Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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Vanguard
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Vanguard »

Played through the new King Knight campaign in Shovel Knight. Pretty good. King Knight's basic attack is running shoulder bash like Wario uses in his platformers. After hitting something, King Knight rockets upwards and can stomp enemies from above. After bouncing on something, King Knight can do another aerial shoulder bash. Lots of fun ways to use enemies as platforms and since the shoulder bash sends you upwards, you can kind of use walls as platforms too. I like needing to do an initial attack to set up the conventional platformer stomp. The biggest flaw is that enemies drop health items from being hit and they're way too generous with them. The world map is Mario World-esque. Stages often have multiple exits and there are tons of different paths you can take through the game. The number of stages is higher than the other three campaigns, but they tend to be shorter and rarely have bosses. There's a card minigame and it's lame but also pretty easy. As far as I know you don't have to play it at all to finish the game, but it does unlock an optional boss.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Sumez »

I did a thorough playthrough of Ducktales 1 and 2 in order a few years ago, and I forgot where I wrote my summaries, but my reaction was nearly 1:1 identical to Kitten's.
It's the classic licensed Capcom title. Excellent, in fact crazy well carried-out basics, but incredibly short and never really coming together to form the game that it could. In terms of content they feel extremely rushed. Magical Quest and Aladdin are similar offenders, and to some extent Rescue Rangers.

Ducktales 2 definitely fix a few of the issues I had with the first game, but it doesn't go far with it. I think it's definitely the better game (if only for adding usage for the money, and not having the dumb maze stage that you need to repeat three times for no good reason).

I often hear people say the first game is better even though they've played both, and I don't really get it. But the margin is so small that it doesn't really make a difference to me.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by kitten »

^ i was really extremely disappointed with rescue rangers when i played it given its reputation as one of the best co-op games on the console. it felt insultingly simplistic, and the stages felt really undesigned and just littered with objects to the degree it reminds me of a week of garfield. on the subject of the most unfinished capcom disney game for the nes, i feel it's gotta be talespin. very sloppy on a lot of basics, even has weird hit detection. despite that, i still have a more positive impression of it than rescue rangers :[ maybe i need to replay it, but i distinctly remember how baffled i was when i gave it a spin with my roommate, and she didn't seem to think any higher of it. is the sequel any better? it's the only capcom disney nes game i've not played and beaten and it's got some great sprite work.

to fill the discussion out a little more, here, i thought adventures in the magical kingdom was really mediocre and that the little mermaid was very surprisingly good, but both much easier and even more insubstantial than ducktales. i've got a somewhat more limited experience with the snes games capcom did for disney, though! i played magical quest and very strongly disliked it, but i was extremely charmed by their aladdin game. surprised to see you consider that one in the realm of their more unfinished & unpolished stuff, i thought it was great. it's been on a list of stuff i've been meaning to do a few more plays of and a recording for since i got my capture device.

what substantial stuff are we missing, here? goof troop? i assume everyone on here knows that one was made like it was because shinji mikami wanted to make a higemaru game but capcom wouldn't let him, so when assigned to the goof troop property, he just made one, anyway. he also directed the roger rabbit game (technically a disney property, isn't it?) on the game boy, as well, which i know very little about. there's also the rest of the sfc mickey games, which, after so disliking the first, i have remarkably little interest in.

some of this starts getting a little murky when you consider that capcom was subcontracting smaller studios to make a lot of their games, around this time. sun l did quite a few games for them (like the bonkers game - there's little information on mobygames but they were the developer of a bunch of stuff), minakuchi engineering (did they actually do rockman x3?) did quite a few, and dual/klon might have worked on some of the game boy ports of a couple of the disney games, too. there's also that one weird outlier of mickey's dangerous chase, where i think capcom only published it in the US and otherwise had nothing to do wit hit - okay game, though, not too bad.

anyone want to weigh in some of these? are the later magical chase games any good? how about that bonkers game? did anyone play the game boy roger rabbit game or have anything to say about goof troop - especially if you're a higemaru fan?
BIL wrote:Excellent reportage as usual, will give it the attention it deserves later! :smile: I don't have particularly strong attachments to Capcom's FC Disney stuff, but I always regarded them fondly. Never got to play Darkwing Duck - didn't encounter it BITD and presently still got a chronic case of No-NES. :[ (well... beat to shit NES with a bunch of similarly battered carts. CVIII and NGIII need replacin'. Image)
none of them really quite hit a level of challenge, pressure, or even performance ceiling (aside from speedrunning, maybe) to stand with any of the best, but they're pretty substantially well-made and great little bits of pure recreation. darkwing hews closest to being a Real Action Game, imho. it can actually be tough at times and despite similarities to rockman has a much less meandering pacing. lots of enemies in darkwing aggressively close space between you and them and also spawn again if you back up (ala ninja gaiden), which suggests you learn to push forward with a bit of headiness. you've also only got 4 hits before death, so you can't just tank things or get caught dawdling in those respawn loops. really good game, imho!

