shmups.system11.org

Congrats. Your tatsujin vid on youtube is impressive as well.

Next on my list once I finish the messenger.

Do let us know your thoughts once you've played it.

thanks dude. i played a credit last weekend and didnt clear the first loop lol. rust sets in quick

Katana Zero. $14.99 on Steam, also available on the Switch. Devolver seems to dig Steam and the Switch.

Spoiler free obviously:D EDIT - One spoiler in tags, not a spoiler after the end of the first chapter.

tl:dr - If you like The Messenger you're going to like Katana Zero.

Other than being published by Devolver, having swords for your main weapon, and controlling so well you feel the part the two (so far) have little else in common.

You're familiar with The Messenger so I won't recap. Katana Zero seems to be broken up into three phases -

Missions - These are the meat of the game play. The mechanics are smooth and the game plays wonderfully blending action, stealth, and puzzle elements. Hits feel visceral and satisfying as you paint the walls with the blood of your enemies. The effect is used well here. You seem to have a fair amount of freedom in how you approach combat.

The story seems to unfold through the other two parts: Speaking with your handler/therapist and returning to your apartment at the end of the day. As you speak with people you have dialogue options, these absolutely influence game play.

Pixel work again is top notch. The entire cyberpunk/noir world feels grimy and desperate. In fact the main character reminds me a bit of . It seems like they have built a fantastic world within KZ.

The soundtrack is fantastic on all fronts. So far I've heard solemn piano pieces, 80's synth, and thumping club music. All great.

There is honestly a lot going with KZ and I don't want to say too much more for obvious reasons. I don't think it is too long of a game - probably four to six hours if I had to guess - but it feels like something I wouldn't have an issue playing through a few times to get the most out of it, especially considering that the action sequences feel very much like an arcade game. The whole package is just put together really well.

So to sum it up - yeah I think you will like it quite a bit.

Look forward to discussing The Messenger:D

Thanks for the write up. Katana Zero sounds like a game I'll definitely enjoy. I read a review on gog (praise devolver for continually releasing games on gog) that the game is the first episode of a planned series, hence .

As for The Messenger, it's bloody ace. Feels like a game that was made with the intention of it being speedrun.

As a footnote, I 1cc'd Fight'N Rage on Hard after picking it up for the first time in months. Pretty happy. Ricardo is a lot of fun. So much so, I've barely touched the other characters. I'm sure I will...someday...

I'm closing in on the end of the 1st chapter of the series for certain...it's so good though. The game's presentation is through the roof.

Another cool thing is that you can go back to any section you've cleared to practice routes/better times. The action sequences are very much arcade like.

This will pretty easily be my top non shmup for 2019.



I hope it does well enough that they go through with this idea.

Huge rant incoming - I've seen some people complaining that $15 is too expensive for a six hour game. FUCK THEM. Why is it so hard to grasp things like game development are costly, time consuming, devs need to put food on the table, and SHOULD BE COMPENSATED FOR THEIR WORK. To be fair these are probably the same type of people who would complain that shmups aren't worth more then $5 cause they can be "finished" in 20 minutes.

Sorry - had to vent.

If Steam had a pay what you want I would have easily kicked an extra $5 for KZ.

Vampire Killer is good as hell

Is BIL ok? He hasn't logged in since January. D=

I think he said he got busy and was taking a break from the forums before he left

Yes, I have greatly missed BILbo's output. I did a bit of searching awhile back as well and saw that he was quite a busy lad as of late.

Sigh. It's a shitshow. i don't know how much longer this can go on.

I had a bit rant over on Eurogamer at some guy complaining that games are too expensive. I seriously don't understand how anyone can say this with a straight face. AAA gaming costs the same as it always has, less in real terms (hello £70.00 SF3 Turbo, £75.00 Turok), and the sales through digital distribution regularly see games go for silly money. I've picked up games I might never have given a go, because they were the same price as a goddman Commodore 64 budget game from 1985.

Yeah, people really don't understand inflation at all. A lot of games used to be even more expensive than your $60 console titles, but nobody seems to remember or care. Obviously preaching to the choir here. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get any of my buddies to buy a $20 game, yet they'll drop $12 on a fancy ass beer everytime they're out like it's nothing.

I remember being in Toys R' Us as a kid. SMS games we're 32.99 in maybe 87'. Some we're $40, Afterburner came out at $50, and Phantasy Star was $70 in 1987.

