shmups.system11.org

Funny thing is I had no idea what Cyber VAWG was and assumed it was yet another alternate title for the game. After looking it up I was like, "what the heck?".

So, just got a 1cc in Alien Soldier SUPERHARD

At the end of last year I mentioned on this forum that I had picked up Alien Soldier for the Genesis. Even though I had already liked the game pretty much by then, I got busy with life and eventually ended playing other games. The few days that I experimented with it were only enough for me to get used to the controls and reach Pollylobster. Recently, I decided to try Alien Soldier again. In other words; it was time for the 68000 heart on fire!

I really wish I could be playing on the original console, but that's not an option for now. The version I was playing is actually part of a Playstation 2 compilation called "Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 25: Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box". As the name implies, it is part of the Sega Ages series and it's a collection of Treasure games (Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy and Alien Soldier). Some may already know about that dvd, but I'm saying just in case. Alien Soldier looks good non-intrelaced on my TV. The best emulation of Mega Drive for the PS2 that I've seen.

My personal choices are "Lancer, Lancer, Homing, Flame - Type 2"; the result of a process of constant refinement in my way of playing. Flame force is great for some enemies, even killing Mothra in seconds (a boss that gave me trouble before I was using that weapon). Also tried some speedrun trick involving flame force and the Back Stinger, but never got it right. There is a lot of room for experimentation. After some pratice, I was able to stay pretty safe until Stage 22, where things can get complicated with the likes of Wolfgunblood and Z-Leo. I did used a couple of videos to help me out, including BIL's, and looked into the FAQs available which honestly doesnt help much. In the end, Alien Soldier gave me the impression of a game that is much more about learning the way of playing than about requiring a flawless execution. In the other hand, the idea of an 1cc was irritating just because of the element of luck in Z-Tiger's desk throwing skills, until I learned that there was a way to kill him before he would do that too much. It is all about working on the parts that feels hard. The Alien Soldier isnt supposed to suffer, it is all about finding the right strategy.

In the end of the game, Epsilon-2 flies through space by phoenix teleport and we are left with the credits. A-Earth looks restored and the bosses are introducted by mysterious order.

To pratice the language and maybe get more information about the game, I downloaded the japanese manual. News for me; the manual implies that the energy force wastes quickier while on the golden armor. Have to test later, it would make some difference. This information is absent in the faqs as well in the European manual. It says "フォースエネルギーの減りが早い", have I mistranslated? "I want my revenge and my true self!" the japanese manual says about the first act of the game, where Epsilon-2 chases Xi-Tiger in some space bus station. After the battle against Xi-Tiger, Epsilon-2 ends up in a jungle in south america, in search for Scarlet's secret lab. The narration ends in the battle against Epsilon-1 (possibly to avoid spoilers), so it stills a mystery if the face in the cosmos is in fact Z-Leo.

The manual goes on about the characters, providing much more information than the scrolling text at the beggining. For example, the player is actually Fou Misaki, a boy that has space-time manipulation skills and its on a revenge quest because of the death of his only friend, Nanase Kaede. According to the guide, Fou is a south american boy that is only 12 years old, while Nanase Kaede is now a cybord and the pilot of Seven Force (a reference to a boss of same name in Gunstar Heroes, even having the same song in the background). A hint that the game was released kind of unfinished is the fact that Seven Force only has five forms. Another surprise for me was the fact that the manual gives human names and a background for the bosses in the game, so they were supposed to have human forms as well.

Oh yeah, and the ultimate Alien Soldier gossip: according to the manual, Mechapede and Antroid are lovers (ジェットリッパーとは幼なじみで、現在は恋人)


Fou Misaki : Epsilon-2, Nanase Kaede : Seven Force, Kuroki Tenma : Epsilon-1, Kosatsu Kyousuke : Xi-Tiger

PS2 Treasure Box is excellent, I highly recommend it! Great alternative to the MD cart, with a few tricks of its own in the flicker/slowdown disable options. Not that AS suffers notably from either, but it's always a nice option to have. Inbuilt replay saving is great too. And yeah, the manual is superbly done, even with it needing to cover AS, Gunstar and Headdy! I owned this disc for years before getting the MD cart - have never even considered letting it go. Same goes for all of M2's AGES 2500 releases (and even a few they didn't work on, like the brilliant Dynamite Deka).