the non-capcom outlier that i played, quackshot, feels outright turgid, at first, but coming to grips with it provides a pretty good experience. it's a little hard to get over the initial feeling of donald feeling like he's moving through molasses, but the combination of the run button and the slide mechanic leads to some feeling of momentum after you know when & where to use them in a stage. the TAS for quackshot is also completely insane, there's some bizarre ways to take advantage of its movement that aren't possible for a person (i think they require weird simultaneous d-pad inputs). i really genuinely suggest taking a brief look, it's ridiculous.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

kitten wrote:bashing on rescue rangers
Rescue Rangers is just fine. It's meant to be a simple, but easy to control platformer you can either play slowly and collect everything to get extra 1UPs if you're say, not very good at platformers, or perhaps a child (as in the group the game was marketed to). Or, if you're an adult experienced at platformers, you're very mobile with an enormous jump height that allows you to speed through levels at a very brisk pace, and you can only grab the crates that matter (or ones with stars if you need a few 1UPs).
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Blinge »

Vanguard wrote:Played through the new King Knight campaign in Shovel Knight. Pretty good. King Knight's basic attack is running shoulder bash like Wario uses in his platformers. After hitting something, King Knight rockets upwards and can stomp enemies from above. After bouncing on something, King Knight can do another aerial shoulder bash. Lots of fun ways to use enemies as platforms and since the shoulder bash sends you upwards, you can kind of use walls as platforms too. I like needing to do an initial attack to set up the conventional platformer stomp. The biggest flaw is that enemies drop health items from being hit and they're way too generous with them. The world map is Mario World-esque. Stages often have multiple exits and there are tons of different paths you can take through the game. The number of stages is higher than the other three campaigns, but they tend to be shorter and rarely have bosses. There's a card minigame and it's lame but also pretty easy. As far as I know you don't have to play it at all to finish the game, but it does unlock an optional boss.
Cardgame gets tougher later, but being able to buy the cheats, well..

try NG+. I don't like it.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Sumez »

Metal shitstorm averted!

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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

On one hand, I think it's incredibly unfortunate that this change is even there, for the reasons stated previously.

On the other, the fact there is an option to revert to default code is superb. I would only say that the original controls should've been the default.

A close shave that shouldn't have happened, but ultimately, good show.

EDIT: uh, assuming this applies to the Retro-Bit cart. If not, never mind. >_>
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Sumez »

I don't know how to delete posts
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Sumez »

RE: Rescue Rangers 2.

It's notably worse than the first. It lacks the map screen, so it's just a linear progression except a dialogue asks you which order to do the final couple of stages. Some of the boss fights are a little better, but then there's the final boss who just stands there doing nothing.

Rescue Rangers really feels like it could have been so much better. There's a ton of potential, but pretty much any gameplay thrown at you is mitigated by the fact that you can just press down to hide below what you're carrying to not take a hit.
kitten wrote:i've got a somewhat more limited experience with the snes games capcom did for disney, though! i played magical quest and very strongly disliked it, but i was extremely charmed by their aladdin game. surprised to see you consider that one in the realm of their more unfinished & unpolished stuff, i thought it was great.
I don't think Aladdin is "unpolished" as such, it just feels... unambitious?
I put both it and Magical Quest (which I probably liked a lot more than you do) in the same category as Ducktales and Rescue Rangers - Good looking and super competently made, but both short and completely lacking in challenge. They knew well that people were gonna buy them for the license, and they weren't expected to go the extra mile like they did with their Mega Man games.
anyone want to weigh in some of these? are the later magical chase games any good? how about that bonkers game? did anyone play the game boy roger rabbit game or have anything to say about goof troop - especially if you're a higemaru fan?
Magical Quest 2 and 3 are good IMO. But if you didn't like the first, you won't like the other two. The third has co-op which is cool.
Goof Troop is by far my favourite Capcom Disney game on the SNES. In fact probably my favourite Capcom Disney game. Again, I'd wish it had a couple more stages and wasn't absurdly easy, but I recently acquired the Japanese version which supposedly has a difficulty setting - looking forward to trying that out.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Vanguard »

