What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Actually, has there ever been a swimming level in any 3D platformer ever, that wasn't tedious and shit?

I can't remember a particular stage focused on swimming there, but I enjoy swimming as such in I-Ninja, if mostly thanks to the playable character's mascot appeal (he's being consistently funny, think Brave Fencer Musashi).

[Steamflogger Boss]

Trying DQXI again. Probably won't finish it but I wanted to try another genre instead of jumping from Yakuza 5 to Judgment, blecht.

Edit: holy fucking shit this British dub is so fucking bad. Immediately uninstalled and selling the game. At least I did t buy digitally, I try to only do that when I'm really sure.

[null1024]

Was playing WarioWare for GBA. Good, quick fun. You start to notice patterns when playing and fall into a nice rhythm. Recognize game, do action, repeat.
Many of the microgames have a pretty simple trick to them to consistently clear them, but some of them are a little more involved.
The [unskippable on first play] opening cinematics are a little long for each segment, and it'd be nice if you didn't have to start each set of games the top a second time if you were chasing scores.

also, one of the games can be cleared by holding right forever
I played it in the free-select mode and let the score counter roll up to 100 loops before finally letting go.

[CIT]

I recently got one of those Namco volume controllers for PS1 and I've been playing Puchi Carat since. Absolutely beautiful game and so very addictive. Spent the last hour clearing over 500 lines in endless mode.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Was playing WarioWare for GBA.

I think WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Games! was the one and only GameCube game I sold off. Couldn't stand the upscaled & (bi-linear?) filtered graphics (on RGB CRT - unnecessary ugliness of it was unbearable). Four Swords Adventures is just as awful in this regard.



The screenshot isn't lying, this was the Nintendo's idea of doing lo-res graphics justice on SDTV. Luckily, I did not buy it. Just a warning to anyone who considers any of those GBA-to-'Cube ports worth buying. (Admittedly, both should be easy to sell further. Do you wanna have to do it to another person, though?)

[vol.2]

Elvira Mistress of the Dark

The Horrorsoft game from 1990. Lots of collecting herbal ingredients for spells and getting killed in creatively gory ways. Fun!

[third_strike]

Too, got my first 2-ALL in sunset riders

Good going! I'm looking forward to the Arcade Archives release of Sunset Riders. I picked up Sengoku 3 after watching your killer Kongoh no-death clear. I wish I'd played it earlier, game rocks.

Nice, Sengoku 3 is a great game!

I'm playing the European version which has only two loops, the second one being more difficult (the American version seems to have infinite loops, all with the same difficulty). Chief Scalpem is mad hard in the second loop( pretty broken in my opinion). So far my best attempt has been 2-ALL (1M) with one death in whole game. I don't know if I can do better than that.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Bayonetta (PC): just cleared the secret chapter with a Pure Platinum as the worst character in the game. (oh my god I spelled Wangan Midnight wrong, kill me)

Also got a Pure Platinum on the secret boss while using Gaze of Despair (which makes the boss go nuts until its health drops low enough to use more punishable moves).

There aren't many games I'd say I can call myself a genuine expert in but Bayonetta is now absolutely one of those games. I've basically done everything there is aside from ultra masochism or nigh impossible stuff like always Gaze, Handguns only Pure Platinums or something silly.

[Blinge]

Fucking hell well done!!

[Vanguard]

Bayonetta (PC): just cleared the secret chapter with a Pure Platinum as the worst character in the game. (oh my god I spelled Wangan Midnight wrong, kill me)

Also got a Pure Platinum on the secret boss while using Gaze of Despair (which makes the boss go nuts until its health drops low enough to use more punishable moves).

There aren't many games I'd say I can call myself a genuine expert in but Bayonetta is now absolutely one of those games. I've basically done everything there is aside from ultra masochism or nigh impossible stuff like always Gaze, Handguns only Pure Platinums or something silly.

