sumez]

Huntdown didn't manage to entertain me much at all, in fact I didn't have the patience to complete even story mode. Arcade mode is a lot better, I'm aware of that, but it relies a lot on knowing the stages, so you need to complete a scrub playthrough of each turf anyway.
It really seems like a game I should enjoy a whole lot more, there are just too many little things in the game that keeps bothering me. :\
I'm glad other people really love it though, and it makes me want to return to it some time.

[Stevens]

Alright, you've sold me on Steel Assault. Been eyeing it for a while and it's been too long since I played an action platformer.

I've been trying to NOT drop money on Steel Assault and Huntdown, and you guys are really no help at all

Haha. Worst place to be if you're trying to not buy new games.

[it290]

Final Vendetta not having continues was the right choice. It should have a stage select to compensate (provided that its use as a practice tool is made very clear), but the former is such an important power move. Abolish continues. Dehumanize yourself and face to bloodshed.

I don't see how they would have harmed the game (and being a Bitmap Brothers game, my guess is they might be in there via code anyway), and they could have always have gone the Xeno Crisis route and just made 1cc a requirement for the game's good ending. Eliminating them doesn't make it any more likely that I'll go for a 1cc, but it does make it much less likely that I'll spend time perfecting the game in co-op.

[o.pwuaioc]

Just realized we have a "Stevens" and also a "Steven". Hm.

I am the original Despatche - accept no substitute.

I am also dashingly handsome, way more fun at parties, and the ideal wingman.

Can attest, fun at parties, and humble when kicking ass at Food Fight on the 7800. I never did take you up on winging for me. Maybe when this mad world finally opens back up legitimately.

[Stevens]

Just realized we have a "Stevens" and also a "Steven". Hm.

I am the original Despatche - accept no substitute.

I am also dashingly handsome, way more fun at parties, and the ideal wingman.

Can attest, fun at parties, and humble when kicking ass at Food Fight on the 7800. I never did take you up on winging for me. Maybe when this mad world finally opens back up legitimately.

Haha. Look forward to it. Lemme know when you'll be back this way.

[BIL]

I enjoy both Steves' company thoroughly, though the new kid needs to unsuspectingly wander in here and kill Jaquio so I can order him to get an avatar or else be assigned a Cho Aniki one, you know, that old trick.

[mycophobia]

been trying to get a 1LC on shredder's revenge Okay difficulty and god damn this game is long. it's exhausting. think i'll go for 1CC on Gnarly instead and be done with it after that

[BEAMLORD]

been trying to get a 1LC on shredder's revenge Okay difficulty and god damn this game is long. it's exhausting. think i'll go for 1CC on Gnarly instead and be done with it after that

Way long, ain't it. There's enough material there, I wish they'd truncated it to 2 arcade length "campaigns", if you will. It's a lot for one sitting. I'm fairly sure I was about to 1cc Okay mode, when the game crashed just before the final stage. That was over a week ago, and haven't been able to summon the energy for a return trip, knowing the slog ahead

[it290]

Game has some bugs to be ironed out for sure. I was playing through in co-op with my sister, and when we hit the rooftop stage, there were multiple points where a lone Foot Soldier would just hang out right outside of the screen forever. We were eventually able to move forward by just whacking blindly off screen until we hit them, but it took a good five minutes the second time, and I was almost convinced the game was soft locked. Seems pretty crazy that kind of bug didn't get caught in QA.

[mycophobia]

found a fun one yesterday where if you collect a pizza and take a fatal hit at the same time you just die and the pizza disappears lol. also the mousers in stage 5 like to get stuck behind the bg layer representing sewage on the ground kind of frequently. this is on switch, maybe it's different on other platforms

[Sima Tuna]

MS3 runs the smoothest of Nazca's Slugs - there's only a handful of points where it'll reliably chug (st4's opening desert battle is one), but even there, it's nowhere as slow as say MSX's st5 streets featuring a roughly equivalent number of enemies. It even manages a bit of that Treasure-styled boss explosion overload (try drilling clean through st4's Brain Bugs, super gratifying The first time I saw that scene in overclocked emulation it was all but startling, with the resulting screenload of purple shite gushing everywhere at a clean 30fps It's like one of them thar Japon-ese hen-ties!

