Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[Sengoku Strider]

Are there solid recommendations in this genre for the PC Engine outside the really well-known stuff? (Legendary Axe, Ninja Spirit, Splatterhouse etc.)

I want to balance out my PCE library, it's overwhelmingly shooters & rpgs. We talked about the underwhelming Ninja Ryukenden port a while back. I picked up Son Son II, but it had mediocre character physics and I just ended up selling it on. I know there are arcade ports like Youkai Douchuki, Hero Tonma & Tiger Road, but I'm thinking with how easy it is to access arcade originals these days it's not worth bothering here unless it's one of those situations where the PCE version just happened to turn out the best.

[Udderdude]

Willing to look at the PC Engine CD? There's Kaze Kiri and Iga Ninden Gaiou.

[Herr Schatten]

PCE Tiger Road isn’t a port, it’s actually a sequel to the arcade game.

[Sengoku Strider]

Willing to look at the PC Engine CD? There's Kaze Kiri and Iga Ninden Gaiou.

Oh, of course, I have a Duo-R. I meant the platform as a whole.

PCE Tiger Road isn’t a port, it’s actually a sequel to the arcade game.

Ah, I've never played it in any form so I wouldn't really be able to tell.

[Lander]

Put in a few more runs of Taromaru, nabbing scrubclears with both characters, and I'm quite taken with it. A bang-on answer to my question in unexpected form. (Though if there are any others, keep 'em coming )

I've a much better handle on charge management and TOMODACHI BOMBAH tech now, and it really does echo Alien Soldier's zako-wipe interstitials and cavalcade of creative bosses in its own (necro?)feudal folklore fashion.
Speaking of the bosses, wow! They didn't scrimp one bit on the part-targeting idea. Favourites are the multiball skeleton fire tennis, haunted armor shell game, and entire cursed Super Monkey Ball sequence - Jeff Minter?!
I'm rather impressed with the interaction between the deliberate pace and charge shot, which evokes R-Typeish design feels - despite dakka being very effective in R-Type, but I digress - lots of games feature a charge, but few make it feel quite so necessary.

And come on HG101, playable characters mostly identical outside of minor discrepancies in attack range? Pff, pull the other one Wikipedia too, foolishness!
Enkai is a completely different beast with his burst damage charge, full screen lock range, tall duckbox, and lesser jump balanced against <<< unlimited airdash capability >>>
A rolling stone gathers no moss, but neither does a perpetually airborne one! Take that, ninja minelayers.

Interesting tech bits
- Regular attacks cancel Taromaru's chain lightning, devilishly obscuring its existence from mash-happy new players
- Any action - even walk - will cancel the stationary grounded attack, eliminating the initially-stilted feel so long as your inputs are deliberate
- You can switch between hypnotize and attack mid-charge, allowing a quick option-select if you hold both and release whichever one you don't want first
- Airborne contact with enemies will cancel a charge
- Hypnotizing blue ninjas is a waste when you can kill them for nutritious floor food
- Repeatedly airdashing into the side of the screen allows Enkai to charge for free against certain bosses
- The attract mode teaches you to snag a sneaky 1UP at the onset by shooting all the fire off the first wheel enemy

Ongoing mysteries
- How to manage the kitsune's laser + moth barrage without furiously mashing attack from the corner
- A consistent dodge for the green double-rectum's pincer move
- Scoring. The upper number is evidently points / kills, but I've no idea about the lower one - it's gone above 0 in a consistent fashion across my runs, so surely can't be P2 score

[BIL]

What a lovely Christmas present! Quality Taropost, marked for index. Yes, I would definitely file Taro with Saigo in the Necro-Feudal school of ninja game aesthetics! Brr, evil shit! Baby bonce bouncin' like a breadfruit Fuel for the grim fires of righteous retribution You goddamn right I just exploded you and your serpent thrall's neurosystems ala Scanners, lousy MAJUU ONNA!

IIRC, the lower number is your current slave's health. My Kidnapped Hime Recovery Service has a particularly ruthless turnover rate, when it comes to temp employment, but I think I caught photographic evidence here:

So long, and thanks for all the fission!