That's wild! Nice job dude!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Honestly, it's something I think most people could learn to do with practice and time, and I hope more people take a stab at Lost Chapter: Angel Slayer because it's super fun (you don't need to aim for a PP to enjoy it, Star of Dineta heal your way through!). Hopefully this clear inspires some folks to play more Bayonetta like other skilled Bayonetta players have inspired me. Pulley's Butterfly is a key accessory and learning how to use it effectively is really helpful for defense as well as offense. There's sufficient nuance in managing your magic when using it to ensure you are at/above 4 orbs needed to turn it on during difficult combats where you can't easily use your usual magic building moves. It also helps to memorize the enemy order and learn what works and what doesn't; I discovered Jeanne eats a guaranteed hit any time an Evil Harvest Rosary blast connects, which means your dodges also open up attack opportunities.

In my Pure Platinums thus far I avoid using Pillow Talk, which completely crushes the Jeanne fights but I mean there's no shame in using it to get the clear. I just wanted to beat it with weapons you'd only have on a first playthrough of the game. Bazillions are stronger than Scarborough Fair and better in most cases, but for Jeanne the shots anger her and cause her to rush you aggressively if you use Dodge Offset shots, so I used SF on feet specifically because having Jeannes try to block the bullets and eat rockets is very helpful for keeping them from constantly running around.

It's nice to get that clear out of the way. I'm still running Bayonetta but more just for having fun; there's a lot of weapon combos that are fun to use but generally not practical for actually getting Platinum combos and it'd be nice to play around with unorthodox setups without the constant pressure of going for Pure Platinums all the time.

For reference, this player's boss fight at the end of Lost Chapter is probably the single most important video responsible for me improving enough to clear Lost Chapter with a Pure Platinum (as opposed to limping my way through and healing constantly): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpiC7Uiajl8

I'd never seriously used Kilgore on the hands before watching this, and then after seeing this I experimented more with it and realized it's an incredibly important and useful weapon that actually performs best with if you use SF/Baz/OR on the feet where the kicks also fire the hand shots. And the important thing isn't the melee hits, you don't care so much about those, it's all about constantly pumping rockets into things. Which keeps basically everything that isn't Fairness and Fearless constantly staggered with huge damage, huge combo point blasts. What an absolute shame that I had neglected hand slot Kilgore for years.

[kitten]

emerged from doll-playing animal crossing cocoon to play Real Video Games for a while, last night. had a little pc engine streaming marathon

played the manhole (heavily enjoyed! - no ending, just a point and click with whimsical interactions), mystic formula (learned to quite enjoy! got a hard mode 1cc), dungeon explorer (still wrestling with my feelings on, managed to beat once), and rock on (which sucks as always but i pushed to make some progress).

want to warm up some energy to make a revival post with these in my pc engine thread, but dang is it hard to get motivated, lately, even with my mood largely much better.

[BrianC]

I double dipped on Ninja Spirit and just got the PS4 version. Found out the Switch version is an update behind the PS4 version and has scratchy sound effects. Controls seem nice and responsive in both versions, though I'm glad I double dipped.

I played the manhole on a mac a long time ago. It has some similarities to Myst, if I remember correctly?

[kitten]

I played the manhole on a mac a long time ago. It has some similarities to Myst, if I remember correctly?

they're both by cyan, but this port is by sunsoft. redraws the graphics and adds color, adds japanese voice acting, puts a couple of little additional things in (the text is all still in english and there's very little spoken without accompanying text, you miss very little as a english speaker playing this version). apparently, due to sunsoft's relationship with cyan over the manhole, they actually wound up substantially funding myst? really interesting.

- -

i also just went and played dungeon explorer again, this time with a friend and understanding the upgrade mechanics substantially better. i just... really don't think this game is very hot, aside from the music and some of the visuals? it's often talked up like one of the staple games on the console but i frankly think it's super passable :S maybe the sequel is a lot better.