I used to go with Lancer2/Burner/Buster, but having the game's basic structure down pat, I've since gone Lancer2/Burner2. It's tricky budgeting ammo early on - you need a light touch on the power duo, and ideally lots of aggressive Phoenix Force - so I still recommend beginners use my old setup. Even the base Buster is almost inexhaustible, taking a ton of pressure off when you're still learning the ropes.

I know the Back Stringer trick you mean, and can execute it consistently... but man, I never bother. That whole sequence is too cool to waste. I like letting Stringer's babies drag the "platform" (ie VIBLACK'S DECAPITATED CORPSE) riiight down, then emptying a full tank of Burner into the fucker. Note you do catastrophically greater damage to the body than the head!

Snacky the Spider, one of the most charismatic multi-sprite abominations in a game heaving with the things. I like a good cheap shot, poor Viblack didn't know what hit him.

Spoiler: show

Uh, at first anyway. Even stunned and on fire, maybe he came to right as Snacky devoured his face.



I found out about this very recently too, via Durandal's excellent notes. Very handy in the first two Acts, when you want to squeeze the last bit of ammo out of Burner. It makes good sense from a design perspective, particularly with Burner's short range - Gold armour lets you rack up damage while spacing on the fly, at the cost of ammo drain. Blue conserves ammo, but complicates sudden reactions.

I really like Act 1's wordless revenge/pursuit narrative, and how it's expressed ever more vividly as player skill increases. Rather than withering into tedium, its learner course grows progressively more violent and incendiary over time - something for veterans to rip apart in a blaze of Atomic Rooster Hellfire. Xi-Tiger's transformation seems less a threat, more a last desperate show of fangs from a cornered beast before Epsilon incinerates him.



It even manages a bit of comic relief, with the last guardian of Xi-Tiger's retreat being none other than... airport security. Terabuster just wants Epsilon to drop his weapon! Unfortunately, Epsilon is the fucking weapon!

The game typically gets described as having an incomprehensible story, but I never saw it. A psychic boy is conscripted into a war between humans and aliens. His girlfriend is murdered right in front of him by an alien captain. He goes Super Saiyan and takes bloody revenge, then decides to put an end to the whole conflict. This ultimately requires crossing the galaxy and destroying the source of the invaders. There are finer details and nuances to glean from the intro text, like why our hero was in possession of the Bird Force, or why Xi-Tiger was so terrified of it, but the main thread is pretty basic Gradius-esque.

I remember reading something about the developers dreaming about heaving a boss with 100 jointed parts. There is a translated interview somewhere out there. Also, [Lancer-Lancer-Burner-Burner] is the setup the guy from games done quick used. I'm confortable with my setup, so I don't think I'll change in a near future. I don't know if anyone is interested, but I translated the story bits in a very amateurish way. Since it is already written down, I could as well share here. For a better organization, I mixed the information in the characters section with the Secret Data page, so each character would only have one profile. That's right, many sources claim that Alien Soldier has a incomprehensive story, maybe that can clear out some doubts.

ALIEN SOLDIER CHARACTERS

Epsilon-Eagle
The formally called Epsilon-Eagle, he was the leader of the evil secret society Scarlet. In a conflit with the A-Humans, he was blown away to the time space continum, that was when he was divided into a evil minded Epsilon-1 and a pure hearted Epsilon-2, that also have space-time zero-teleport.

Epsilon-2
Real Name: Fou Misaki (12) - Gender: Male - Origin: South America (Details unknown)
The protagonist of the game. He has the hability to move through space-time and a pure heart. He drove himself in a battle for revenge when his close friend Nanase Kaede was killed. Meanwhile, he starts to discover about his own existence. He isolated himself from others in order to get his unique psychic powers. The only one in his heart was Nanase Kaede. Epsilon-2 is the parasite inside the body of the psychic child Fou Misaki. He became more "human" by his contact with the human heart of his host, but because of the death of Nanase Kaede by the hands of Xi-Tiger, he returned to his original form and was led to fight.

Seven Force Kaede
Real Name: Nanase Kaede (14) - Gender: Female - Origin: Hiroshima
Psychic pilot of the multiform robot Seven Force. Was actually killed by XiTiger, so now she is a cyborg with a sentient computer brain and has no emotions. When alive, she was Fou's best friend. She is, along with Fou Misaki, one of the X-Ages (terminology for psychic kids). With a particulary strong telekinesis, Nanase Kaede was trained to fight Scarlet as the pilot of the mecha Seven Force.