Spoiler

Oh, and I note with no small mirth that your recursively-relevant counter review of HG101's Taromaru article has actually gone up in search rank with time

It's all I ever wanted

A man's legacy in print:

Spoiler

[Lander]

Wahey, just snagged the 1CC as Taromaru


(Apologies for the moire, had to downscale or risk angering Kami no Layout)

Not bad, considering that I got knocked past the 1UP in the House of Spinning Poles!
I also made liberal use of pause to collate some extensive notes between fights - could be enough in there for a GD, or perhaps even an ST given some refinement and extra Enkai practice.

Discovered a brilliant trick to the Kitsune fight too - I had a sword ninja pal hanging out from a few rooms previous, and she must have wronged the guy something awful in a past life, because he strode up and proceeded to fearlessly hack the first form to death all on his own
Didn't even get to the second cycle - I'll have to see if that's consistent and grab a gif of the hilarity.

IIRC, the lower number is your current slave's health. My Kidnapped Hime Recovery Service has a particularly ruthless turnover rate, when it comes to temp employment, but I think I caught photographic evidence here:

So long, and thanks for all the fission!

Ah, bang on - I was assuming besties-under-duress were invincible. Mildly irrelevant if they're going to go out in style anyway, but better than remaining a mystery!

[BIL]

Dragon Demon Voltron is now canon. Superbly done.

[Randorama]

As promised…

Thunder Fox is an action game with some platform aspects, shooting/vehicle action sections, and some “tactical action” mechanics. By 1990, Taito were delivering tons of arcade games and most of them were glorious and fun, though often glitch-prone and not necessarily well-balanced. Thunder Fox is a good example, for a number of reasons I am going to explain in the rest of this post.

The game is set in 19XX: terrorists have ruined the whole world by using…machetes, jump kicks, and giant air fortresses with laser beams. It is up to two bronze-tinted, knife-wielding, jump-kicking and somersaulting badasses to defeat the baddies and restore peace. Given this “80’s action flick” premise, it is not surprising that the game features a lot of intensely manly action and rather peculiar stage settings.

Anyway:

Players can choose one of two mercenaries: they have the same skills, though they have different colour schemas. The game uses 3 buttons: A is the knife attack, B is the jump action, and C is the weapon attack(s). The knife attack has limited range but it is quite fast. The weapon attacks are based on which weapon players collect. There are four weapons: handguns, rifles, bazookas and hand grenades. For rifles and handguns, the character shoots once players use the C button. With handguns, the player uses the knife with the A button; with the rifle, the players can kill zakus by smashing the rifles onto their teeth. The bazooka works like the rifle (zakus get a bazooka hit on their teeth), and the hand grenades like the gun (knife-fest unless players throw a grenade).

Jumping comes in different flavours. The first is a “normal” jump (push B) by which the character jumps half a screen, and one character height. The second is a command move (B+up) that triggers a somersault kick. This kick does two hits of damage and renders the character invulnerable for the whole jump (the i-frames stop once landed). It is possible to do a rolling attack (B+down) to perform a safety attack before landing (i.e. the character rolls in the air and damages adjacent enemies). A+B triggers a jumping kick (“jump-kick”) action: the character does half-height forward jump that will kill any enemy it hits. The jump-kick can be used from a crouching position, as the players can also somersault and walk while crouching (like in The Ninja Warriors). Players start with 2 lives and 12 energy bars: hits do between 1 bar (collisions) and 6 bars (bazooka hits!), but there are some insta-deaths (e.g. falling into pits).

The game has five stages: some forsaken marsh during a cloudy day, an assault to a flying giant fortress, an assault to an air carrier, an attack to an enemies’ mine and then a final attack to enemies’ HQ. ST 2’s first half is a shmup-like section in which players use an flying hovercraft-like vehicle to attack the enemies’ fortress. Once they blow it up, they escape on a jet-ski by falling for thousands of metres, into the ocean, and into ST 3 (the air carrier assault): the first stanza of ST 3 is thus a “Jet action” section. ST 5 ends with a first boss fight, after which the players enter the supreme commander’s room to kick his sorry ass to doom.

The game is relatively short and can be played at a quite fast pace. Time limits are generous (300 seconds for ST 1, ST 3, ST 4; 150+80 for ST 2; 400 for ST 5), but the end-of-stage bonuses reward a lot of points for each second (5k for ST 2; 1.5k for the other stages). Thus, rushing through the stages is a key strategy for top scores. Zakus types are varied enough through the stages, but 95% of them will be either the “cap and machete” type, or the “neckbeard and bulletproof vest” type. Variations include weapon-carrying guys of various sorts, and scuba divers in the few water-based sections. Nevertheless, zakus will always pop up at the same spots and mostly perform certain context-based attacks, e.g. knife players if they’re close; jump and attack if they are far away). Thus, once players play fast and know which attacks to perform, it becomes feasible and almost easy to simply move ahead quickly and mow down enemies.