Blinge wrote:Cardgame gets tougher later, but being able to buy the cheats, well..

try NG+. I don't like it.
I already beat Cardia. Once you get a few triple arrow cards the AI can't compete at all. Though I do appreciate the option to gem thief cheat my way through the whole mess. What are the NG+ rules this time around?
Sumez wrote:Goof Troop is by far my favourite Capcom Disney game on the SNES. In fact probably my favourite Capcom Disney game. Again, I'd wish it had a couple more stages and wasn't absurdly easy, but I recently acquired the Japanese version which supposedly has a difficulty setting - looking forward to trying that out.
Goof Troop is boring in single player, but as a co-op game it's Kiki Kaikai tier. The best part is the inevitable friendly fire incidents, though being able to carry two items also speeds things up a lot when you're playing "correctly."
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by bottino »

kitten wrote:big new post, alright!

Quackshot Starring Donald Duck [AKA: I Love Donald: Guruzia Ou no Hihou] (MD)
Spoiler
A no miss clear run of Quackshot Starring Donald Duck (AKA: I Love Donald: Guruzia Ou no Hihou, or アイラブドナルドダック グルジア王の秘宝) for the Sega Genesis. Captured straight from an X'Eye, no cheats. Sharing much of the staff of the popular Mickey Mouse game, Castle of Illusion (which is frankly quite overrated), Quackshot is an action-platforming game based on Disney's Donald Duck character that was developed by Sega. Unlike a lot of games featuring Donald, you get some characters created by Carl Barks and a world-hopping story more reminiscent of his comics than more generically Disney-branded Donald fare, as well as a sprite that more resembles Barks' Donald. Uncle Scrooge only makes a brief cameo in the opening, but this feels like one of his adventures despite the abundance of Pete and his goons.

Quackshot rides fairly hard on its lavish presentation with some amazingly quality sprite art (disappointingly middling soundtrack, however), but its mechanics don't slack as hard as I felt during initial impressions. While the immediate barrage of questionable elements - relatively slow movement, a weapon that doesn't actually kill things, and a level-hopping pacing that suggests you'll need to find items is a hat trick of "hm, maybe I don't want to bother," I feel like this game really comes together with some time investment and becomes a surprisingly solid title. Though a couple of levels share assets or minor elements, there's a pretty wide variety to support the longer-than-usual length, and there's enough hazards to leave a decent little bit of challenge, particularly if you want to play efficiently.

The three-button control scheme does sometimes get in the way of things, however, as the you'll sometimes want to be dashing while jumping and shooting and may find that an impossibility for your thumb. No control scheme I tried quite felt like how I wanted things, but you'll see me change at the beginning of play for what I find the most comfortable. I tend to often leave my finger constantly depressing the b button and rock it left or right depending on if I need to jump or shoot, though I sometimes hold three fingers above the buttons in a "claw" position when I need to be making more complex maneuvers (which is rather uncomfortable). Gosh, how I wish the Mega Drive controller had more sensible button placement...

My play is mostly on point for this run, and I feel I get through the game rather expediently. The only major goof I can recall offhand without reviewing the play is that I have a completely embarrassing final boss fight. I can often beat him without getting hit, but for some reason I choke massively here and very nearly die - there's a point where I basically deserved death but missed it due to generous i-frames. The game isn't that hard, but the last stage can be a bit mean, and I was playing a bit recklessly. Though I dip to low health at a few parts of the game, I'm only at risk of dying in that boss fight, and gosh was I seriously at risk!

If you're a fan of Donald - particularly a more Barksian Donald - I feel like this is a pretty easy pickup. If not, it's still a surprisingly good action game often overshadowed by worse and more Mickey-centric predecessor. The plunger gun is a pretty fun little tool to use, and I kind of enjoy that the enemy's brief period of stun urges a sense of constant forward momentum.
Nice review.
I'm not really familiar with the other games, but Quackshot is a lovely game, probably my favorite as far as disney side-scrollers go. As you said, the plunger gun works surprisingly well, with a smart and good level design built around it, which is not often the case. And yeah, I also feel that Castle of Illusion is overrated in some circles, with Quackshot being a substantial improvement over it in pretty much every department.