Epsilon-1
Real Name: Kuroki Tenma (26) - Gender: Male - Origin: Tokyo
Another Epsilon who inherited the will of the original Epsilon-Eagle. Epsilon-1 was missing for a while after Epsilon-Eagle's split, then he made Kuroki Tenma his host. Tenma was a master of Arawashikenjutsu, an old japanese martial art. After that, he began watching the moves of Epsilon-2, who was chasing XiTiger.

XiTiger
Real Name: Kosatsu Kyosuke - Gender: Male - Origin: Osaka [the kanji for the name literally reads "Crazy Killing Tiger"]
A perfect-being in the shape of a bengal tiger. After the fall of Epsilon-Eagle, he took his seat as the leader of the secret society Scarlet. Having accidentally killed Nanase Kaede, he awakened in Epsilon-2 his desire to fight for revenge. He's a master of ancient Kansai's Assassin Fist and Burning Tiger Great Cracking Fist. Quite a womanizer.

Mechapede (Jet Riper)
Real name: Sannin Taroumushi - Age: 25 - Gender: Male
Centipede morphing-being with steel fangs. Intimidates his enemy with a body filled with deadly poison.

Antroid
Real name: Yomesan Hakisuke - Age: 23 - Gender: Male
Polyergus samurai ant morphing-being. Being a master of martial arts, he makes use of quick jumps to attack. Mechapede is his childhood friend and current lover.

Shellshogun
Real name: Kamekashira Mansaki - Age: 40 - Gender: Male [the kanji for the name literally reads "Turtle Head"]
Turtle morphing-being. When someone killed his boyfriend, the grudge made him a wandering killing machine. Branding the giant sword Midgard, he is a master of his own kenjutsu.

Sniper Honey Viper
Real name: Daikazoku Hachibei - Age: 52 - Gender: Male [the kanji literally reads "Bee of a Large Family"]
King bee morphing-being. He dreams of creating a big Flower Garden, where babies-bees are born one after another by simple asexual reproduction. Had no intention to fight when he joined Scarlet.

Madam Barbar
Real name: Onigoroshi Kyoko - Age: 28 - Gender: Female [the kanji literally reads "Wicked Killing Demon"]
Crab morphing-being and mother of 512 little crabbies. That gutsy mommy makes a living by long distance dumps. Her original head was quarrelsome and short-tempered. [Something along those lines, that profile was hard to translate.]

Scarlet [few bits of the text repeated in the intro in english, so I chose the official translation]
Organization of artificial beings (morphing-beings and perfect-beings created by super genetic engineering). They are the secret society intended to destroy the entire human race. In addition to the high intelligence and strong fighting power, they have special abilities capable of parasitic existence with human beings, animals and machinery. Scarlet was originally a research institute created to help effectively utilizing special abilities. [the distinction between morphing-beings and perfect-beings puts XiTiger (and certainly Z-Leo) above the likes of Antroid and Mechapede.]

I wish I could contribute with something gameplay-wise, but I havent found anything that caught my eye besides that information about the golden armor. Perhaps something about how exactly the (largely ignored) score system works.

Many thanks for sharing this.

For years, I assumed LLBrBr was speedrunner-only (due to them zipping past virtually every non-boss enemy). Turns out it's excellent for "normal" (ie kill everything in sight) play, it just needs a light touch and ideally a solid upgrade route (ie knowing when to hold back, and when to just dump a full clip into a boss's face before grabbing the refill).



Not sure if they're the ones you mean, but blackoak has posted a short, intense and fairly amusing commentary from director Hideyuki Suganami, with a few AS-related interview excerpts from Masato Maegawa included.

Even by the standards of the time, AS's dev cycle sounds so wildly ambitious and brutally harried, I'm just glad the game arrived in the state it did. The only thing I find seriously lacking is WolfGunBlood. I've posted about how I'd have preferred that fight to go elsewhere - it's not quite the "sentry at the gates of hell" battle I'd like.

