What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[blazinglazers69]

Taking a break from pew-pewing and tried Beyond Oasis for the first time. Can't believe I slept on this one for so long. Such an awesome adventure game. It doesn't quite reach Link to the Past for me, but it's damn fun. For the most part I like the combat, but sometimes I wish I could attack more diagonally since it feels like lots of enemies can. I also don't care much for the moving platforming sections, but other than that it's great. Beautiful game. It looks more like a 90s LucasArts computer game than a typical Genesis game to me somehow.

I'm on the 4th of the four elements so I'll probably beat it next time I play. Always lovely to find a classic of the 16bit generation that I missed. I'll be 35 in July and it's bittersweet getting older since I've played so much of the cream of the crop as far as the Genesis and SNES libraries go, so this was a great surprise.

[Lander]

Northern Journey is really good.
Some teething troubles on account of the F5 quicksave being buried behind a mountain of T&C asterisks (Get to level ground before saving! ... *crunch*), but the atmosphere and sense of adventure are second to none.

This Fjord has many fingers

Spoiler

Think first-person woodsman 'em up with a great sense of scale and relatively linear progression, but mounted within the well-considered interconnectiveness of a From game, through the heady lens of Norwegian folklore with a distinct sense of the uncanny.

The only locals this side of the mountain

Spoiler

Combat is present and quite solid, with distinct-feeling medieval armaments and cerebral encounter design, but most of the time is spent exploring; finding new paths, searching for key items, solving puzzles and the like.
Every zone is gorgeous and has its own set of unique encounters for you to wander into, ranging from fight-or-flight ambushes by the local fauna to delightfully horrifying brushes with the supernatural.

I probably shouldn't be delighted to notice that the local genus of giant spider (of which there are many - arachnophobes beware!) is sneaky enough to stop dead its skittering charge as soon as you make eye contact, but it's just so well-done that I have to give it credit.
Preferably from 20 paces, with an accurate crossbow

Mandalore (who according to totes credible sources is edgelordius maximus m8 ) made a video going over the game's finer points, which is worth a watch if your interest is piqued.

[BIL]

I probably shouldn't be delighted to notice that the local genus of giant spider (of which there are many - arachnophobes beware!) is sneaky enough to stop dead its skittering charge as soon as you make eye contact, but it's just so well-done that I have to give it credit.
Preferably from 20 paces, with an accurate crossbow

Christ that sounds amazing. Throwing down with a certain big Mensis homie still makes me fuckin ill tbh, but damn if I'm still not hunting down the elusive free-roaming Chalice variant.

[Lander]

Christ that sounds amazing. Throwing down with a certain big Mensis homie still makes me fuckin ill tbh, but damn if I'm still not hunting down the elusive free-roaming Chalice variant.

It's positively florid - I'm only halfway done, and off the top of my head there are leapers, sneakers, aggressively reproductive vampire tree spiders, a straight up facehugger swarm, bobbing tripods, and a hookshot lovechild that launches straight off walls before reeling itself back for another go. And that's just the arachnids!

Each and every one unique in design and behaviour - a tangible choice between deriving the proper strategy based on terrain, limited resources, and slow-cranking weapons, or just running for the hills while cursing nature's terrible inventiveness.

Not that hills are always available - it can turn to full survival horror if you're spelunking deep into a troll hole and take a no-return drop into the deepest part of a nest. Going in without a kiting plan was like getting caught in the MGS2 tanker hold, but with no fade to black, and no geneva convention

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Taking a break from pew-pewing and tried Beyond Oasis for the first time. Can't believe I slept on this one for so long.

It's an absolutely solid game. Note that there's some extra goodies that are potentially missed on a first playthrough so after you're done, you may want to check out the following spoilers for a second playthrough:

re: diagonal attacks

Spoiler

You can actually do spin attacks and some flashier multihitting combos with the dagger and the sword by inputting the appropriate directions then attack. Think fighting game inputs. The full list is here:

https://shrines.rpgclassics.com/genesis ... ills.shtml

re: optional content

Spoiler

There's two major things to do in Beyond Oasis you can optionally challenge yourself to accomplish. The first, is beat the game WITHOUT ever picking up any of the Heart items that level up your rank. Beating the game at Rank 1, the lowest max HP possible, gets you the best rating at the end of the game.

The other thing is to find all the infinite weapons. There's infinite normal, fire, and bomb bows, infinite bombs, and an infinite flame sword (the coolest weapon and the hardest to obtain). Each of them has a small sidequest to do, with the exception of the infinite flame sword (Omega Sword) which requires finding and completing a secret 100 floor dungeon! It's a lot of fun, so I'd recommend trying this out on a second playthrough. More details on how to find each weapon here (I only stumbled across the Infinite Bombs on my first playthrough I think): https://shrines.rpgclassics.com/genesis ... nite.shtml

If you want something with a similar vibe but more of a plot and puzzle focus rather than deep combat, check out Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse. It's an MS-DOS game with some absolutely gorgeous spritework. The combat isn't quite as refined (you eventually get a 3 stage charge attack as you level up and progress, a basic projectile, and some limited use spells), but the sheer amount and depth of dialogue and complex exploration is insane. Highly recommended.