The tradeoff is that MS3 has a lot less destructible scenery than MSX or even MS1; there's nothing like MS1's opening village or occupied town, or X's Chinatown, where multiple screens' worth of scenery gets demolished to the foundations. Or those endless lines of cars and trucks to asplode in MSX's aforementioned street. It's clear they were allocating resources to the front action more conscientiously by then.

MS4 and MS5 pretty much perform like MS3, though the latter is a relative ghost town anyway, with enemy numbers more reminiscent of Rockman than Slug (not a hater or anything, MS5 has flashes of brilliance and acquits itself more than sufficiently - it's just easily noticed, after swimming through an ocean of burning metal and screaming bloody gore in the previous).

MS4 is a personal favourite, and I always maintain anyone who turns their nose up at it outright as some kind of fugazi probably wouldn't know a good Slug if it jumped up and bit them on the dick. Noise Factory knew how to achieve and maintain the series' trademark critical mass of easy-operating, monstrously destructive yet perilously technical action. While the aesthetic pastiche is obvious, that's some quality wall-to-wall hardcore killing going on, with impressively minimal slowdown too. I'm comfortably certain if it'd received a brand new Nazca-calibre coat of paint, it'd be roundly better-liked.

(players who find MS4 annoyingly designed, OTOH, I get. it spends pretty much the entire runtime, post-st1, in what Nazca always reserved for their 11th-hour mode, making for a much bumpier ride. still eminently shreddable though!)

Copied this over from the Hamster thread, since I don't want to derail the thread into talk about Slugs.

Metal Slug 1 and Metal Slug 4 are currently the two I have on ACA. I have played every metal slug game, but the ones I remember enjoying are MS1, MS2/X, MS4 and maaaaybe MS7. Metal Slug 5 felt very bland when I played it years ago. No idea if I would feel the same way now. Dual uzis alone are reason enough to like Metal Slug 4. Metal Slug 7 had a fuckton of playable characters with gameplay differences, which is why I remember that game. I couldn't tell you if it's good as a metal slug game. It's fun to fuck around with Leona though.

Spoiler

I must say, however, that I have never liked Metal Slug 6. I think the new alien types are fucking obnoxious as hell and the game almost requires powerup juggling. Enemies have a ton of health and can resist bullets in certain active states. MS6's final stage is as nightmarish as MS3's.

[mycophobia]

got the shredders revenge Okay no death tonight after all. good game. just too long. i played through the story mode on gnarly for the heck of it too, the length makes a lot more sense in that context

[it290]

Metal Slug 1 and Metal Slug 4 are currently the two I have on ACA. I have played every metal slug game, but the ones I remember enjoying are MS1, MS2/X, MS4 and maaaaybe MS7. Metal Slug 5 felt very bland when I played it years ago. No idea if I would feel the same way now. Dual uzis alone are reason enough to like Metal Slug 4. Metal Slug 7 had a fuckton of playable characters with gameplay differences, which is why I remember that game. I couldn't tell you if it's good as a metal slug game. It's fun to fuck around with Leona though.

Slug 5 is wayyyy better than 4 in my opinion. It has the walker Slug which is dope to play around with and the levels and music are just better. Still an unfinished game, though. My order would go MS1>X>3>2>5>4>6 (haven't played 7). I think you can be done after the first four on my list and not worry about the rest, but 5 is honorable mention territory for me.

[BIL]

Slug Walker is hands-down MS5's best asset, and should've been given the same dominating screentime MS1 gave its tank.



Much trickier to keep in one piece, with its boxier shape and lumbering automelee... but god damn, look at this first-rate mecha massacre. I had such a good time nailing that bit down.



