Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[pegboy]

If you need that Tiger Contra game hit me up and we can make it happen

I wasn't kidding about playing it lol, I would love to get one.

[BIL]

From a while back

I'm not sure if this one fits here - but Raimais by Taito. It has been mentioned in past threads about Taito Legends II - but not for a really long time.

Think Pac Man in space, but lovingly tapped by Taito's late 80's magic wand. It is unsurprisingly awesome - tight controls, useful power ups, great soundtrack (what there is of it), and multiple paths to follow.

It is rare in this day to find a game so worth playing simply through chance. It is a feeling I miss.

Ramais just got announced for ACA. Along with a bunch of other goodies, most notably a treasure trove of console-absent STGs in XEXEX, Thunder Dragon 2 and Gunnail, plus good ol' Qix. Deffo day 1 purchases all.

[Sumez]

Finally had some time to run through Steel Assault yesterday, and as expected it's a very good game.

I do have a bunch of issues, and it's probably gonna sound like nitpicking. So I'll preface by saying this is probably the best run'n'gun game to come out since, I don't know, at least well over a decade. Yeah I think it beats out even Blazing Chrome. So any problems I did have with the game are just bumps on something I felt could have been even greater. I'm super into this game - I'm so happy it is finally out, and actually lives up to the expectations I had for it.



I can definitely see a no-death run of expert as being quite surmountable, but I have no idea how iconoclast was able to have a no damage run out a few hours after the game's release, that's insane.
Expert is also still the only mode I have played so far, so consider everything I say to be a comment on that mode.
Which reminds me - The game badly needs a practice mode!! Even playing through an entire stage just to get to a boss you want to learn can be an ordeal, but there isn't even a stage select.

The challenge is definitely weirdly uneven, with stage 2 being the clear spike for me, and stage 3 just overall feeling weird compared to the rest of the game. The game is at its best when it's just "guns" blazing run'n'gun with respawning enemies trying to kill you, but in the case of certain places like the first rooms in both stage 2 and 3, enemies will most likely just show up in positions where you have no ability to dodge them unless you already know ahead of time where to look out. The boss fights are a mixed bag, with some great ones and a couple of tedious one.
The biggest offsets to balance probbaly comes from the distribution of powerups though. Some times two health pickups are so close one will almost certainly be superfluous, while other times you'll go an entire stage without a single one.
Some times the shield/electric powerups are also so close to eachother that I can't figure out what the point was. The vertical autoscroller in stage 3 notably does this, and anything you pick up always replaces what you already have, so it seems quite pointless. Is there some feature I'm missing here? The point-blank recharge move is a fun idea but seems very underutilized, but maybe it's also because I never really found much use for the electric weapon outside of a couple of miniboss speedkills. Generally the shield is so useful it would be dumb not to go with it, so a scoring system tied to picking a less defensive approach might have been fun.

At least on Switch the game seems to be hardcoded to run at 30fps, which feels off for a fast game like this with so much going on. It probably can't run faster either, since there are times where it stutters a lot, though fortunately rarely doing intense action. One of the biggest offenders is the quiet spell right before the "helicopter" on stage 4, I'm guessing due to the effects on the billboards in the background? Or maybe the game is streaming in data for the upcoming section in an ineffective background thread?
I don't think the performance is a dealbreaker, the game is perfectly 100% playable, but the low framerate probably did affect my performance whenever it comes down to reaction time. Besides, it's probably also way too late to change that, as I'm assuming it's caused by the engine the game runs on. Though the Switch license text mentions XNA/MonoGame, so I'm guessing it's a custom thing? Which is respectable. At least I don't feel much notable latency.



I was gonna write a quick runthrough of each stage, what I liked and what I disliked, but I'll get back on that after work today.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

but I have no idea how iconoclast was able to have a no damage run out a few hours after the game's release, that's insane.

Was it a single segment no damage run? Or was each chapter recorded and practiced separately? Either way it's certainly impressive for a newly released game.

There's a habit in the Bayonetta community to upload clears showing each story chapter done with the best rank (which involves no damage) but from what I've seen of streamers that then upload their footage to Youtube, none of them are done as a single segment. They use the skip to title screen -> continue trick to reset each fight without penalty if they take damage, then edit the video only showing the fights that resulted in perfect rank (cutting out the re-attempts), rather than doing all the fights in each chapter perfectly in one attempt. They aren't marked as such in the description, and if the viewer isn't aware of this, it understandably makes it look like they did all the fights perfectly in that chapter in one sitting, which is obviously a far more impressive feat, everyone nowadays seems to assume everyone's using the quit to title screen trick to get their perfect rank medals for each chapter.