Just be warned that there's a scaling issue if you play at the max difficulty which increases enemy strength. You'll eventually be able to have random encounters with Water Elementals and for some reason their scaling is badly messed up on the highest difficulty to where they take like 10x the hits of any other enemy to kill, causing them to act as damage sponges. You can either save and reload when triggering the event that has random encounters if you get Water Elementals, you can tough it out by slowly and boringly hacking them to death, or you can just play on Normal difficulty which still has plenty of difficulty without triggering this issue.

The game supports mouse controls to move but these are awful and you should play either keyboard only or with a gamepad so it plays like Beyond Oasis. Turning off the mouse controls is highly recommended because they're clunky and awful to use.

[Sumez]

Northern Journey is really good.
Some teething troubles on account of the F5 quicksave being buried behind a mountain of T&C asterisks (Get to level ground before saving! ... *crunch*), but the atmosphere and sense of adventure are second to none.

Wow this game looks amazing, why has no one told me about it before?
It's games like this that make me regret never playing anything on PC, but it's also just short of making me want to invest in a setup for it.

[drauch]

I thought Northern Journey looked familiar. Appears to be on my Steam wishlist. Will have to dive in soon. Check out Lunacid if you haven't already. More like King's Field/Shadow Tower, with more of an underground, secluded affair, but the sense of adventure, enemy variety, and general aesthetic makes me think of it when talking about new-ish stuff.

[blazinglazers69]

Roo, thanks for the Al-Qadim rec! I will add it to my list. I haven't played a ton of early PC games so that would be cool. And thanks for the Oasis tips as well. Apparently there's another prequel Oasis game for the Sega Saturn. I've never tried emulating Saturn since I've heard it's notoriously not great, but maybe I'll give it a shot.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

You might've already played this, but also check out Brain Lord for the SNES. It's a solid top down Enix RPG much like Beyond Oasis, albeit significantly more linear in terms of exploration (there's no real optional paths to explore). The dungeons however are massive, sprawling affairs with tons of puzzles to solve, and the combat is quite fast paced (your movement and jumping are faster than in Beyond Oasis). Magic doesn't require MP, but rather acts as a charge attack, where more powerful magic requires a longer charge time, and you quick swap spells with L/R. There's also a fair variety of weapon types to play with.

The story's fairly weak honestly, I wouldn't say it's particularly memorable. The highlight is the dungeon exploration, solving those labyrinths is tough!

Actually, the OST is also top-notch too and worth experiencing. A sample of what to expect as far as themes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi-RfuhIIVM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LToKS4UA6pU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoqw87P0LOg

[Lander]

Finished up Northern Journey. 12 hours well spent, and one of those first-play experiences you know won't be the same on revisit.
I'd say the game is at its strongest in the long stretch between the first two maps, and the last two maps; the start stumbles a bit by overfocusing on kill-gate tutorialization which becomes practically irrelevant by midgame, and the end goes a bit BFG DIVISION with a mixed bag of bosses and combat arenas leading up to the finale, but the middle is jam-packed with quality.

So fittingly, the best part is the journey. It has a very particular vibe about it; in retrospect the adventure was unquestionably mighty, full of scenes that wouldn't look out of place rendered in tapestry.
But in the moment, the feeling was one of a stranded traveler led through a strange and hostile land by a mischevious flute player - of survival and small victories, fear and awe.

The Nokken serenades you to your doom

Spoiler

In that way, I'd say it hits the folklore nail squarely on the head; just as history, tales of gods and men are frequently as tall as they are embellished.
The truth is liable to be more rough and ready, and perhaps a little ignominious too. Northern Journey captures that sense with a knowing wink, which I'd say is quite an achievement.

Nøkken - Theodor Kittelsen, 1904

Spoiler

Final Verdict: Worth almost drowning for

Wow this game looks amazing, why has no one told me about it before?
It's games like this that make me regret never playing anything on PC, but it's also just short of making me want to invest in a setup for it.

It's finally getting some well-deserved eyes on it, I guess. Surprising to think it's been lurking underappreciated for almost 2 years!

I thought Northern Journey looked familiar. Appears to be on my Steam wishlist. Will have to dive in soon. Check out Lunacid if you haven't already. More like King's Field/Shadow Tower, with more of an underground, secluded affair, but the sense of adventure, enemy variety, and general aesthetic makes me think of it when talking about new-ish stuff.

You won't regret it.
Lunacid looks cool, seems to be successfully riding the thin line between indie budget and lost PS2 localization. But alas, Early Access... One for the list!

