Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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BIL
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

Blinge wrote:b...but most enemies in ninja gaiden die to a single hit..
Is be arcade ver :wink:

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Beltscroller developed by Tecmo's arcade team (STRONG TEAM), contemporaneously with Sakurazaki & co's FC sidescroller.

So tell "Aykshually *snort* the real NG is the" sorts to eat your fuckin ass 凸(`ω´メ)
(Or point 'em out to me. I'LL GIVE EM THE MESSAGE ON THE END OF ME COCK Image)

Anyway, Strong Team do what Nintendon't: TIGHT MAN BUTT Image
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"INCERT COIN" Image


I like to think the FC game is a movie starring international playboy, poker ace, and sometime actor Nameless Ninja Man. (not to be confused with Ninjaman)

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He's in USA to clean out Vegas, fuck six bunnygirls at the same time, and kill a former clansman who broke the creed of Man Butt Dojo - forsaking his jogging pants for the Western heresy of assless chaps. Image

Assless Chaps Man also has a nuke, and a bunch of fanatical followers, but NNM DGAF. He must execute ACM for not only his outrageously immodest couture, but also sharing ancient gluteal training secrets - which could destroy Man Butt Dojo's lucrative sideline in supplying the personnel of Chippendales Nihon Kabukikaisha.

Always the dollars. Always the fuckin' dollars... Image Image

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Marc wrote:Not managed to get into Ninja Gaiden myself, it does the same thing as Golden Axe where individual hits feel a bit wishy-washy.
The three-hit combo's individual strikes are weak, but they lead to devastating results. Each hit stuns hard, for tactical carte blanche - you can complete, for a near-dead enemy and smashed scenery (free shit! Image) - or end early with a throw, or grab a rail and kick the shit out of backstabbers and the original target. Or simply retreat to safety at zero cost, if a sudden pincer erupts.

Nearby enemies who eat the second or third hit are fucked, too - unlike DD/FF, there's no "combo ender." The PKK sequence will simply loop until they've taken their three hits, and gone sprawling. It's a remarkably generous setup by any standard, especially late 80s brawling. Where DD1's punch flurry is iffy without careful workarounds, NG is full-on Touch Of Death mode.

Also it looks rad, imparting that classic sense of controlling a bad motherfucker who's very good at what they do. That opening sock to the jaw is ice-cold, and the followup pair of kicks to the head and throat be HAWT. Image

Shoulda cosplayed as the slasher villain in a NASCAR helmet, UR BRAINS FUKT SONNEH
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Yeah cunt! I'm talking about you!
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I need to turn you into a statue of agony painted in your own blood so I can escape my pain. Image
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OH JEEZ SCOOB! THE BIKER CLUB WAS SMUGGLING CRANK Image
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Counterbalance is that enemy combos work exactly the same way on you. Let your guard down? Took a slug? Unless you've got a buddy on 2P, you're about to eat shit! Hopefully you'll land on something with an item in it. :shock: Despite the game's bombast, with bodies crashing through scenery left and right, it's a high-stakes zoner at heart. Victory is down to that first fateful strike - only difference being, the player has myriad options from there, while enemies will just tear off a chunk of HP. Some of their combos are pretty sick too, the Luchador's tumbling axe-kick would do any player character proud.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Sumez »

In the arcade game?
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Squire Grooktook »

Maybe not the right place to talk about it, but yoooo BIL, Search and Rescue is SICK. Thanks for talking/recommending it earlier/elsewhere.
Sumez wrote:
BareKnuckleRoo wrote: Agreed, but in the context of the Souls games it seems like it's a hilarious case where you're told death is a horribly punishing outcome when in practice it's a light slap on the wrist. You can collect an item, die, and respawn with that item still in inventory, it doesn't even reset your progress per se.
One thing that really irks me is how frequently I've seen the statement that one of the defining elements of the Souls series is how dying has consequences. Like, that's literally the opposite of what the games do.

