Pulstar; IMO a perfect game

[awbacon]

https://youtu.be/XJSJKSJaorU

hands down my most played shmup on AES

[xxx1993]

I prefer Blazing Star.

[Sengoku Strider]

This game is hard as heck, but wonderfully atmospheric. The ACA version is really the way to play this one. Going to the cart version, where you can't have auto-fire, is a npticeable step down from ACA, where you can set both a charge shot and a rapid fire button at the same time.

[sunnshiner]

I prefer Blazing Star.

Me too. Pulstar is less unplayable with a dedicated autofire button though.

[pablumatic]

Great game. Not sure if its perfect but its high class.

I've had the Neo CD version forever since I was never going to shell out for the AES one. I mostly just play the ACA version these days.

[xxx1993]

I prefer Blazing Star.

Me too. Pulstar is less unplayable with a dedicated autofire button though.

Because Blazing Star features more characters, stages, intense boss battles, and no stupid checkpoint mechanic. But the only thing that peeves me with Blazing Star is the ending.

[To Far Away Times]

I am Team Blazing Star over Pulstar.

I've tried to get into Pulstar many times, and it never quite sticks with me.

Pulstar invites a whole bunch of comparisons to R-Type, and the ways that it differs generally make it a lesser game.

R-Type lets you detach the pod and play more tactically or attach the pod to the back of the ship, R-Type also has much stronger weapons, and is a 20 minute game instead of a 40 minute one. 40 minutes is too long for a one shot kills checkpoint affair. Pulstar's weaponry is weak, which forces you to use the charge shot constantly, and much of the back half of the game is timing charge shots to hit enemies just right or you get overwhelmed and die.

Blazing Star is actually pretty rad. The ship selction is awesome and really changes up how you play, much more so than in most shmups. I like the presentation better too and its more streamlined and fun.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Perfect is a bit of a stretch for a game that's nearly unplayable without autofire, but it's pretty good with it. I do prefer Blazing Star over it though for many of the reasons here. The ships are more varied and unique, you've got three palettes for each to choose from, and the setting and gratuitous engrish is fun and memorable.

Playing them without autofire is hell though. They're a good example of how "button mashing as a mechanic" sucks and is still more fun with autofire than without.

[Jonpachi]

Team Blazing Star!

Bone Us! Bone Us! Bone Us!

[To Far Away Times]

I've heard the "fail" meme has been attributed to Blazing Star, shortened from "you fail it." Always thought that was cool, not sure how reliable that is.

[Jeneki]

Wikipedia says there's a connection with You Fail It, so it must be legit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazing_Star

Although it also incorrectly says it's the game over screen, instead of boss timeout. Blazing Star has a goofy boss timer, as most bosses don't actually timeout until long after the timer reaches zero.

[kid aphex]

Agreed.
If only the AES could be paired with the NGCD OST…
God-tier potential.

[SuperDeadite]

I love Pulstar until that stage with the stupid water that pushes in around. Seriously fuck that stage.

Blazing is way more pick up and jam fun.

[Kiken]

Perfect is a bit of a stretch for a game that's nearly unplayable with autofire, but it's pretty good with it. I do prefer Blazing Star over it though for many of the reasons here. The ships are more varied and unique, you've got three palettes for each to choose from, and the setting and gratuitous engrish is fun and memorable.

Playing them without autofire is hell though. They're a good example of how "button mashing as a mechanic" sucks and is still more fun with autofire than without.

I assume you meant without in that first sentence.

I strongly disagree. Pulstar is very heavily built around using the charge shot, not rapid fire. I predominantly play on an MVS cart running through a Phantom1 Convertor on an unmodded AES and I don't think I've ever bothered to use an autofire circuit (nor have I used mapped autofire on the ACA release). The few instances where rapid firing is used (when the Dino 246 is equipped with the Plasma Barrier or the Tracking Laser) don't require a high tapping frequency to max out the gauge. The combination of the C items and the game's inherent slowdown in many situations result in the player only having to tap about 5 times a second to reach full auto. In comparison, Blazing Star is far more reliant on using autofire.

Blazing Star is certainly the more free form game but it relies just as heavily on boss milking as Pulstar does and both games have completely broken final boss battles: Blazing Star's final boss doesn't time out allowing 5 of the 6 ships to milk it for unreasonable amounts of time (Peplos can just milk it infinitely) and Pulstar features the obnoxious Double KO strat that requires repeating the final check point ad nauseum.

Even with all of that said, I kinda prefer playing through Pulstar as I find Blazing Star's sixth stage to be rather annoying.

[Steven]

Agreed.
If only the AES could be paired with the NGCD OST…
God-tier potential.

It can; just use the NeoSD Pro and you can play the Neo Geo CD version on the AES. Maybe you don't need the Pro version, but I don't know. I think it's mono only due to the limitations of the AES cart slot or something, though.

[BEAMLORD]

I've not put alot of time into Pulstar. I love Blazing Star, though.