It's good it at least got that decent sendoff - a deceptively tough multi-storey climb with constant pincer pressure from enemy mechs and meddling ninjas, rewarded with a fat 2xMG to dump in the boss's dumb face.

On that note, Eri's ANGREH 2xMG sprites are so cute ^__^

[Sima Tuna]

Slugmech is pretty cool. MS5 as a game isn't interesting to me though. The last boss is (yet again) a massive slog. I wish SNK would have figured out that long slog bosses aren't cool in a game where you get zero extends. I also don't care for the slide mechanic. It's fine, just doesn't seem to add much aside from a few sections where you have to use it. It doesn't feel good to use, like the mega man slide.

I can say that Metal Slug 5 would have been a much better game if, like BIL said, the slug mech was available for at least part of every level. But if you like Slug mechs, I believe MS6 and MS7 added more.

https://metalslug.fandom.com/wiki/Slug_Gigant

SLUG GIGANT

https://metalslug.fandom.com/wiki/Slug_Armor

SLUG ARMOR

I guess I'm a baby who prefers his easy games. Huntdown is an easy 1cc for 2 out of 4 arcade modes and Metal Slug 1 is fairly easy for an arcade game.

[Stevens]

Slugmech is pretty cool. MS5 as a game isn't interesting to me though.

I can say that Metal Slug 5 would have been a much better game if, like BIL said, the slug mech was available for at least part of every level. But if you like Slug mechs, I believe MS6 and MS7 added more.

I guess I'm a baby who prefers his easy games. Huntdown is an easy 1cc for 2 out of 4 arcade modes and Metal Slug 1 is fairly easy for an arcade game.

Nah. There is well designed difficult and slog difficult, no one likes the latter. Ha. I never did get that 1 CC of the No1 Suspects.

[Sima Tuna]

Slugmech is pretty cool. MS5 as a game isn't interesting to me though.

I can say that Metal Slug 5 would have been a much better game if, like BIL said, the slug mech was available for at least part of every level. But if you like Slug mechs, I believe MS6 and MS7 added more.

I guess I'm a baby who prefers his easy games. Huntdown is an easy 1cc for 2 out of 4 arcade modes and Metal Slug 1 is fairly easy for an arcade game.

Nah. There is well designed difficult and slog difficult, no one likes the latter. Ha. I never did get that 1 CC of the No1 Suspects.

Haha. I took a break after my Heatseekers 1cc. The boss patterns in arcade no 1 suspects were kinda rough. I'll get back to it eventually though. I really wish I had the right setup to do streams or video commentaries for Huntdown. Maybe I could shill the game more effectively that way.

[kitten]

hey, everybody. i'd like to be popping back in with a couple of videos, some in-depth commentary on a gem that gets overlooked, or something otherwise useful to the thread, but i sadly come with my hands almost empty :[ been doing mostly okay, will leave an update on that in the cancel culture thread (my home away from home) for those wondering. might as well link that now that i posted it.

i chat with palazzo from time to time, and recently recommended him elliot quest, a game i bought from nicalis (please, god, forgive me, for paying for a game from the company with the rapist we know and not the rapist we don't know. or whatever whoever there did that people won't stop talking about. i genuinely don't know) by kind of tossing it into a cart while grabbing some ed mcmillen stuff. haven't devoted enough time to the new isaac update to say quite enough about it, probably under 100 hours (isaac requires... a lot of thinking and experience lol), but it's got some great stuff!

anyway, elliot quest - it's one of them there "zelda 2" type games. a right faxanadu-like. something you might find in our old pal getsu fuma's den. it's like castlevania, too. generally, i think i'm a bit down on these types of games and wind up using a guide before my mounting frustration with running through the same areas a dozen times hits a fever pitch and i just bust out a guide, but i actually sat through this one from start-to-finish without looking up a single thing and wound up rather enjoying myself.

