The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

[Squire Grooktook]

Okay, put some more time in with Ray in Hard Corps. As it turns out, The Alien Cell is (almost) just as easy to kill with his spreadshot as it is with Sheena's tracking laser. I decided to switch over to 1lc'ing the Alien Den route with him, and holy hell he is built for this route.

He has some mad fun speed kill strats against the mid bosses. Point blanking the centipedes final attack with spread shot is very fun, compounded by the fact that you actually have to dodge against the rng danmaku rain that it unleashes on the previous phase. The real kicker though is how perfect the Alien Mother fight is with him: The spread shot is just perfectly balanced around the fight. It's super effective against her, but does not remove the need to dodge or prioritize targets at all. You can point blank the face with the spread for big damage, making the fight go quick, but Ray's lack of long range spike damage leaves the arms and pods as a continuous threat throughout the fight. Playing Ray, the fight becomes a twitchy intense climax easily on par with Doctor Crab or Claw Bahamut.

Ray actually does a lot of damage when you use him properly. Believe it or not, he can actually speed kill most bosses in the game faster then Sheena, though doing so is much more dangerous. Ray is just not very intuitive at first because it's sometimes difficult to tell which weapon will do the most damage in a given situation, but once you have a route he becomes a power house. I think Sheena is a bit more fun for having more intuitive and improvisation friendly weapons, but Ray makes a great "not completely broken" speed kill character for high execution routes.

I'm working on a video of a 1lc with Ray showcasing some strats and routes, where I restart upon failing any of the early game speed kills. Almost did it but the Alien Mother's arms cost me a life. Gah.

[BIL]

Will enjoy the replay. ^__^ It's been good to see Hard Corps get some quality evaluation. Might give the alien's lair route a go with Ray myself now actually.

edit: does anyone have any opinions on Pulseman? It's one of the few higher-end MD carts I'm rather unfamiliar with. I quite liked what I've seen of the movelist and overall handling (particularly the "socks on carpet" charge mechanic). But the early level designs make it seem like another Rainbow Bell Adventure (SFC) case. Bright colourful aesthetic, cool moves, smooth handling, stuck in a boring blocky etch-a-sketch game world. Feels a bit dull and off the shelf compared to the varied, rolling worlds of fellow cutesy sidescrolling actioners Dynamite Headdy and Ristar. Does level design develop beyond empty streets and perpendicular mazes later on?

[Squire Grooktook]

So apparently there are two strats for fighting the Mother Alien with Ray. One fairly safe (though still not free from the need to make some unexpected twitch dodges), and one that's very, very hard, involving probably the hardest random dodging in the game, but is incredibly stylish and quick. I think I'm going to go for the latter because fuck it, if I was afraid of dying in a video game I wouldn't be playing Contra.

On a side note this may end up taking way longer then I expected. Might have to wait till winter break to give this the appropriate time for such a difficult challenge.

[BIL]

On a side note this may end up taking way longer then I expected. Might have to wait till winter break to give this the appropriate time for such a difficult challenge.

Haha, no worries. Even in my paltry uploaded gaming footage to date, I wish I'd not rushed things (Splatterhouse Part 3 and The Ninja Warriors Again in particular, very shakey). Much better to wait until you've got some time to spend on the hobby.

There's also the small matter of my uploads looking like crap, being 240p emulator captures, but I've long since consigned this phase of my life to game collecting fiend-dom. Hardware can wait!

[Axelay]

Will enjoy the replay. ^__^ It's been good to see Hard Corps get some quality evaluation. Might give the alien's lair route a go with Ray myself now actually.

edit: does anyone have any opinions on Pulseman? It's one of the few higher-end MD carts I'm rather unfamiliar with. I quite liked what I've seen of the movelist and overall handling (particularly the "socks on carpet" charge mechanic). But the early level designs make it seem like another Rainbow Bell Adventure (SFC) case. Bright colourful aesthetic, cool moves, smooth handling, stuck in a boring blocky etch-a-sketch game world. Feels a bit dull and off the shelf compared to the varied, rolling worlds of fellow cutesy sidescrolling actioners Dynamite Headdy and Ristar. Does level design develop beyond empty streets and perpendicular mazes later on?

Got myself a repro of pulse man on its way .
I'll spend some time with it and let you know .
Oooooo comparing it to dynamite heady, that game is a masterpiece.


Squire what is ray's most powerful weapon?

