What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[third_strike]

You can use my replay to help I play really safe and methodical
I don't know Saigo no Nindou / Ninja Spirit but I will make a research. I like written material. Reminds me when I read giga wing and mars matrix faqs on the metro to learn English.
I've heard about Mystic Warriors might be a good option.
Just now I am very sad because there is so many good game to so little life time.

[Blinge]

Not to do an ag99 but it gets to me sometimes when talking to friends about games when they can't appreciate how pixel graphics can sometimes lead to awe inspiring beauty. All they see is the pixels..

[BIL]

Pixelphobia and polyphobia alike are marks of a limited palate, imo. . Either medium can produce beautiful results in the right hands... I can't imagine digging Virtua Racing (Switch)'s timelessly bold 60fps flat polys one second, and turning my nose up at Nazca's ultra-detailed sprite art the next, or vice-versa. Crazy! It'd be like swearing off whole genres or varieties of music and food.

Or perhaps simply an immature, or under-developed palate. I think people generally benefit from time and experience - I sure did - though the truly closed-minded are a different matter. Shit taste happens.

[Marc]

I appreciate Rygar more every time I play it, just so refined. It's the little things - I didn't realise until this week for instance, that even the fire plumes can be hopped on, so the slight hold-ups at those points are also gone. The entire experience is geared toward moving you forward as fast as possible, while dispatching things in total style. Brilliant, brilliant game.

I've just picked up Ninja Kid 2 based on BIL's write-up. I'll admit, going purely off the visuals I'd have swerved it, but between the write-up and a 50% sale, I'm itching to give it a go.

Also, Tetris Effect. In VR. God Damn.....

[BIL]

Ninja-kun II is good stuff, though a bit idiosyncratic (as was UPL's charming wont). Looks cute n' cuddly but it's hardcore! To reiterate my writeup, do note the wall-jumping (more like wall-bouncing, really) - it's got an odd but easily-mastered input. Leap towards a wall, then hold [away + jump]. Unlike eg Super Metroid, there's no specific timing - as long as you're holding those inputs, he'll bounce right off. Can be repeated infinitely, as long as there's another wall to bounce off.

[ACSeraph]

Digging through my collection for something new during my quarantine boredom led me to trying out D2 Warp for the first time. What a wonderfully insane game, I should have played this years ago. Unfortunately the moment I got to disc three I found out that I had a bad disc all along, so short of buying another copy I won't be able to finish it.

[it290]

Did a big of plague splurging this weekend and bought both DOOM Eternal and Resident Evil 3 Remake. I've only played the former so far, and only for about 30 minutes but from what I've played it's a hell of a lot of fun. I didn't really like DOOM 2016 that much.. even though the movement mechanics were great, I felt like the constant rage attacks slowed down the pace considerably and sort of turned the game into a 'wait for enemy to flash, hit button' qte extravaganza. This game tunes the mechanics and speeds things up a fair bit, plus the environments are significantly more interesting than those in 2016.

I also have been playing some board games, and tonight my girlfriend and I did Mansions of Madness: 2nd edition which was great fun. Really easy to set up and get going, surely the narrative will get repetitive after a while but I enjoyed the heck out of our session. I'm including this here because it's sorta a videogame... or at least half the game is played on an iPad.

I also did some reviews of other things I've been playing recently. For the shmups crowd, I highly recommend Gauntlet 2014/2015. Super fun game with great local and online multiplayer that was sadly given an unfair shake by the regular gaming press. This game takes the idea of something like Diablo and turns it into an arcade game with five unique and very distinct, skill based classes to master. I personally like the elf since the game plays like a twinstick shooter with him.


* **Valkyria Chronicles: Remastered (PS4, 2016)**
* Holy cow, not to share too many spoilers, but I'm going to have to give this game top marks from the outset. Having slept on a lot of the PS3/X360 generation I missed this one, but the words 'SEGA' and 'Tactical RPG' are truly a magic sauce under any circumstances, and Valkyria is no exception. From the beautiful WWII-meets-steampunk setting to the simple yet powerful story to the completely brilliant turn-based tactics with realtime elements, this game does not disappoint. The tactical gameplay is relatively simple and accessible compared to something like X-COM, but simultaneously incredibly challenging and logical. I haven't completed the campaign yet but am super excited to do so. **5/5**