The game mixes different types of gaming genres/styles with gusto. Stage 5’s final part has a platform-like section (i.e. you need to jump through various perils and dodge weapons of doom), and in a few other sections it is possible to jump up and down platforms. ST 4’s has a section in which players must dodge rocks falling from a cave’s ceiling; on ST 1 and ST 5, players can steal a jeep with a machinegun and wreak havoc. Players can then mix close-range knife action, various types of kicks and weapon attacks in various manners. Irrespective of the type of action at stake, clearing a stage with a full weapon stock will also give a good bonus (e.g. handgun bullets are 3k each; bazooka bullets a whooping 100k). Clearing the shmup (ST 2) and jet-ski (ST 3) sections with no damage will also involve bonuses (50k and 100k, respectively).

The tricky parts of the game are the bosses. ST 1 features a tank boss; players must kill the gunner, collect a hand grenade from him, and drop it on the tank (x4, but players can also use a bazooka shot). ST 2’s boss is some kind of “energy core” powering the air fortress, and protected by lasers; somersault it to oblivion and escape before the fortress blows up. ST 3 features a huge guy with a harpoon-like weapon trying to impale you; ST 4 has a vehicle with lasers and a wrecking ball, whose weak spot can be somersaulted to death. ST 5’s mid-boss is another huge guy with a big bazooka/machinegun and sunglasses. The final boss is a character predating Geese Howard from SNK games (OK, a generic (blond guy with a cowlick": it was acceptable in 80's) who starts the fight from a throne hovering from a mechanical arm in the middle of a war room, switches to a bazooka after the players destroy the chair, and then uses a harpoon-like weapon.

ST 3 and ST 5’s bosses can be killed by carefully dodging their close range attacks and then knifing them. Alternatively, the players can use the handgun. The bosses will not block the bullets with their weapons if they are only partially on screen (i.e. far away from the player, to the point of only showing half a body or less). As long as players keep them at this distance, they can shoot them down quickly (x12 to x14 hits; it depends on distance). Other strategies are fine but generally risky: these two bosses have very narrow vulnerability windows in which they can be hit without counterattacking. Their attacks also involve generous i-frames, so they can happily hit players and avoid getting hit back (in short: these guys are nasty).

The final boss’ chair can be destroyed with somersaults (x8 hits). In the second bazooka-wielding form, the boss will not dodge if players hit while crouching and being very close to the boss. The boss will do a small jump backwards after each knife hit; players can rise, get close again and crouch, and get another unanswered hit (x5 or x6 hits). In the third form, the boss will cycle through attacks irrespective of the players’ distance. The trick is to stay as far away as possible, let the boss do a high jump and then move below him, knife the boss before he lands, and then move away again (x 8 hits). Victory means that the world is safe, though in 2-player mode there will be a player vs. player fight to see who’s the strongest.

Overall, the game is an interesting blend of classical arcade genres with some interesting score ideas that favour skilled and fast-paced action (“quickly clear stages, don’t get hit and save all bazooka ammos”). It has a nice jazzy-pop OST by Karu (Zuntata’s member, but of Bubble Bobble fame!), and exudes a strong, late 80’s arcade vibe. The game opens up once players learn to deal with the human bosses, as far as I am concerned: they can be really tricky at first (and be veritable bottlenecks), but mastering the right techniques is not too hard.

The game has an interesting secret: on ST 2, players can get a weird “chibi” version of some programmer/producer instead of the energy box, under conditions that I currently don’t know. Other secrets are probably hidden through the stages, I guess. The game gets glitchy when played at high speeds (e.g. knife hits are not detected), but that’s a Taito thing from that period. Pros and cons (and quirks) aside, it *is* a quintessential R2RKMF experience, so go and play it now: the world needs some saving!

[BIL]

Thread's on a hot streak. Superb as always Rando, marked for index!

Working on a little something of my own for later this weekend, an unexpected interlude from Assault. We really are in a time of cornucopia for home arcade releases, between Hamster and M2.

