GD: Metal Black

[3DOMan]

THE EARTH DIED O_O

I played through easy mode a couple times just to get the feel of the game. It's not as hard as I originally thought. I have a tendency to panic and make sloppy moves when there's 20 million enemies on the screen. My scores are getting better.

I have a question...on the Level 5 boss, what does destroying the crystal ball first actually do?

[BIL]

With all the activity onscreen during that fight, I never really noticed I was destroying it at all. Well spotted, not sure if there's any significance though.

[Klatrymadon]

It's usually the first thing I take out. It stops him from going all Dimension Diver on your ass (you'll notice he only gets it out when he's about to do so).

[BIL]

Ha, never noticed that before... as far as Ghost goes, I just make a point of being on the far left when he teleports back in, to avoid getting insta-killed. Just finished testing it out, only noticed it didn't give any points. Makes a nice BOOM when it blows up though!

[Klatrymadon]

Yeah, I love how all the sound effects in the boss fights get beefier towards the end.

[BIL]

Congratulations on the score, you can provoke the spawning tentacles on Omega Five as soon as the doll backdrop, when it reaches the maximum number of concurrent tentacles (four, I think).

Thanks, this definitely helps - I wasn't entirely sure when the tentacles became the most numerous.

As for the rest of the bosses, Apartheid and Feeder time out after the third beam. Amazo gives only 1000 points if you kill it, but 10.000 with a time out (yes, the designers went mean with him ).

Are you sure about Amazo? The few times I've seen it time out, it didn't seem to give any points at all (this seems to happen with all bosses). I'll have to try that out.

edit: just timed out Amazo, didn't get any points. IIRC you do get 10k for actually killing it, though. I'm going to note down all the boss kill values when I start writing that ST.

[IDA]

As for the rest of the bosses, Apartheid and Feeder time out after the third beam. Amazo gives only 1000 points if you kill it, but 10.000 with a time out (yes, the designers went mean with him ).

Are you sure about Amazo? The few times I've seen it time out, it didn't seem to give any points at all (this seems to happen with all bosses). I'll have to try that out.

edit: just timed out Amazo, didn't get any points. IIRC you do get 10k for actually killing it, though. I'm going to note down all the boss kill values when I start writing that ST.

Oops, I have just checked it out, last time I timed it out I must have tought my score is lower, sorry .

I forgot to mention that if you position yourself right and destroy the tip of the Stage 2 missiles before the main body, they are worth an additional 500 points (i don't remember the value of their halves when they split).

[3DOMan]

I just started playing the Saturn version. I noticed some differences between this and the arcade/MAME/Taito Legends 2 versions. The game seems to run slightly slower, which of course makes it a little easier. And of course when you beam out on level 6, the lightning effect is missing, but the beam lasts longer to compensate for it. I'm working on getting a euro x-box so I can also try that version.

[Klatrymadon]

The Saturn version shouldn't be any slower at all, mate - I've owned this one for years and have recently been playing a few different ROMs in MAME, and there's no discernible difference in that regard. Are you playing it on a PAL machine, perhaps? If it's not modified with a 50/60hz switch, then the game certainly will be running more slowly...

[3DOMan]

Perhaps it isn't so much that the Saturn version runs slow, as it is that the Taito Memories 2 version runs slightly faster than the original. That's the version I have been playing mostly.

[Klatrymadon]

It's possible. I remember Bloodreign saying somewhere that the Taito Memories 2 version messes the beam up (you can't refocus it into a straight laser after it's opened up into the lightning attack, or something), so if that's true it wouldn't surprise me if other things were amiss. I haven't played that version in ages; might check it out this weekend.

[3DOMan]

Either way the Saturn version seems slightly easier than the Taito Memories 2 version. The bullets seem much easier to evade. Perhaps there is a slight difference in hitbox size or something?

It seems like the bonus stages are also infinitely easier on the Saturn version...could just be me.

[Klatrymadon]

The bonus rounds are seriously random, mate - they can go massively in your favour or massively not.

I'm inclined to go along with BIL's suggestion that there's a certain amount of rank, so it could be your performances with each version that are making them seem easier or harder. When I cleared the game on a single life last week, I noticed the st4 boss' bullet spread (from the 'brain' part) was much more aggressive than usual, and it very nearly got me.

[BIL]

Yep, Amazo and Ghost's bullet spreads are clear evidence of MB's rank - when I faffed about to Amazo with plenty of misses (testing the timeout), they were pathetic. Get there on one life and the bullets are way quicker, and the interval between each spread shorter.