* **Earth Defense Force 5 (PS4, 2018)**
* This series has been of the unsung heroes of ghetto gaming since the early aughts. Take your generic dude or dudette, equip them with one of almost 1,000 weapons, and go to town blasting wave after wave of giant ants, UFOs, and other B-movie enemies. You can play splitscreen couch coop (which is great), or online. Differing character classes allow for a high degree of customization for your personal gaming expertise. The graphics are janky as hell which is part of the appeal; seeing just how many low-poly models your PS4 can throw on the screen only to get instantly obliterated is a big part of the fun. The dialogue, which is corny beyond reason, also serves to push the value proposition of the game beyond where it should be by any rights. This is some of the best bang for the buck your gaming dollar can buy, and comes incredibly highly recommended for anyone who just likes a bit of _fun_ without all of the rest of the crud that often accompanies games. **4/5**

* **Dead or Alive 6 (PS4, 2019)**
* This is the first time I've returned to the DOA franchise since DOA2 on the Dreamcast, and not a ton has changed, but the combat engine has gotten more sophisticated and matured in significant ways since then. Notably, the motion capture and movement are way more fluid and all of the martial arts styles represented seem incredibly true to life (while also still being performed in super outlandish ways by outlandish characters). This game, like Dragon's Crown, got a lot of heat for its depiction of women, and honestly that's completely deserved but at the same time DOA6 is a lot more innocent in many ways than its predecessors or other contemporary games like Soul Calibur 6 or Mortal Kombat 11. The online 'wardrobe shop' is totally exploitative and not a point in the game's favor, on the other hand. As a fighting game it's competent and fun and the arena 'danger zones' are great to experience with another player, but unless you're a fan of the series I'd probably avoid this one. **3/5**

* **Dragon's Crown Pro (PS4, 2018)**
* In many ways this game is really the culmination of the style of beat-em-up introduced by the Capcom Dungeons and Dragons series. The combo engine is exquisite and the game feels incredibly good to play, but it is somewhat marred by the designer's decision to turn the game into a loot-based one; the damage your character does is incredibly dependent on your gear, and this makes the game less satisfying and fun than it might have been as a straightforward arcade brawler. I won't get into all the controversy around the game's art here, but suffice to say that there's a lot of hypersexualization going on here that is likely to make the game unplayable for a lot of people, which is a shame because overall the 2D graphics and animation are incredibly beautiful and amongst the best in any game. Some bad decisions and missed opportunities prevent this from being an all-time classic. **3/5**

* **Gauntlet: Slayer Edition (PS4, 2015)**
* I gave this edition of Gauntlet a pass back when it was originally released since the visuals were kind of murky the reviews weren't great. I decided to give it a go for its couch co-op potential and because I'd been playing Legends recently (see review) and wholly crap am I glad that I did. This is completely different from any previous Gauntlet game and feels very modern while retaining a lot of the oldschool flavor. There are only 5 classes available, but each is completely distinct to the point of having an entirely unique control scheme. From a multiplayer point of view this game completely wipes the floor with the likes of Diablo 3, as combat remains persistently challenging, interesting, and fair, and the classes (each player in a 4-player game must pick a unique class) complement each other very nicely. Balance does seem to favor the Elf and Wizard by a fair margin, but everyone's viable and the Warrior/Valkyrie are probably easier to start with. My only real critique is that the environments and enemies get somewhat monotonous. It does feel like a dungeon for sure but some variety would be nice. **4/5**

* **Gauntlet Legends (Dreamcast, 2000)**
* I first encountered Legends in the arcade back in 1999 and fell in love almost immediately as a huge fan of Gauntlet I and II in the arcade. Legends absolutely nailed the feel of those games, while modernizing the formula, making it more approachable, and applying some modern innovations like character saving (almost unheard of in US arcades at the time) and a cutting-edge 3dfx graphics chipset. The Dreamcast port brought almost all of that home in an only slightly reduced fashion—lower framerate and only slightly degraded graphics (ironic considering the DC was at least as powerful as the original hardware). This game is truly epic, especially if you max out your character's level and get the alternate classes. I also have to shout out the insanely creative powerups—which include turning into a chicken—and the great sound design. The narrator is somehow, impossibly, even better than the original game, and the music and SFX are both very, very good. The Midway logo when the game starts has possibly one of the coolest sounds I've ever heard. This game doesn't have a lot of depth, but it's insanely fun to play and non-gamers can pick it up in 5 seconds. The graphics still look pretty great given how crude they are, and the fact that it's playable with an arcade stick is a nice bonus. My only real critique is that due to the camera the labyrinthine levels can get a little frustrating when you've cleared everything out and just can't figure out where to go. **(4.5/5)**