I can't figure out if people are taking the potential loss of souls more seriously than they should, or if being set back 2 minutes of wading through stuff is a "consequence"...
Or maybe it would be more appropriate to take a "glass half full" approach and consider that simply the fact that everything in the game just feels more involving and every action like an investment will cause any individual mistake to feel like a "consequence" for the dedicated player.
I think you're problem Sumez is that you're probably thinking of it in terms of the objectively hardest and least fun parts of the games that are the real chokepoints for most players: the boss fights. Souls has virtually no punishment for failure for boss fights because in most cases the bonfire/checkpoint is very close or a quick skirt towards them, and most boss fights tend to indeed last only 2-3 minutes or so. You also tend not to be carrying souls on hand during them by nature, or at least not a large number (nor would it be that difficult to recover them in most cases anyway).

But that's not where losing souls is a punishment. It's exploration that losing them is a big deal. The games uses its soul-drop-on-death system (and humanity/body/ember whatever depending on the installment on question) to emulate the classical dungeon crawl risk/reward feel of "how far do I want to go before turning back to rest?". Do I keep pushing deeper and deeper in for great rewards, or do I retreat to restore my resources?

This is best illustrated in the Crypt -> Tomb of Giants passage. The bonfire in the Crypt requires a noticeable trek (even with shortcuts open) past some of the most deadly enemies in the game (bonewheels) to get to Pinwheel. After you kill Pinwheel, you get no bonfire, and you're faced with the incredibly perilous Tomb of The Giants with all its agressive hyper-armored giant skeletons and easy to fall into bottomless pits. At that point, you have a LOT of souls on hand...perhaps enough to wield that shiny new sword you've been working towards...so do you return home to cash-in, or do you push forward for saved time and even more Souls?

Now you might counter that souls are actually meaningless because your real stat boosts come from findable equipment boosters and such, but no. In fact, leveling affects something even more important than the difficulty/damage that the game doles out: it affects your playstyle. Losing ten bajillion souls because you pushed your luck a little too far could be the difference between getting to wield that sick flaming greatsword or that one really rad spell several play sessions earlier or not. It's not a huge punishment, but it's enough to create a palpable sense of tension during lengthy runs and a need to weight desicions carefully.

///

Anyway, regardless, all games should punish one for failure IMO. If you're not losing an emotionally significant amount of time and/or resources on death, then I consider it a real and genuine flaw in the overall structure of the game. You can't have excitement without tension.

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RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................

Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by drauch »

Squire Grooktook wrote: If you're not losing an emotionally significant amount of time
Damn man, that's some bondage-level masochism there.

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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

Squire Grooktook wrote:Maybe not the right place to talk about it, but yoooo BIL, Search and Rescue is SICK. Thanks for talking/recommending it earlier/elsewhere.
You are most welcome! :mrgreen: And so is Search And Rescue ITT. ^__^ I'm gonna have to go back and consult those posts when I return - left it parked at the 1LC attempt. I'm tempted to say it's SNK's best rotary shooter... it's the sort of latter-day genre effort ala Capcom's Battle Circuit that's technically "easier" than its iconic forebears, but a lot of that ease is really just user-friendliness; it's as militantly hardcore as anything that came before it.

All this ignoring the IMMENSE stylistic panache. Holy fuck it's to topdown blasting what Splatterhouse is to sidescrolling beaters. Entire constellations of horror subgenres orbiting one purloined icon apiece, with such synergy even the Giger/Voorhees riffs become their own.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Squire Grooktook »

It's fantastic ^_^

I definitely echo the weapon balance being surprisingly great (I've been sticking with flame+shield, but a 1cc I watched was entirely built around rocket+blackhole). I really do love the sheer atmosphere this game has too. By arcade standards, the bloody bowels of the ship don't just feel like an abstract obstacle course when playing, but feel like a real and imaginatively grim locale with a sense of harrowed exploration even when running and gunning through them for the upteenth time.

Oh also, streamed the game for some friends. Let the intro rock for their sake, prompting one of them to shout "NOBODY KNOWS THE FACTS"
RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................

Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

WHAT
HAS

HAPPENED


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Ending spoilers:
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I love how the irretrievably infested ship is unceremoniously vanquished down that accursed ravine by the self-destruction charges... BRED FROM THE GAP indeed. :shock:

Classy Alien riff at the end too, with the implication that the whole affair was covered up. Nope, nothing to see here, prospective colony bros! Image
I wonder if the art team worked on anything prior/since. The aesthetic completely dominates everything I know of from SNK's topdown action, and ADK's Battle Field too. No reliance on chibi/superdeformed proportions, and unlike the similarly man-sized (yet dreadfully boring) Ikari III, it's got personality in horrid spades.

