shmups.system11.org

I can think of a pretty decent slate of evocatively-angled yet lumbar-friendly 2D walk cycles. Some great ones, even, particularly from Capcom and Sunsoft's late 80s/early 90s output. If I could be arsed with emulators anymore, I'd shortlist n' GIF Kevin from 2010SF, Cody and Guy from Final Fight, Bats from FC Batman, and Yumetaro from Gimmick. Yeah I know, the latter is a green gumdrop thing, but he keeps what would be his chin up and shoulders back like a man should. Let's chuck in Utata Kiyoshi's titular Storm Gunner from IREM/Tamtex's Gravity Armor: Metal Storm, too. Technically a 15ft behemoth, but clearly very comfy.



Speaking of Kiyoshi, though AFAIK he worked on the first game only, Strider 2's Hiryu is fuckin baller. "EVERY MOVE HE MAKES IS SUPERHUMAN" says the original's flyer, which is pretty true, but its middling walk is a weak link. Strider 2's superhumanly imperious walk cycle, both hands straight down is, as we know, not ideal for a man advancing on his target...

Owch!

Spoiler: show

...but when your nanosecond draw sees motherfuckers' throats opened like muppet's mouths before they can so much as say "ACHTUNG," you can afford to stride on em a bit.

Tell your "master" that I am the hunter, and he is my prey.

Spoiler: show

Run cycle and the associated somersault/doublejump frames embraces the outright superhuman, again something the first game (an absolute redline techno-artistic achievement in its time) couldn't quite capitalise on.

Rolling! Turning! Diving! Going In Again!

Spoiler: show

As to pet peeves... OG Simon, Ralph and Grant have always appeared to be walking with limps to me. And I love Taniguchi & co more than is healthy, but same for Kage's Hayate and Kaede, something Shatterbrain largely fixed. OG Ryu Hayabusa gets around this with a nice cleanly-pedalling run cycle, paired with a static yet plausibly iaido-geared upper body posture. It helps that you can't run and slash in his games, creating the illusion of forward momentum channeled into a learnedly explosive draw.

GNG I always filed on the willfully cartoonier side of things, slightly further along the continuum to pure cartoon than Metal Slug and its forerunner Saigo.

Professional hobbits, do not attempt

Spoiler: show

Arthur totters (in OG) and runs (everything else) like each and every step is a manful struggle, hurling his arms and legs forth, his body and head just kind of tagging along. Figures, in full plate armour - not known to aid sprinting. And in his drawers... basically anything he does is gonna look ridiculous. Might as well make it consistently so.

(I'd have loved it if Resurrection added a third damage tier, just flat-out butt-ass naked Arthur with realtime mosaic censoring. )



Speaking of AKIO and walk cycles, how'd you get along with Saigo? I'm way the fuck behind on everything. Would've asked earlier, but I've been lugging my nerd shit cross-country, and I was worried a bird might shit all over it



Superbly detailed reportage as always, marked for index! Wolf Fang is one of those games I was in love with some fifteen years ago from ~2CC standpoint, but haven't revisited in more disciplined terms, since. I was also playing the PS1 port, which while pretty nice, I know does have some aesthetic differences at the least... I wonder if it was toned down at all. I have to revisit, at any rate. Tons of macro is what comes to mind most immediately.

Jesus, speaking of pet peeves, why's it so hard to find decent GIFs nowadays? Time to get back on active duty I suppose. Mucho manloves @ posthumanwanderings.tumblr.com

https://youtu.be/FhJWq7DggaI?t=135

My bucket list is to see Maiden in South America or England. Fuckers are crazy! Look how they go ape shit when Doctor Doctor starts playing. It isn't like that here.

Ah, a couple o' straight-spines and an adorable crabwalking mech. It really is about creating the vibe of walking less so than an accurate simulation of it. (I'm hardly one to act loftily, what with my "feet go up and down" speedy-to-make animation cycles. Just amuses me that it's universal in illustration to try and stretch reality to show off all the cool things. This 3d to 2d animation of a Ranma fight being rather literal in that.)

I need more time with Saigo, even the first dozen or so goes usually isn't enough to come to a solid conclusion. I do like how the weapons are conditionally good. A way to choose between playing expeditiously or difficultly. It's done better than in the Mega Man games where you'd just blow a boss up with its weakness in two hits.

(This long-term perspective is why I think I dislike OG Metroid so much more than most. They'd play it once and move on, while I'm still trapped in that blue shaft.

Did you know you have to backtrack and return to the blue shaft later?