* **Street Fighter Alpha (CPS Changer, 1995)**
* A MiSTer core was released for it recently and I've been playing it a bunch. In short: the CPS Changer was a weird-ass 'home console' available from Capcom via mail order in the mid-90s that was basically a home version of their CPS1 arcade hardware. Think 'Capcom Neo Geo' and you basically have it. They back-ported the first Alpha game to this system and it's pretty much intact, only with fewer animation frames and slightly improved music (!) due to the cool Yamaha FM synth chip available on the CPS1. Alpha is kind of a weird game. Animation wise it's a huge step up from Super Street Fighter II, but the character roster is very limited and some of the backgrounds are almost devoid of life whereas others are great. Feels almost like a beta version of SFA2, my personal favorite in the Alpha series. The combat engine is still pretty fluid and good. It's very easy to combo people to death and the CPU AI blocks way too much, but it immediately feels like a modernization of the SF2 engine. Can't really give it top marks but it's pretty cool for sure. As a Chicago resident I like the Chicago stage with all the Amtrak trains in the background. **(3.5/5)**

* **DiRT Rally (PS4, 2015):**
* This game is excellently fun to play with great slippy control and a wonderful variety of classic rally cars from the '70s on including some of my favorites like the Lancia Stratos. It definitely tends more towards the simulation side of things, but there are a variety of helper options to make the driving easier if you'd like them. I've thus far avoided them and generally manage to place around halfway down the pack for the normal rally races (rallycross races are another story). The main reason I bought this was for the PSVR support; this is (unfortunately, still) the best racing option on the PSVR and driving over sun-dapped Alpine roads is wonderful. Turn the co-driver off and you have a fantastic freeform driving experience. **3.5/5**

[m.sniffles.esq]

Man, I still have my Gauntlet Legends character on a VMU (the dwarf that looks like Mr. T) and cannot bring myself to delete him, even though I probably haven't played since 2003...

LOVED that game. My roommate at the time and me spent untold hours grinding through it. I always say it's probably the most underrated RPG on the Dreamcast which usually leads to some knucklehead stating it's not a 'true' RPG

[WelshMegalodon]

BIL, how do you feel about the Master System port of Argus?

[Turrican]

Tonight I've been playing Dragon's Revenge (Genesis). What an odd little game, one with an undeservedly bad reputation I think. Yes this game is a mess, and no the music and art direction can't compare to the Naxat original, but it does have arguably superior physics and a lot of fun ideas, naff music and goofy sound samples. It's fun to play if a bit easy, and although the playfield layout isn't great I do think the special stages are more playable than MD Devil Crash at least—that game has you spending 50% of the time doing nothing in the special stages while the ball bounces into and shoots out of catapults that you have no control over, while this one has neat perspective effects and barbarian babes.

Mostly, though, I'm just curious about this game's story—how the hell did Tengen end up making this clone of a cult favorite Japanese video pinball game? What's the deal with Joe Hitchens, the lead art director who worked on Epic Pinball the same year? The game also has a weird hardware history as although I've owned 3 carts of this baby none of them have ever worked, there must have been some pretty subpar manufacturing going on.

This isn't a great game, but it is better than the other US-made pinball games on the console. Certainly worth a try if you like these 16-bit pinball games.

I'm not sure what is scarier here: the fact that I'm reading that the Tengen one has better physics, which is something I think has never been written for printed paper or online text from 1993 to this day, hell probably never thought even... Or the fact that I'm inclined to agree with this.

[it290]

Man, I still have my Gauntlet Legends character on a VMU (the dwarf that looks like Mr. T) and cannot bring myself to delete him, even though I probably haven't played since 2003...

LOVED that game. My roommate at the time and me spent untold hours grinding through it. I always say it's probably the most underrated RPG on the Dreamcast which usually leads to some knucklehead stating it's not a 'true' RPG

Haha same—my girlfriend and I have been playing it (she's new to the game), and it's been a blast murdering everything with my lvl 99 Jackal (ascended Wizard).

