I'm back and I'm wondering if the Switch ports of Ninja Spirit and Shock Troopers are good? Google has been less than helpful and this is the best place I know for Ninja Spirit info.
I also brought this cool 1LC and review with me. Game is called
Panzer Paladin and I'm a big fan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wyY2xRLGHQ
^^Be warned, it's over 2 hours long (and I didn't even do the loop!)
Magical weapons are raining down from space, acting as portals for demonic invasion. Our brave, murderous hero is Flame, a rescue android piloting a mecha named Grit. Their mission is to collect the weapons, stop the invasion, and do it all with weaponry that is very realistic and not at all cartoonish or comical.
"Pocket Knife"/public transit size comparison:
Grit's movement draws me as if against my will to compare it to Actraiser 2's Master: a chunky
boy who seems cumbersome at first but nevertheless comes to feel fluid and wonderfully versatile after you learn the ropes. The main mover and shaker is the invulnerable backdash. It can be used to cancel any of your attack animations, and you can even turn around
in the process, smashing some poor sod's head
in only to instantly spin around and moonwalk through the dust they've just been reduced to. You'll find yourself using this copiously, both to avoid attacks and for rapid movement. It can also be performed
in the air, but you must be sure of landing
in that case as you forfeit horizontal control until Grit lands and recovers from the dash.
In addition to basic attacks, you've got an upward thrust that doubles as a double jump and a downthrust that bounces off enemies. The downthrust is noteworthy
in that once initiated, you are locked-
in no matter how far you fall or how many times you bounce, until you either
land on the ground, take damage, or cancel into a backdash.
In the case of either taking damage or backdashing, you lose horizontal control until you
land and recover (I demonstrate this quite well at 35:55
in the replay, purely for the sake of the audience and not because I forgot about that enemy or anything). You've also got a passive shield akin to Zelda2 or Actraiser2 with the added ability to parry/riposte melee strikes. With regards to the shield, I must note one definite annoyance with the controls here: Grit cannot cancel his walking animation with a crouch, pressing down while walking will simply do nothing. Fortunately, there's a simple workaround: cancel into a crouching attack instead. Since Grit is well programmed
in the martial arts, it never drops its guard even when attacking, so this will enable you to block those low strikes at a moment's notice. Still, it irks.
Just look at that beautiful mech keeping that shield ready, it'd bring a tear to my boxing coach's eye
Weapons are many and varied, mostly interchangeable and all expendable. The moveset is the same across all weapons but reach, attack speed, attack power, damage type (blunt/cut/pierce), durability, throwing power, and magic spell all vary based on the stats of the weapon, and all are significant considerations
in weapon choice. Of course with weapon durability being very limited, and as the weapon throw and spells both result
in the destruction of the weapon used, you'll find yourself using new and different bludgeoning or stabbing implements with regularity. Each stage provides a distinct set of weapons, and each boss awards a powerful one-of-a-kind weapon, which lends the game a small touch of Megaman-esque routing.
When you eject from Grit, hopefully to enter a narrow passage and not because your ineptitude has reduced Grit to smoking rubble, you play Flame, who controls like a fever dream of a Belmont, using a "laser whip" to battle enemies and swing from hooks until you can reach a teleport pad to summon Grit back to your side (assuming it is not smoking rubble). Much like the vehicles
in Metal Slug, Grit is fully invulnerable when not
in use, and Flame gets a hefty grace period of invulnerability whenever exiting or entering Grit, and much like
in Metal Slug this can be exploited as a powerful panic button defense.
The stages are quite long, and checkpoints are few, however 6 out of 14 spells provide health recovery and another gives a buff to reduce incoming damage, so attrition will rarely be a killer. What will be a killer are the pits and spikes seen on a regular basis throughout the game. Spikes will only destroy Grit (and even then only on Hard mode) while pits will immediately end Flame's life. But you'll scarcely see anything like the latter parts of NG, so the sort of person who is reading this thread will find the game entirely manageable. The six stage long Wily-Fortress-knock-off at the end is when you'll start to feel like the game is serious about opposing you, but intelligent use of your weapons will carry you through. Upon clearing the game you unlock "Remixed Mode", essentially a second loop with quite a lot of changes to level design and enemy placement
in addition to increased enemy stats. This mode will put you to the test, although bosses, being mostly unchanged, will be a bit underwhelming compared to the gauntlets you navigate to reach them.
Overall I highly recommend Panzer Paladin, the length can be a bit tiring, I think a stronger version of this game would've been around 90 minutes long, but it looks and sounds fantastic and deftly piloting Grit through demon lairs is a great time, so I find myself hard-pressed to complain, even when it overextends and pushes me to take a break.
"Don't worry about quality. I've got quantity!"
GREAT game, didn't give it its full due until now because DualShock4 button underlays are shi-hi-hiiite 
or BUST A MOVE 
)
Only played it properly quite recently myself, I'd expected a quality arcade game with the calibre of fan it attracts on here, but I wasn't expecting it to exemplify so many of the traits I associate with Famicom R2RMKFs - super efficient sprite/screen ratio, high malleability, authoritative firepower - and all of this in a deadly-precise 1HKO killer.
)
Oh right. You're probably gonna do more packs aren't you. NM then! Magic Sword pls!
SGX ver is heroic, but I want the real thing sans CCC2 mayo filter. 
(if you're a fan of Konami/Natsume FC action music, give it a listen regardless - good stuff)
) - but all the essentials re: button remap, screen adjust and DIP settings are well-covered.
That looks superb, the style reminds me of Metal Storm's chibi-murderous mechanised assault. Vehicular/on-foot variable scrolling action is always of interest, too.
A sound bilateral principle for high-intensity, high-precision, toe-to-toe sidescrolling combat. 
If that opening still of all the platypuses sitting around chilling @ peaceful WOODY LAKE doesn't warm your heart, you one cold shell of a man 
(and Rolling Thunder superjump i-frames!)