[BrianC]

Thanks for the info about Myst. Very interesting. I didn't play the b/w version of The Manhole. The mac I played the game on was in color and there was a later Mac/PC version with redrawn color graphics.

[null1024]

Flicky [Genesis]. Round 10 hurts man. I'm getting better, but damn.
Game's pretty fun. Just really tense trying to bait enemies and whack 'em with shit. Handling is a little annoyingly floaty and I'll muck up and bounce off of the walls badly, but it works pretty well.
Nothing like coming into R10 with a full set of extends and getting lol noped repeatedly, though. That lizard is a real ass, I keep getting hit with DEATH FROM ABOVEEEEEE as he just climbs straight down into my path. There's some real death corridors too, and sometimes I'll just miss an important shot and that's the end, mauled by a cat. Very tense.
it's especially bad when I've got this bit 'ole chain behind me and SUDDENLY CAT plows straight through to ruin everything
The next few levels aren't too bad, but I'm usually just spent on lives at 10 and I'll get bopped outta nowhere because I made a mistake/IGGY THE LIZARD EXISTS, ruining everything.
Also, I kinda wish there was more than one song in the game for main stages.

There's a level select so I can muck about with the first 36 levels freely.
Some of them are just brutal [36 has these horrible kill rooms that box you in with almost no escape if an enemy is inside, and it's hard to avoid picking up the items you need to shoot with, very tricky] and I'm deeply worried at how badly I'm going to get bopped in a full run.
And man, some of these room palettes are absurdly ugly and I hate them. It starts off okay enough, but gets into real eye-bleeder territory after a while.

[BulletMagnet]

Sounds more like a mod idea to me.

If nobody's made it happen by now I'm sending the entire internet a sternly-worded letter. Latest brain farts:

- I haven't advanced the story for several hours now, just been poking my nose into places I'm not really supposed to be; it's honestly been awhile since I've similarly enjoyed sneaking around, getting the lay of the land, grabbing the occasional piece of equipment you normally wouldn't get. Best moment so far was unexpectedly emerging from one of those areas into a fort from earlier...directly behind a guard who'd previously refused to let me pass, who promptly freaked out. Almost wish there was a hidden trophy for that.

- On that note, while I've already praised the fast-forward feature, I should also give a tip of the hat to the auto-save; exploring places out of order is fun and all, and makes the world feel more alive and dangerous, but if something catches you it's a LOT less frustrating to be sent back to the beginning of the area than to the last save point. It really is kind of weird to wonder whether I would have just given up on the original PS2 version of this and never bothered with the remake, had I tried it in real time.

- Pleasantly surprised that I haven't had any major issues with any of the characters; Vaan in particular seems to show up on a lot of "most annoying characters ever" lists, but IMO he's nowhere near that territory; honestly, I kind of dig it when Princess Ragtag Sale (probably the closest to an eye-roller the cast has) and Gravel McBeardy are waxing poetic about the fate of nations and Vaan throws in a Basil Fawlty-esque "can we get moving before one of us dies?" Of course, Anime Errol Flynn has some good one-liners too.

- Turns out I'm able to customize everyone a bit more than the game lets on, which was a nice surprise, but as I figure out some of the nuances I do occasionally find myself groaning "ugh, I wish I'd known how THAT worked." I suppose I could just reload a save or something if I was really pernsnickety about it, but heck with it, if the game wants me to find my own way it also claims responsibility for giving me enough leeway to advance even if I make some mistakes, so if I eventually hit a wall I can quit for good with a clear conscience. Hopefully it won't come to that, though.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Downwell. Beat Normal mode with the default style. Tried Hard mode for a few days.

Deleted the game. On Normal it's forgiving enough that you can overlook its issues, but on Hard it had too many issues keeping me from enjoying it. It's challenging, but not in a way that feels fun.