It's part of why I like the secret chapter that lasts over an hour; you can't quit to title screen to reset a fight if you get hit to preserve your ranking, so getting a perfect rank on it is always an hour long endurance test. Even just clearing it is a serious display of skill relative to the story missions.

Anyways, the point is stuff like this is why it's nice to make it clear in the description. The standards for this sort of thing varies between game genres. Like, when we say 1CC or no-miss 1CC, it's implied it was done in one sitting without any clever video editing, etc.

At least on Switch the game seems to be hardcoded to run at 30fps

Oof.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Damn, those gifs are something else.

but I have no idea how iconoclast was able to have a no damage run out a few hours after the game's release, that's insane.

Was it a single segment no damage run? Or was each chapter recorded and practiced separately? Either way it's certainly impressive for a newly released game.

Are you sure he didn't just have access to the game earlier for being a tester?

[pegboy]

but I have no idea how iconoclast was able to have a no damage run out a few hours after the game's release, that's insane.

Was it a single segment no damage run? Or was each chapter recorded and practiced separately? Either way it's certainly impressive for a newly released game.

There's a habit in the Bayonetta community to upload clears showing each story chapter done with the best rank (which involves no damage) but from what I've seen of streamers that then upload their footage to Youtube, none of them are done as a single segment. They use the skip to title screen -> continue trick to reset each fight without penalty if they take damage, then edit the video only showing the fights that resulted in perfect rank (cutting out the re-attempts), rather than doing all the fights in each chapter perfectly in one attempt. They aren't marked as such in the description, and if the viewer isn't aware of this, it understandably makes it look like they did all the fights perfectly in that chapter in one sitting, which is obviously a far more impressive feat, everyone nowadays seems to assume everyone's using the quit to title screen trick to get their perfect rank medals for each chapter.

It's part of why I like the secret chapter that lasts over an hour; you can't quit to title screen to reset a fight if you get hit to preserve your ranking, so getting a perfect rank on it is always an hour long endurance test. Even just clearing it is a serious display of skill relative to the story missions.

Anyways, the point is stuff like this is why it's nice to make it clear in the description. The standards for this sort of thing varies between game genres. Like, when we say 1CC or no-miss 1CC, it's implied it was done in one sitting without any clever video editing, etc.

At least on Switch the game seems to be hardcoded to run at 30fps

Oof.

So basically they are just posting fake runs, not any better than your run of the mill save state cheater.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I wouldn't go that far given the dev once livestreamed a perfect ranking run of Bayo doing those exact strat to get perfect medals in each chapter, lol. It's pretty much the accepted way to do it in the community (not that I agree with it). But yeah, it's basically a "gotta get perfect rank on the results screen by any means necessary" kinda like save state shenanigans, and if you're not aware of how it's done it can be a bit misleading unless you specifically state you used title screen restarts.

[pegboy]

Yeah but the dev showed all of the restarts I'm assuming, not just splicing a video together and claiming you beat it without dying or whatever. Just show the whole fucking thing instead of a fake video.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Yeah, because it was a livestream everyone saw the process unedited. It'd potentially be a really long video though depending on # retries, so I'd be okay with just a note in the description saying "cleared using quit to title screen trick" or "each chapter was practiced and cleared as an individual segment", "entire game was cleared as a single segment run", etc.

[drauch]

If you need that Tiger Contra game hit me up and we can make it happen

I wasn't kidding about playing it lol, I would love to get one.

Make me an offer I can't refuse! Mine is just rotting in my house of garbage.

[Sumez]

Just ran through Steel Assault again, it's a lot faster when you know what to do Had a no-death run until the final boss, so I think I better set up for recording next time I play.
After that I'm going to attempt Arcade Mode. Anyone know what the exact differences are?

A rundown of my thoughts of each stage:

Chapter 1:
A perfect introduction to the game. I'm really happy it doesn't try to ease you into the action, but throws you right into the fray. Like Daimakaimura it tries to kill you from the start, and the first stage showcases everything great in the game. You're forced to learn the zipline and projectile cancelling, and there's just a great flow to it.
Despite having run through the game a couple of times now, I still don't get the boss here. It's easy enough because you can easily get there with full health and either a shield or electric and just tank it, but whenever it hovers over you there's a chance it will do the machinegun fire which I'm still not sure how to see coming before it already hits you.