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

Steel Assault

Cool game so far. It does seem like one of those things where you memorize what to do it won't be nearly as interesting. It keeps crashing on my ps4 pro too which is a little irritating.

Street Fighter 6

Really great. World tour mode is great mindless fun. Game play is interesting. I thought this might be a crummy version on ps4 pro but I'm definitely not regretting getting it.

[BEAMLORD]

Yep, I'm getting alot of crashes with Steel Assault on PS5. Tends to happen in the normal game mode, has happened in both Normal and Expert difficulty settings, usually just after beating the stage 2 boss. It's also wiping my options setting each time. It's not yet crashed in Arcade mode though, and I've put about 3 hours into that.

Edit: it literally just crashed in Arcade mode after beating stage 2 boss

Really hope they sort this soon.

[Sumez]

I would not recommend starting out with Arcade Mode, that's gonna be rough
Just treat Expert Mode as the practice mode before an arcade clear.

[guigui]

Still playing Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon

Could get a clear with Plague Knight, not true ending though because I missed some shrines. Puzzle game really addictive, frantic and strategic. Polish is great. Anyone else tried the game ?

[KennyMan666]

Tears of the Kingdom, so much Tears of the Kingdom. Over a month of playing it almost every single day and I still come across things that make my jaw drop in amazement.

BotW was already in the running for best Zelda game, and TotK makes BotW look like a beta. It's insane.

[XoPachi]

Turok Dinosaur Hunter has some incredibly unique music. There aren't a lot of first person shooters if any whose music I remember every individual piece of.

[BEAMLORD]

I would not recommend starting out with Arcade Mode, that's gonna be rough
Just treat Expert Mode as the practice mode before an arcade clear.

Yeah man, Arcade looks a tall order. 2 health drops total, both in stage 2! Normal game's Expert seems a good balance though, tempered with more regular drops. Still crashing regularly for me though just beyond stage 2 boss

[Blinge]

BotW was already in the running for best Zelda game, and TotK makes BotW look like a beta. It's insane.

Them's fightin' words.

[Sima Tuna]

Breath of the Wild now demoted to Beta (Male) of the Wild.

[Lander]

That reminds me, I soft-dropped Turok 2. Going straight from 1 to 2 was a mistake - I stand by my praise of the polish, weapons, and select enemies, the city / temple were both good, but much of the level design tips over the line from manageably labyrinthine to maps that would make Theseus weep.
Hive of the Mantids was the breaking point - surprisingly linear as Turok levels go, the gimmick of tazing bugmen with the Shock Dart Rifle until you find the fearsome Firestorm Cannon for some Starship Troopers insect extermination action was sweet, but jesus christ the sheer scale of it.

And unfortunately, the search action aspect ends up ringing hollow. Secrets galore, sometimes with new ability keys (sadly gated by Banjo Kazooie style power pads), but few if any with something interesting inside.
Health, ammo, maybe getting a new gun 5 minutes before it shows up on the critical path, but it's mainly a device to gate the Primagen Keys and pad out the endgame with some extra wandering.
I was probably expecting too much after the opus that is Shadow Man, but it's a shame to see such a small increment from T1's strict adherence to weapon progression.

And Joshua Fireseed, bless him, just isn't as fun of a Turok as Tal'Set, with his Campbellian jawline, endearing id Software grimace, and neck-cracking PRAISE THE KEY ritual...

The ancestral spirits have concluded that I must fuck your shit up.

Josh channels more of a Squall vibe, or Roger Moore with his eyebrows shaved.
Nothing, literally nothing, can faze this man. Cucumbers blush green with envy at mention of his name. So cool is he, that the very concept of school has been transcended.

The world is in danger, Turok! Millions of lives are at stake... BEWAREOBLIVIONISATHAND

Spoiler

...I have a cool tote bag.

Not to mention that the poor lad was upstaged from the start, the events of his game being caused by Papa T throwing the BFG into an active volcano and triggering a nuclear planetcrack that woke up Some Deep Shit. POWER MOVE

It does stand as a mark of shame that I didn't lay hands on the Cerebral Bore, so I'll probably pick it back up fresh at some point when my maze shooter instincts have had time to recuperate.

Turok Dinosaur Hunter has some incredibly unique music. There aren't a lot of first person shooters if any whose music I remember every individual piece of.

Jungle Drums and Claves galore I enjoyed how underwater had its own specific tune for that Ocean Odyssey ambience. And I'm certain that I heard Shadow Man's signature Synth Of Mysterious Place in the PC soundtrack, though that may have been in 2.

The unreleased prototype tracks from 2 are an interesting oddity; ultracontemporary electronica feat. Dr. Elephants and CHOO HAUK

[m.sniffles.esq]

And I'm certain that I heard Shadow Man's signature Synth Of Mysterious Place in the PC soundtrack

I always give props to Shadow Man for doing the John Carpenter thing 10 years before it was cool (again).