first impression may be bad - the pixel art is... to put it nicely, "economical." some of the look and feel might remind someone of old flash games before any of those namedrops up there and give them a negative impression that they're not about to be delivered any of what they'd get out of those games. that you might be in for a tepid, 'non-linear' adventure the likes of which you've seen a thousand times at this point. a meaningless challenge, hand-holding or overt hints, a lack of interesting mechanics to gain later on, etc. the semi-interactive 'spooky' cutscene the game starts off with might especially leave an unsavory impression.

but you'd be wrong to dismiss this one, outright! elliot quest features no tutorial and no explanation for the vast majority of its content. abilities have hidden but semi-intuitive alternate functions, puzzles are well-considered and often based on them, and the world is truly non-linear and there are few hints (but a little leeway) to figuring out what places to go next. there's a leveling system, but losing experience on death adds some sort of meaning to trying to stay alive (through some actually difficult areas as the game ramps up!) and the level cap (btw, there's a level cap) prevents you from just getting every single skill. in classic fashion, you commit to where those level-ups go and can't ever redistribute if you make a mistake and choose a bad option. e.g. you might want to get a few range ups, but not all of them, the drop of the arrow can actually be useful and fire rate matters more for dps. others i'm afraid to talk about because i feel like not having advice on what to do is a part of the fun of the game.

you can probably finish this game in under a couple of hours on a speedrun, but it took me probably somewhere over 10 to beat because of how much the game gradually unravels, and boy does it unravel. at some point late-game (about when you get the zelda 2-esque plunging hop off of a baddie's head), you really feel like the game has properly revealed itself and become something much better than expected.

if you're a fan of games in this age-old genre but feel like it's never been done well following the famicom era, i think you'd be doing yourself a disservice by overlooking this one. though i'm not often a fan of those games, they do hold a weirdly special little place in my heart, and i think this is *at least as* good as some of the best of those.

- - - - - - - - -

otherwise, i've really just not been playing a lot that's thread relevant. a few casual 1cc's or 1lc's of old favorites, but i'm not really covering any new ground or improving myself, just having a bit of fun here and there. returnal is pretty hot (despite my history of being cold on housemarque), but questionably relevant to the thread. i think it appeals to people who like the kinds of games you see in this thread, though.

i played the two ladybug games - the lodoss one with deedlit and the touhou one with sakuya. they're both extremely breezy but a fair bit of fun. i much preferred lunar nights, though. the deedlit game's polarity system does nothing for it other than make things needlessly clunky. not as bad as that ubisoft garbage i forget the name of for XBLA/psn, but it just ain't good. visual readability makes it a huge pain to constantly manage and the mp regain gimmick in lunar nights is strictly better.

i really need to play the second igavania spin-off. i think i heard it's not as good as the first? but inti creates have kind of upped their game in the last few years and i don't hate 'em like i used to. need to get around to blaster master zero's sequels, as well. i've got a stockpile of all those gunvolt games i should maybe play. i hated the first one, years ago, but maybe i didn't evaluate it well enough. the stage or two i played were kind of disappointing and knowing about all the shit to unlock gave me a real fucking bad impression of it having a ranking system on top of that.

still haven't gotten around to tnwoa, which whenever i do, i'll try to pop in for an opinion on. i've probably played a few more relevant things i could drop info on, but they're not on the tip of my tongue. hope everyone is doing well! i'll probably again not be sticking around, but i'm glad the thread's not gone extinct.

[BIL]

Great to hear from you as always! In a regrettable vortex of work and after-work socialising aka The Bottle atm, will reply in more detail later! This thread's a hard bastard to kill, it'll always be around.

[it290]

Haha. I took a break after my Heatseekers 1cc. The boss patterns in arcade no 1 suspects were kinda rough. I'll get back to it eventually though. I really wish I had the right setup to do streams or video commentaries for Huntdown. Maybe I could shill the game more effectively that way.

The only one I struggle with sometimes is Yuudai, and he's a cinch with the mono katana speed kill if you get the timing down. Just slash twice, dash through him, slash twice, dash, rinse, repeat.