Chapter 2:
Starts off a little iffy with a bit of a memorizer, but the upcoming "log ride" is cool, and a great example of a setup where evading multiple incoming patterns with a tad of RNG to them can be really confusing at first, until you stop and think about them. The midboss is a basic classic pattern, but can be almost entirely evaded by overkilling him with electric, which somehow feels even more rewarding.
Next up is the little fire spraying things which are kinda bad though. The first vertically scrolling room is fine, and the water currents that kill you unless you slide out of them are also nice, but there's some questionable design here as well, best captured in the little fire critter that you need to kill the moment you jump over a spiky pit *and* dodge his little forward jump. He takes two hits to kill, so the narrow timing window for doing that before he turns on the fire and damages you seems almost completely impossible for me to accurately hit. Somehow that one jump is a pretty big blemish on this stage. The boss fight is great though, although it absolutely will kill you until you figure out what to do.

Chapter 3:
Already talked a bit about this stage. The first room is this weird combination of easy, memorization, and spawns that'll just kill you if you aren't prepared for them. The hydra fight with the turrets is super annoying at first, but once you figure it out it's actually not that bad, and definitely has a bunch of cool ideas. Though there's no real way to take it down fast, so when I was replaying the stage multiple times, it became quite taxing to go through it every time. The next vertical autoscroller had me stumped for a while, but it turns out it's just way, way easier than it appears, and you can pretty much just ignore the yellow robots as you climb up. I'm not sure if that was really intentional, or something changed during development because they might have made the climb too difficult? At the end of the day though, that means like the climb is just another wait time you have to sit through.
The last room with the slimes again seems like another way to just make you wait, but maybe I missed something? They are very unintuitive to fight, because you can't damage them as soon as their cores are exposed, you have to wait a while, but on the other hand it takes a while for the slime on the floor to do damage, so you actually have to stand on it for a while before moving out of the way. It took me a while to figure out due to this odd behavior. I would have probably gone with more of them in the room, instead of having them take two hits to retain the same amount of action, but not force the player to slow down and wait around.

The boss seems like a cool homage to the "zodiac" fight from Hard Corps, though it ends after just two enemies, which feels a little anticlimactic. I never figured out how to dodge all of "big bird"s large fireballs. Any tips here? You can kill it before it does that pattern though.

Chapter 4:
The demo stage. I think it's been made a lot easier, but it might just be that I still remember most of it from the demo, at least I got through this one super fast. The first miniboss still has a reliably undodgeable(?) attack, and it seems the best approach is still just to maim him before he gets to use it, which feels unintended.
The end boss fight is very underwhelming - I remember thinking, is this all there is to it? Once you finish off the lady, the guy in the big suit will only damage you via his too-hard-to-judge hitbox, as you can easily stay out of all of his attacks just by standing on the right side. Would have been cool if he got some added attacks up his sleeve once his partner was gone.

Chapter 5:
Oh boy. I can't tell if this is a bug, but I'm guessing it is? The stage has no healing powerups, but every new section starts the player which full health, which means how poorly you perform on every section outside of the last is completely pointless. Take a ton of hits, doesn't matter, you'll be fine for the next part. It's too bad though because most of it is a lot of fun. The autoscroller gets a little boring, but it's not bad, and the first elevator section is brilliant.
If it is intentional, I'd maintain a much better approach would be to just not do that, but leave a single healing on the last section before the final boss. As it is, though, stage 5 is by far the easiest stage in the game, but until you figure out how to beat the end boss, you'll have to go through it a ton of times.
That boss though. I think by the time I first killed him, I still didn't get it. He's very random, which is great, but also seemed to just very randomly give me a much too hard time, jumping up in my face to fire un-cancellable projectiles, which gets even worse in the second half of the fight with the lighning floor.
I'm sure it's possible to manipulate him to some extent (seems when I'm moving in a certain way he doesn't shoot those bullets), but having to go through the entire stage just to try again became very taxing, and made it hard to experiment and really learn his patterns. This is exactly one example where a training mode would have been incredibly useful, and I'd love to hear other people's approach to him.
I ended up with the strategy of picking up a shield in the previous room and make sure it's fully charged before going to the boss fight, so some of it would last through the cutscene, since it was the only way for me to consistently make it through the "ikaruga pattern" of the big robot right before the actual boss. That one feels like a really fun idea, but the reaction time is so short I'm not sure how you could realistically survive it randomly changing sides twice in a row. Maybe this is one part that would have been much easier if the game would run at 60fps?
With full health making me able to take 5 hits for the final fight, that made it a lot more realistic for me to survive it, but that shouldn't be the solution. Though I do think it's fair, and expected, that the game's final battle is also the hardest.

Was it a single segment no damage run? Or was each chapter recorded and practiced separately? Either way it's certainly impressive for a newly released game.