[Lander]

Nice, Thunder Fox looks like some serious 80s action. Big claps for programming the characters to pull the Unstoppable Grimace when you pick up a power weapon or man a vehicle - it's the little things.

[BIL]

A game ahead of its time, pioneering the art of Offensive Ghost Riding!

PULL UP HOP OUT / ALL IN ONE MOTION (player 2 PATRICK SWAYZE)

Spoiler

[Lander]

I return (at a stately pace) with an Enkai 1CC you're next, RANKING MODO

Spoiler

Missing 1UP in tow this time, but shy of my Taro score by 60-70 points. Clearly that speaks to his status as the advanced character and has nothing at all to do with my bungling frantically through the first two stages, toast hanging from mouth, before pulling off a reset-dodging recovery.
I actually bothered to setup a proper saturn-res recording pipeline too, but the audio sync is drunk on runahead, pah! Will have to bite the bullet and give up my precious two frame advantage for the sake of posterity.

!! Kitsune Update !!
Red Ninja-kun was just as angry today, but miscalculated his spacing and whiffed every furious swing. Methinks I'll have to step in as a guiding hand and hide in the bottom-right corner to drag him into range.

EDIT: THE HARD SELL
On the dangers of dashjumping to the void with no bungee...
And the EDGE of your SEAT no holds barred DEFENSIVE CARNAGE that can result. OH YEAH BROTHER IMMA SEE YOU AT SACRIFICE

Spoiler

Oddly reminiscent of tech from the Ninja Warriors Once Again clear I was idlewatching last night.

A game ahead of its time, pioneering the art of Offensive Ghost Riding!

PULL UP HOP OUT / ALL IN ONE MOTION (player 2 PATRICK SWAYZE)

Spoiler

Simply spectacular
♫ NOW PLAYING: Guile's Theme (VEHICULAR ACTION VER.) ♫

[BIL]

God damn, that is one fine GIF Artful herding and zoning, punctuated by decisive, explosive strikes - that's Taro in a nutshell.

(amazing monk smiley too in this hobby you can never have too many AZN DYNAMITES )

This page calls for the unofficial R2RKMF seal of excellence, one of many half-baked ideas coming soon to this thread near you!

[Lander]

Incredible, I'll wear it with pride!

But we must go deeper one 42-save-state Taro index and 666 points later (no, really though - the finger of god is having a field day today ), I humbly present...

Kracking the Kitsune Kode: the Killer's guide to Kwik Karnage
The keystone has been konquered (alright, alright, I'll stop) and the thrall health meter is useful after all: Hypnotized buddies change their behaviour based on remaining health.
In the case of the sword ninja, his attack speed accelerates. At 20%, he becomes an avatar of COLD STEEL!

So, grab one a couple of rooms before Haunted Armor, let him soak up phase 2's natural attrition damage, and bring one very angry boi into the game's most tricksy fight:

Spoiler

Note that I didn't have to retarget once the blue lasers started firing - Red Ninja-kun's mighty blade wind knocks them out of the air immediately, rendering the situation quite safe until the phase 2 hitboxes activate.
(Some John Carpenter's The Thing vibes at work now I think about it, given that this is round 3 with the underlying monster, which sprouts gribbly eyestalks and undergoes violent biological reconfiguration between phases )

Bonus Material: Aw fack, it's broken bubbeh
The fire wheel 1UP trick isn't exclusive to the first one.
The fire wheel 1UP trick isn't exclusive to ANY one

Spoiler

Thankfully, not a problem in Ranking Mode! Whew, close call.
And perhaps a fun(?) extra goal: Counterstop, 1UPstop, NOMISS. Though milking 333 extra fire wisps would probably be a tad dull.

[BIL]

Hoooly shit - I had no idea about the slave SUPER DESPERATION MOVE mechanic! Truly Alien Soldier-calibre detailing, that game.

This week's ACA release saw a real gem from Hamster's delightfully unruly GBRS (Gotcha Bitch! Release Schedule): Tecmo (or as they were then known, Tehkan)'s 1983 blaster Senjyo.

