blackoak wrote:Last night I fired up Ex-Ranza. Not really a platformer per se, but something I had never tried before. Took a few tries to get the hang of things, but I'm liking it a lot so far. The controls put me off at first, but as with many games, once you get the hang of it, the design really opens up. Even second tier games have a lot to offer if you meet them on their terms... something I would like to teach my friends, hehe.
Ranza was among the accursed handful of games that finally got me into pre-32 bit consoles.
One of my favourite sidescrollers. There's nothing like it elsewhere, not that I know of anyway. That Wolfteam interview you translated a while back confirmed what I'd suspected about Toshio Toyota (Granada/Ranza director); an arcade gamer with a craftsman's attention to fine detail and "extensive enemy algorithms." There's a lot to observe and exploit in that game's stages and enemy behaviours, along with the player mech and its huge arsenal.
Do note the hardest (and easiest) difficulties are hidden in the NTSCJ version - you need to hit "ABC" three times quickly in the options menu to reveal them. You also need to know how to super jump, to make it over a few particularly massive gaps exclusive to the higher difficulties. I'm 99% sure the Japanese manual mentions it but supposedly the US one doesn't. It's crouch->df->up, like in a lot of Capcom/SNK fighters.
Also, don't underestimate the usefulness of a good kick in the chops!
Ed Oscuro wrote:Er anyway, the one thing I find tricky with Grant is getting around corners without dropping off. It's neat to be able to squeeze into one-block-high areas.
Wall-clinging should've definitely followed NG1's example. Jump onto the wall to stick -> unstick only when jump is pressed again. Cornering over pits is terrifying, unfortunately. :[ I do think it's kinda neat how if you're right at the edge of a block, you can hit [down] and climb straight onto its side, and likewise clamber up single-block "staircases" without jumping. Hardly worth the annoyance of autostick and outright hazard of auto-unstick, though!