[Sima Tuna]

Haha. I took a break after my Heatseekers 1cc. The boss patterns in arcade no 1 suspects were kinda rough. I'll get back to it eventually though. I really wish I had the right setup to do streams or video commentaries for Huntdown. Maybe I could shill the game more effectively that way.

The only one I struggle with sometimes is Yuudai, and he's a cinch with the mono katana speed kill if you get the timing down. Just slash twice, dash through him, slash twice, dash, rinse, repeat.

Ah, yes, the mono katana. I was always planning to abuse the shit out of that weapon in my arcade runs, whenever I got back to doing them. Right at the moment, however, I'm easing myself into Valfaris. Really impressed with what I've seen so far.

[Squire Grooktook]

Long time no see everyone.

So this summer I took some time to revisit my side scrolling project.

Next year I'm graduating so I plan on taking a year off to try and finish Aeon Zenith. But in the mean time I was thinking I might start a side-project with the goal of something that I could - in theory - finish in a few months and get up on Steam or whatever (once I'm done graduating also, the winter is going to be VERY busy for me, alas)

So what I figured was a Ninja Warrios Again style sidescrolling mecha brawler. Been working on the prototype, perfecting camera and collision system. I think it's a game I could feasiably finish pretty quickly since all it really needs is a few enemies and not intricate level design, majority of the work going into programming cool enemy AI with fun to fight footsies. Could probably add some shmup sections in EZ as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkiisb4rDLA

^^^ What I have so far. Got camera, collisions, and state machine down. I'll add throws and guarding and chain combos and all that bullshit once I have some proper sprites.

I also started talking with a Japanese mecha artist who agreed to provide some designs for me. Here's the first draft for the player mech

Spoiler

It's a bit busy, I know. But it's a first draft. My goal for now is to streamline and trim the design down a bit to make it easier to sprite and animate in-game.

Here's the design I plan on using for the pilot, I want to give her a little animated "waifu cam" on the HUD, ala Aleste 3.

Spoiler

Overall design goals are basically to test out some ideas I had for a character action game (but stripped down for sidescrolling format) and basically make a multi-man fighting game with a classical attack/block/throw rps trinity, and an emphasis on free mobility and moving attacks. I have a fuckton of (thankfully easy to test out and implement) ideas, will see how it evolves!

[Sima Tuna]

Another beat em up to look at for ideas would be Okinawa Rush. Like Ninja Warriors Once Again, it's completely 2d. It features attack, parry and some SF-like combo inputs. The jumping is sort of like Legend of Kage. I haven't 1cc'd Okinawa Rush (the arcade mode requires 1LC to clear without continuing, since the game has a health bar.) But it's a very interesting game and seems in line with what you are creating.

[Squire Grooktook]

The jumping is sort of like Legend of Kage.

Now that has me intrigued. I'd actually considered kage style moon jumps, along with a bunch of other options (Actraier style floating and diving, Luminous Avenger style air dashing and ramming, or just being able to get massive hangtime from air combos ala modern Vanillaware titles). I'll probably end up testing out them all and see what feels most fun in this context.

Thanks for the recommendation!!

[kitten]

Spoiler

feels like a really wild collision of gundam epyon, garo, and gaogaigar

[Air Master Burst]

Just asked this in passing in the 1CC thread but figured this would be a better place:

I'm on a modern belt-scroller kick, having just got 100% and the Gnarly 1CC on Shredder's Revenge. Looking for recommendations, keeping in mind I also already have SOR4 and Fight'N Rage. My peference is multi-plane with no blocking but I'm flexible! Steam reviews only go so far, and this is one of the few places where people actually discuss belt-scrollers in depth, so what's good these days?

Especially interested in the following titles:

Mayhem Brawler
Final Vendetta
Jitsu Squad
Dawn of the Monsters
Sword of the Guardian

Anyone got any experience with any of these? Any other modern PC belt-scrollers worth a shot? I also have an old PS4, if there's anything I'm missing there.