SENJOU no OKAMI Zero: Unpopular 3D Label (PS4 ACA / 250,600pts / Caravan, auto ON)



As an anthology of Hard Scrolling Action, this thread has long placed Gun Shooting ala Operation Wolf well within its discretionary scope - and that's where I initially mistook Senjyo to belong. On closer examination, it's actually an early example of Cabal's third-person carnival shooter; the onscreen soldier swapped out for a doughty turret, its firepower in classically minimalist scoot/shoot mode. I wonder if TAD were influenced at all, or if they even received any personnel... Tehkan/Tecmo had a pretty interesting genealogy, over the years. I recently learned Cheabow (audio designer) wound up at Westone, and of course, within this thread's namesake IP, there's the famous cases of Metal Yuhki continuing his line in banger OSTs at Konami, and Masato Kato penning Chrono Trigger's script for Square.

At any rate, anyone who's put time on, say, Wild Guns and its Reloaded incarnation will be instantly at home here - manfully facing down artillery that'll send noobs running for the hills. As there, blasting rather than dodging enemy bullets pumps up both score and survival, spawning an ammo truck who'll haplessly wipe out his onscreen comrades if tagged.

On this and a tight handful of further details - see the replay notes spoilered below - Senjyo's scoring is a model of arcade compulsion, particularly in Caravan mode; immediate, yet finessed, with furied plate-spinning pace. The 360' battlefield is a big contributor - a killer riff on typically finite Cabal playfields. Whether hungrily chasing fresh kills, or beating back the swarm, aggressive movement is key, your senses augmented by the sharply synergistic HUD and dynamic audio. Right off the bat, I loved the integral radar - ala Veigues, Ex-Ranza, and Leynos 2, it's a great way to transcend scrolling action's limited FOV, without sacrificing its tight focus. The dynamic audio - three escalating BGMs for enemy proximity, plus hearty cues for priority targets - is another smoothly perception-boosting touch.

Presentation is lovely; it's a spartanly handsome game, especially in tate, with deep parallax, bold shading, and characterfully industrious enemies. I particularly adore how tanks stop to peep over ridges, before charging downslope; so cute! And useful. The stark black n' red Player Ready screen is hawt, too.



Per Japanese Wikipedia, while its creators were proud of Senjyo, and boards sold well, crowds rejected its 3D concept - the game proving a flop in arcades. Happily enough, this sparked development of the landmark Star Force, a hasty return to proven 2D shooting. Perspective aside, the same crafty balance of finesse and intensity seen in iconic Star Force, Bomb Jack, and Rygar is resoundingly apparent here; I had a blast scaling the Caravan leaderboard over the weekend, an unexpected detour from current project Assault. I've copied my current best Caravan score's notes below, for quick reference:

Run notes & quickstart guide:

Spoiler

-Scoring is elegantly multiplier-driven. Destroying four tanks (note the handy meter in the lower-left) will spawn DETECTOR, the flying satellite. Blast it for a multiplier boost, up to 5x. The trick here is, further tank kills won't rebuild meter until the current Detector is either destroyed, or escapes; they're valuable targets, so you want to hang fire as much as is reasonable between meter-buildings. Easier said than done, with those same tanks firing on you and/or getting closer.

While they're spawned predictably, Detector movement has quite a bit of RNG; they enter from a random side of the screen, and likewise will sometimes halt, before either proceeding or doubling back. If you're gambling on being on the correct side, try scrolling the screen a bit; if the Detector doesn't arrive promptly, you'll know it's approaching from the opposite direction, and need to double back. Delightful little guessing game-within-a-game ^__^

-There is also a proximity multiplier, attached to the three zones; let enemies get closer for more points.

-From Round 2 onward, shooting down five enemy bullets will spawn BROWL, a speedy ammo truck. Valuable target, and nailing it will take out all enemies in your FOV for potentially massive time + score gains! Try not to spawn it until you're at 5x. Limited to one per Round.

-PANISH, the bouncing kamikaze drone, spawns at regular intervals, increasing in velocity each time. They're an excellent source of points at x5 + close range, though the timing is tight.

-While they share the consistent arcing takeoff, enemy bullets have subtle behaviourial differences once they're past their apex. Some will fall in steady arcs; others will zig-zag rapidly; and some will aggressively veer towards you. Generally speaking, don't get underneath a bullet unless you're planning to shoot it down. If you spot a "homer" to your side, too far to shoot down before it begins its dive, evasive action may be the best choice.

Enemy tanks are limited to two bullets onscreen; this is vital to know when duelling at close range. Scoot under their bullets and take them out with a counter-shot.

