Oof, blimey!
I enjoy razzing on Dracula IV/ADSFC, with its rambling runtime and floaty, depressurised combat (it's the artsy emo member of the trad CVs - best vibes, best tunes!) - however, even my elitist self could never rate it below ADAC.
THATS FUCKIN COLD 
Well... >_> In a hellish horror flick dilemma, involving
A: my todger and
B: a whirring tunafish can-gone-buzzsaw (not unlike the merry deathtraps lining ADSFC's lategame!), I suppose I too would rate ADAC! With my being able to replay ADSFC only every four years or so, this would free up
all kinda time for other stuff.
Good Games Waste Time 
The AC version of Guevara does the "pay for play" thing, too - as long as there's coins in the machine, hitting [P1 Start] will convert them to however many lives you get per credit. I was wondering why I was rocking seven extra men by Stage 2, that's what mashing start to skip the (unskippable) map screen will do. So, in theory, you could buy your way to the baddest score on the block - milking boss zako and timing out, ad nauseam (ad paupertas?). Wheee, capitalism!
I TOLD YALL GAMES WAS ART, MAAAN 
(I
thiiink its SNK contemporaries, like Datsugoku and Ikari III, work the same way - but it's been a while, those two make me sad)
Conversely, Guevara's predecessors Ikari and Dogosoken don't allow continues. I don't think there's even a DIP option to enable them, like Rygar has. Konami's own 80s Gradius trio are the same, too.
Psyvariar had the best idea, I think. Casuals can "beat the game" with continues, but will miss out on all the XTREEM stages and bosses. They won't care!
Pumpin choons! But the
H4RDCOR3 will want them points! High scorers get the baddest (and deadliest, cha-ching!) venues. Everyone's a winner! Or at least they would be, had Psyvariar come out a couple decades earlier! I like to think so, anyway.
Delta (PS4/Steam/Switch) fuckin rocks.
Tangentially, I'm currently revisiting the original Devil May Cry, for the first time since... 2003 or so? The game's ranking structure makes so much more sense now (likewise, Hideki Kamiya being a diehard arcade head). "Yellow Orbs?" More like INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE
At the time, a couple years before Gradius V's announcer worked me over with tough robo-manlove, I didn't care how may yellow balls I smashed, as long as the boss eventually blew up, or caught on fire, melted, etc etc. DMC1 being Kamiya's "challenge to gamers" was blindingly obvious, even to a console-only like me - but the notion of gaming as performance, really mastering the avatar and the course, then demolishing a game in spectacular WR fashion, was something relatively alien for an arcade neophyte. All we had where I grew up was VS fightans.
EDIT: Oof, speaking of DMC and time eaten, just catching up:
CIT wrote:Just cleared Game Boy
Contra on the Switch Anniversary collection.
I never paid much attention to the Game Boy because I think the b/w graphics suck (Game Gear master race reprazent!), so this game always flew under my radar. But I've been very pleasantly surprised at how well and smoothly the playability was translated to the handheld; it doesn't need to hide behind its arcade and console brethren at all. GB Contra makes use of existing elements from Contra and Super Contra and blends them together with some new additions (e.g. Homing Shot) to create a very entertaining romp that's overall a fair bit easier than the other games in the series.
Cleared the second loop on the same credit to see if there were any differences in difficulty or ending wise, but as far as I can tell everything remains the same.
I give this game 8/10 spread shots. I actually liked it so much that I got myself an original copy for my tiny Game Boy collection.
So yeah, if you dig Contra and want a quick snack to hold you over for an evening between more demanding games, give this one a go.
Pro-tip: Milk the ceiling pods before the final boss until they release a power-up. Very convenient!
Super lovable game.
Compact and crunchily destructive stage design, some interesting original bosses, even makes it mark with the debut of default autofire and Homing. Manliest boxart of the series too.
^^^ totally earned its place here.
__SKYe wrote:Alright Sumez, the i-frames on the last boss seem to be the same but his punches still hit you even when he's invulnerable so yeah, my initial strategy doesn't work.
But I found out that you can just roll under him after punching him and he'll usually perform a jump kick instead of the triple punch, and you can just punch him again from the other side and repeat. It requires a bit of timing, because you must let the roll complete before you are able to attack but it's about as hard as performing my initial strat; which is to say, not too tough.
I might just be misremembering things, since it has been a while since I last played the JP version, but the EU version appears to have more enemies overall. Also, against the dude that has a stretchy arm, I think you can duck it on the JP version but not here.
And finally, I don't remember the Rhino's jump being so long. It's very hard to catch him as he lands and as a result he's quite a bit harder. Maybe a roll would allow you to close the distance quicker?
I really should replay the JP version eventually to be sure.
Good research! I've been away from Crude Buster way too long to comment, but I wonder if it really was tweaked? Was just posting about Splatterhouse Part 3 in the current beat 'em up thread, another MD violence luminary that fared badly during localisation.
) is sheeeite 
I can only contribute that I call the angry muscle vest midboss CYBERMAN 
I find the resulting hit/run game more interesting than annoying, even versus multiple Pyros, given your grappling and movement options, but I totally get why you'd be turned off on that.