It's a single button downwards platformer that apparently has a mobile release (how it plays on a phone I have no idea). The PC release has a bug that's never been fixed where playing in windowed mode forces it to reset to fullscreen each time you die, makes streaming it slightly annoying. The premise is you have guns on your feet, and landing on something reloads your ammo. It's a one button game, with jump and shoot mapped to the same button. However, unlike Mars Matrix which adds 4 functions totally under the player's control, the button in Downwell is context-sensitive. There's a walljump feature when at max ammo just after you bounce on an enemy, and I've lost track of the number of times I'm against a wall and the game registers a walljump right into an enemy when I want to shoot. You also can't shoot when you're on the ground such as to destroy a block beneath you, you're forced to jump first, which means you take damage if you've been chased into a dead end without ammo with an enemy above and a shootable block below.

Normal is quite manageable and reasonable, and the game gives a wide variety of upgrades at your disposal. It's difficult but fun, but on Hard there's new enemies that appear from above in the first level that constantly swarm in and home on your position. I actually find the first couple of levels on Hard more demanding as you have low ammo and no upgrades to help you. The game also has heavy inertia on movement, and unforgivingly small hitboxes on enemies, meaning it's incredibly easy to accidentally touch an enemy from the side you're trying to land on. The inertia is obviously meant to add a sense of lack of control over your movement as you fall, but it makes things difficult in a way that isn't enjoyable. Add to that the very fast drop speed, and the fact that the character is positioned in the vertical center of the screen, instead of offset upwards so you can see more below you as you drop, and it becomes very difficult to control your descent and keep an eye on things.

And the screen shakes. It shakes constantly when firing, especially with the best weapon, and it really shakes if you're using certain explosive upgrades. I hate the screen shaking even more than the inertia and even the unintentional walljumping. It makes it very difficult to accurately keep an eye on enemy positions when shooting and planning to land on an enemy. Why the heck does it not have an option like Monolith has to disable it? Why is screen shaking in what's supposed to be a precision platformer where accurately landing on tiny enemies is crucial to survival?

The art is cute and uses a Gameboy Color style limited palette. This works against it in some cases though, as the limited palette and the heavy use of red for point items, shots, and to indicate dangerous enemies, can make it difficult to quickly register threats and accurately manuever.

There's a combo system, but because of how upgrading works and how the rewards work, combo rewards get capped at 25 and you're actually encouraged to combo drop at 15 or 25 based on what reward you want. Lengthy combos actively hurt your survival by denying you rewards. You also have a damage buff if you keep gem chaining by collecting the gems that appear, but the damage buff kills stuff below you faster and makes it hard to control your rate of fall; enemies you want to land on and shoot a few times to try and land more accurately just die outright. There's debris to land on, but it's shootable, denying you the chance to land on it (the last level is actually quite reasonable as the platforms are NOT shootable).

There's a few upgrades that help you control your descent, such as the jetpack, but the jetpack can't be used until you're out of ammo, and it doesn't kick in automatically for rapid fire weapons, you have to press the button again when you run out of ammo. You also can't use it while you have ammo, to bounce off enemies instead of shooting them if you want to control your falling, since you only have one button.

It's a cute game that's fun and worth the cheap price of admission, but it'll be too difficult for a lot of people even in Normal. Hard mode is a massive step up and with all the aforementioned issues, it doesn't feel worth the time investment. A lot of the challenge involved in the player's lack of control over their movement are amplified in Hard mode. People have mentioned it feels very much like a shmup, and I'm inclined to agree in a more negative sense: it feels like a euroshmup at times in how it controls. It's a cute game with an interesting gimmick but I don't think the controls and design are tight enough for it to be worth playing seriously.

[Stevens]

My Friend Pedro -

Fun, but is missing that certain something I can't quite put my finger on.

The backgrounds are repeated, a lot. Does it affect gameplay? No. The levels are pretty well designed, but it does get old looking at the same four backgrounds over 25 stages.

Music is good. Fits the game, not good enough to warrant a purchase though.

Controls - Pretty good. Controls good enough on a pad, but again feels a little floaty at times. The can be a little overwhelming as the game is fast and you have five important buttons to keep track of. Definite case of might be better played with mouse and kb.

