BareKnuckleRoo wrote:Good: When a game has multiple weapon types to pickup, as well as increasing power levels for each weapon, picking up a different weapon raises your overall power level by 1, meaning if you accidentally grab a different weapon, you don't lose a potential power upgrade. This is helpful if the game spawns large clouds of weapon pickups along with bombs or other items and you need to rush in to grab something after dying, you don't have to wait methodically for weapons to cycle to collect the same one repeatedly to powerup.
Same. Override on PCE works this way, which also lets you gain levels while enjoying its neat Image Fight-esque arsenal. The Raiden method's discipline can work for me in the right sort of game (Raiden, basically
), but it's pure stricture and can easily annoy in breezier material.
Bad: When a beat em up requires a tap to turn around before a double tap will register a dash. This is only the case in Streets of Rage 2 as far as I'm aware, where to use a Blitz you have to double tap forward twice, but if you want to use it in the opposite direction, you have to tap three times (first to turn around, then twice to input the move). I'm in the habit now of tapping forward three times in SoR2 just to make sure I don't forget, but it's not an issue in SoR3 or SoRR.
I distinctly recall noticing this in SOR2 and being surprised, given the game's incredibly polished handling otherwise. Not a game-killer or anything, but unexpected coming in from the third entry.
Sidescrolling, rather than beltscrolling, but: SOTN's Richter, as well as his apparent copy/paste Nathan from Circle of the Moon, have the absolute best double-tap run inputs I've seen. You can actually hit opposing directions to start a dash - a flick of the d-pad will suffice. I especially like being able to press a whip attack to the limit, tapping towards the enemy, before sprinting back at the last possible moment - much snappier than two "away" inputs. This goes
really well with COTM's awesome Mars Unicorn sword, which gets a huge damage boost at pointblank. Run a Were-Bear through, then dash out of claw range and stick 'em for the finish.
Additionally, you can pivot the dash itself with a quick about-face, and you also maintain dash state on jump landings - so you can cover tons of ground per input, both horizontally and vertically. Besides minimising repetitive double-taps, it makes simply dashing and bounding from A to B entertaining in its own right. Although neither game has inertia, the ease of maintaining a dash gives a keen sense of momentum.
For the ultimate efficiency, I wish more sidescrollers had experimented with Kaze Kiri (PCE-CD)'s approach. Dash is simply [diagonal up] there. Could see it being annoying in the wrong context, say in especially prickly 1HKOs. But in that game's easy-going Spartan X format, it works great.
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WARNING: WILLY_RZR'S GOODTIME SIDESCROLLER SHACK IS ROLLING UP FAST
After much consideration, I am good with Gradius-style Option trails in sidescrolling action/platformers. Gravity puts a
very different spin on the mechanic, when you're not able to just zip up and down the Y-axis at will.
Saigo no Nindou is a very good example! It works ESPECIALLY well with its super-fine height and momentum control!
I want to bayonet this big bitch right in his face,
without his great big fuckoff Muramasa eating up all my DPS!
Aww sheeit, too bad your infernally deadly homing attack has a right arse of a time hitting me at this angle, BONEY-sama!
It's commonly said Ninja Gaiden II ripped off Saigo's Option shadows, to the letter. However, there's a critical distinction: Saigo's always face the same direction as the player, Gradius-style. NGII's higher velocity and irritatingly tiny swordbox are factors, but I think this also explains why I find traditional formations less intuitive there.
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Apropros the first GIF, I dislike it when sidescrollers prevent you from turning around during crouch. I do it there because I want to keep my Options aligned, plus I'm not keen on getting my foot blown off. I appreciate the ethos of calculatedly limited player movement, but barring this tiny adjustment will typically feel asinine in even otherwise well-designed games.
Incidentally, one of the models of calculated limitation, Castlevania, lets you crouch-pivot. Its sequel CVIII doesn't. Look, I can't move FFS, get off my ass for a second.
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I suppose there is some context where I would exclaim "my beautiful sidescroller is ruined! you bitch I'll make you suffer!" but generally, I'm very okay with quick ledge drops.
You could say
I GOT THE DROP ON HIM
Actually I've just thought of one: the classic Castlevania skeleton setup where a boney is harassing you with his calciferous missiles from below, while you traverse a long hallway above (later rejigged in Rondo/XX for Pikemen and their extend-o-matic skewers).
OR SO I THOUGHT. Those are not ledges, you fuck! They are
floors. Saigo no Nindou (pictured above) won't let you floor drop either!
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Now, this is a bit unfair, as the game this flyer is from (Image Fight) does it properly with zero lag:
But I have come to dislike 16-way aiming
with staggered sweep, ala both arcade Contras, and Image Fight's IREM contemporary Saigo. Which not only pairs a treacly 16-way vulcan with a snappy 8-way spread-bomb, but also lets you switch between them at will. Oh hell yeah I'm giffing this for sure.
Eight-way shot. Defending this tree is a snap! Relatively!
Sixteen-way shot. A considerably tougher test of handling that'll net the uninitiated a wolf to the neck followed by complementary hardwood enema.
No you're
not helpfully emulating the SNK-style Lever Loop! You're just
JERKIN ME AROUND! In the AC Contras and Saigo alike, I end up emulating a four-way stick to avoid the god-awful jamming-up.
TBH this plays more like Contra than some Contras.
Shuriken-only run intensifies.
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Metal Slug's Heavy Machine Gun behaves similarly and is rad, but I would put that down to MS [1] lacking contact damage, unlike Contras, and [2] being less of a nonstop raging RNG shitstorm than Saigo (as are most games).
Also the heavy handling is subtly offset by the massive hitbox, generous shot rate, and most of all, the ability to wank it back and forth for willy-waving spray action.
Instructively, Contra's attract demo has the player hauling the spread back and forth like an Olympic rower, versus st5's nasty opening miniboss. It's not all bad, but it's not very good either. I love both AC Contras, but I bet more people would too, if they'd dispensed with the heaving aim lag. Or at least made it specific to certain weapons ala Saigo.
TRICEPS OF STEEL
Now that I can actually play AC Contra's 3D stages without MAME's busted-ass enemy AI (seen also in every previous official home release!), they're actually my favourite bits by far. I already liked the FC equivalents, but these AC bastards are really gunning for your ass. Super Contra has no such luck, aim lag bites down even harder in its alt stages. Counteract or be swamped. Also where is ACA Super, get it up nao and take my money! Good to know its shared Thunder Cross hardware is in the bag, at least.
On a tangent, it's funny how the AC original's fifth stage (something the legendary FC conversion broke up into four discrete, expanded areas) seems to prefigure the more setpiece n' minibosses-driven SFC/MD/PS2 entries.