DONT TOUCH ME MAAAN!
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Not to knock Obada-san's Rotary Army Man trilogy. Dogo still looks great imo, with its gibbering hordes and alarmingly massive bosses. They finally figured out how to draw tropical jungle with Guevara too, can confirm those are some impressive coconut tree roots. Ikari's are kinda nasty-lookin' if you stare.

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RIP Midori-kun, millions of him. Most intrepidly cute swimming animation this side of Metafight. ;[
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Squire Grooktook »

BIL wrote:No reliance on chibi/superdeformed proportions
Something I was definitely thankful for and appreciative of. IMO top down character design is one of the hardest things to get right. From the perspective (too straight on overhead, and you got little head and shoulders waddling around, not a lot of personality) to the size of sprites and proportions. It's really fantastic when a game gets it right and makes everything not only functional but cool looking.

Only stylistic complaints I have I guess is that I wish there was a second type of skin for the "crawling" enemy types. A half-zombie crawling at you with a live grenade is a great premise, but it feels a bit ad-hoc when they're bursting out of containment tubes in stage 3's first screen. Would've liked a new version there. Also while I find the ost charming, I shudder to imagine how effective the games atmosphere would be if you had something more like X-Multiply's grim and malice-laden soundtrack. Still though, this is some of the best atmosphere and style I've seen in an arcade game in ages.
RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................

Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

Yeah, the biotank-lined hallways play great (smart use of uneven pressure from tripwire eruptions and interfering zako), but they're one of the few times suspension of disbelief is compromised. I headcanon it as their being captured subjects ala Aliens' medlab facehuggers, maybe they got subdued/quarantined early on before things well and truly went to hell - uniform lack of legs is a bit suspect though, and there's the fucking grenades too. :lol:
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Stevens »

Akane continues to impress.

I'm pretty set in my load out now. Default sword is my go to as it gives a 20% stamina bonus. The moves the other two swords have isn't worth the stamina hit. Fits in better with my chosen play style which is cut 2 or 3 guys and then shoot a few of their closest friends. This gives me a nice give and take between recharging bullets and recharging stamina. The two gear options I use fill your gun quicker and extended mag.

Current high is 500+ kills. Current high combo is 280.

By the 6th cycle the mooks can almost run as fast as you.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Sumez »

Squire Grooktook wrote: I think you're problem Sumez is that you're probably thinking of it in terms of the objectively hardest and least fun parts of the games that are the real chokepoints for most players: the boss fights.
(...)
But that's not where losing souls is a punishment. It's exploration that losing them is a big deal. The games uses its soul-drop-on-death system (and humanity/body/ember whatever depending on the installment on question) to emulate the classical dungeon crawl risk/reward feel of "how far do I want to go before turning back to rest?". Do I keep pushing deeper and deeper in for great rewards, or do I retreat to restore my resources?
I think we had this exact same discussion on Discord a while back.

And while I don't straight up disagree with anything you said, I think it's missing the point. Even in your Catacombs/Tomb of Giants example, the biggest "consequence" is psychological. Even if you do attribute a lot of value to your soul count, it's very very rare to lose more souls that could realistically be regained with a few minutes of easy grinding in the Darkroot Garden or Painted World.
I'd already finished Demon's Souls and most of Dark Souls before I realised that the best way to relieve stress and improve your performance in these games is to stop caring about your accumulated souls at all. The "corpse retrieval" is a really cool mechanic that affects how most people perceive the games as they start out, but like I said, it's really a psychological effect more than anything else.

And of course, that's entirely deliberate. The designers knew what they were doing to people. Its effect is essential to that incredibly intense feeling that comes with playing your first Souls game. It's great at simulating consequences, but it doesn't mean they are real. It's a series that is amazingly good at pretending that it is way more unfair than it actually is, and it does so intentionally. Which is where we come back to my "glass half full" example from the post you're responding to.