Another Donald Duck game that I think it's worth checking out as well is the competent The Lucky Dime Caper for the Master System.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Sumez »

I never really saw the big appeal in Quackshot. I think it's a fun game, but as I recall it, it is also a very generic and unmemorable platformer.
At least, like the Capcom games, it's competently made. I feel like the Master System Disney games are mostly fun despite not playing nearly as well.
Vanguard wrote: Goof Troop is boring in single player, but as a co-op game it's Kiki Kaikai tier. The best part is the inevitable friendly fire incidents, though being able to carry two items also speeds things up a lot when you're playing "correctly."
One player can carry two items in single player.
But when one player can have only one item in co-op that definitely creates an exciting dynamic that doesn't exist in single player at all. The game is definitely designed for the two player experience.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Vanguard »

Whoops, you're right! What makes item fetching faster is that one person can grab the item and the other can exit, bringing both to the next screen. Been a while since I've tried it in single player.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BrianC »

Sumez wrote:Metal shitstorm averted!

Image
Sweet. I found retro-bit's release to be solid otherwise. Sweet box, a cart that works right away on the toaster nes, and a full color manual. It even comes with a poster. It's crazy that not only is there a way to reverse the controls, but it's a simple mid game code that works during pause and on all versions of the game (AFAIK, only tested the retro-bit and US versions). I wonder if there's an area of the game where being able to shoot down right after a gravity shift is beneficial.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Sumez »

Does it work on the old NES/FC releases too?
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

^^^ Yep! Damn, I'd no idea. :o Very cool, Brian. I already thought Tamtex were ahead of their time with the game remembering your latest password on reset, creating a quasi practice mode. That and including a second loop more than hard enough to pass for an arcade game.

I guess Irem's ROM revision flipped a flag somewhere, then. No harm done, will go back and edit my first post on the matter.
BrianC wrote:I wonder if there's an area of the game where being able to shoot down right after a gravity shift is beneficial.
It wouldn't surprise me, if Tamtex themselves included the option. That said there's nothing to stop you from doing that anyway, since you can shoot up/down/left/right throughout Gravity Jumps just fine.

The inverted controls aren't as bad as I thought, re: Gravity Jumping while running. You can approximate it, pretty much. The [jump] input needs to come immediately after you hit [crouch], or you'll stop in place. By default, you can prime the direction and hit [jump] any time. I could see the alt controls getting awkward in the loop's most intense parts.

Also, apologies for repeating myself yet again, but I don't think it's as intuitive - pressing towards the relative floor when you want to vault onto the ceiling. Generally speaking I think the original cartridge defaults had the right idea.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BrianC »

Yeah, not sure there's any use for it, I just find it interesting that firing is not interrupted by a reverse control gravity shift.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by evil_ash_xero »

I haven't checked up on this thread in a while. Any of you guys psyched about Cyber Shadow? I see the trailer is from early last year, but Yacht Club has been posting stuff of it on their Twitter, so the launch date may be coming soon. It's not made by Yacht Club, but some guy from Finland. However, from the interviews, it looks like they had a hand in level design. Which is very good, as Shovel Knight had great level design. The developer said that Shatterhand and Shadow of the Ninja were inspirations. This looks great to me.

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Here's the trailer, and also a recent demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA_Sy-PkeMU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-W1lPtIxH4
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Udderdude »

I've been waiting for Cyber Shadow to come out for years .. no rush or anything :lol:
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by it290 »

OMG, totally slept on Sega AGES Switch, but it's due out in NA next week. I'm pretty excited to play it based on the preview footage. Funnily, but not surprisingly they hacked out the Marilyns and Spidermen from the second stage. Will be nice to get my Shinobi fix, though!
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BrianC »

At least this time around they are replaced by Altered Beast posters. The Wii version just removed them. Both versions changed the Spider-Man guys colors.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by evil_ash_xero »

Udderdude wrote:I've been waiting for Cyber Shadow to come out for years .. no rush or anything :lol:
How long has it been in production?
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Sumez »

I first saw videos from it in 2016, so I'm guessing probably a few years longer than that.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

No idea how it plays but it looks the part for sure. <3 Compact Action Man™ character dimensions and the speedy, high-precision action they facilitate. Which prior to this year I always identified most strongly with Konami, Tecmo & Natsume's FC landmarks, but lately, I've found contextually best expressed by Tecmo's Rygar (AC).

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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by evil_ash_xero »

2016? Seems about right. Hopefully it comes out soon, since YC is putting a bunch of stuff up about it.