Video games are one of the few things that have actually gotten cheaper as we've gotten older.

Holy shit I didn't realize how much cheaper till just now. $70 in 1987 is the equivalent $160 in 2019.That's INSANE when I think of how hard my father had to work so I could have games as a kid.

I paid $70 for Ketsui, which was a bargain by comparison.

https://www.saving.org/inflation/inflat ... ?amount=50

The concept of spending good money to support the development team is lost on people nowadays who pretty much scoff at the idea of spending more than 10 dollars on anything that's not a AAA release title. It's pretty sad, to be honest. There's a lot of entitlement from gamers in this era of easily obtainable digital releases.

Too true.

Anyway back to awesome things with people who appreciate the work that goes into the things we love.

Katana Zero. I know I already gave a quick write up above, but holy shit I hope I can convince a few more of you to play it.

Now that I have completed it (playing it again) I can say it is absolutely worth it. It would have been worth it if it were just a samurai speed kill simulator, but the story? My god the story is incredible. I am still trying to wrap my head around it via my own thoughts and the theories of others that have completed it.

It is magnificent on all fronts, I bought the ost too.

How many Castlevania games or similar games used what Castlevania: Bloodlines did and identified candles that specifically held subweapons? This was a massive improvement, especially considering that hanging onto a weapon with a III multiplier is a great way to improve damage, and it can be pretty frustrating to suddenly lose that because you hit a candle as you were running along and forgot whether or not it had a subweapon in it. It's especially annoying because you're encouraged to hit every candle you can to farm for hearts, and it kind of kills pacing if you have to stop at every candle worrying if a subweapon is in it.

I think what the classic games should have done is dropped your old subweapon in a form where you could recollect it. Like, if you have a boomerang with a III modifier on it and accidentally grab a dagger, the boomerang drops with its III attached and you can recollect it again. You could argue in that case that players would never switch subweapons, but I'm usually in favor of anything that gives players more control over how they choose to play.

I remember reading something about how all the subweapons in Super Castlevania IV were useless because the whip was so good, but I mean the axe, holy water, and cross boomerang are all perfectly respectable weapons there too, especially with a III modifier active.

Consider how few people worked on a given game in 1987, too. The production costs of a game back then were infinitesimally smaller than with today's AAA blockbusters whose staff numbers rival or exceed that of Hollywood movies. What was considered a reasonable price for a video game was set in a time where a game's staff was 2-10 people and really hasn't changed at all since then despite massive increases in scale and inflation. Games could have just been overpriced back then but they couldn't have been THAT overpriced. It's why the norm nowadays is to release a $60 base game and a bunch of DLC packs right out of the gate; it's not really nickel-and-diming so much as the only thing that makes sense financially.

Paying full price for a quality arcade game is absolutely justified and those that don't see it that way is symptomatic of a general Western lack of knowledge of just how serious players play these games and get their money's worth out of it.

Would I be in the right ballpark imagining this as a side-on Hotline Miami? If so, it'll be my next payday pickup for sure.

Ha. I actually had to Youtube Hotline Miami since I haven't played it yet, but it is exactly that.

Seems appropriate to put here that the arcade version of Ninja Garden is getting a ps4 release through Arcade Archives.

http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/05/ ... 4_tomorrow

Featuring Ryu Hayabusa in his quest to collect flowers for his girlfriend before she leaves him for another man.

lol sorry

Tecmo's very own remake of Sega's Girl's Garden.

It's not as good as Hotline Miami, but few things are. It does have a surprisingly deep story for this type of game, and the pixel graphics are beautiful. HM trumps it by a long shot in the gameplay and music departments, though.

So The Messenger...

If you don't like to back track-

Well noted!

Yeah I'm not a huge fan either. You're in store for some new stuff though, including the best stage:D

Started playing Probotector MD (aka Contra Hard Corps) after I bought a complete and good as new copy at a local flea market for a whooping 15 €. Bargain of the year for sure.

The game is fun, and I like the creativity on show, but I feel like the mandatory stages (first one, junkyard, jungle) are the least interesting ones. So far I seem to get the best results when playing as CX-2 (Sheena). Still, I keep dying stupidly in stage 1. If I manage to get through that, the going gets much smoother.


I also picked up a copy of Rolling Thunder 2, and I love all the Bond-esque cheesiness, but man does it play awkwardly, almost like a poor man‘s Shinobi. Who thought not being able to shoot while jumping would be a good idea? The password phrases are genius, though.