To devil's advocate for SS1 slightly, I don't think it's a mechanically clunky game. Zoom the camera out and it'd work fine. Unfortunately there is nothing as important to a soldier as his eyes, and so you have to endure at least a couple blind, bumpy survival clears while learning the course layout (shield magic helps). Sans this (massive) caveat, I'd have no qualms listing it as a late 80s highlight ala FC NG/Batman et al. Doesn't handle as sharply as them, or Kujaku Ou II, but that's alright in its context.Sengoku Strider wrote:I think III is excellent, but Revenge, yeah, clunky is the word that always comes to mind. I don't even feel like it's an "of its time" thing when Ninja Gaiden & other NES standouts had already set a higher bar.
Castlevania Bloodlines is what happens when SS1's best killer=biggest guns feedback loop is applied to a game with functional camera tracking. Alien Soldier is yet better, since it's designed around the concept, rather than adapting it to an existing chassis (or a flawed one, in SS1's case).
It doesn't handle with SSII's perfectly-judged weight, that's for sure. That game's running slash, which for those who've not seen it, is:I have this game but didn't play it for long. Maybe I just need to give it more time but it felt kind of...I dunno, floaty?
>Invincible to projectiles, but not melee/contact damage during hop, enforcing good spacing.
>Absolutely invincible during slash, encouraging ballsy aggression and imparting a sense of almighty power.
>Completely unguarded during sliding stop, punishing sloppiness.
That's a lot of great design sense packed into one move!
But yes. Shin, or to call it what it is, Super Shinobi 3's version is functionally similar, but looks, and feels, like a wafty balsa-wood POS.
Probably because that's what the digitised actor was actually wielding!
However, that same floaty aspect gives it some surprisingly agile jump attack chains (I genuinely wonder if the devs were modelling on FC Ducktales... same vibe exactly). Between the ridiculous "cane bounce" and the suave rolling slash, you can go for impressive lengths without touching the ground, leaving masses of collapsing, MSPaint-bisected extras in your wake.
Do you know about SS2's hidden six-button mode? Hidden on MD at least, it's a default option in M2's customarily superlative 3DS AGES version. Makes a killer moveset even moreso, with the katana having its own button, and blocking likewise. Crouch katana's reach is amazing, cuts enemies off at the knees from across the screen.