The Ninja Warriors Once Again is remarkable work - Natsume not only kept their SFC peak, they arguably improved on it. Godlike i-frame sense... New KikiKaikai is day 1 for sure!
I'm gonna spruce up the index a bit this weekend. Got a ton of new entries, and will be switching to chronological ordering, for series. The indexing itself will always be a bit scattershot, but this thread is a cheerfully shaggy beast by design.
Boof! Finally nailed down a
Rygar nomiss, having left it on the cusp earlier this year. From one 1986 icon to another - and about as far from Genpei Toumaden's cheerfully tanky undead carnival as it gets. A mythic journey beset on all sides by sudden death!
Well, aykshually
it's an Argus no Senshi nomiss. They differ only subtly, but at such levels of precision, even the fish feel the ripples! Or some shit! Basically, the US one deletes a few buried powerups/1UPs, but spawns slightly more "?" blocks (potential Bombs/Shields). Probably swings and roundabouts, but I am a shameless NTSCJ chauvnist, so it was Nihon a go-go.
Bumped the difficulty up a notch, from Easy to Normal, as I plan to with similarly-defaulted AC games going forward. I rove PCBs that default to 2/4 ala Saigo. 3; Not to give the settings undue importance... AFAIK, Ninja Gaiden's English arcade manual calls its difficulties "Normal/Special1/Special2/Special3," opposite ACA NG/Rygar's less charitable "Easy/Normal/Hard/VHard." Hamster tend to source from original documents, so it may well be that's how the JP manuals call 'em, too. Always a bit of a rough science, it seems. Double Dragon II's US manual suggests Hard Life+Timer (marginally tougher than normal)... but
FUCKIN EZ TATSUMAKI (WTF is this WEAK SHIT
I suspect this was so 80s kids would get their asses handed to 'em extra-quick, because Tatsu spam = dead
)
Either way, as with SNK's similar setups, I just feel a tad uneasy playing at Rank 1, despite not noticing much difference in Rank 2. It's an abstract kinda feel
I posted most of my notes on Rygar
earlier this year; they served me well for this initial survival run. I think the biggest new observation is certain runners' inability to bump you, while you're adjacent to the standard blocks.
It's not much - but then, it's so wickedly easy to die, any refuge is worth knowing. Missed a few midboss decaps, and bonus pickups, particularly in the lategame - nervier to nab in a real run.
Not sure if I'll ever get into XTREEM superplay suicide milking (
BEHOLD ), but I'm interested in pushing my Nomiss score, which still invites some riveting risk. Even in pure survival terms, this is a genuine classic - gets my strongest recommendation, particularly to fans of Compact Action Man sidescrolling ala Famicom. What really stands out, in comparison to its AC contemporaries, is its generosity... your jump, attack and stomp are amazingly potent (don't sleep on the latter's followup i-frames! vital source of forward momentum!), your run is brisk, and your air control is unlimited. And while enemy placement can be devious, their strikes are consistently well-telegraphed. The POV and sprite/screen ratio are also perfect - not a hint of edge-riding badness, just total utility.
At the same time, for all this amenity, complacency invites a swift, brutal takedown. Very much the Ninja Gaiden to Green Beret's Castlevania; a seeming defang that, on sheer design sense, competes neck-and-neck.