I'm assuming single segment. A segmented run would be way easier to pull off, but it gives no indication to be such.

[SriK]

Thanks for the detailed feedback Sumez. I'll respond in detail in a bit, but one thing I need to say immediately: SA should NOT run at 30FPS on Switch, this is actually the first I'm hearing of it. On our tests it maintains a steady 60 throughout (except for a frame drop in the tutorial which somehow got through cert, but that's been fixed since and the patch will be out soon). If you could PM me a video I can send it over to our port programmer.

I'm not sure which enemy you're referring to in stage 2, do you mean the robo pig placed a bit after the pit with the drill-bots coming out? Regarding stage 3, you can speedkill the Nanohazard enemies, either using the zipline to position yourself above them, or by jump-slashing quickly at the right time (iconoclast does this in his Arcade Mode run). The phoenix phase's fireballs are honestly pretty easy to dodge for me, you just have to get the timing of the jumps right. (And yeah, we wanted to have one or two more phases there but ran out of time)

I don't think any changes were made to stage 4 on Expert / Arcade, so it's probably just that you remember it

Stage 5 definitely should not have those health refills on Expert, I can't believe that got past me. That's already been fixed, and the patch will be out very soon, at least on the Steam version.

[Sumez]

SA should NOT run at 30FPS on Switch, this is actually the first I'm hearing of it. On our tests it maintains a steady 60 throughout. If you could PM me a video I can send it over to our port programmer.

Oh man, now you have me second guessing myself - maybe it's something in the scrolling of the backgrounds that causes me to see the game as less fluid? I'll see if my setup is capable of recording a 60fps video and that'll hopefully clear it up. If I'm wrong I definitely apologize for stirring it up.

Regarding stage 3, you can speedkill the Nanohazard enemies, either using the zipline to position yourself above them

Of course that's the intention, I can't believe I didn't think of that. I think I assumed it wouldn't work on the lightning floor/ceilings, because there are definitely a few other places that make more sense to me now. Thanks for the tip!

I'm not sure which enemy you're referring to in stage 2, do you mean the robo pig placed a bit after the pit with the drill-bots coming out?

It's this guy (not my video, just a random one I pulled up). I'm sure there's a trick for this one as well, but I haven't figured it out.
I can usually get him with a diagonal slash while jumping, and then another after landing, but it seems almost by luck when I do.

Stage 5 definitely should not have those health refills on Expert, I can't believe that got past me. That's already been fixed, and the patch will be out very soon, at least on the Steam version.

Glad to hear it
Though man, I pity people who need to practice the final boss now

[Stevens]

It's this guy (not my video, just a random one I pulled up). I'm sure there's a trick for this one as well, but I haven't figured it out.
I can usually get him with a diagonal slash while jumping, and then another after landing, but it seems almost by luck when I do.

I just figured this one out. Zip line top left (the rock) to bottom right so the line attaches to the exposed wires. You'll clear him with the zip jump + double jump.

The other section with the missiles is similar - zip from bottom left to top right.

Bumped up the difficulty to expert. Progressed slowed a bit, but feel comfortable with the first two stages. Furthest is the vert section in stage three, which is as far as I got on normal. Only playing a few credits a day, but loving it.

I'm slowly figuring shit out. I found the power ups way up top on the log section, and I just figured out how to get robot guy to shoot where you want him to. Admittedly I was unaware of using the zip to increase hang time.

My only minor gripe is no health refill at the end of the stages, but I'll live: )

[Sumez]

I just figured this one out. Zip line top left (the rock) to bottom right so the line attaches to the exposed wires. You'll clear him with the zip jump + double jump.

Oh there's actually something you can attach to??
Right now my approach to this guy is just carefully maintaining my electric weapon until I reach this place, and take it out from a distance.
It makes the log ride a little tighter because you need to punch the purple flying drones, but it's not too difficult.

no health refill at the end of the stages, but I'll live: )

??
Sounds like a bug. Or was the health refill a bug in the first place, like the ones on stage 5?

[BIL]

A TRUE LAST ENDING / THE ULTIME LIFE FORM FUCKS OFF HOME FOR NOW (｀w´メ) (■｀w´■)

And so, Red Arremer was banished from Earth 2600AD, along with his second loop bullshit.