Remember that when you've played all of these games for over a decade now, and understand the mechanics thoroughly, it's hard to really relate to how they feel to a newcomer.
When I first found out that the big door to the boss that I opened in the 1-1 area of Demon's Souls had stayed open when I came back there after dying, it messed with my mind. I didn't understand why it'd stay that way when everything else had reset, because being used to checkpoints from other games I had a lot of assumptions about what "dying" meant in this game. It took even longer before I realised that you could pick up items, fall in battle, and still keep the stuff you found.
There really aren't a lot of consequences for dying, at least not to the point where it "defines the game" in the way I've seen suggested more than once. But it's really cool that it makes you think so.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by kitten »

been screwing around with wardner (no mori special) on the mega drive! i just about had a nomiss down but then screwed the entire run on the spider woman refight. damn bitch ate my face :[ i swear to god i can't tell where the hell you're supposed to shoot her and it sometimes just gets me killed. i had both the cape and the thread at this point and was going to shred the run and then poof, up in smoke because i thought i was hitting her when i wasn't. golly gee willikers ;__; ah well, i've got the game down pretty well, shouldn't be hard to grab one tomorrow when i'm not sleep-deprived.

i've heard this is a pretty good conversion of the arcade game (despite apparently not being ported by toaplan, themselves), but it's not terribly impressive. the goofy visuals with the lumpy sprites and ugly palette, the kinda MIDI-sounding music that gets uncharacteristically relaxing in some of the more difficult stages, the weird shot arcs and utterly inexplicable idiosyncrasies with the jump (why the FUCK do you just plummet if you jump too far other than to gotcha kill you in the first stage? this is coming from someone who likes spelunker's jump, even), the bullshit like the rock traps in the maze stage that kill you for climbing a ladder with no way to avoid them other than trial and error or magical intuition, the dull parallax... this feels like an XBLIG, at times.

it's still really far out of kuso territory and i do enjoy it - i'd still recommend it to the right person and its definitely within the wheelhouse of this thread's interests, i know it's got fans - but it feels inexplicably "off." with makaimura in arcades 2 years before wardner's original arcade version (87) and akumajou dracula in the home 1 year before, this feels a bit like a specialty interest and less than i'd expect for one of the best-performing arcade games of its year of release. this didn't hit the mega drive until april 91, and there's a huge plethora of better stuff by that point. i'd argue legend of hero tonma is quite similar and blows this game out of the water, and the home port for that precedes the mega drive version of this by a month.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

My biggest issue with Warder Special (converted by Dragnet, according to Rubble Saver appreciator and all-around goodie 6t8k) is that palette. Oof it's rough, inexplicably so given the MD's natural affinity for Mossy Medieval. While it has disquieting notes of The MD Clang, I'm a fan of a couple tunes, mostly the TRUE SOVIET METAL of stage 3's grim march through ghost-infested meadowland. Now that is some MARCH IN THE DARK

Substantively it's an alright time, imo. Daimakaimura (Even HG101 Is Afraid) nukes it from orbit and wees on its ashes, but then late 80s Capcom were god-tier action/platformer craftsmen. PCE Tonma indeed murders it too, mowing it down without so much as touching the brakes, but IREM had already attained immortal Scrolling Action cred with Saigo no Nindou if not Spartan X. While neither of those two (or Konami) were slouches in the STG department, Toaplan were acclaimed for STGs and little else, Dover's Cartmanesque waddlings being a neat case in point. :wink: Snow Bros is probably their outstanding left-fielder, albeit one that stays comfily within established Bubble Bobble conventions.

(I know Ghox has some fierce adherents, pls dun kill meh Ghox fans :shock: or was it Teki Paki, or Get Star... pretty sure one of these is the same game in a different region... I know Enma Daiou's the weird Boonga Boon-ga thing... >_>)
Last edited by BIL on Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Stevens »

Stevens wrote:Akane continues to impress.

I'm pretty set in my load out now. Default sword is my go to as it gives a 20% stamina bonus. The moves the other two swords have isn't worth the stamina hit. Fits in better with my chosen play style which is cut 2 or 3 guys and then shoot a few of their closest friends. This gives me a nice give and take between recharging bullets and recharging stamina. The two gear options I use fill your gun quicker and extended mag.

Current high is 593 kills. SO CLOSE to 600. Current high combo is 280.

By the 6th cycle the mooks can almost run as fast as you.
Whoops. Did not mean to do that.
Last edited by Stevens on Wed Nov 25, 2020 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Mero »

Used to have Wardner Special myself, Visco was just the publisher then? Was their logo on the title screen iirc.