[cicada88]

Took a little break from grinding Halloween themed Famicom games to test out my MD RGB cable. The only game I have until my flash cart gets here is Herzog Zwei (luckily the American cart worked on the JP MD).

Music, Graphics, and Controls are great.



It's like Thunder Force meets Starcraft.

[BrianC]

BIL, speaking of Dynamite Heddy, which version do you prefer?

[BIL]

Can't say unfortunately - been years since I played the US version. I've got the JP one for now and have been really happy with it. One of those 2D productions that just exudes craftsmanship, and it's a pretty substantial action game too, with the scene-hopping, miniboss-heavy design I love and a good grappling hook mechanic to boot.

I also have the PS2 Treasure Box, so there's always that if it turns out I prefer the former - same goes for Gunstar. I think the US Headdy is supposed to be harder, right? (in addition to a bit of censorship)

[Squire Grooktook]

Squire what is ray's most powerful weapon?

Most powerful by far is his spread shot (C) while point blanking. With C, two spread volleys can be onscreen at once, but it becomes ridiculously rapid and powerful if you point blank. To the point that it can take out Dead Eye Joe's mech on Stage 2 before it even gets a chance to attack in its first form (requires really good timing and spacing though). Of course, you can't always continuously park right in front of an enemies vulnerable spot, and some enemies have weird hitboxes that make it near impossible to absorb all 5 bullets even at point blank range, so that's where the other weapons come in.

B (Napalm/Grenade) is usually your go to weapon for getting above average damage at long range. The idea is that since it leaves a momentary burst of napalm after contact, you can use it to get a continuous DPS while dodging. For example, when fighting the garbage mech mini boss in stage 3, A will give you really bad damage because you can only get in a few bullets per jump (and you can't get close enough to point blank with C either), so B will get you the best damage by jumping and continuously laying napalm over his weakpoint. If you do it perfectly, you can actually kill him before he does his tail spin attack.

B is really terrible for point blanking though, so never use it there. It also occasionally varies in damage for certain targets. Against the waterfall mini boss in stage 4, some shots seem to go through his head for some reason, so I use A for a faster kill. Similarly, the spheroid bot on the same stage always seems to take more damage from A weapons. On the other hand, the flying flower monster that the doctor creates seems to take a lot more damage from B. I'm guessing it's because maybe it has two separate hitboxes which both take damage from the napalm? Dunno.

While B is really good damage for enemies that force you to dodge while aiming, D (Homing) is really good for enemies that dodge your attacks. I usually use it while point blanking against Noiman's last 2 phases (tank and helicopter).

A (laser) is good for continuously hitting certain weakpoints, the kind that just sit there and let you fire straight at them for a few seconds without dodging (the opening stage mech, the waterfall boss, etc.). I also like it for certain types of zakos, specifically the runner aliens in the Alien Den (since you can whip it out in either direction and get 3+ bullets into them instantly, not having to worry about a rate of fire screwing you over).



*edit* scratch what I said last time: last real gaming session of the school year and I did it!

Uploading now, I'll have it up and annotated by tomorrow.

Only thing that disappoints me in the run is that I didn't kill the stage 1 boss before he detached his torso for the second time, but instead killed has it was returning to him. Still faster then what I got for Sheena, but not quite as stylish as it could have been (also didn't restart because something fairly stylish happened during the stage opening). Other then that, most of the run went really well, especially the Mother Alien which was pretty much a perfect speed kill.

[BIL]

I used to like killing the st1 boss before he could bring the building down - dead easy with Game Breaker Bros aka Browny & Fang, less so with Sheena, dunno if I ever managed with Ray. DEFENDED THE BUILDING Then I thought, why the fuck am I preventing a building from getting levelled? That shit rocks. I still do put him down immediately after he's sheared through the unfortunate edifice, though!

[zinger]

Yeah the Western versions of Headdy are harder. Which is great for some of the more intersting bosses, like that robot that comes after STG section... But it still remains that much of Headdy's appeal comes from the presentation (see my in-depth review here: http://insomnia.ac/reviews/megadrive/dynamiteheaddy/), so with the higher difficulty you also have to spend more time replaying a bunch of gimmicky sections with little substance. I myself moved on to the Japanese version before clearing it, which feels better balanced in this respect. Japanese version also had cooler stage names and a lot of dialogue that's been cut out. Not to mention that wonderful box art. Some of the changed graphics in the other versions I have to say like just as much though, if not even more.

[BIL]

It was your review that really woke me up to how special the game's concept was a few years back.