Did you know gold is only another shade of blue?

I hate it more than AM hates humans.)

Looks like Platinum is joining the R2RKMF party with an upcoming pair of free DLCs for The Wonderful 101 Remastered.
The visuals have a bit of a Mega Man: Powered Up vibe going on, which is kind of neat, and I guess the Viewtiful Joe connection gives it some precedent.
But taking off the coping hat, sweet christ P* please not more subgames. We've strayed too far from Raiden Stop That Blade.

On sprites, I get a sense that the galumphing puppetry of GnGR's run cycle is intentional beyond the obvious budget savings of being able to draw each limb once-ish and exist in a perpetually off-model-but-good-enough state. Tumbleweed Knight makes a good hapless underdog, and Arthur's portrayal this go around is certainly that once you zoom out and frame his heroically-set jaw within the wider world.


"In my restless dreams, I see that shaft."

My favorite classic walking animations are probably Richter from Rondo, and basically everyone in Elevator Action Returns, with a special shoutout to my beloved Wizard from King of Dragons.

Also most Prince of Persia style games tend to have excellent running animations out of necessity (Flashback, Oddworld, Another World, etc.).

Well not for Maiden, most of their american fans are old guys with bad backs and shit. You want some crazy energy shows you need go to concerts that actual young people attend.

Apparently STGWeekly just did a video on it too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMT2ZnBlGb4

It's one of those games I really want to love but struggle to connect with. Aesthetically I love it, but there's just a lot of other run 'n guns that feel like the controls and game balance are better executed (Sunset Riders, Metal Slug, Moo Mesa, etc).

I think it's the soccer chant culture, something Harris clearly loves writing for; Fear of the Dark and No More Lies aren't things you'll forget. He maintains The Clansman is amazing live but they weren't playing that when I saw them at the NEC a lifetime ago in '04, so I still don't like it (we got Sign of the Cross instead, best breakup era track by miles, imo; getting goosebumps recalling the crowd during its splendidly on-the-nose chorus... "A FIRE IN THE SKY / THE SIGN OF THE CROSS!"

I grew up well outside even troopers like Maiden's live orbit; they're one of the few bands I made a point of seeing live when I moved to England, others being Motorhead and New Order. Lemmy's gone to the great big strip joint in the sky, and Barney/Hooky are IIRC still torching one another in court, but I'd totally see Maiden again. I can tell from their more recent live stuff they're yet to lose a step.



I notice that compromise in a lot of my favourite stuff. Metal Slug has a whole "Yikes!" routine for Marco and Tarma's crouch mechanic; lesser designers would've probably delayed the new hitbox, for "realism," where Nazca knew it'd look more kinetic and play better to disable upper-body collision on the next frame.

Lose your skin / Lose your skull

Spoiler: show

I think it's no surprise that the sidescrollers with really convincing animation tend to be Prince of Persia-esque "cinematic platformers." (EDIT: as AMB pointed out!) I don't play many of them, but I'm used to seeing way less enemies onscreen, and generally just less things occurring simultaneously. Stuff that'd demand a snappier, less luxuriantly-illustrated player/avatar response simply doesn't happen.

There's a very misguided school of thought that OG Castlevania is like POP - slow, ponderous, fatally punishing of haste - when it's absolutely not. Simon is 110% in thrall to the mechanics' demands of him, regularly required to, say, turn and execute a running flying attack with zero momentum at mere frames' notice. POP will not only never demand this, you literally wouldn't be able to if you tried.

The nearest I've seen to an arcade-snappy action title with Mechner-styled animation is Elevator Action Returns, which sports some pretty decent sprinting and gap-leaping frames (Edie is cute :3). It's likewise a slower-moving sort of game than Contra/Slug/GNG etc, though still well within arcade levels of onscreen mayhem.



Saigo really comes down to Shoot VS Slash, offense VS defense. Even though it's pretty much The Kusarigama & Grenades Show, I still consider it a well-balanced game; whether you choose speedkilling or bullet-cancelling, you'll tend to miss the other option, and have to make up the difference with learned technique. It's never a "Yeah just use this weapon and forget about it" affair, even ignoring the ever-simmering RNG spawns.



What burned my ass slightly with Metroid is all the CTRL+Vd rooms and shafts in Norfair... even then I don't mind too much; there's this fever-dream sense of being lost in the woods, going in circles, even when I know damn well I'm on target for the cheesecake ending.

