GB/GBC/GBA Shmups + Other Worthy games

[Mortificator]

If I have a nitpick it's that things were in danger of becoming formulaic. That it was too similar to other gradius games.

Yeah, Generation's paint-by-numbers. No innovations to the basic system. The only new weapon is the unremarkable Thrust Laser. Stage and boss designs don't get too wild. Having a multi-phase core replace the boss rush feels more like a concession to time/money/space restraints than an attempt to do something unique.

[opt2not]

Sigma Star Saga is a shmup/rpg hybrid.

It's quite fun, might not appeal to elitists though.

Whoa, haven't heard of this game before. The artwork looks pretty great! Those are some pretty looking sprite animations, and the character sprites are huge!! I'll have to try it out.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Sigma Star Saga is a shmup/rpg hybrid.

It's quite fun, might not appeal to elitists though.

I tried this out for a bit on emulator before. Is the slowdown just my computer? Because there was a quite a bit of it, even if there wasn't a lot on screen. Also, there's no auto-fire, so beware if you hate mashing. Especially if you hate mashing one face button while holding down another, because the "slow movement button" is inverted. Seems like hit detection might've been a bit spotty, but I'm not sure if it was that or maybe my computer skipping frames and making hit-flash hard to notice?
Otherwise, didn't seem like it was a terrible game.

[cicada88]

X ("ekkusu") is the precursor to Star Fox.

Quarth is cool.

[Mortificator]

Sigma Star Saga is terrible. I blew off the criticism of the game too, back when I decided to play through it. The first stage's OK, the art's nice, the writing's snappy, why didn't people like it? But then I was bombarded with terrible encounters. I started to cringe every time a horizontal shooting segment came up.

It's almost as if the game was trying to condition me not just to hate it, but to hate shmups.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

There's the nes classics series Xevious, Star Soldier, and Twinbee ports on GBA if you can stand the aspect ratio. The psp really does make a lot of this stuff irrelevant.

[Squire Grooktook]

Sigma Star Saga isn't just bad for "elitists". Whether you judge it by shmup or rpg standards, it's a terrible chore to play at times. I could list some of the flaws (too many random encounters, dodgy hit detection, shmup sections go on for too long and lack challenge/variety, etc.) but rest assured The Guardian Legend is still undefeated as the best rpg/adventure game and shmup hybrid.

Sigma does have some charm though, especially the aesthetic, just don't expect top notch action.

If I have a nitpick it's that things were in danger of becoming formulaic. That it was too similar to other gradius games.

Yeah, Generation's paint-by-numbers. No innovations to the basic system. The only new weapon is the unremarkable Thrust Laser. Stage and boss designs don't get too wild. Having a multi-phase core replace the boss rush feels more like a concession to time/money/space restraints than an attempt to do something unique.

IMO Gradius (with a few exceptions like Gaiden) has always been an uber rough around the edges series. Gradius II, III, Snes III, IV, all have their own flaws. So I don't mind a Gradius game not having any innovation if it tries to polish things somewhat (not that Generations/Galaxies is perfect in that regard either).

[Sinful]

IMO Gradius (with a few exceptions like Gaiden) has always been an uber rough around the edges series. Gradius II, III, Snes III, IV, all have their own flaws. So I don't mind a Gradius game not having any innovation if it tries to polish things somewhat (not that Generations/Galaxies is perfect in that regard either).

I usually don't care about lack of innovation & only re-skin if I like a particular series very much (I actually prefer it). The problem with Galaxies is that it actually strays too much from the gold standard that is the 4 Arcade games & quickly followed by Gaiden (Console/Arcade style hybrid). You guys have to look in the right place to see this. ie. from a game design perspective with difficulty, pacing, etc. It's like the guys behind this port really didn't understand the series and/or just didn't do a good enough job. It really feels like another typical cookie cutter portable game.

I really want to love Galaxies as a fan of the series (the more the merrier), but instead I'm more picky... game's technical limitation to music isn't helping either. So in conclusion, I only see Galaxies as a de-evolution. It certainly does not contain the Konami standard. In fact, wasn't this made by Konami rejects mixed with maybe Nintendo rejects to make some GBA reject launch & shortly after launch titles, no?



Hm, and you think the main series has a lot of flaws too... meh, I've read this enough before, so I can take it. >_>;;

I'm surprised you think that. I kinda see it the opposite way. If I have a nitpick it's that things were in danger of becoming formulaic. That it was too similar to other gradius games.

Put in enough time into this series, and it should become clear how much more different it is. Too bad it's not different for the better.

Danger of becoming formulaic? Mega Man 9 & 10 say otherwise. If folks love one thing, give em more of the same & let them enjoy, is what I say. And this is something most here live by too. Folks here sure don't want our fave STG genre to change too much either. What ain't broke don't need fixing or too much change... but sadly the mentality of there needing to be more change buried the STG genre and classic Arcade style way of gaming. Along with many other games... sigh.