[zinger]

Cool! I recently wrote in-depth reviews of Alien Soldier, Light Crusader and Silhouette Mirage as well, but... they are "beyond my reach" at the moment, since I was banned from the site which has them published.

[CIT]

I was banned from the site which has them published.

No more icycalm love?

[Leandro]

Will enjoy the replay. ^__^ It's been good to see Hard Corps get some quality evaluation. Might give the alien's lair route a go with Ray myself now actually.

edit: does anyone have any opinions on Pulseman? It's one of the few higher-end MD carts I'm rather unfamiliar with. I quite liked what I've seen of the movelist and overall handling (particularly the "socks on carpet" charge mechanic). But the early level designs make it seem like another Rainbow Bell Adventure (SFC) case. Bright colourful aesthetic, cool moves, smooth handling, stuck in a boring blocky etch-a-sketch game world. Feels a bit dull and off the shelf compared to the varied, rolling worlds of fellow cutesy sidescrolling actioners Dynamite Headdy and Ristar. Does level design develop beyond empty streets and perpendicular mazes later on?

It gets a bit less monotone later on, but not much. Still worth a playthrough to the end once.

[Squire Grooktook]

Alright, here's the annotated replay!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jZLV5v4JXQ

Enjoy some rare Ray footage. Could have been a lot faster in places, but I think you get the idea of how to do solid damage with him. Especially on Deadeye Joe and Mother Alien.

*edit*

Argh, wrote a ton of stuff on stage 1 and 2 that didn't get saved. Will have to rewrite.

*edit*

Okay, think it's good now!

[BIL]

Balls, gotta catch the bus. Will enjoy watching it when I'm at a PC!

[Captain]

I have my C-only 1lc ready to upload but am lazy as fuck.

Oh and I killed all the motorcycles by sliding through them.

[Squire Grooktook]

Oh and I killed all the motorcycles by sliding through them.

Every time you kill an enemy with a slide, an angel gets its wings.

[BIL]

Hahaha, classic slide recovery terror on Kimkou. They nailed such a wonderful double edge on that mechanic. I usually don't see the bullet rain pattern with Sheena, since pointblank C in conjunction with offensive sliding is so easy to demolish his solo phase with. I also discovered recently that, like the st1 tanker truck and st3 deathcars, you can stand on top of him and blast straight down during the attack - just don't be too close to the front or you'll get smashed by his headbanging antics, and be ready to slide to safety if his buddy emerges from the ceiling afterward.

I find the st4 dual sphere bros' bullet rain the game's most nerve-wracking - not dense, but fast and they come in at odd trajectories. The status bar doesn't make things any easier, either.

Sorry if the below observations on the alien den are disordered/erroneous, I'm in "matchsticks propping eyes open" mode and must crash.

About the infected soldiers, I've found with Sheena A it's easily possible to run and gun that section with an unbroken stride, and a little creative downshotting during jumps. I play it safe during my run since as you say, their transformation sequence is pretty intimidating. It seems that if you head straight towards them the explosion will blast the accursed rooster clear of your path, letting you leap and downshot any that give chase.

(best runners ever, seriously - not that they're particularly advanced or anything, but they're horribly creepy [ever tried leaving them alone together a while?] and seem wonderfully determined to catch you - immediately doubling back at the player if jumped over, where most similar Contra enemies just jog on. Hard Corps/Vampire Killer/Rocket Knight enemies all exude personality this way... VK's bone chucking skeletons and harpies are two more common enemies with their own little "idle" routines you'd probably never see without observing a while.

Somewhat related - SO GODDAMN RIGHT about "Moonlit Army" - for literally over a decade I had no idea what lay behind the opening bell tolls. It's so good a Yamaha hard rock jam I'm not even mad you have to deliberately stop and wait (or use the sound test). I wonder if its composer was unhappy at this, or if it was a labour of love. I also wonder if Akira Yamaoka wrote it, its rollicking guitar is very similar to the later parts of "DEAREST" (Title BGM) from Shin Contra's OST.

I don't think the gigantic jaws in the vertical climb can actually go after the player character. I was messing about recently and despite the cyclopean eye glaring long and hard at me, the beast would just wait until a fresh hugger appeared and devour it immediately.

I had no idea there was climbable ceiling over the top of the vertical climb!

And wow, Ray C really does tear up the Alien Mother + Heart. Nice work, you made it look easy even knowing how lethally capricious her auxiliary parts are.