Compile's beautiful port of Dragon Slayer IV / Legacy of the Wizard is the FC's best deathdungeoner by comfy distance, imo. No CTRL+V or similar cheap attempts to disorient, just a staggering massive deathlabyrinth to get stranded in miles from daylight. It does lose a bit of its mystique once you twig that it's a spoke-per-character setup, rather than true sprawling chaos, but even then, you can do some crazy shit messing about with the character order. Like giving yourself a near-unwinnable final Crown fight! Not even mentioning the "piggyback enemies" mechanic letting you get into even more trouble.

Incidentally received a tres unexpected and very welcome PS4 port via M2's Namco Museum Archives. I hope at least a few more people gave it a go, now it's got savestates instead of passwords.







Damn, excellent timing Now if only M2 would give that DECO project of theirs a look. Hell it wouldn't surprise me to see Hamster take a crack at it, given Trio Teh Punch appeared out of nowhere not all that long ago... seem like ACA is in a period of Taito/Namco/Other, not a bad situation tbh when the third bracket includes DECO, Tecmo and Banpresto.

Blaster Master Zero 2 time. This game is good. Play it.

Yeah it's fuckin rad Reminds me, now's a good time to finally get around to Zero 3. Just finished the first/Veteran run of Grim Guardians as the first little project in my new place. A very enjoyable GBA Dracula throwback, actually that's underselling it, as it really goes a lot further towards uniting those games' handling and layout with Rondo's sadly never-revisited trad elements (pit knockback, lots and lots of glorious pit knockback - complete with a Casual difficulty to disable bumps ) - though it's not a game I'd rate as highly as BMZ2.

I actually started BMZ2 several years ago but never finished it for some odd reason. Probably some burn-out after playing it immediately after the first one or something like that.

I actually have that Japan-only physical Switch copy with all 3 games on one cart and the voice acting and stuff, which is apparently only on the Japanese physical Switch and PS4 versions. The graphics are a bit soft from the interpolation they used, though. I wonder if it's any better on PS4 or PC.

Just beaten NGII NES for the first time. Game started to grew on me as I like the frequent use of subweapons and forgiving checkpoints, but I find some of the bosses are just ridiculous and having no room of error and I have yet to figure out how to utilize the Ryu shadows.

People usually point to the fixed jump as the defining characteristic of POPs, but really it's the inertia. I've beaten the first two Oddworld games literally dozens of times over the years and I still don't find the controls to be any kind of precise. Fortunately, they aren't really precision games, so it doesn't matter outside of a few really awful jumps.

Elevator Action Returns is the most perfect thing Taito ever did, which is downright shocking when you consider the quality of shit like Darius Gaiden and The Ninja Warriors.



The biggest issue with The Clansman is that the intro riff is easily the best part of the song, and once that goes away you're left with an average Maiden anthem.

It also doesn't help that the riff in question works a lot better as an ABSOLUTE FUCKING BANGER of a Brandy track.

Not for no reason am I constantly begging for a Hamster ACA port of Elevator Action Returns. EAR ignited my love for that particular subgenre of run and gun, which I call tactical scrolling action. Huntdown is the current apex predator in the subgenre imo, but I'd love to see more games come out.

Congrats! It's not as easy as some make it out to be. Actually, without the ridiculous extend rate, I'd put it only just under NG1, which is itself a step under NG3 (US). With all those extends, any committed player is bound to pile through the endgame boss rush eventually... but with it no longer refilling your lifebar after each fight, and the thorny final stage, it can set the stage for the kind of ragesplosion that created this thread. ;3

As far as Option tactics, basically, just drag them like a big orange nutsack over the boss's face while pounding in subweapon fire. Or use them to blow apart would-be chokepoints. Look at this ledge-guarding sniper dragnet, oof, brutal. Let's get rid of that shall we?

Can't choke shit when you've been TRIPLE-STRONG MASS NINPOMOLATED into fine ashen mist, boyos.

Spoiler: show

The game's combination of high velocity, relentless pits, and annoyingly tiny swordboxes makes more elaborate shadow techs a waste of time, imo. Feels rad nailing a would-be backstabber with a no-look shadow swipe, and even better catching a fucker out of midair while you chill on the ground. But all that concentration is better spent on your advance, and/or situational awareness - and with the abundant ammo, you can get the same result and more by just nuking the bastards, which will very likely wipe out their pals you weren't even aiming for.

Christ NGII is cool. Extreme Speed! Extreme Firepower! Extreme "FUCK! FUCKING FUCK FUUUUUU" Knockback! If not for that incredibly ill-advised swordbox tweak - you don't tinker with perfection! - I'd be tempted to call it my favourite of the trio.