I'm not sure what is scarier here: the fact that I'm reading that the Tengen one has better physics, which is something I think has never been written for printed paper or online text from 1993 to this day, hell probably never thinked even... Or the fact that I'm inclined to agree with this.

For sure... then again as fun as the Naxat games are to play, their ball movement has never really tried to be about realism IMO.

[Turrican]

For sure... then again as fun as the Naxat games are to play, their ball movement has never really tried to be about realism IMO.

No, certainly not, and by firing up both the Genesis Dragons for a quick play you immediately get the impression that the heavier Fury ball is the one which is easier to play with... But the Revenge ball is just more pinball like in its behaviour. Which is the exact opposite of pretty much every other site or forum says concerning the games.

[BrianC]

The Technosoft physics for Devil Crash are different than the Compile/Naxat physics (not that either is about realism), though. Speaking of that, is Fantastic Pinball for Saturn worth playing?

[BIL]

BIL, how do you feel about the Master System port of Argus?

I'd need to play it again, now that I'm familiar with the arcade version - I remember liking it well enough a few years back, and was thinking of grabbing a copy to go with Hachamecha Daishingeki (FC). The modified layout and new title ("Argus no Jujiken"), plus seemingly inoffensive game mechanics had my attention for a while.

[BrianC]

It's interesting that the SMS does the reverse of the arcade and has the arc attack as a power up and the legendary hero starting with the straight up attack. The lynx version omits the former entirely. The Lynx version is more simplistic and easier than the AC version, with slower enemy movement, but it retains the tight controls. It's nothing like the AC, but I still like it. Music is pretty good for the system and I like how it uses the title screen from the JP AC version.

Too bad the only other Salio Tecmo port to SMS is a somewhat botched port of Solomon's Key. For some odd reason, the diagonal movement was disabled and moving while crouching is very awkward.

[BIL]

Yeah, I thought the Lynx title screen was rad too! Growing up, that one pretty much *was* the AC version to me, since I'd no access to the coin-op. Always liked what I played of my friend's copy. The biggest surprise when I finally got to play the AC version was its supremely efficient Castlevania-esque sprite dimensions. It's funny, I'd assumed that was just one more thing the FC Ninja Gaiden team borrowed from Konami, but it turns out AC Rygar actually beat CV1 to the punch by a few months in 1986.

[CIT]

* **Dragon's Crown Pro (PS4, 2018)**
* In many ways this game is really the culmination of the style of beat-em-up introduced by the Capcom Dungeons and Dragons series. The combo engine is exquisite and the game feels incredibly good to play, but it is somewhat marred by the designer's decision to turn the game into a loot-based one; the damage your character does is incredibly dependent on your gear, and this makes the game less satisfying and fun than it might have been as a straightforward arcade brawler. I won't get into all the controversy around the game's art here, but suffice to say that there's a lot of hypersexualization going on here that is likely to make the game unplayable for a lot of people, which is a shame because overall the 2D graphics and animation are incredibly beautiful and amongst the best in any game. Some bad decisions and missed opportunities prevent this from being an all-time classic. **3/5**

Despite how much I love the Capcom fantasy and D&D brawlers I feel DC is superior in every way. I don't know how far you've played it, but the late game dungeon quests are where the real magic lies. It introduces this wonderfully satisfying risk/reward mechanic where your loot gets exponentially more awesome the more dungeons you successively clear, but you forfeit everything in case you die.

[vol.2]

Ion Fury.

Pretty amazing self-parody of 90's build engine classics. Sort of a cyber punk flavored blend of Duke, Triad and Blood. Level design and secrets are a step up from the aforementioned titles, but the weapon choice and variety of enemies is down.
Entirely forgivable if they provide a sequel.

If you are at all a fan of build engine games, you should check it out.

[Mortificator]

XCOM Chimera Squad among their enemies' bodies. There's a critical bug in the game that causes an agent's weapons and armor to disappear. I had to pull through this later story mission with 1/4 of the squad essentially naked. All the girl in glasses could do was attempt to hack robots, which pays off here as I'm about to have the opposing android self-destruct while standing next to his last cohorts.