Definitely cleared it a few times back in the day, though I doubt they were 1CC's.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

^ Yeah, similar "ghost convertor" situation as Treco/Kyuukyoku Tiger AFAIK. (and many others before and after - lots of stealth farmouts BITD, including some utterly first-rate games like Bionic Commando GB)

Bugger me if I can recall who handled MD Tiger offhand. Regardless I'll fight ten guys armed with shivs to defend its honour. GET BODIED YOU LOUSY NO-GAME 4:3PHOBIC CHEESE TWATS Image

EDIT: Oho! Speaking of foundational works, ACA GREEN BERET is out tomorrow. Image

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Lookit those Compact Action Men™ go! Heaven is here inside mah soul Image
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Hey its those guys from Snakes Revenge :o What a fine excuse to link its Cookin OST! WTB MGS2 Naked Raiden sequenced to this BGM
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Its Time 2 Attack Aggressively & BURN SOME USHANKAS 4 THE GIPPER Image
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Stevens »

Oh no way. I loves me some Green Beret.

Or you know - Rush N' Attack if you grew up in the States during the tail end of the Cold War.

That stabbing sound....80's excellence. Also his knife if you think about it was fucking huge.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Squire Grooktook »

Sumez wrote: Even in your Catacombs/Tomb of Giants example, the biggest "consequence" is psychological. Even if you do attribute a lot of value to your soul count, it's very very rare to lose more souls that could realistically be regained with a few minutes of easy grinding in the Darkroot Garden or Painted World.
Not reeeaaaallly?

First off, this depends on when you're doing Catacombs. If you're already far enough into the game that you can access Painted World at all, then you're waaaaaaaaaay overleveled for Catacombs and making it a cake walk, not getting a relevant amount of souls out of it, and the whole example is completely moot.

But let's say you're dong Catacombs relatively early. You don't have the Lordvessel, maybe you only just got back from Darkroot Garden with a blessed weapon or whatever. In that case the burst of souls you get from Catacombs and its boss is going to be enormous. Without the Lord Vessel, it'll take you a "few minutes" (or at least, what feels like as much) to slog all the way back to Darkroot in my reckoning, and far more to grind out the now comparatively weak enemies over there for equivalent souls (treants and crystal golems? Unless you know some exploit I don't).

It's totally not just psychological. I've replayed the first game like 4-5 times now, and I definitely felt a major difference in how strong and empowered you get in much shorter a time if you never die or fail to retrieve. And it matters much more if there's a particular weapon you want to wield ASAP or a particular spell (all my replays are basically "themed" around a certain weapon/skill set or playstyle, so I'm naturally racing to be able to wield the "cool" weapon). Perhaps it's not "punishing you" in the sense that the game becomes massively harder if you're constantly failing to pick up your souls, but it does reward you significantly for putting the effort in, valuing those resources, and treating death like it matters.

This talk of "a few minutes of easy grinding" does bring up something that I think is important though: all punishment for failure comes from time, or at least can be measured in time in a reductive sense. When you game over in an arcade game or a roguelike, you're being punished in time (you have to rewind 10-15 minutes of progress or more). When you lose your Souls in Souls you're being penalized in time (10-15 minutes of grinding or equivalent progress if you want them back, though only if you care about obtaining certain things, etc.). When I say a game has real punishment for failure or should have it, I'm not asking for it to cut your balls off and burn your house down. All I'm asking is that it rewind you on more than 5 minutes of progress in some area of the game.
Last edited by Squire Grooktook on Wed Nov 25, 2020 6:21 pm, edited 5 times in total.
RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................

Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Jeneki »

Stevens wrote:Also his knife if you think about it was fucking huge.
Always preferred that knife to the NES version, which has a mighty gut punch fist of doom but always felt a bit nerfed compared to the knife.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Stevens »

I want to gift a copy of Akane on Steam to one of you. Yeah it isn't expensive, but I REALLY want someone else to play it.

Any takers?
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

Stevens wrote:I want to gift a copy of Akane on Steam to one of you. Yeah it isn't expensive, but I REALLY want someone else to play it.

