What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Squire Grooktook]

Picked up Under Night In Birth. Really surprised me how unique the game feels. At first glance it seems like your standard air dasher, but the lack of safety on jumping actions and movements makes the game feel more like a traditional spacing/footsies focused game with some flashy twists.

Can't speak for balance at the moment, which is apparently the games weakest point. Although I don't think a games balance can be reliably commented on until a few years have passed anyway.

[Pretas]

UNIB would be substantially improved by a Burst/combo breaker mechanic. Doubt we'll ever see a sequel, since the game greatly underperformed with the JPN arcade crowd.

[ACSeraph]

UNIB would be substantially improved by a Burst/combo breaker mechanic.

So much this^^^

---

Tekken 7 hit arcades via wide release last week, so I put a few credits into it. Seems good, in the way that Tekken is always good, but in a post DOA5 world I'm not really feeling it. Tekken may have a bigger, dedicated, vocal fanbase, but I feel like DOA5 really gives you more opportunities to out-think your opponent than Tekken. In contrast Tekken is dancing to the beat of frame data. Not a bad thing, but I prefer the depth and scope of DOAs mind games and options.

I've got room in my life for both though, and Tekken does do some new and wonderful things. They got rid of B! finally so the game has returned to a format that more closely resembles 5. The power crush "focus attacks" also give some additonal much needed options to escape from bad situations. The system feels better balanced than the invincible red attacks from Tekken Revolution for sure. The other really big thing is the new additon of online play in the arcade cabinets. The AI in tekken has always been mind numbingly stupid, so the game is too boring to play by yourself if no one else is at the arcade. Living in a small town with an equally small (if dedicated) Tekken community it's nice that I will now always have the option for some good versus matches even if no one else is around.

[gbaplayer]

Still into Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. 46 hours now its totally awesome and yesterday i played first time online.

Also started Tales of Phantasia on SNES, cool too.

[null1024]

Jet Set Radio [Steam].

Quite fun. Having the second stick for camera control is legitimately nice. The control still feels a bit weird to me.
still looks fucking fantastic to this day, and the soundtrack is awesome as fuck

[broken harbour]

Edit... I ranted.

[Leandro]

Jet Set Radio [Steam].

Quite fun. Having the second stick for camera control is legitimately nice. The control still feels a bit weird to me.
still looks fucking fantastic to this day, and the soundtrack is awesome as fuck

This game is on my wishlist and Steam didn't warn me it's on sale. I'm glad I opened this thread


I'm playing Shantae: Risky Revenge [Steam]. Nice action platform game. Wish I could use my CRT Tv with this new pc, but I have to buy a digital to analog conversor first, and it's too expensive. The game would look good on my old TV.

[cicada88]

Trying to play through every Capcom Disney NES game at the moment. 3 down 6 to go.

[BrianC]

Trying to play through every Capcom Disney NES game at the moment. 3 down 6 to go.

Don't save Disney Adventures for last. It was my least favorite. It's not terrible, but the gameplay is more simplistic and less fun than Capcom's other Disney games. Are you counting Mickey Mousecapade? That one was designed by Hudson.

[cicada88]

Trying to play through every Capcom Disney NES game at the moment. 3 down 6 to go.

Don't save Disney Adventures for last. It was my least favorite. It's not terrible, but the gameplay is more simplistic and less fun than Capcom's other Disney games. Are you counting Mickey Mousecapade? That one was designed by Hudson.

Yeah, I am counting Mousecapade but I didn't realize it was a Hudson Soft game in Japan.

I actually decided to play Disney Adventures now because of your post. It's pretty rough, but actually some of the graphics are ok. I did notice the fire tile graphics from Red Arremer 2--Adventures in the Magic Kingdom came out 2 years prior however

[Obiwanshinobi]

went for some Crazy Taxi [Steam]

the amount of runs where I time out with less than $500 or so to hit $10000 is driving me nuts
I'll never get to 20k this way...

I also need to clean up some of my stops and try to see if there's a way to avoid wall-stick [where you slam into a wall and go up on 2 wheels and the game gives you a big-ass tip bonus, but it's really hard to escape it and it takes an asston of time].

Might need to do a bit better route planning, too.

Tonight I'm making another attempt to learn how to Crazy Drift, but I only ever seem to perform it accidentally (Dreamcast version here, using DC stock controller).

P.S. I DID IT (beat the Crazy Box challenge). 19 combo (15 was required) as B. D. Joe, who is said to be preferred for drifting. Here's my advice: no need to stop accelerating; start turning first and as you turn, tap reverse, then quickly press and hold drive (keep turning). I think certain minimum speed is required to start drifting (it would seem obvious... in a sim).
It has to be said I find Midnight Club II's take on such "special moves" more intuitive.

Matsushita's artwork isn't "very American." Disney was clearly his biggest influence, but all his designs have a distinct Toriyama-esque manga flair.