[3DOMan]

What do you mean rank? Is that like artificial intelligence, Zanac shit?

[BIL]

Scaling difficulty, basically. It's present in many coin-op shooters, to varying degrees. A simple example is the original Gradius, where more Options = more bullets. Zanac is indeed another example, just more complex (enemy patterns adjust to the player's specific weapon type). Sometimes it's an important survival or scoring concern.

Metal Black's rank seems to be tied to survival time, and affects bullet speed. It's not really important to either scoring or survival (doesn't affect the former, never seriously threatens the latter), but it's there.

[Klatrymadon]

It really is a stupid word for it, isn't it? It's handy to use long-standing Japanese terminology where it's intuitive, but "rank" can go take a flying fuck at a doughnut.

By the way, the lightning attack seems to do loads more damage than the straight beam to Amazo and Omega Zone, unless I'm hugely mistaken. If you're not milking those two, use that!

[3DOMan]

Darius Force also seems to have this AI you speak of. When you make it to the last boss without dying it seems like they have 20 billion life points more than if you make it to them with one or more death.

And there's also a nasty suprise when you try to milk bosses for points

[BIL]

Darius Gaiden definitely raises boss HP when rank is up, too. It's tied to your main gun's level, though (levelling up only so much per stage is important).

Nasty surprise? Is it anything like Psikyo bosses' penchant for timing out in a radial blast of death (never played DF)?

[3DOMan]

You get these 3 little cubes that start circling you that you can't shoot through, and they start shooting at you. If I remember right this also happens in the first Darius game.

Not in Darius Twin though. All the bosses time out after about 3 minutes. Pussies!

[Klatrymadon]

Yeah, the chasing blocks appear in the first game. Three minutes is ages in shmup terms, though!

[BIL]

By the way, the lightning attack seems to do loads more damage than the straight beam to Amazo and Omega Zone, unless I'm hugely mistaken. If you're not milking those two, use that!

I think the lightning does more damage to things overall (it also consumes energy more quickly). I always used it to kill Amazo on the second pass, before I started going for max points.

[Klatrymadon]

Sound. I always thought it'd be generally weaker, because it's spread so widely and runs out so quickly, but I suppose it's a good crutch for survival. Personally, I'm still ignoring it and occasionally fucking up the easy bits, thinking they're all gravy.

[Klatrymadon]

I think I can also confirm that the rank doesn't come down again once you've awakened its fury. My last few runs have been really clumsy ones (I haven't even been making it to the end recently), and when I throw my lives away dicking around on Amazo or whatever, the enemies in st5 will still be moving/firing at their top speeds. It isn't much of a problem, since everything that has a fixed position or range of movement will still be in the same place, but the rockets from those tiny walkers and the teleporting laser bastards might make you lose your nerve.

[BIL]

Yeah, I noticed much the same - dying didn't seem to reduce st5's bullet speed once I'd reached Amazo on a life. But then again, it never gets near unsurvivable levels anyway, so it's not a big deal. Maybe if bullets got faster *and* more numerous, it'd be worth ditching a life around st3 or so.

[Enhasa]

This thread has been really cool to read through, good stuff!

I propose that the new alternate term for rank be "Zanac shit"

[3DOMan]

LOL

As if Metal Black wasn't a tough enough game to start with, the bosses get HARDER if you manage to get
even the slightest bit ahead.

[Klatrymadon]

Only a bit, though, mate. Those faster bullet spreads are still pretty wimpy once you know you're gonna get them.

[KindGrind]

This thread has been really cool to read through, good stuff!

I propose that the new alternate term for rank be "Zanac shit"

Garegga takes the cake for the most furious rank system ever though...

Man I had forgotten how Metal Black was a blast to play.

[Klatrymadon]

By the way, if anybody is still playing this and wants to watch a bog-standard 1CC for strategising and stuff, I finally remembered to record one of mine. I've uploaded the version of MAME I recorded it with and the relevant files here. I wasn't really in the mood for boss-milking, and the bonus rounds were a bit cack, so I decided to just get through it and show off the pretty levels. Sadly, there are two silly deaths in there, but they're in areas where you can still hopefully see how to survive.

Edit: oh, I recorded it with the Japanese version, so highlight that one before you select Playback Input.

(By the way, is there any way to get these things converted into avi files or mpegs?)