> Super Contra 2-ALL Nomiss

Good gravy, this one was tough. X_X They tried to break me, PEG. Even though Loop 1 is short and easy, the delay really heightens the ruthlessness of Very Difficult. I was determined to bring this devil down, both as some tribute to your manful Contra crusade, and to avenge myself! I've been on the cusp before, only for IRL Bullshit and plain old fatigue to win out. I also did a US VDIF Nomiss over the weekend:

> Super Contra VDIF Nomiss

I'm retiring from Operation Retake Fort Firestorm; all VDIF with autofire from here on out Much like "Mad Dog and Scorpion" chilling on the beach in the Super C manual, the radio will no doubt soon crackle to life with further orders! I'm thinking of getting the other half of Hard Corps recorded.

A few run notes (JP loop / VDIF):

Basics, player-side: Aim lag disappears while you're airborne. Move "four-way" style to avoid lag on the ground / during topdown. [up+Jump] to superjump, vital on occasion. Get Super Machinegun @ st1 Heli, and keep it.

Basics, enemy-side: Enemy aim is significantly lagged behind player position; EG, a jump will make an incoming Rifle fire at thin air, well after you've returned to ground. Running enemies are also "blind;" hop over them and they'll jog on.

Stage 2-1 / THUNDER LANDING: The early bouncy-bouncy wasn't me being faceitious; timed to the MG pickup as shown, it'll consistently shatter the early pileup of Runners, Rifles and Snipers. Bunnyhop Downshot, an esteemed tactic of the Contras! Just watch out for super-unlucky Rifle spawns. You'll still bunnyshred 'em, but they might get a shot off.

Plateau: As always, the loop's sniper nests demand perfect routing, and perfect execution. Hesitate, or vacillate between targets, and they'll deluge you. Sandbagger gets it first, then the top grenadier and sniper duo, then the next bagger, and finally the last upstairs rifle. You can bunnyrush the bagger that ends the plateau, but you risk a Rifle spawning during. VDIF loooves spawning Rifles at the worst damn times, making suppressive SMG fire to the right vital.

Gunwall: Rifles tend to spawn as it rises; try to dovetail your attack to cover both. Tank: blow away the gunner, SMG will wreck the rest. Boss alley: the turrets pop up and fire at random, approach with caution. Pit soldiers can be hit from prone. Great Heli: try to be near the right screen edge when it dies, setting up the invasion setpiece.

Invasion: my attack on the first Sniper is synced to his shot. The grenadier is "partially blind;" let him lock onto you, then step aside as he wastes his four grenades. If you get tangled up and need to hide, the corners offer some limited refuge, provided you suppress them with SMG. Enemies entering from the upper ledges can be dealt with ad-hoc. Needless to say, you don't want this to become necessary.

Stage 2-2 / IN A TIGHT SQUEEZE: Don't underestimate the common Runners; their shots are impossible to outrun, and can cause frustrating upsets. Turret spreads are intimidating, but relatively short-ranged. Snipers are the greatest threat here, with their lethal reach, and should be killed on sight. My no-bomb route is very consistent - as I mentioned a few days back, as long as you don't hit the bridge's red border, that turret can't get you. His opposite number can be hustled past ad-hoc. Boss doesn't change much, though his upped shot frequency sees me escape upscreen for the kill.



Stage 2-3 / JUNGLE JUNCTURE: Again, the opening battery of turrets, sandbags and snipers demands perfect routing and execution. I use the foreground trees as markers for the turret and bagger, drilling both from prone. From there, I hop forward and upshot the first of the sniper trio. Rushing forward, I suppress any incoming Rifles, while angling fire onto the partially-obscured bagger. See his firing animation? That's the marker for my jump, which will clear his shots, and let me deliver airborne justice to the remaining horde. It looks fraught, but it's 95% consistent. Big variable is (yet again) Rifles From The Right - this is why I can't simply take out the bagger.

Fallen tree's horde can overwhelm quickly, better to be proactive than hang back. You can drop straight through it, if need be. The ending jungle sequence is yet again hard-routed. Low hugger, then his three treetop pals, taking care not to hit the POW carrier on the last. Main danger is Rifles from the right - keep yer eyes peeled, try to suppress with SMG, and be ready to jump at short notice.

The eggs... while I can handle them, there is a further contingency: a Rifle spawning as they scroll in. This can really fuck things up. The early prone drill was done out of sheer anger, this was where the previous run ended. I was surprised it didn't fire its Red Homing Bullshit before dying. Boss is taken slowly - he's really only a threat if you bite off more than you can chew while destroying the core. I attack from the right, after taking out the overhead puker. This is so I have a nice window to move in and get under the head, dodging his first triple-shot.