The game is basically a casualized stand-alone expansion of XCOM 2 with some X-COM: Apocalypse elements. The core battle system is still good and there are even some improvements - the turn timeline you see on the right means there's more back & forth to fights - but overall it's not a patch on XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen. Once I finish up I'll be able to evaluate how worthwhile this detour was. At the moment, my biggest complaint is actually the dialogue, it's frequent and awful.

[Blinge]

I've finally got around to starting Metal Max 2 !!

My buddy in Japan is screenwatching me and translating live so i can play it. Apparently it isn't a chore for him and he enjoys it.
How wholesome ahaha. We're making very slow progress.

[CIT]

Playing Thrash Rally on Neo Geo CD, where it's known as Rally Chase. Very simplistic but super fun game, and I LOVE the tunes!

The CD version is actually an upgrade, because it adds the option of manual gear shifting to the game, which makes it quite a bit more interesting/replayable.

[BIL]

I've been thinking of picking that one up for PS4 via ACA, interest piqued! Always liked a good topdown racer. Also the later, isometric Over Top... and I'd totally jump on Neo Drift Out, but sadly ACA hasn't gotten the rights to Visco (or Sammy) stuff, so it looks like it'll have to be MVS/Neo CD for that one.

[CIT]

I've been thinking of picking that one up for PS4 via ACA, interest piqued! Always liked a good topdown racer. Also the later, isometric Over Top... and I'd totally jump on Neo Drift Out, but sadly ACA hasn't gotten the rights to Visco (or Sammy) stuff, so it looks like it'll have to be MVS/Neo CD for that one.

I think you'll have fun for the ACA price of admission. Home carts are still incredibly cheap too, afaik, if that's your thing.

For Neo Drift Out CD you'll have to dig deep into your pockets, I'm afraid. :/ Incidentally, do you have any opinion on Neo Drift Out versus Drift Out 94? I'm not too clued up about the differences, but they seem like essentially two versions of the same game.

[BIL]

Haha, far as I'm concerned collecting has had the difficulty slider set to Nightmare with the handle snapped off for a while now.

I'm a noob with the Drift Outs tbh, only know them from a few credits with Neo Drift Out. Wouldn't be surprised to hear it was a Strikers 1945 Plus-esque adaptation of the previous arcade game, given that "New Technology" subtitle.

Always thought Drift Out '94's subtitle The Hard Order was badass in that slightly inscrutable Engrish fashion. Odd company, Visco... kind of stalwart JP devs that AFAIK never had any really iconic titles, but lots of solid work nonetheless.

[it290]

Despite how much I love the Capcom fantasy and D&D brawlers I feel DC is superior in every way. I don't know how far you've played it, but the late game dungeon quests are where the real magic lies. It introduces this wonderfully satisfying risk/reward mechanic where your loot gets exponentially more awesome the more dungeons you successively clear, but you forfeit everything in case you die.

I've played it a fair bit—not in this iteration but on the PS3—and although I like the core gameplay a lot, I just don't like loot-based games and prefer a more focused arcade experience. How long does it take to level a DC character to 'late game' status? 40-50 hours?

[ED-057]

Someone recommended CrossCode to me. Not sure I will listen to this person anymore... It's a web browser game passing itself off as a PC game by bundling a web browser, essentially. Megabloat. Controls are a disaster with very limited configurability. I can't play an action RPG this way.

[vol.2]

My buddy in Japan is screenwatching me and translating live so i can play it.

That's pretty awesome. Sounds like a really interesting version of coop. Almost like when I was a kid and I would play adventure games with my best friend.

I speak japanese a bit (lived over there for some years) but my reading/writing isn't very good. I've been hitting the kanji practice for hours a day since covid kept me home, so hopefully It'll pay off.

[XoPachi]

I am playing the good ol' TitanFall 2.
I almost never use any rapid fire weapons in competitive loadout based shooters. I generally stick to shotguns so I always used the EVA-8. Even in Apex Legends even though is dogshit in that game. But I'm using the CAR SMG and it's putting in work for me this morning.

[Leandro]

I was gifted a copy of King's Quest Collection, and I'm very surprised at how good KQ 6 and 7 are, even to this day. I've never played these kind of adventure games as a kid, but I feel like a kid again playing these games... Something about the innocent MIDI music and artwork. Feels good.

[Ajora]

Downloading Spec Ops: The Line as I write this. Now seems like a good time to play something bleak and emotionally draining.