The man drew the cover for every single mainline issue of Famitsu - he really deserves more recognition than he gets.

Although his works I saw aren't badly drawn, I found the character models in Maximo vs. Army of Zin the wrong sort of ugly.

[null1024]

Tonight I'm making another attempt to learn how to Crazy Drift, but I only ever seem to perform it accidentally (Dreamcast version here, using DC stock controller).

P.S. I DID IT (beat the Crazy Box challenge). 19 combo (15 was required) as B. D. Joe, who is said to be preferred for drifting. Here's my advice: no need to stop accelerating; start turning first and as you turn, tap reverse, then quickly press and hold drive (keep turning). I think certain minimum speed is required to start drifting (it would seem obvious... in a sim).
It has to be said I find Midnight Club II's take on such "special moves" more intuitive.

Crazy Drifts are relatively easy, but they do take a while to figure out. I slide my thumb across reverse->drive while turning to do it. You'l be doing that slide motion a lot eventually.
also, good luck doing the rest of Crazy Box, some of them are dumb as hell [did I mention Crazy Bowling is fucking hard, I probably did a bit back]

Also, you can Crazy Drift with almost no speed, and you can even do a Crazy Drift from a standstill [very useful for dealing with bad stops without losing too much time].

http://www.crazytaxi.net/skills.html helped me a fuckton. It's for the arcade version, but just about everything works as stated on the DC.
Like, the all important Limiter Cut SEEMS to be just do a Crazy Dash again after another [and it's described as hard as hell in that guide because on the arcade controls, it would be hard to do it that quickly, but on the DC, that barely requires any movement].

[broken harbour]

Wrapped Eternal Sonata last night.

Loved the game overall, beautiful graphics, great OST, likeable character design, awesome battle system that keeps changing it up as soon as it becomes stale. The story was... meh... but I don't even care. Not really sure what happened there during the ending... like most JRPG's the plot loses its mind in the final act but its ok... still great fun.

The 7th chapter however, made me nuts...

Spoiler

Fist of all, you fight a bunch of palette swapped bosses you defeated earlier... this is lazy game design and I don't know anyone who likes this sort of thing. Secondly, chapter 7 is way too long and just a huge grindfest, with a chapter boss that's waaaaay more powerful than the final, final boss, which required a couple more hours of going back and grinding a chapter that was already way too long.

Overall, great game, very underrated, just bear in mind that you'll be annoyed from about hour 42 to hour 47, at least I was.

[CStarFlare]

I finished Lufia II yesterday. What a seriously disappointing game. If rented it several times as a kid, but always started fresh and never saw beyond the first few hours. And the first few are great - dungeons that mix puzzle elements with avoidable battles, monster recruitment, special abilities associated with most equipment, a rocking battle theme, nice graphics...

But after the initial shine wears off, it becomes pretty obvious that Lufia II was a game with a lot of ambition and insufficient time/funding. Your monsters are perpetually worthless, dungeons are only either caves or towers, and item powers are underutilized. The game falls into a pattern of town > dungeon > short walk to next town, and never deviates from this path.

The localization is a special kind of poor. Party members' names are spelled inconsistently and there's a town whose name is '3y - someone forgot to translate it. When they do translate names they get them wrong - there must be a list somewhere of common monster names they fucked up or straight transliterated from katakana. A whole floor of a dungeon is one big graphic glitch and I don't think I'd have passed if I didn't have youtube to guide me through.

I've wanted to finish this for a while. It's nice to have it done, but it's been a while since I've played a game that holds up so poorly compared to how I remember it.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

I thought Ancient Cave was the main reason people liked that. It's pretty much a game of its own, though I'm not sure if you'd enjoy a roguelike. I'm not a fan of most roguelikes, so I'd be more interested in the maingame if I were to play it.



Got the platinum trophy on Rogue Legacy(PS3 version, but it shares the list with PS4/Vita because it's crossbuy). Pretty good game and I'll probably pick up the PC version of it sometime. That trophy for completing NG with 15 or less deaths was the hardest part of it(especially since I did not use the cheap way of backing up saves, so it was closer to actual roguelike experience), but after a bunch of horrible starts, I eventually got through it with only 13 deaths.

Been playing some P4 Arena Ultimax. I'm pretty hopeless at it though since I lose most of my matches. I've been mainly using Rise and Marie though, but I'm not sure how good either is(though I'd probably lose with the high tier characters as well)

[Obiwanshinobi]

http://www.crazytaxi.net/skills.html helped me a fuckton. It's for the arcade version, but just about everything works as stated on the DC.

That looks helpful, thanks. I could play with a Saturn wheel (via adapter), but it's not the way I like playing my arcade car games.
Another adapter allows me to use PlayStation controllers and, although I doubt I perform any better, those rest comfier in my hands.

[CStarFlare]

I thought Ancient Cave was the main reason people liked that. It's pretty much a game of its own, though I'm not sure if you'd enjoy a roguelike. I'm not a fan of most roguelikes, so I'd be more interested in the maingame if I were to play it.