Stage 2-4 / NO ESCAPE: This stage demands meticulous routing, and while you can technically recover from mistakes, it's hellaciously unforgiving. The runners are maddeningly tough, and can simply trample a badly-positioned player. Hell Ramp, as discussed earlier, is the first big threat. Note how the platforms will "tangle" the flying aliens - this is critical to survival. For the midboss, a recurring favourite design of mine across the series, I go for speed over safety. Staying up top will avoid his runner spawns, and while I'm nearer his spikeys, their speed and homing is actually pretty mild - both destroying and evading is possible.

The subsequent triple ramp, like the jungle's dead tree, can quickly get out of hand. I make a beeline for the middle platform, which will leave you guarded on all sides but the front. The eggs seem to have weird damage calculation, I get the most consistent quick kills by waggling as shown. Metallion, the boss (I refuse to call him "Metal Alien" ) invites a cruel wager. He was the last threat I had to really break down - I'd said I was happy to cut and run, a few days back, but I had two great runs end here due to bad RNG.

The wager: if you fire from directly underneath, and he uses his divebomb, you're home free. Just go prone to dodge, then finish him off. If he uses Red Homing Bullshit, though, you're in deep shit. So, my positioning solution was this. His absolute worst attack, Double RHB, can also be dodged thus. Still not a great occurrence, but at least not 100% fatal.

In this run, moving in was a product of sheer nerves; I could've easily blown it. Had I kept my head, I would've stayed in the center, dodging his RHB before landing the kill. OTOH, maybe that was actually a Double RHB, and I might not have cleared it. C'est la vie. Rot in hell you fuck. ( )

Stage 2-5 / DEATHBED: Other than deadlier Bugs, I don't know if this stage changes much. Hard targets have a bit more HP, as expected, which makes the Gyaba speedkill particularly pressing. This was my very first time reaching 2-5, and as I'd hoped, it went smoothly. Spot the Bug that nearly took me out during the Gyruss array - I only noticed when mining for screencaps, haha. Subconscious lateral micro-tapping saved me bacon.



WRT Super itself: I've stopped thinking of it as merely a damaged Contra. As much as I'd drop the aim lag in a second, I can tell the heaving weight was a legitimate aesthetic choice. I've never found the AC Contras' TATE orientation very relevant; their enemy and bullet speed being so obviously tailored to the lack of horizontal space. Likewise, NES controls would likely chop the game's difficulty in half; stages and bosses really aren't much, absent the lethal delay on lining up your fire.

Were it impossible to counteract the lag with good inputs, I'd be less charitable towards a game deriving so much of its challenge from brute hardship. As is, while I'll never love this aspect of Super, I can respect it enough to enjoy its better points - namely its wicked pace, woodchipper violence, and utter lack of flab, delivered with floor-shaking Amusement Machine largesse. The weapon balance is poor, but then it was in a lot of the best Contras; and just like the original's Spreadgun and its followup's C+C, Super Machinegun's nuanced annihilator more than carries the day. Not an easy game to love - but within its obstinate grasp lies a fuckton of high-octane, high-finesse scrolling ultraviolence.

[copy-paster]

So much crazy achievements lately, congrats for all!

I personally don't get the arcade Contras, graphics and gameplay looks unpleasant to play. I'd just stick to NES ones and headcannon it to official timeline (Shin Contra uses arcade ones as official timeline),

[BIL]

Ta bud! The AC Contras are total Marmite, really. Substantial games, for sure, but their intrinsic workings will turn many off wholesale. They really went in on the Aliens M56 Smartgun aesthetic, where you're heavily-armed but easily outmaneuvered.



I'm actually surprised that they caught on so well in arcades, given most of the classic scrolling action from that period revolves around instantaneous attack (Rygar, Shinobi, Daimakaimiura... plus Konami's own Gradius et al). I love them both, but I can't deny my relief at the series dropping the delayed aiming. The thought of Sunset Riders with the same controls makes me want to die.

[pegboy]

Excellent Job BIL! I like how you have come up with strats that allow you to route/handle everything in the game to perfection. Most of my playthroughs were haphazard attempts to just try and dodge shit, which is not really going to be as consistent, especially for a 2-ALL. If I ever come back to the game for that I will heed your words lol.

I must say I actually really like the arcade versions, probably even more than the NES games. The graphcs, music, and challenge are all superior. Granted, that excess challenge is mostly due to the awkward controls like BIL said but the NES games just kind of feel more "emtpy" in comparison. There is just so much more shit going on in the arcade versions: more enemies, bigger explosions, more violence, etc It doesn't really come across playing it on an emulator or whatever but these games are actually gorgeous on a cab with large CRT.