Any takers?
Would love to accept, but my PC is in a godawful state so I'll defer to others who'll be able to enjoy it sooner. :oops: I will be playing it in the new year, God and Jesus willing. :cool:
Jeneki wrote:
Stevens wrote:Also his knife if you think about it was fucking huge.
Always preferred that to the NES version, which has the mighty gut punch fist of doom.
All this talk of big knives and doom fists and Iron Curtains is making me blast some essential Cold War Thrash. Come the morrow, many unfortunate Tovarisch be... ASSASSINATED BY THE HEAVY FIST Image I mean knife, y-yeah.

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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Squire Grooktook »

I already bought Akane on you're recommendation, Steven!

Tis quite nice. I was in the market for a top down, melee and mobility focused game, and it fits in to that general cross-section of action well~

One little detail I'm quite fond of is the sword clash that results from a simultaneous strike from both you and a foe. Always love seeing swordfighting mechanics like that which turn what would otherwise be frustrating mutual kills into cinematic clashes that force decisive do-or-die action.
I'm the one who lost in that clip but it was so hype I was still happy with it.
RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................

Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
Aeon Zenith - My STG.
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Stevens
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Stevens »

Excellent. Glad you're enjoying it.

I feel that if it came out in the late 80's/early 90's in the arcade with two player simultaneous it would have been a hit.

Edit - Say what you will about HG 101 on occasion it has a knack for showing me games I've never heard of:

DynaGear?

Demon Front? This one looks the part. Anyone play it?
My lord, I have come for you.
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BIL
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

Stevens wrote:Demon Front? This one looks the part. Anyone play it?
Sumez is a big fan, would've tried it out long ago myself if not for a lack of hardware/ports/decent emu setup. On the shortlist for whenever that changes, looks rad for sure Image

198X Image Image Image
THE FINAL BLOODBATH IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER
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Wait. Fuck! :o ITS ALREADY HERE :shock:

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^^^ Geddit?! BWAAA

God damn, does this go great after a month of ROTN. You want an item drop? Kill that blue asshole up there, but be quick about it, those three guys either side of you are looking to stab/shoot you in the face.

Is be tight Image
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TURNAROUND SLASH OK Image Image
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This is why anyone who calls SOTN a bad game can choke on my Westphalian wienerschnitzel. That game's the heir to a decade of accumulated R2RKMF excellence, whatever you think of its wider arrangement. And believe me, I don't think overly highly of the latter!

HARD GAYMER AXIOM: Heedlessly enter a ranged enemy's killzone, and you'll suffer.
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DONT FUCKING DO IT OK - or at least don't have a great big cry about it, FFS. Go play something that lets you bash your head on a wall until Wolff's law kicks in. Like an IGAvania. Zing! Image

Encountered An Assailiant GRAVE KEEPER. Lookit these noobs just walking into my 1337 HAX 30hz kn-FUUUUU Image
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He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians! The guy was an interior decorator! Waitaminute... The Dirty Dozen theme for HS BGM?! Image

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THEY PLAYED US LIKE A GOD DAMN FIDDLE Image Oh wait nm, that's The Great Escape. >_>

Bit of Spartan precision crowd dispatch, bit of Donkey Kong laddering, bit of Contr - wait that wasn't out yet. Bit of Ryga - fuck that wasn't either! Makaimura? TBH this one's stab/shoot balance puts it more in the orbit of Kage. Quick impression: Authentic PaleoR2RKMF. Image UP_2_JUMP is never ideal, though I'll always pardon it when the wider work is sound, as here and Spartan/Kage.

Here's hoping for its fellow pre-Contra R2RSMFOF (that's "Run to the right setting motherfuckers on fire") and eminent Wild West Action IRON HORSE. Image
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kitten
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by kitten »

BIL wrote:While it has disquieting notes of The MD Clang, I'm a fan of a couple tunes, mostly the TRUE SOVIET METAL of stage 3's grim march through ghost-infested meadowland. Now that is some MARCH IN THE DARK
grim march? more like.... chill ass ride on a bird Image

i saw someone's playthrough where they got a 1up riding the bird - i need to watch that again and figure out how! i've never managed to get it. the game has some kinda weird stuff, actually! did you know that if you move to the left at the beginning of stage three, you can climb a broken tree? yet... there seems to be no point to it? that in stage 5, you can duck and hop through a secret passage to find yourself below the burners for a free 1up? that in stage 4, you can climb to the top of the ladders that drop a rock on you and get either a points bonus or 1up? that the score tally at the end heavily weights your extra stock? a high scoring run of this game would require a LOT of dedication and some serious balls on how much time you think you can afford to waste killing rocks in the final gauntlet.