I believe Shmup Junkie mentioned in a video that the final boss of Blazing Star has invisible bullets at one point. Is this true, or is there some kind of hit box nonsense going on there? Seems like a crushing oversight from the devs if so, either that or cruelty beyond measure.

[Kiken]

I've not put alot of time into Pulstar. I love Blazing Star, though.

I believe Shmup Junkie mentioned in a video that the final boss of Blazing Star has invisible bullets at one point. Is this true, or is there some kind of hit box nonsense going on there? Seems like a crushing oversight from the devs if so, either that or cruelty beyond measure.

Many of Brawshella's patterns exceed the Neo's sprite draw capacity limit resulting in some pretty extensive flicker. The bullets aren't completely invisible, but from one frame to the next not all of the projectiles can be drawn simultaneously.

[Kollision]

Aren't the invisible bullets directly related to how aggressively you play for score and go for those winged spheres?
I had the impression at the time that this particular pattern has no visibility issues if you just played the game without cranking up the rank.

[BEAMLORD]

Many of Brawshella's patterns exceed the Neo's sprite draw capacity limit resulting in some pretty extensive flicker. The bullets aren't completely invisible, but from one frame to the next not all of the projectiles can be drawn simultaneously.

Thanks, I see. Obviously exceeding 100 mega shocks on that count

[Rastan78]

Yes the maximum megashocks were definitely exceeded. Also SNK used controversial methods to make now become the future. This surely created problems with the time space continuum. The reason bullets disappear in BS is exactly the same reason McFly's hand disappeared.

[bigbadboaz]

Agreed.
If only the AES could be paired with the NGCD OST…
God-tier potential.

It can; just use the NeoSD Pro and you can play the Neo Geo CD version on the AES. Maybe you don't need the Pro version, but I don't know. I think it's mono only due to the limitations of the AES cart slot or something, though.

Or just emulate it. CD soundtrack with AES speed.. what I had wanted since 1996. It's awesome.

Frankly, it never truly bothered me that it was "stuck" on CD - it pretty much alone justified my CDZ for as long as that was the only way to play it. Sleek little machine.

[Bydobasher]

https://youtu.be/XJSJKSJaorU

hands down my most played shmup on AES

Nice video, thanks for posting. This is also my most-played NEO shmup (runners-up are Last Resort, Viewpoint and Blazing Star).

Pulstar is more interesting aesthetically than mechanically, but it looks and sounds terrific, and it's satisfying to conquer. I'll go play a game very soon!

[Jeneki]

Aren't the invisible bullets directly related to how aggressively you play for score and go for those winged spheres?

That's probably the easiest way to cause it, when flooding the screen with powerups. You can get invisi-bullets as soon as the first boss this way.

[XoPachi]

I like both of these games really.
Blazing Star is my preferred though. The scoring was addicting even if you weren't rewarded for it.

[MJR]

I remember when Pulstar came out in arcades, I went totally nuts over it. The level of detail was unprecendented and really unmatched since - even new R-type Final 2 does not really match it. Background that can be destroyed or damaged in the first level; the water reflections on the ship in underwater stage..

I also really loved that level 3 giant monster in the sun stage, that stage was the highlight of the whole game, but after that it kinda went downhill. The water maze stage that was already referred here killed my interest, and I never bothered to credit feed through it's boss.

This being said, I am happy that I bought the MVS cartridge of Pulstar (and Blazing Star) when they still were dirt cheap. And now that I got autofire circuit on my jamma/MVS cab, I can quite happily tear through Pulstar and Blazing Star.

Blazing Star is my favourite too, because the playability and amount scoring tricks on that one is just simply top-notch. But yes, I do rank Pulstar very, very high in the shmup pantheon, and I am planning to 1cc it one day. It's more likely that I 1cc Pulstar before than I can be bothered to play through any of my modern AAA games.

[evil_ash_xero]

It takes so much from R-Type that it has always put me off. Like, I felt it was a rip-off.
Maybe I'll give it another shot.

[To Far Away Times]

It takes so much from R-Type that it has always put me off. Like, I felt it was a rip-off.
Maybe I'll give it another shot.

It's always seemed like "Lesser R-Type" to me. Most R-Type clones do something different. Games like Last Resort and Xexex have their own unique game play hooks, even if their inspiration is fairly obvious.

FFS, Pulstar even has a big battleship stage, on stage 3 no less.

[Kiken]

It takes so much from R-Type that it has always put me off. Like, I felt it was a rip-off.
Maybe I'll give it another shot.

It's always seemed like "Lesser R-Type" to me. Most R-Type clones do something different. Games like Last Resort and Xexex have their own unique game play hooks, even if their inspiration is fairly obvious.

FFS, Pulstar even has a big battleship stage, on stage 3 no less.

Both Last Resort and Pulstar rely heavily on the function of locking and unlocking the sub-weapons. Pulstar also has the unique rapid-fire weapons with Plasma Barrier and Tracking Laser as well as the C items. Stylistically it clearly borrows heavily from its inspiration material, but I find that it doesn't really play much like any of the R-Type games. I think that many players try to approach it in a similar fashion to R-Type and this causes problems as Pulstar is its own weird thing.