[Sumez]

I've gone through a 60fps recording of Steel Assault from my Switch, and I apologise. There are a few frameskips here and there when the game is busy, but it's definitely running 60fps most of the time, and not locked at 30fps as I thought for some dumb reason.
There's still a lot of stuttering in the lower run-n-gun section of chapter 4 though. It's not just before the vertical section either, like I first thought. But fortunately it doesn't occur in situations where it affects my own performance much.

Got myself a no-death clear of expert mode, too. Only been through the game a few times, so it feels good. I recorded it on Twitch, but it's a really clumsy playthrough so I might go for a better one some time in the future, or just try to tackle arcade mode.

EDIT: Here are my three only genuine gripes with the game as-is:
1. Limited input config, namely that you can't turn off analog sticks. I seem to have a slight drift on the right stick on my Switch which I never noticed before (probably because it's rarely sitting unused in games that use it), but in this game, that stick controls the character for some reason, and has gotten me killed more than a few times. I can easily see it ruining my chances of beating arcade mode entirely.
2. The lack of a training mode. I'm still a little unclear on little details of a lot of the boss fights, because the only way to fight each of them is in a full playthrough, which gives very little room for experimentation in how you approach them. This feels like a very blatant omission.
3. Unable to skip or speed up small cutscenes. I imagine this one wouldn't be a simple change, as it's probably baked into how the game's engine works, but the more I replay the game, the more all the little moments where you just wait around feel jarring. Fortunately the longest cutscene can be skipped, and actively prompts you to do so.

[Stevens]

Good morning farm.

Learning stage three slowly. Twin Hydra - zero issues now, finally got the vert section down, punched out at the big computer in the dark. Not remotely tired of stage one or two either.

I'm really liking the old school approach to how I'm playing it. It's so good. I love when this place comes together for a new game and everyone's in agreement that it kicks copious amounts of ass.

A training mode would be nice, but it's forgivable since a play through is sub 30 minutes.

[Sumez]

Are you playing arcade mode, or are you just replaying from the start on your own accord?
Stages are pretty simple to learn from the "normal mode"(?), but learning bosses is my biggest issue. I've 1LC'ed the game on the hardest difficulty, and still have no idea how to consistently avoid taking damage from the first boss, and there are things I'm also unsure of for most of the other bosses due to a lack of the ability to experiment with them.

[Volteccer_Jack]

For the first boss, you want to avoid standing in the center, because the machine gun attack will hit the center almost without warning, and I at least am not quick enough to get out of the way. When it sweeps the machine gun left and right, you can dodge that either with a well-timed slide, or by double-jumping over it as it passes. The claw/stomp attack can also be dodged by sliding, although I don't have much practice bc I destroy the claws asap and therefore almost never see that attack. The missile attack is simple enough shmup-style dodging.

Stage 4 boss is the one that I still feel like I don't understand, although I also need more practice with the final boss.

[Sumez]

Where exactly do you stand on the st1 boss then? Because if it does its machinegun fire, it'll start going diagonally towards the side you are standing, which is almost certain to get me as well. What's worked the best for me is going in with the electric weapon at full ammo, and then just form a zipline in the middle part where you normally want to be anyway when the floor gets electrified, since that allows you to attack the head super fast, and destroy the claws in the process. That way the boss goes down so quick that the only attack that can realistically damage you (the claw stomp, which will hit you before you can tell it's coming) will never have a chance of coming out more than once. I like that approach because it's very fast, but it also leaves the risk that I'll get hit. If it weren't the first stage, that could have been a problem on arcade mode.

Stage 4 boss is ultimately really easy, which is the primary reason I never get any useful experience with its patterns. I just keep hitting the lady until only the guy remains (who is completely predictable, and not really a danger, but likes to damage me because of my impatience).
But her movements are either complete RNG or based on your own actions, and some times they'll create an unfortunate pattern which requires some very precise sliding or planning to get out of without taking damage. Again, absolutely not an issue on an expert mode playthrough, but on Arcade Mode where you got one life bar for the whole game, that can easily be a problem.

[BIL]

Excellent Job BIL! I like how you have come up with strats that allow you to route/handle everything in the game to perfection. Most of my playthroughs were haphazard attempts to just try and dodge shit, which is not really going to be as consistent, especially for a 2-ALL. If I ever come back to the game for that I will heed your words lol.

Cheers bud. I've come to think of 1-Loop VDIF as Super's strongest suit - it's immensely tough, but so concise at ~10min, getting smacked down never hurts too bad. And since there's absolutely no dead time or filler, there's never that sense of routine that can affect longer credits. That's my favourite mode of arcade game - Guevara and Double Dragon II are very similar, out for blood from the first frame. Even Super's 2ALL is relatively short (~15min), and a great endurance+consistency test, but it dilutes that pure arcade venom a bit.