-The radar and dynamic audio are both invaluable. Note the escalating BGM, as tanks breach each proximity zone. DETECTOR, BROWL, and PANISH all have their own distinctive audio cues, as well. Radar will give you advance warning of nearby tanks' positions, and in Caravan context, it's also very handy for keeping targets in your FOV; particularly as your shots can penetrate the terrain to a degree, letting you nail enemies that are otherwise not yet visible.

-As with Wild Guns and similar games, you need to lead your targets, according to their speed. BROWL requires a particularly long lead, speeding across the landscape, as do enemy bullets in both rising and falling stages. Again, the HUD is excellent here; use the outer crosshairs to zero in on particularly quick targets.

While unpopular in its day, and relatively little-feted now, this is genuine quality from a revered house; anyone into Cabalesques who's not averse to oldschool-economical firepower should give it a look.

[Udderdude]

Joymasher's new game is out. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1942 ... Moonrider/

[mycophobia]

scanlines arent aligned with the pixels!!

[BIL]

A moth did it

[Lander]

Tecmo (or as they were then known, Tehkan)'s 1983 blaster Senjyo.

Oho, the oft-unsurved Rotate 2 the Right Killing Motherfuckers subgenre!
Always did enjoy some creative pseudo-3D. I dig the 80s no-restraint rainbow cycling on the multiplier display too - just a little dash of proto-Minterism.

And wait, what's this I hear in the proximity alert? It's getting louder... Gangway lads, the Filthy/Gorgeous bassline has struck again first they came for Mario Strikers' theme of funky tension, and now back through time for the classics. Untraceable degeneracy that always appears when you least expect it!

[BIL]

Makes me want to investigate Exerion, which has been on ACA forever... some truly stirring early 80s parallax!

Unfortunately, it's by Jaleco, never an especially sound bet (though they did pull out the occasional face-shredding arserabbit, cf the ineffably cool Cybattler! and they contracted some good stuff, like Aicom's Lord of King and something else I'm forgetting!). Their Formation Z also looks great, with handsome parallax skylines, and a killer Macross premise, to boot - but as I'm reminded every time I revisit (typically after posts like this!), it plays pretty badly. 3; To the MAMEcave on both counts, methinks!

[Udderdude]

Exerion has too much inertia for my tastes. The Famicom and MSX versions are a bit more controllable IMO.

[BrianC]

Exerion has too much inertia for my tastes. The Famicom and MSX versions are a bit more controllable IMO.

I think the SG-1000 is the same as the MSX version, which is missing the bonus rounds and some of the later enemies. Oddly enough, the MSX got a "sequel" that's more of a re-port with the missing stuff added. I like the original quite a bit, but the inertia did throw me off compared to the SG-1000 port.

[Sumez]

Been quite behind on this thread since we had our kid a couple of months ago, but I gotta drop in for this major recommendation.




Don't let the cute graphics fool you, this is a big balls game!

I can't believe how bad Tanuki Justice is flying under the radar, considering how easy it is to get ahold of, super cheap on practically all platforms - even the physical release has very wide and cheap distribution.
It's probably the best run'n'gun game I've played in years, easily beating Blazing Chrome, but giving Steel Assault a run for its money as well!

It's badass classic arcade style action, that feels right at home in a late 80s arcade, and the game fully understands that style of gameplay. Your guy dies in one hit, most enemies die in one hit, and everything comes at you all at once at every step of the game. Some moments are arguably easier if you take it easy and edge your way forward, but the controls makes pushing forward constantly feel so much more satisfying it's hard not to constantly try pushing the game for how ninja you can afford to be. Although the timer isn't too strict, the game does tally your time and reward playing fast. And in an admirable arcade twist, pausing the game at any moment will make the game refuse to record your top score.
Every enemy is brilliantly designed, and just as brilliantly paired with the level design to create constantly fun challenges, and the boss fights are great. The final boss is basically the Contra 3 flying battleship on crack and steroids.

Your main attack is a fast short-range shuriken throw that gets more lethal the faster you tap (the game would probably be a bit easier with autofire, but does not support it), while hitting any enemy or picking up score items builds up a super meter that lets you throw ahead a gigantic shuriken, which deals a ton of damage in place, but also kills enemy projectiles. There is no enticement to not use it frequently and liberally, so the game definitely expects you to go nuts with it. It's a nice crutch to get through tougher areas, but also a fun way to amp up your finesse and storm through the game.