[BurlyHeart]

Just asked this in passing in the 1CC thread but figured this would be a better place:

I'm on a modern belt-scroller kick, having just got 100% and the Gnarly 1CC on Shredder's Revenge. Looking for recommendations, keeping in mind I also already have SOR4 and Fight'N Rage. My peference is multi-plane with no blocking but I'm flexible! Steam reviews only go so far, and this is one of the few places where people actually discuss belt-scrollers in depth, so what's good these days?

Especially interested in the following titles:

Mayhem Brawler
Final Vendetta
Jitsu Squad
Dawn of the Monsters
Sword of the Guardian

Anyone got any experience with any of these? Any other modern PC belt-scrollers worth a shot? I also have an old PS4, if there's anything I'm missing there.

Fight'N Rage is a blast. I think I have almost 200 hours put into it and I have barely touched characters other than Ricardo.

Mayhem Brawler is very good, and has different paths. Presentation is great - the comic format is cool and the story goes into quite some depth. It can seem a little clunky at times, (possibly due to a new combo system being implemented in an update). The devs are awesome and really care about the game, which can be witnessed with its many free updates (including a new character). They recently announced a sequel in the works. Just to note, there is a block button, but it is not necessary to use. I sometimes use it for enemy & boss wake up attacks as you can also perform counter after a block when timing your button press correctly. I like the game, but it can be boring if you play too safe. Balls to the wall action and it is a lot of fun.

Final Vendetta is great. If it seems cheap and frustrating at first, well.... it's because it is cheap and frustrating But it has a lot of charm as a result. Cool visuals, deep gameplay and an awesome soundtrack. I played it somewhat like Final Fight, but it has potential for combo juggling I have not yet really explored.

Jitsu Squad is a lot of fun too. It has crazy combos and can seem more like a mosou at times rather than a beat em up. But if you play it like a mosou, you will die quickly. Despite the insane combo potential, traditional skills are very much required. Spacing, crowd control, meter management, knowing where there is food etc.

Dawn of the Monsters is on my wishlist. I have heard it is very entertaining BUT it is lacking an arcade mode. Along with the story, there are a bunch of stages to S rank and that's it. After finishing that, there is not much to do. And it is $30. An arcade mode might be in the works....but we'll see.

Sword of the Guardian I have never heard of that. Will give it a look-see.

River City Girls is another one you might like. It has the level up system I don't really care for, and no arcade mode, but it can be fun. A sequel is on the way soon too.

[Air Master Burst]

Thanks, BurlyHeart, this is exactly what I was looking for! I don't care for leveling systems either, so I passed on River City Girls. I'm an absolute sucker for kaiju so I'll probably take the plunge on Dawn of the Monsters before too long, but Mayhem Brawler sounds like it might be my next purchase.

Fight'N Rage I can already tell I'm gonna get deep into, I love Ricardo's moveset but I wanna unlock turbo mode before I play as him anymore since he's so slow.

When you say Final Vendetta is cheap, is it just heavy memorization required, or are we talking like Turtles in Time arcade cheap?

[BurlyHeart]

Thanks, BurlyHeart, this is exactly what I was looking for! I don't care for leveling systems either, so I passed on River City Girls. I'm an absolute sucker for kaiju so I'll probably take the plunge on Dawn of the Monsters before too long, but Mayhem Brawler sounds like it might be my next purchase.

Fight'N Rage I can already tell I'm gonna get deep into, I love Ricardo's moveset but I wanna unlock turbo mode before I play as him anymore since he's so slow.

When you say Final Vendetta is cheap, is it just heavy memorization required, or are we talking like Turtles in Time arcade cheap?

Cheap as in enemies, and especially bosses, can be quite problematic at first. You really have to keep your wits and develop some solid strategies.

Also cheap as in things like this
https://twitter.com/OldManBurly/status/ ... mgxw3CU87A

They're not super common but...they do exist

Also to note, I generally only play grapplers, so I am looking at these game from that stand point.