Otherwise, I'm glad for the MD's limitations, and the wordless intensity they promoted. As cool as I'm sure a theoretical Saturn version might've been, I dread the thought of Guardian Heroes/Silhouette Mirage's pace-killing cutscenes. I love those games, but I almost wish they'd been on the MD too with AS, Gunstar and Headdy. Or better yet on the STV ala Radiant Silvergun.



I'd assumed Kaede ambushing Fou in Act 3 was an evil trick on the enemies' part, with her being resurrected/parasitised as their ultimate soldier. This makes me wonder if it was just a tragic chance encounter. Maybe she was en route to Z-Leo as well, and simply attacked "Epsilon" on sight. From Fou's perspective, it turns what should be a minor refuelling stop (who's the ranking force on that rock otherwise? lovable jackass Melon Bread?) into a grueling battle with a cruel personal edge.

It's one of many things I'm glad is left up to the player's imagination. The fatal confrontation ends on a conspicuously sentimental note (a brief glimpse of the setting sun), that's plenty enough.



I always thought his stance looked promising. Keep your dukes up, that's rule #1! Sadly, nobody told him the dangers of standing near the screen edge!

Ghost rider in the sky... BURNER

Spoiler: show

Aww jeeze, this guy is my #1 target for a brutal technical face-stomping in Act 1. Respect to Mr. Honeyviper! He may not have wanted to fight, but he did a damn fine job of it. Random flying rubble, random spawning bees, random falling grenades, an altogether tricky fellow to demolish consistently. Maybe he is the Android 16 of Alien Soldier.

Yes! The Hideyuki Suganami commentary with all the weird metaphors included. The story about Masato secretly altering the damage parameters of the weapons while NAMI was sleeping, the Seven Force contest... Interesting read about AS and Megadrive developments by Treasure.


Poor guy (I do that everytime while he's dying)

There is a (still-up) Japanese website created by Treasure that contains a lot of background information on Alien Soldier (almost all world- / setting-related, though), if anyone happens to have the link. Project Ako created an English mirror of the site, but last I checked it was down.

You mean this one?
http://www.treasure-inc.co.jp/products/ ... issyo.html

What a torrent of information for Alien Soldier.

Top 5 games on the mega drive with a thumping ost.
I go lancer x2 flame x2 and then change to lancer x3 and 1 flame when I get to epsilon 2.
Why have I not seen any love for my speed boat driving homie blue teddy .

Curse that bladed lobster bastard.

Also props for the wings on the butterfly moth thing very sexy use of graphics on the megadrive

He did okay imo, being the only non-boss character to get his own theme song. Not bad for a mere teddy, keeping company with such biomechanoid monstrosities!

I haven't read any of this thread sorry but I just got my MEga Everdrive and Slap Fight MD is fucking awesome

The funny this is that my first experience with Slap Fight was playing ALCON (the US version) in a dentists office. I started with a love hate relationship with the game, but now I like it quite a bit.

How 2 TOAPLAN MODE in case it's of any interest! (loop select + arcade-style shield timeout)

oh nice, thanks

i was mainly playing the special mode and the kickass bgm really took me by surprise (didn't see the Koshiro credit on the title screen at first)

Room for one more in the Megadriver's Custom Club?

I picked up a Model 1 Genesis fairly recently, and last week I got myself a Mega Everdrive!

I had been reading most of the first few pages, and I'm liking most of what I've got around to checking out; Mercs Arrange mode and Atomic runner stand out as hidden gems for me, and I've finally gotten into Alien Soldier!

I might eventually look into getting RGB output, but while I could probably splurge on a $50 scart cable, I'm not sure if I'd be willing to sell my butt for a decent upscaler. There is a $30 model on Amazon, although that has a touch of input lag apparently.

I'll be staying tuned...

I didn't know Slap Fight MD was published by Tengen (was the port also coded by them? or by Toaplan?).

Add another one to the incredible Tengen - MD legacy!



Checked some gameplay and it looks fun as hell. And beyond tight on many fronts - including the hardest to pull off : enemy placement/number of enemies

Slap Fight MD was developed by MNM Software (aka Mindware) with Toaplan's blessing. Basically a dream port made real! Here's a good read, interview with Mikito Ichikawa aka Micky G Albert.

See also our own Sky Boy's interview with Ichikawa about SFMD, and many other things besides! Excellent reading!