Superb vids, truly. To be honest, until you picked the game up seriously I'd thought of HC as kind of played out, especially Ray. Still hugely appealing as an overall package, but firmly within "comfort gaming" territory. I've enjoyed seeing it from a fresh perspective.

[Ed Oscuro]

^ hugely informative post, ol' ultraviolence eyes or not. Akira Yamaoka tunes in Shin Contra, huh?

Speaking of things, how does the enemy personality in Sparkster (Mega Drive) match up with its SFC counterpart and the MD original? I have so far assumed that enemies in this game play second fiddle to the rather unnecessarily mazelike platforming areas, but I could be wrong here.

[GSK]

It gets a bit less monotone later on, but not much. Still worth a playthrough to the end once.

Yeah, it never becomes as fun as you'd hope but it does get much better after the first few stages.

[Axelay]

Alright, here's the annotated replay!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jZLV5v4JXQ

Enjoy some rare Ray footage. Could have been a lot faster in places, but I think you get the idea of how to do solid damage with him. Especially on Deadeye Joe and Mother Alien.

*edit*

Argh, wrote a ton of stuff on stage 1 and 2 that didn't get saved. Will have to rewrite.

*edit*

Okay, think it's good now!

A very good and solid play through thanks for the link.
Really enjoyed the annotations they were very informative.
Cheers for all the information on rays c gun and then the video with it in real time.
Subscribed !

How about you bill ?
I want to see you kicking some ass on shinobi on you tube

: )

[BIL]

Haha, I'm currently not on active duty. ^__^ I'd need to spend some time figuring out how to improve my wheezing PC's video captures, in any case. I'm ashamed of some of the muddy travesties on my YT channel. The alternative is better hardware, but since my samurai vow of balls to the wall game collecting is far from being rescinded, this is some time away. ;3

I'm not currently good enough at any of the MD Shinobis to record the full runs I'd like, tbh - if you haven't already, definitely give Ruldra's Shadow Dancer L3 no shuriken no miss a look.

[royalfan84]

This thread is quite informative; I've been reading through it in it's entirety on and off for the last 8-9 days. I recently bought a Genny (I owned one when I was younger but it was sold in a yard sale.), and this thread was a perfect read for me.

After reading this thread I will be buying:

1. Rocket Knight Adventures
2. Ranger X
3. Granada
4. Contra HC
5. Castlevania: Bloodlines

I got my Genesis in about a week ago and with it I had also purchased:
1. Thunder Force IV
2. Gaiares
3. Subterrania
4. MK and MKII
5. Desert Strike
6. Steel Empire

What all your thoughts on these games?

I should also include that I probably had about 50 games when I was younger...all of the Sonic, Streets of Rage series, EA Strike Trilogy, MK games, and several others. But it's only fairly recently I've discovered there were so many awesome mega drive games I never had heard of; let alone played. I've got several downloaded on VC, many many more on different consolation discs, etc.

Also enjoyed reading about the Shinobi and Contra runs...I'm a huge fan of Shinobi III.

My top 5 Genesis games currently:

1. Gunstar Heroes
2. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
3. Streets of Rage 2
4. Shinobi III
5. (Tie) Alien Soldier and Thunder Force IV

[BIL]

Akira Yamaoka tunes in Shin Contra, huh?

Oh hell yeah - I suspect he may have been behind the skull crushing, toe stubbing Yamaha juggernaut that is Last Fucking Springsteen. The man is/was a dirty guitartronica monster, you get glimpses of it in the early Silent Hill OSTs like a fireplace flickering through moldy brickwork at night, then BOOM! VENUS in you mufhuckin face.



Unfortunately he jumped ship to be pretend Def Leopard sometime around 2004, leaving Neo Contra with only Sota Fujimori's fruity pumpy eurovision electronica and a distinct lack of fibre.

1. Rocket Knight Adventures
2. Ranger X
3. Granada
4. Contra HC
5. Castlevania: Bloodlines

Solid gold. The Konami three are the company's finest collective 2D hour, which I know is fucking saying something. Ranger X twisted my arm into getting a MD in the first place, a unique, complex and outstandingly crafted mecha sidescroller. Granada involved some of the same people and is 110% no-nonsense seek and destroy with a phenomenal soundtrack and the best attract mode Engrish ever. My boner is raging and I got all this stuff years ago.

[royalfan84]

Akira Yamaoka tunes in Shin Contra, huh?