[Marc]

Just finished up Deathloop. It may be Arkane's finest murder simulator yet. Felt brilliant to dispense with the sneaking and morality stuff, and just straight up fuck people up in increasingly powerful ways. The world building and cohesion are a joy, and the VA the best I've heard in any game. If I didn't have the backlog I do, I'd dive straight back in.

[Gamer707b]

Finished Perfect Dark on N64 and enjoyed it. Got Pilot Wings 64 from my wife and kids for Father's Day and been playing that. I didn't realize just simply flying around in a completely slow paced game can be so fun and addicting.

[XoPachi]

Finished Perfect Dark on N64 and enjoyed it. Got Pilot Wings 64 from my wife and kids for Father's Day and been playing that. I didn't realize just simply flying around in a completely slow paced game can be so fun and addicting.

PilotWings 64 is a masterpiece. I grew up on that game and love it to death. Quirky characters and incredible music. Wasn't a fan of the 3DS sequel's style at all. I feel like 64 was the peak of the short lived series.

Please play Wave Race 64 if you haven't.

[Nugs]

Mario 64, Wave Race 64 and Pilotwings 64 were the games we got with the console as a kid.
All bangers, played them to death.

[Lander]

I always give props to Shadow Man for doing the John Carpenter thing 10 years before it was cool (again).

Yeah, it made a lot of less-trendy choices and pulled them off well. Proper craft, further evidenced by the heartfelt poem from the devs at the back of the unlockable artbook

I think Mike is my favourite aspect in that sense. Far from the traditional square-jawed comic hero, his character has a bit of a quirky deconstruction-reconstruction thing going on, with the Shadow Man demigod persona being something he has to actively project atop the down-and-out regular joe, and ultimately live up to.

His first The Horror, The Horror, I Embrace It recital getting immediately leg-swept by Jaunty's cheerful Top o' the mornin' Mikey! How's your bald little head doing today? attitude, never fails to crack a smile.

Shut UP Jaunty, it's SHADOW MAN! You'll make me look bad in front of the duppies

There's some extra fun to be had by doing a Deadside-first run too; the progression briefly forces you into Liveside somewhere around 80 souls, but you can beef up and assemble L'Eclipser before meeting most of the Five. Except the cutscenes don't change, so you get Shadow Man at the peak of his powers losing arguments to nutters

[null1024]

Groove Coaster is an absurd amount of fun. Been playing the Switch version and then went to my local Round 1 to play on cab.

For the Switch version... playing on controller is screwy, and it makes the concession that slide inputs are accepted for tap notes. Would be a lot more fun with slightly altered charts since a lot of things that are really easy on the cabinet are a lot harder on a normal controller, but it's great. It also has hit sounds for note inputs, which I sorely missed when I was playing on cab.
I have been playing an obnoxious amount, and it feels wonderful being able to play with my rotated monitor.
On cab... I got really pissed since the right stick's button was sticking [the left one a little bit too], really annoying. I came back a few hours later, after the NESiCA maintenance time ended [I really wish it wasn't down during peak EST/EDT hours lol, or that there were servers in the US], and they miiight have fixed it, it felt way smoother. Good fun.

I really do wish the songlist on Switch wasn't so turbo weeby [this isn't really the right way to put it, but it gets the message I want across lmao], and I think that the base songlist is a tad small in some areas. I also hate the unlock system, it's just not laid out in a nice way and doing some tasks requires you to do others first and blaaaah.

Spoiler

also, I forgot just how bad rhythm games are with DLC pricing -- it runs just fine emulated with fairly tight input timings, so I won't blame you if you just do that

I also put a bit of time into Sound Voltex at R1.
I have a slight issue where I'm hitting a lot of notes like 60ms too early. I tried mucking around with the timing settings, but I seemed to do worse after, so I reset things. Alas. I'll probably get used to it as I play more.

[XoPachi]

Nintendo really said "let's make a series that will never miss" and released F-Zero.

I've been fiending on F-Zero Max lately and this game is golden! I remember a family friend letting me play it when I was 8. I played it so much he just let me have it.

My literal only gripe is the machine designs. They're awful.
The music slaps and I still appreciate the game's "new generation" approach. You have to work your ass off to even unlock Captain Falcon('s son) and he's the only returning machine. Master Mode in the classic games is ruthless.

[Marc]

Cosmic Smash VR is the absolute dogs bollocks. I used to daydream about shit like this as a kid.

[vol.2]

Brought the NES over my buddy's house last night and played Contra, Dr. Mario and SMB. I forgot how high the difficulty spikes in Contra once you get to the ice level. Those pipe bombs appear at the same time the jumping backpacker guys get the ability to shoot you smfh.