I won't say boss fights are non existent. There are two or three. Pretty forgettable tbh.

Verdict - If you're looking for a Deadpool simulator and can deal with the flaws I've listed then go for it. If you're looking for a top tier example of R2RKMF look elsewhere. This one falls short.

[kitten]

Downwell.

agree largely with what you've said. normal is fun and cute and worth a spin even if the game is a little flawed or insubstantial, hard mode is just like... dreadful. a game that loosely held together absolutely doesn't have the credentials to push itself to the limits of a hard difficulty :S

i feel like downwell is one of those games that compromises so much for the aesthetic that it really, really suffers for it. i've played it twice (like year or two apart i spent a couple hours to get a normal clear and then burned out not long after) and both times i played i started getting eyestrain really quickly and felt readability was always against me. it's for a similar reason i don't play many vert shooters, as well, but the palette + screen shake + small sprites just add up to nuisance territory given the precision the game expects you to somehow have.

[null1024]

Was mucking around with the Tetris on NES and the apparently cancelled MD release.

God, I don't like Tetris on MD at all. Can't immediately rotate pieces, trying to move the piece down is finicky since it's so damn fast, it kinda really feels like the randomization is actively just hell [had a run today that went like 20+ pieces without an I block], seriously just awful.
Tetris on NES plays like a beauty. It almost always feels like when something dumb happens, it's on me. Almost. Great fun.

[BrianC]

I definitely like the new port of Tetris on the MD Mini better than the old one, but it still has its quirks (many of which inherent from the AC version). The MD Mini doesn't do it justice due to input lag and I found a way to play it on real hardware (Mega Everdrive).

[BareKnuckleRoo]

downwell

I went back to see if my dislike of Downwell was just the frustration of me sucking at Hard mode. I got a few runs that made it further to Limbo but then died due to the sheer visual mess of explosions and shots and debris the same colour as enemies making it difficult to pick them out visually.

Then I had a run that was going well in Catacombs, and I got hit twice in a row by the game registering my attempts to weave against the wall and back while firing as walljumps, up into the ghosts chasing me. This was the nail in the coffin for me; Downwell's controls suck.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who questions this game's design at high level play; I don't want to hate on what is supposed to be a charming indie game, but the lack distinct shot and jump buttons causes no end of trouble for me on the grueling hard mode with constant accidental walljumps (and inconsistent walljumps when I'm trying for them), and it also means the player has limited options when jumping off enemies (as opposed to the potential of making a high or low jump off enemies whether or not you hold jump when you land, or being able to use the Safety Jetpack while you have ammo, etc).

It's in that unfortunate category of games where a few tweaks would have propelled it to real greatness, but it falls short as it currently is.

[Blinge]

Jeeez, been playing Hollow Knight. Digging a little further most days.
Exploring the DeepNest late at night actually makes my fucking skin crawl.
ewwww BUGS

[guigui]

Jeeez, been playing Hollow Knight. Digging a little further most days.
Exploring the DeepNest late at night actually makes my fucking skin crawl.
ewwww BUGS

Hollow Knight is definitely the best 2D Souls game out there.

I've been playing Ys 8 as an attempt to try to enjoy a JRPG after the last one that really grabbed me ... in 1996 ... Shining Force II (childhood makes being grabbed way easier obviously).
So far I'm having a good time, not too much talking, action, some evolution. The game is quite linear though.

[Blinge]

Ehh, i can see a few Souls influences but i'd rather describe it as a straight up Metroidvania, and a bloody good one at that, possibly the best I've played.

[Vanguard]

i also just went and played dungeon explorer again, this time with a friend and understanding the upgrade mechanics substantially better. i just... really don't think this game is very hot, aside from the music and some of the visuals? it's often talked up like one of the staple games on the console but i frankly think it's super passable :S maybe the sequel is a lot better.