Ichikawa sounds like a true gamer soul and a stand-up guy in general. One of those stars aligned moments, he and Koshiro hitting it off like that. By the by, anyone who likes SFMD's music should give Koshiro and Hideya Nakagata's Bosconian X68000 OST a listen. I stand by the guarantees in that post!

So many crack devs doing killer ports at Tengen circa late MD. Toaplan with a dead-on Snow Bros. A rookie M2 bedroom-coding an X68K Gauntlet port so good they got a pro MD gig, giving one of the most invaluable porting houses their start. Tengen Japan themselves' artisan port of Marble Madness, blasting EA's nasty Genesis clanger clear out of the water.

Roadblasters and Paperboy might suggest disaster, with their arcade cabs' custom analogue controls, but truly they play remarkably well (both dev'd in the West and given JP release). Along similar lines, Rampart is a cruel gem too.

This good fortune seems to culminate in their later incarnation TWI getting Taroumaru, one of that gen's few original sidescrollers to recall the glory days of 8/16bit, out the door as the building collapsed.

Yep truly a "stars are aligned" moment, I agree

Recently I have been playing the Mega Drive version of Altered Beast.

I didnt knew it had multiple loops until I finished. From what I looked in the websites, might have infinite loops and the difficult only goes up until the third time. Also, from what I've noticed the second loop is more similar to the original Arcade game (still different). Lifes to pick up are totally absent in the game, and you keep the same health in the next rounds. Another funny thing is that, even if you die on the second loop, you are brought back to the [SEGA] screen but still going to play the current loop until you reset the game. The end was different from the one on the Arcade, that is, the whole thing is not a movie production on this version.

Since you guys are talking about, I had to try Slap Fight MD.
The music is really something. I havent played very much yet, so I can only give my first impressions. I have nothing against this kind of checkpoint based shmup game. It is very Toaplan. Reminds me of Same! Same! Same!, that I really like and also was my first 1cc shmup.

For now, I think will check out that X68K: Bosconian Soundtrack!

Also haven't read much of this thread, and also recently got a Mega Everdrive and Slap Fight was the first rom that I fired up. This game fucking ownz!!

I'm considering an Everdrive too... I mean, I got two hundred carts and yet I'm still without some of the most expensive shit: Gleylancer, Undeadline, Alien Soldier, Panorama Cotton, Twinkle Tale...

Sure I got Slap Fight, Vampire Killer and Hard Corps, and an US El Viento I guess?... But just one of the above mentioned would cost me several evedrives.

Still, I must say the Genesis has an astounding ratio of quality cheap titles still around. In fact some of the very best titles can be secured for pennies, something that I wouldn't really say for the Snes...

Might as well sell the 200 if you're getting an everdrive anyway.

Frustrating thing is that Undeadline used to be dirt cheap.

Yeah... basically when I began collecting, Eliminate Down and Panorama Cotton were the only two expensive ones (not counting the Tetris of course). All the others, including Gleylancer, were quite affordable... sigh.

@spmbx: the downside effect that they can be had for pennies is that they would sell for pennies too, more or less. Too much emotional investment over the years (I kept an excel sheet with purchases since 2006, used a FilemakerPro database before that) to just dump them in the dustbin.

Yeah i get tour point, although the sentimental games for me are cheap they still go for way more than i’m willing to spend on them should i have to buy them now. Think kid chameleon, dick tracy etc

Wow, Chiki Chiki Boys is really fun! I'm insta hooked to it. Good handling of your character, good moveset (a light combo attack, wall jump/climb, a special move), satisfying sword slashing, upgrades bought via a shop(including sword and spell upgrades), colourful grafx and upbeat and charming music that really gets me pumped up, and plenty of secrets to discover(the secret chests have a tangible purpose too : the coins you find in them allow you to spend more on upgrades). This thing is awesome! Boss are fun to fight so far too. And very decent platforming action. This is a mix of gameplay that really appeals to me. I'm having a time.


That one is definitely on my Genesis bucket list. I'm intrigued by it, definitely gonna give it a go

I'll tell you what, I'm getting quite excited about Xeno-Crisis - it's looks and sounds decent. I quite like these arena games and they take me back to Alien-Syndrome, Smash TV and Gauntlet. It doesn't get old to me, but, well, I really, really love Gain-Ground too and I'm kind of forgiving gfx over gameplay.

Anyway, if we are fortunate we may well see a few MD titles be released this year