And yeah, BIL, it does look the part. I really hope it delivers.
I'll have to check Rygar out. I think I've played it in the past, but it's been a LONG time.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by it290 »

Having played through AC Rygar recently, I was surprised at how many danged levels there are. Quite a bit of variety, too. Definitely can't see myself 1ccing it anytime soon but it's never dull.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Marc »

it290 wrote:Having played through AC Rygar recently, I was surprised at how many danged levels there are. Quite a bit of variety, too. Definitely can't see myself 1ccing it anytime soon but it's never dull.
My best was 12-13 levels on 1CC, but after Rolling Thunder it's definitely something I'd like to return to. Just to responsive, speedy and satisfying to play.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Jonny2x4 »

kitten wrote: some of this starts getting a little murky when you consider that capcom was subcontracting smaller studios to make a lot of their games, around this time. sun l did quite a few games for them (like the bonkers game - there's little information on mobygames but they were the developer of a bunch of stuff), minakuchi engineering (did they actually do rockman x3?) did quite a few, and dual/klon might have worked on some of the game boy ports of a couple of the disney games, too. there's also that one weird outlier of mickey's dangerous chase, where i think capcom only published it in the US and otherwise had nothing to do wit hit - okay game, though, not too bad.

anyone want to weigh in some of these? are the later magical chase games any good? how about that bonkers game? did anyone play the game boy roger rabbit game or have anything to say about goof troop - especially if you're a higemaru fan?
I played Goof Troop co-op not long ago when my older brother came to visit last month, but he didn't particularly cared much for it. He found a specific screen in the second stage where you have to avoid a bunch of cannon balls that instakill you a bit too cheap. I really want to give the game another chance, but it seems to be one of those kind of games that are more fun to play co-op than alone.

On an unrelated note, I remember seeing a tweet from Hideki Kamiya that seemed to imply that Captain Commando and King of Dragons on the SNES might had been outsourced too.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by Mortificator »

When I ran out of Contra games my playthrough of that series segued into Metal Slug. I was originally only going to do my favorites - 1st Mission, Metal Slug, and X - but it's been a long time since I hit up the later Neo-Geo games, so what the hey. Those only get sloppy runs using all the credits the AES gives you. Even more than Hard Corps, Metal Slug 3 has a lot of cinematic spectacle that doesn't bear repeating.

Metal Slug 4 was tougher than I remembered. The second stage boss annihilated me until I rediscovered that you can just crouch in your Slug while firing with vulcan fix and be totally safe.

The lower route on mission 4 has a stupefying amount of mummies. Mummies for days. Rolling mummy grenades that burst into more mummies. What I wouldn't give for a flame shot. The game's kind of stingy with weapon drops in general, which makes this boss fight take too long, even though it's barely a threat once you take out its claw. You seldom see the new 2 machine guns.

Another bad habit is randomly de-Slugging the player. This happened zero times in the first game, once in X, a few times in 3, and now you're frequently made to abandon vehicles for no discernible reason. I'd have rather liked to keep my super tank for the final battles against mecha-Allen and the Doctor, but my character apparently thinks such a time's ideal to hop out and go it on foot.

Metal Slug 5 is light and breezy after 4, if palpably incomplete. Missing in Action has documented just how much planned content was abandoned, but I haven't heard why SNK Playmore rushed it in such a state. Could have been a very good entry if finished proper, provided the devs realized they needed to intensify the slow segments and not have bosses hang out in the background or other unhittable areas. The tower of the elephant boss is also clearly designed for co-op, and becomes especially dull when a single player has to repeat the same process on both sides himself.
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BIL
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari

Post by BIL »

MS4 has intensity and focus, if nothing else. Down to kill by stage 2's boss, where the Nazca/SNK games only get comparable in their penultimate stages. It was the first Slug I put serious time on - I was surprised at the relative mildness of MS1/X/3, afterward. Especially with their mainstream "I credit fed for thirty minutes - TOTES IMPOSSIBLE!" image. It's been a few years since I last played, but I remember the third boss featuring some excellent multitasking with those interfering helis.

Shallow as it sounds, if the graphics weren't so blatantly hacked-together, I'd find it much easier to accept as a "Gaiden" affair. I would say it occupies a similar spot as Dracula XX in my library, but that would actually be incredibly unfair to MS4, as it doesn't screw up character movement or other basic engine details!

Now would be a good time for me to revisit MS5. I've never gotten along with it, ever since the PS2 MS4/5 twofer that introduced me to the series. I always recall a sparseness to much of it, reminding more of Rockman than Metal Slug. MS1-4 leverage their Saigo-styled armed combat into hordes of enemies, making even easy stretches gratifying to shred through, and enabling some bloodening melees later on. Never got that feeling from MS5, having 1CCd up to its last stretch. I plan to go back, but its kicking off with a long, not particularly good autoscroller doesn't help things.
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