The sequel is basically the same game. I like them well enough, but they're just mindless fun.

[Kiken]

Tetris 99 has me on something of a puzzle game kick recently, so I've been alternating back and forth between Mezase SenkyuuOu (aka Battle Balls) and Land Maker (aka Builder's Block). Senkyuu is definitely the more kinetic and frenzied game while Land Maker is a bit more contemplative (it doesn't have quite the break-neck pace). I think the triangular structure of the formations in both games struck a chord with me for being unique... seeing as the vast majority of puzzle games seem to be built around square formations.

[Stevens]

OutRun 2.

This game has been the undisputed heavyweight champion of arcade racers for 17 years. Yes I really believe that, it is perfect in everyway. And I honestly don't believe anything will come out to defeat it. At least until OutRun 3 comes along. Please Mr. Suzuki?

Anyway I was wondering if there were any other games like OutRun 2? Drift mechanic, branching paths with different locals, and a great soundtrack wouldn't hurt either. Actually a shitty one would probably make a game unplayable for me. Anyways..

Slipstream

If Outrun 2 picked up Top Gear at a bar, got her drunk, and they banged this would be the result.

Graphics - Looks like a 90's racer. Sprite scaling is done really well. Cars look good, locals are mostly good, with a few great ones. They really nailed the retro wave style.

Control - A bit simpler than Outrun. Drift every corner. Seriously. Doesn't make it less fun. Sometimes not remembering if I have to drift or not is nice.

Modes - (Lifting this from the Steam page - my comments at the end of each)

Grand Tour, a road trip through exotic landscapes, with branching paths and rivals to race against.
^ This is Outrun and why I bought it. Doesn't disappoint.

Cannonball, a freely customizable race mode with optional traffic, rivals and other racers
^ This is Cannonball OutRun

Grand Prix, a championship mode with five races back to back and money prizes used to upgrade your car!
^This is Top Gear. Race one local in a closed circuit.

Single Race, just a race in any of the game's 20 tracks
^Haven't played it, but probably Top Gear minus the upgrades if I had to guess.

Time Trial, a solo race against time
^You know what this is.

Battle Royale, an elimination endurance race mode
^Haven't tried it yet, but OutRun 2 on the Xbox if I remember had a similar mode. Last place car at the checkpoint is eliminated.

Soundtrack is synthwave and ranges from good to great so far, nothing stands out just yet though. You can add your own music too.

So if like me, you've played a shit ton of OR2 and want to occasionally play something a bit different you could do far worse for $10. Had I known this existed I would not have bought My Friend Pedro if that helps:D

EDIT for Con - There are way too many turns where you are given no warning. This is forgivable if said turn is coming off of a straight. This is FUCKING INEXCUSABLE, lazy, and makes the game artificially harder when the turns are back to back to back. Not cool. Refund requested and I have never asked for a refund on Steam.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I find Outrun 2SP's improved drifting mechanics where you effectively grind past vehicles when drifting makes it even better than Outrun 2. Outrun 2 has a drift-specific collision that loses about 100 km/h from top speed, whereas Outrun 2SP allows the drift to function as an anti-collision defense.

There are way too many turns where you are given no warning. This is forgivable if said turn is coming off of a straight. This is FUCKING INEXCUSABLE

Ouch. I read your post prior to this edit too and just saw this. In a 3D racer you can see far enough ahead that even rapid turns are manageable with good braking or drifting, but in a sprite-based 2D racer it's obviously helpful that you don't toss too many difficult turns without some signs (such as Rad Racer using road signs to indicate turns). Is it really that bad that the maps can't be memorized? For what it's worth, Outrunners had a couple of abrupt turns you have to plan for at the end of the second level in both routes (San Francisco/Grand Canyon) that were meant to basically cause a crash if you were unprepared for them. Outrun 2 and 2SP are largely free of issues as turns can be reacted to with good drifting, with the only truly memorizer course being Milky Way due to the nature of the chicanes in the course.