I got a Hard mode 1CC down in a couple of playthroughs, so it's not a hard game for any seasoned player, but feels quite uncompromising regardless. There's a harder difficulty mode yet, that goes completely balls-out, that I hope to return to some day. Didn't bother with Normal mode because I'm not a chump.

[Sumez]

Sumez, query: (OK, anyone who knows...)

Which one is the easiest version of Rainbow Islands, arcade-wise? I am having this desire to get back to the game and 1-CC it at least once, but I would like to find the "path of least effort", since the game is loooong, and I am an old guy with not so much spare time in my hands

I'm only familiar with two versions of Rainbow Islands. A later version adds a score bonus for unlocking every secret room, and I think fixes some minor mistakes in the process. I don't believe there's any differences difficulty-wise. I have one version and my friend has the other, and they feel completely the same to me.

There's also Rainbow Island Extra, but that game is more of a remix/romhack version that moves enemies into stages they don't belong in.

As for the "path of least effort", do yourself the favor of practicing a simple-to-reproduce pattern to for getting at least the first 3-4 diamonds (red-orange-yellow-green) on the first round on each of the first three islands, since the last half are much easier to pick up in order when there are less ways to screw it up. If you get the secret rooms on those three islands, you'll have a much easier time in the back half of the game!
The remaining secret rooms are much harder to get, and not nearly as essential for survival.

[Sima Tuna]

Tanuki Justice sounds cool, but I cannot play any shooter game without autofire. It's a matter of my personal health (arthritis) and I'm not willing to compromise on that. I play Metal Slug, Contra etc all with autofire.

What I'd like to see devs do, if they are opposed to autofire, is to add in a very slow autofire. An autofire that's so slow you could mash faster easily. Then I could use my autofire and they could feel like I wasn't "breaking" their game. Top-level players would play without autofire because your damage without it would be higher. Everyone would be happy.

I recently heard that Sophstar also doesn't support autofire. Well, my hands don't support repetitive mashing.

[Ghegs]

I played Tanuki Justice with an 8BitDo controller that allows button/autofire mapping, exactly for the same reasons. Much more fun that way. And yeah, very attainable 1CCs and a great game, but calling it "easily better" than Blazing Chrome is doing the latter a disservice.

[BIL]

Looks excellent, I particularly like the compact player sprite; reminds me of Ninja-kun. Art style makes me wonder if there was a Keio Yuugekitai influence? I'm pretty clueless on modern stuff, outside of a handful of highlights like Steel Assault, Blazing Chrome and the latter two Blaster Master Zeros, cheers for the review! Indexed (RI version post too). Congrats on the new addition, Sumez!

[Sumez]

Looks excellent, I particularly like the compact player sprite

I think it works well in service of the game as well. Everything is nicely ordered into tiles, with your character fitting neatly into one. In many places in the game, this makes it very easy to see exactly where you'll be able to safely dodge a projectile. It goes hand in hand with the fixed jump height which is exactly a couple of tiles (and just enough to jump over most attacks that slide along the ground), while the double jump should you use it will provide you with significantly more vertical distance!

I played Tanuki Justice with an 8BitDo controller that allows button/autofire mapping, exactly for the same reasons. Much more fun that way.

I can understand the strained hand argument (even though it's usually the joystick hand that's bothering my wrist), but I can also imagine autofire trivializing some of the boss fights, as well as the hidden 1UPs you can get from those one-time enemies that escape if you don't kill them quickly.

calling it "easily better" than Blazing Chrome is doing the latter a disservice.

Don't get me wrong, Blazing Chrome is great, but it's a quite uneven game. Tanuki is t-i-g-h-t

[Sima Tuna]

I can understand the strained hand argument (even though it's usually the joystick hand that's bothering my wrist), but I can also imagine autofire trivializing some of the boss fights, as well as the hidden 1UPs you can get from those one-time enemies that escape if you don't kill them quickly.

Which is why the easy solution to the autofire question is for the devs to include 1hz autofire.

There are even arcade shmups that have soft autofire (pressing the button once revs up a burst of fire lasting a little while.) Anything that saves the hands is helpful. For what it's worth, Blazing Chrome also does not have autofire and that may be the reason I do not have the (motivation to obtain a) 1cc. I think the floppy laser autofires but the others do not.

Edit: the default machinegun may also have autofire.