I admittedly haven't tried the Cave yet. Wasn't really planning to, as I was just so glad to be done with the main game. Maybe I'll give it a shot since I'm not in the mood to start something new at the moment.

[gbaplayer]

Lufia II is in my personal top 3 of SNES RPGs. Just remember the awesome ending and the scene before that where you have to destroy those stones.
Brings manly tears to my eyes...which RPG today does tell such a dramatic story and has an ending just like that? i cannot remember of anyone...

[ACSeraph]

Haven't been shmupping much and instead focusing on other stuff lately:

Tekken series: The release of 7 has had me casually back into playing through the rest of them at random. Played 6 on my lunchbreak, really dislike that one, and fuck that final boss and whoever designed it. 5DR on the other hand is a work of art, and reminds me why I got into the series in the first place.

Red Dead Redemption: Been going through this one slowly, just taking it in and playing when I want to relax. Pretty close to finishing it now. Never been much of a fan of GTA (aside from 5 which I thought was really good) but the GTA open world style really shines in this setting. I appreciate playing as a heroic character, games are fantasies, and I don't really fantasize about being a criminal. I'll be looking forward to the inevitable sequel.

Bayonetta 2: I never got around to playing Bayonetta when it first hit despite being a fan of DMC and the greater hack and slash genre. This will sound shallow, but aside from "It's like DMC!" nothing about the concept or artwork appealed to me so I just never got around to picking it up. I was missing out apparently. With little else to play on the WiiU I took the plunge and now completely understand the love this series gets. Great personality and fun mechanics. The dodge particularly makes it a huge step up from DMC for me. I finished the first game within just a couple days (holy shit stage 14 was incredible, I must have had a really goofy smile on my face through the entire thing), and now I'm just beginning the sequel.

[Marc]

GBA Super Ghouls n Ghosts in Wii U. Fuck it's hard. Last time I played the SNES game a few years back, I still managed to make it as far as the Mode 7 level where you're sat on a platform moving through (4 or 5)? Couldn't move past the first on the few goes I had on this last night, screen feels incredibly cramped. Really want to see those arrange levels again though, remember enjoying them immensely when I had the original cart so will try again later. Oh, and PilotWings. There's just something endearing about its simplicity and silliness that still entertains.

[juonryu2nd]

I thought Lufia 1 and 2 were pretty good, nothing too exceptional though.
3 for the GBC however is one of my all-time favorites. There are no more riddles in the dungeons which I don't mind, but the excellent battle system drew me in instantly.

[dink]

Ninja Baseball Bat Man

[lilmanjs]

Project Gotham Racing 2
Currently going through the arcade mode. Some of those races though are really too easy. No way on Hard should you be running away from the rest of the racers. Though one slam into the wall and that can change. Time Attack I really want to go back and improve in once I have beaten all the rest of the races and cone challenges.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Mostly King's Bounty: The Legend, but I also played a bit of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg GameCube version. The first stage's framerate seemed more consistent than on PC (where it's playable, admittedly).
Quite a missing link between 3D Mario-like platform games and the more frantic kind most people don't seem to believe exists.
Those who search for Atlantis of 3D platform games faster-paced than most mainstream stuff should experience Billy Hatcher, even if it might give some folks "gaming sickness".

Oh yes, it's gotta be one of the first competitive split-screen multiplayer platform games (first in 3D?), that was missing in Super Monkey Ball and I first found it in Kororinpa (for two, whereas Billy Hatcher supports up to four).

[mamboFoxtrot]

Nah, various Sonic games have had split-screen before Billy. Given that it's supposedly running off a modified Sonic Adventure 2 engine, the multiplayer might even share some of its code.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Sonic Heroes and Billy Hatcher PC ports could be handled by the same developer as both refer to GameCube buttons in-game.

[lmagus]

Fifa 2015

[broken harbour]

Been playing Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, recommended by a friend.

So far, very interesting story, it has that "just another hour" quality since there's a mystery to uncover, mostly well done dialogue and voice acting too. It's barely a game and more of an interactive movie, but not in the same way as say Heavy Rain. I guess it's kind of a traditional adventure game, but (so far) without the frustrating puzzles and weird logic that the genre is known for, there's no combining a paper clip and bubble gum into a hand grenade or anything.

It's hard to beleive games were this ugly in 2006 though, wow, the PS3 and 360 generation was already out when this game released and it's a mess of blurry textures, basic environments and weird, haunting low-poly faces. Looks like a 1999 PC or Dreamcast release. Actually no, Shenmue is much prettier than this....

Still liking it though, I have to play the first game in the series now.

[Xyga]

I can tell you what I will be playing starting tomorrow: Dragon Force II in English http://www.verve-fanworks.com/

[SuperGrafx]

Fired up the old Sega Saturn for some World Series Baseball II action, in celebration of opening day.

Still a great baseball game even today.