i think there might be a secret i've yet to discover involving a warp, too. recall watching a video a few years ago where they just skipped most of the last stage, but maybe this is a false memory? after you do the skip with the witch in stage 4 (grab the key above the rock guy, fall down to jump over his rocks, have him chase you, kill him when he's outside the room, then talk to the witch - i think she gives you a magic upgrade for your trouble, though you skip at LEAST one just to get her to do this), she shows up in a weird space i don't know how to access in the stage. there's surely a hidden passage or something to get back to her. i like that if you wander the stage normally after talking to her you can see her in her room as some sort of weird crystalline thing that appears nowhere else in the game. what's her deal??? is she wardner's spurned lover?
Daimakaimura
i forgot i bought the MD daimakaimura port on your recommendation a couple of years ago, as well as senjou no okami II. and i've... not played either! i've been purchasing random MD games i never picked up to give a spin to, lately (just grabbed jewel master based on an ancient recommendation from you, as well), and i forgot i've got a few sitting on the shelf that are obvious fun. thanks, BIL of three years ago! what a pal he is. also want to smack myself a bit - i've got the daimakaimura box on a shelf outward facing and all because of how attractive the box is and somehow still forgot i owned it. amazing! lol. feels like a time capsule gift. i kinda mix complete and loose with mega drive based on how much i like the box and how much more radically expensive it is... there's a few loose or US carts i'm looking to eventually upgrade to complete JP because hot damn, that shit looks great.
~Imagination and memory are but one thing, which for diverse considerations have diverse names~
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~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
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BIL
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

Goddamn - it's been so long, I forgot about the gigantic flaming phoenix and only remembered those suitably ass-ugly ghosts. :lol: (can't forget Spider Woman, ofc, body horror that stays with you)

Got a train to catch, lest I give the impression I've become any less enthused by Jewel Master over those three years. :cool: Rock-solid genre effort, low on flash and fluff alike, also bangin' OST and some classy MD parallax. My ideal of a B-tier essential, along with what I consider the other members of its spiritual trilogy, Kujaku Ou II and Rambo III (pretty sure they shared at least some art personnel... lots of specific and general likenesses). Blimey I can't stop myself. Image
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kitten
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by kitten »

tabbed out of a window with rambo 3 auctions open up to check back to this reply, haha. another one you had recommended ages ago. not sure i'll care for either jewel master or rambo III as much as kujaku ou 2, which i seriously fell in love with on this recent revisit, but if they're even in the neighborhood of being as good, i think i'll be quite pleased.

part of my mega drive kick lately is that because of however the mega drive tends to output video, it makes this issue my CRT is having a lot less noticeable, so i'm not constantly irritated by its frustrating presence. seems an arbitrary excuse, but riding the arbitrary has led me to a lot of joy, this last year. i need to maybe make a thread on what's up with my tv, it's a common trinitron model and has these horizontal fuzzy lines moving vertically across it. damned obnoxious on 3d stuff (about drove me mad while playing maken x, recently), less noticeable on 2d stuff and almost ignorable with certain games, especially most on the MD.

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also might as well bring back this gif. 'goals', etc.
~Imagination and memory are but one thing, which for diverse considerations have diverse names~
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~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
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Stevens
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Stevens »

Ok homeys. Currently 24th in Green Beret.
My lord, I have come for you.
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FinalBaton
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by FinalBaton »

kitten that spider enemy is pretty kvlt!

also that's two solid pickups in Dai and Mercs


and BIL that turning animation/input looks snappy as helllllll. looks like it even moves your hitbox slightly backwards. let alone forward into the enemy!
-FM Synth & Black Metal-
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Marc
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Marc »

Green Beret. UP TO JUMP. C'mon Hamster, in this day and age, you couldn't let us assign a button..... :cry:

Still, like Kung-Fu Master, a brilliantly simple example of a game doing one thing, and one thing only, but doing it very well. Bit pushed for time last night, but I'll bust out the arcade stick tonight and give it a proper go. Was also one of my go-to conversions back in the 8-bit computer days, pretty decent on both C64 and Speccy.
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