I must say I actually really like the arcade versions, probably even more than the NES games. The graphcs, music, and challenge are all superior. Granted, that excess challenge is mostly due to the awkward controls like BIL said but the NES games just kind of feel more "emtpy" in comparison. There is just so much more shit going on in the arcade versions: more enemies, bigger explosions, more violence, etc It doesn't really come across playing it on an emulator or whatever but these games are actually gorgeous on a cab with large CRT.

I was always fond of the AC games' higher bodycounts and intricate pixel art, but learning them at max difficulty made me a bona fide fan. It wasn't all smooth sailing - the additional pressure exacerbated their innately difficult aiming, at first - but once that was in the bag, it became apparent how well-designed their stages and bosses are for short, super-tough, ultra-violent credits. That last aspect really comes to the fore when you're shredding out perfect stages, scrolling the screen without pause, the SMG obliterating zombie troops and their hijacked machines as fast as the game can throw them at you.

(Speaking of zombies, I'm an incorrigible headcanonist. Both of the AC games and their FC incarnations are quite B-filmic affairs, as much as the more celebrated Castlevania. I like to imagine the desperate battle that left Super's stage 1 fort in ruins, and it looks like someone tried and failed to take out stage 2's bridge, whose midsection is a tangle of rebar. Stage 3's boss monstrosity appears to be the source of the parasites, and I'd like to think some kinda hivemind, with its horrible leering visage. No more zombies after it goes down, just outright alien drones. I need to look up my Giger, its mock-crucified form is straight outta his playbook. As to the alien den proper, who are those poor bastards stuck to the wall just outside Gyaba's chamber? maybe an expeditionary team, and a potential early vector for the infestation, ala The Thing?

EDIT: Aww shit - chestburstered!

Spoiler

Such charismatic yet resolutely hardcore action games )

[Volteccer_Jack]

Where exactly do you stand on the st1 boss then? Because if it does its machinegun fire, it'll start going diagonally towards the side you are standing, which is almost certain to get me as well.

I stand directly underneath the far edge of the zipline gap. If I see machine gun I react by moving toward the screen edge for a moment and then sliding backward through the attack. Can probably just instantly slide but I don't trust myself to do that consistently. If I am in the first half of my jump arc when I see it then I react by double jumping over it instead.

But actually I don't need to do that anymore . I replayed the boss just now because I didn't remember it starting with diagonal fire, and what I noticed is that it does the same little "wiggle" every time right before the machine gun attack. Which means you can always know it's coming ahead of time. I tested by hanging out in the fight for a few minutes dodging without firing back, and it works, I can perfectly dodge everything it does now.

Main issue with stage 4 boss is when RNG causes the lady to hide behind the guy and my life becomes suffering until she decides to come back out.

Also is it possible/practical to punch the guy during that fight? I ask because he's the only enemy in the game I haven't been able to punch to death.

[Stevens]

Are you playing arcade mode, or are you just replaying from the start on your own accord?
Stages are pretty simple to learn from the "normal mode"(?), but learning bosses is my biggest issue. I've 1LC'ed the game on the hardest difficulty, and still have no idea how to consistently avoid taking damage from the first boss, and there are things I'm also unsure of for most of the other bosses due to a lack of the ability to experiment with them.

Playing expert. Will get as far as I can to learn and then delete the file when I'm done.

[pegboy]

One thing I still don't understand about super contra ac is why doesn't the second boss kill you with that electric barrier thing in the front of the tank. Doesn't it kill you in the nes version? Do you know if it kills you in the Japanese super contra ac?

I'm fucking confused! Seems like that part was left unfinished.

[BIL]

Holy cow! I've known forever that the metal arms are safe to pass through, but I had no idea the arc itself was harmless. Just confirmed it happens in JP arcade, too. Does seem like an oversight.

Spoiler

Given how aggressively the side gunners will fire on you while you're in front of the tank, I almost wonder if playtesters just never gave the arc a chance to hit them.

I actually did have a run where I was clearly touching the arc right as the boss exploded, which I thought was just a lucky near-miss.

I can never recall how the NES/FC versions of this boss work. I grew up with the NES one, and could swear the prongs are harmless there, but I seem to remember this not being the case on recent sessions with the FC cart. Maybe the AC version overwrote my memory on that.

[pegboy]

Yeah I mean why even program all that if it's harmless? I could swear it kills you in the nes version but don't have the ability to test it right now.