PCE Tonma is superb - looks cutesy from a distance, but despite the hop/bop it is a game of BUST SHOT
Gets an "R-9 on foot" feel when you're fully kitted out. Good job on the no-miss, as you say it's a game where death peskily nips at your heels!
I'd say Ninja Spirit's AC mode is considerably tougher to no-miss, mostly on account of
that fucking ninja pit. Good of them to add an easy route (foot of that post), but if you don't know about it, the tighter camera and lack of BG markers make it
even fucking worse. Should've junked/redone the wretched thing altogether. But stages 6 and 7 do have other, more honourable dangers, albeit not to the bitter extremes of the arcade game. I think the notable lull of st5 is actually nastier on PCE, thanks to the smaller playfield - the gas traps can't be scouted so easily. Then again, the removal of the arcade's time limit equalises things, somewhat.
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Related, having spent all weekend on
Hamster's PS4 Ninja Spirit, I can report no input issues, screen tearing or other cheapo emulation badness. Even when replicating the PCB's most titanic slowdowns, not a single button was dropped. Audio is bang-on, config options are simple but effective - seems like damn good work overall, I wonder who the developer was. Recommended!
Huge thanks to Vludi & Vanguard, whose runs and notes helped me get the arcade pit down after a solid decade of procrastination. Vludi, your stat bar method is gold! Ta buds. I'm gonna put some notes up too when I'm through. The way the game snaps right back to expertly-judged wuxia action after the worst twenty seconds in scrolling action... makes the bed-shitting lapse seem even worse tbh.
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For now, here's my rendition of the checkpoint recovery route. Slowdown is different compared to full power, so it won't be as useful in a no-miss. It's a start, though, and might save a 1CC. I'm a bit too depressed at this shitshow to comment much - this is a healthy and normal reaction to the pit - except to say that by the end of Sunday afternoon's session, I was affording names to various important ninjas and rock formations in my neurasthenic funk. Shoutout to my boys Delroy and John-John, when I see you cats I know I'm home free, much love to Lazies Crew for puttin' me up early on also.
^ See the "eyes" of the derpy rock dragons? They're useful!
^ That double rock formation will let you know when to bail from the wall after the First Four in Phase 1. You wanna pre-load momentum with a few taps - wait until entering the formation to move and that wall soldier's gonna clip your ass.
^ Keeping over the "gap" formed by the Kusarigama icon's blade and tail as Phase 2 starts is the deadliest bit. Graze the nose of D'latarius the lone dragon souljah to avoid a rightmost killer, then precognitively pass over the eye of CHZ-CHZA who's rolling with his partnah Harold to slip another to the left. Deliverance is at hand!
^ The two ninjas that come rocketing up in single-file as the second note of the dirge hits, which you can't hear because this is a GIF - get on their lane after and chill.
Oh god. Why'd they do this. It's one of the great mysteries of hardcore scrolling... I'd love to know
just what in the fuck. Yeah I know, CREAM get the money, etc, but was it really that brazen? Oh well. Will make a properly annotated video next weekend, probably!