Oh hell yeah - I suspect he may have been behind the skull crushing, toe stubbing Yamaha juggernaut that is Last Fucking Springsteen. The man is/was a dirty guitartronica monster, you get glimpses of it in the early Silent Hill OSTs like a fireplace viewed through moldy brickwork at night, then BOOM! VENUS in you mufhuckin face. Unfortunately he jumped ship to be pretend Def Leopard sometime around 2004, leaving Neo Contra with only Sota Fujimori's fruity pumpy eurovision electronica and a distinct lack of fibre.

1. Rocket Knight Adventures
2. Ranger X
3. Granada
4. Contra HC
5. Castlevania: Bloodlines

Solid gold. The Konami three are the company's finest collective 2D hour, which I know is fucking saying something. Ranger X twisted my arm into getting a MD in the first place, a unique, complex and outstandingly crafted mecha sidescroller. Granada involved some of the same people and is 110% no-nonsense seek and destroy with a phenomenal soundtrack and the best attract mode Engrish ever. My boner is raging and I got all this stuff years ago.

Yeah I preemptively bought a 6-button controller because I knew eventually I was getting Ranger X...your advice has put me over the top. I thought it might be too difficult and frustrating for me; but honestly the tidbits you guys have dropped about the game will help me immensely.

[BIL]

It's actually really lax about difficulty, at least on Normal - you can generally take your time learning the stages' unique quirks while backtracking to recover health+ammo. Of course you can also sweep through in a torrent of mecha vengeance, carpetbombing and torching everything in sight. Very flexible game that way.

Assault Suit Leynos is the really difficult MD mecha sidescroller. It's a personal favourite for its expansive battlefields and brutally unpredictable enemy distributions, but I can't recommend it unequivocally - the dated controls take some time and understanding.

[royalfan84]

I would also be interested to know your guys' top 5, 10, 50 or whatever megadrive games. It seems to me most of you fellas are experts in this area and I would like to know what you think the best of the best is. And possibly how it compares and contrasts with my moderately newbie-fied lists....

[BIL]

You've mentioned a lot of my favourites / popular heavy hitters already; a few more I'd add. Bold means JP only.

*Chelnov aka Atomic Runner: super deluxe arcade port of an excellent autoscrolling running, gunning platformer.

*Slap Fight MD, Snow Bros, Marble Madness [Tengen ver, not to be confused with EA's crappy Genesis one]: more luxuriant home port goodies - Tengen's JP MD output rocked. Unfortunately all quite rare and pricey, especially SB.

*Puyo Puyo + Puyo Puyo Tsuu: yet again, arcade loving! Due to similar hardware they're virtually perfect ports and great for both casual and hardcore arcade puzzler fans. Dirt cheap too, enormous value.

*Twinkle Tale: MD's answer to Natsume's excellent SFC Kiki Kaikai / Pocky & Rocky. Cute but challenging and super fast Commando-style shooter. Uncommon and costly, though.

*Splatterhouse Part 3 / Splatterhouse III (former is JP and much superior): winningly gruesome slasher/occult/bodyhorror-themed beltscroller, supported by a totally solid Final Fight-derived base and an interesting, replay-boosting nonlinear time attack concept. Give it a look if you like horror, beltscrollers and especially horror beltscrollers!

*Senjou no Okami II / Mercs: the AC mode is a quality home version, albeit 1P only - but the exclusive arrange mode makes this worth owning even if you have the perfect PS1 port. Plays like an arcade action RPG in super manly and super tough 80s action style. Hard mode will kick your ass into shape.

*Kujaku Oh II / Mystic Defender, Jewel Master & Rambo III (platform action x2 and topdown run and gun): a spiritual trilogy of simple, rock-solid action games that I suspect involved much of the same personnel. None are technical standouts or especially innovative, but I'll recommend their razor-sharp handling and unfettered action over gaudier productions any day, particularly as all three should be easily acquirable.

*Elemental Master: super smooth and majestically soundtracked ground-based vert from Tecno Soft, exemplifying their forgiving, accessible yet ultra-manic shooter design. A hell of a rush every time.

*Same! Same! Same! / Fire Shark & Hellfire: for my money, the best bang for buck shooters on the console (unless they've gone up in price recently...). Superb home conversions of the AC games by Toaplan themselves. Gley Lancer, Battle Mania 2 and Eliminate Down may be flashier but these are more affordable, much easier to source and as fundamentally solid as shooters get. Not for checkpoint haters though.

*Super Fantasy Zone: brilliant, arcade-quality home sequel from Sunsoft. Get Japanese MD ver for the adorable Sunsoft mini clamshell!