This is also an excellent point of contrast with fellow Kage no Bunshin / 3x Body Split ninja sidescroller Saigo, which - while a meaner game overall - has no pits, or bumps, or indeed enemy contact whatsoever, and moves at a less frenzied, more simmering pace. In that context, you definitely should master the finer points of shadowplay.

If your head is not in the game, it will soon be on the ground!

Spoiler: show

Good arcade-styled design is all about give and take... NGII would become a cakewalk, sans bumps, but so would Saigo, if it gave such sheer screen-obliterating firepower.

Was reading the user manual to Elevator Action 2 to see if there was some way to control the elevators outside the elevators, and noticed it had a "violence" setting. I figured it had to be some censorship option, since I figured the game was plenty violent enough... but noticed the two settings offered were "normal" and "hard".

"... is there a hardcore violence mode?"

Investigating it further, yes. Yes there is. Giant globs of blood that linger on the walls and floors.

While I might appreciate the retro aesthetic of older Taito games more, this definitely has its charms.

EAR all about that winning combination of

1) omniscient dollhouse POV
2) dozy-yet-inquisitive enemies
3) HARDCORE ULTRAVIOLENCE w/ SMOOTH JAZZ BGM

*automatic gunfire* *screams and yells* *heavy ordnance detonation, shattering glass*
*shaweet saxophone solo*

Like directing your own Home Alone 3: The Alonening in realtime. You know what they say, dude on fire = instant production value! How about a literal screen-spanning conga line of dudes on fire, capped off by the rocket you've sent tearing through their ranks smashing into the wall and plunging the floor into a blackout full of The Dancing Burning? The flame seemed to dance, and made its victims dance with it

Shit be RUGGED N RAW down 2 the last drop and that brutal showdown. "Aim... carefully..." Oh don't worry I plan to! *BLAM* HOLY FUCK - wait WTF do you mean this is the "good" en- oh yeah, it's Taito, nm.

re: TEH DARK, MAME is IIRC still busted to this day, as is the PS2's Taito Memories / Legends (NTSCJ/U) release; the lights don't go out like they're meant to 3; consider burning/emulating the Saturn disc instead, or, if you want to chance your arm a bit on possible input lag, give the recent PS4 Saturn emulation a go.

...actually, I should see if there's a demo of that. Would be nice to have around. The Saturn ver by VING is beautiful and ofc has insanely low input latency, so ala their Layer Section, it might actually be ok. I know a few trusted peeps here have okayed the PS4+Steam ver. I ain't discussing the Switch one, if it even exists, that shit breaks my goddamn heart. 3;

I avoided the recent City Connection port like the plague because City Connection, but if they actually fixed the lights without fucking anything else up it'll totally be worth it. I'll grab it on Steam this coming weekend and give a full report, and because this game is one of my absolute all-time favorites I will go DEEP AND HARD like a Robert Stack cavity search.

ETA: Holy shit this blurb about the autofire option from the store page is NOT filling me with confidence though:



what the fuck even is that shit

That sounds like a goddamn nightmare. :/ I thought M2's Contra collection autofire solution was a little odd (a dedicated button you can either hold to enable autofire, or tap to toggle), but that just takes the goddamn cake. I hope it's at least optional. The goodwill I have for CC's reality-defyingly complete Sunsoft and Natsume sound anthologies (so many licensed games) really does get stretched to its last nano-angstrom at times. D:

Godspeed bro. ;-;7 I went looking for a PS4 demo and didn't find one. Picked up Huntdown instead, been putting it off forever. ACA Rolling Thunder 2 is out in ~48hrs, too, so it's not all bad on the tactical scrolling action front. ;3

I have to assume CC's EAR lights work, simply because they work fine on Saturn (as does everything else!), and that's the version being emulated. I would actually be more impressed if they somehow found a way to fuck them up... not surprised, this is CC after all, just impressed.

Actually, IIRC, the lights actually work in the PS2 EAR, but it was the rapid fire that was messed up in that version, as well as extra slowdown that was not in the original. The lights ARE messed in the other versions of Taito Legends 2, though.

The City Connection release of EAR seemed good from what I played of it, but I wouldn't be surprised to find something messed up with it.

For a minute there I thought we were suddenly talking about the game where you have to drive all of the highway and avoid polka cats.

I feel obliged to mention that part during the true ending of BMZ2, where a certain character does their best impression of a tea kettle. Impeccable line delivery

Cheers Brian! I really am tempted to give this a go at some point. I just hate taking chances with these guys, feels like a 50/50 every time, next to Hamster and M2's sight-unseen 10/10 hit ratio... it's not even about the money, just a "How many times are you gonna get burned, old man?" thing.

"Yo, Dragon Blaze and Strikers 1999 seem okay! 'No Savestates?' Not on PCB either sonny Let's try out Strikers 1945 II - ohohoho it's the PS1 port again, you got me good CC!" *gunshot*



Their namesake - both City Connection and their Clarice Disc imprint, which is named for the lady driver. Goddamn does CD put out some choice stuff. I wish they'd just stick to IP acquisition and let disciplined, passionate devs do the legwork. :/ Apparently they've got better people at the helm lately, hence their surprisingly decent DeathSmiles and Akai Katana.

IIRC, Cat Avoidance Simulator was actually developed by Hect, who made a superb Prince of Persia-styled R2RKMF in Moon Crystal, which - like AKIO's Saigo, Slug, and Black Finger Jet - is another of those eerie VG kismets I like! This last page or so, it's all coming together nicely.

City Connection's EAR is a part of their S-Tribute lineup. Just save yourself the trouble, and don't bother touching that thing.

I wonder how much ill will they could've saved themselves, if they hadn't gone with three of the most natively laggy - yet universally liked and respected - STGs for their big debut. :/ Seriously, they could've picked Layer Section - a beloved game with a legendary Saturn port - and just about bluffed their way through, VING's excellence masking their crummy emulation-of-a-port.

But no, let's go with Cotton 2, Cotton Boomerang, and Guardian Force, all of which have noticeable input delay on real cartridge and discs alike C'mon dawg! That's just not very smart at all! I mean it was good for us, I just like to imagine they POV, naw mean

Maybe they were SCURRED of the big debut being drowned out by M2's then-upcoming deluxe Ray anthology? >_> I mean they did yoink PS4/NSW Metal Black, after Hamster did what Hamster does best and materialised out of nowhere to blast a massive ninja load all over their faces with ACA MB.

...also apparently the Switch version of Shitribute Layer Section plays terribly, so not to big them up too much or anything. Needless to say, get Ray'Z BBQ Special or GET THE FUCK OUTTA THE SMOKE SHACK SONNY

... is there a port that's worse than the Golden Axe remake? There's just something that feels worse that they would put in a fair amount of work into intentionally making it worse.

And I was giving Cyber Ninja Police Force: Lethal Execution of Dr.Pepper Thieves a hard time...

Try Golden Axe on the Master System, or Earthworm Jim 2 on GBA. Those make Sonic 1 on the GBA look like a masterpiece.

Also check out Medal of Honor Underground on GBA. That they managed to actually get this somewhat working at all is something of a miracle, but...

Eek, it looked like they were using background tiles instead of sprites for their sprites, but it's just updating their position around twice a second.

I've been getting on this "return to simplicity" thing, about only looking at the game part of games.... but I feel like the titular Golden Axe flying up into the air at the end of the game and caving in the final boss's chest is a non-negotiable feature. I don't care what you have to cut: the thieving midgets, windows in the background, Tyris's bikini.... you gotta get it in there. You've failed at a fundamental level without it. Spend those KB's, port guys from thirty years ago!

I believe the entire game is built using only the background. That's why it's so slow. It's pretty terrible.

Apparently you didn't try the Revenge of Shinobi remake on GBA!

If we're just talking straight ports then Sega Smash Pack Revenge of Shinobi is basically unplayable.

ETA:

Medal of Honor Infiltrator on GBA is actually a pretty good top-down shooter tho.

ETA2: Holy shit, apparently EVERY SINGLE port of Revenge of Shinobi is based on the awful Smash Pack emulation, because they all have reports of terrible input lag. No wonder all the kids know this as "that crappy slow ninja game on the sonic collection" if the last time this game was properly playable on a modern system was like 1996.

The Sega Classics Collection on Switch has around 10 frames of input lag IIRC, an ugly-as-hell wrapper and no keybindings unless the original game had them. Furthermore, you cannot save keybindings without saving a state in the game. So whenever I want to play Bare Knuckle 3 with my 10 frames of input delay, I have to load the game, then hold a button to load out of the game, then hit another button to load a file, load up my state with the correct keybindings and THEN I can play.

With games like Streets of Rage 2 that don't have keybindings, there's nothing I can do at all. SoR2 is nearly unplayable for me on Switch because the native keybindings are so bad.

The other obvious answer (for me) is DOOM on Snes. Runs at about 10 fps with so much pixelation you can't see enemies in the distance while they're shooting you.