Border Down is awesome

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Kamakazie
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Border Down is awesome

Post by Kamakazie »

Why didn't anyone tell me about this game!? :evil: :P


Yeah, I just got it this week and I love it. The scoring system feels so interesting and trying to drag out the boss battles for juuuuust the right amount of time really brings a whole new perspective on shmups for me where I'm used to trying to just blow it up in the fastest time possible. And aside from the scoring the rest of the game is great as well :)
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Varuna
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Post by Varuna »

The clips I've seen on Super-Play make me want this game very badly.

I wish it wan't so expensive. :(
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Border Down is awesome

Post by BulletMagnet »

Kamakazie wrote:Why didn't anyone tell me about this game!?
There's always the Top 25 list. ;)

Recently the game's been growing on me too, actually...be sure to cheack out Rando's ST thread if you haven't already, there's quite a bit more to digest than meets the eye when it comes to this game.
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DEL
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Border Down

Post by DEL »

Yes Kamakazie, Border Down is indeed awesome.
Very few people have taken on the challenge here.
Its worthwhile, Randorama, GameoverDude and I spent almost a whole year playing it exclusively.
Its a thinking man's shoot'em up, mixing both old school memorisation and new scoring engines. The Breaks are kinda beautiful to watch also :wink:

Read Randorama's Strat and chase his 300mil 6D ALL.


Regs, DEL
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roker
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Post by roker »

Under Defeat > Border Down

that's my opinion

Border Down has a lot more depth

I'll give it that

Border Down might be one of the last arcade horis ever made (is there anything in the pipeline for horizontal shooters from arcade to console?)
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Ceph
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Post by Ceph »

Varuna wrote:The clips I've seen on Super-Play make me want this game very badly.

I wish it wan't so expensive. :(
Yeah, prices went up after Under Defeat came out. Because I had anticipated that I picked up the LE in January.

You can still get lucky though, I snagged a new and sealed regular edition a few weeks ago for $90.

And yes, I think Border Down is fantastic. It's funny how people at first misjudged it (me too). I currently play it more than Under Defeat (which is great, too but lacks BD's depth). The soundtrack of BD is better in my opinon.
dakidski
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Post by dakidski »

Border Down and Ikaruga makes me keep my Dreamcast. Border Down is such a rock solid production it makes my brain bleed. That said, I'm a casual shmupper.
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zinger
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Post by zinger »

Tops my chart together with Garegga, they both have such nice and balanced score and rank mechanics that intertwine just perfectly. The presentation is also pure gold ofcourse!
SOUNDSHOCK
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J-Manic
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Post by J-Manic »

roker wrote:Under Defeat > Border Down

that's my opinion

Border Down has a lot more depth

I'll give it that
How are you going to compare a vert to a hori? :? It doesn't make any sense to me. They're both two different types of games with different types of gameplay my friend. And both Under Defeat and Border Down are excellent shmups no matter what.

Border Down is special, as it is the Dreamcast's only hori shmup. The game looks beautiful and sounds amazing. I actually played it just yesterday, and almost finished it too, but the final boss in 6-A always gives me a tough time.
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Frederik
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Post by Frederik »

I guess he`s comparing them because they are both from G.Rev and both on the Dreamcast- and that isn`t that wrong since you could compare Progear and ESPRade as well since they are both from Cave even though they are hori and vert.
THE BULLETS ARE NOW DIAMONDS!
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J-Manic
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Post by J-Manic »

Yeah, that's true. I understand what you're saying. But still, both are entirely too different to make any comparisons IMO.
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roker
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Post by roker »

J-Manic wrote:How are you going to compare a vert to a hori? :? It doesn't make any sense to me. They're both two different types of games with different types of gameplay my friend. And both Under Defeat and Border Down are excellent shmups no matter what.

Border Down is special, as it is the Dreamcast's only hori shmup. The game looks beautiful and sounds amazing. I actually played it just yesterday, and almost finished it too, but the final boss in 6-A always gives me a tough time.
they're both G.Rev productions

they're both shmups

hori or vert

last time I checked, it's perfectly fine to compare shmups

even if it's a different sub-genre

are we really comparing apples and oranges here?
bwod1e
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Post by bwod1e »

"are we really comparing apples and oranges here?"

the the purists and fanaticals, probably ;)

what is the port like of border down running on a mgcd on the DC compared to the arcade?
also ikaruga?
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ghibli99
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Post by ghibli99 »

I didn't think much of Border Down the first time I played it. It took some nudging from online shooter fans on other boards to get me to play it again just a few months ago. I'm glad I did. I love it, and especially love that Stage 2 music. Retro, with that Amiga .mod file sound that just makes me smile. I still prefer verts, but Border Down keeps my DC hooked up in my living room.
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tekneekz
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Post by tekneekz »

border downs first stage music is breathtaking with quite a bit retro flavor thrown in
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Kamakazie
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Re: Border Down is awesome

Post by Kamakazie »

BulletMagnet wrote:
Kamakazie wrote:Why didn't anyone tell me about this game!?
There's always the Top 25 list. ;)
I meant it to be sarcastic, I suppose a ;) would have been more telling than the :p ^__^

I didn't see what the appeal was until I realized how the scoring worked and that each border offered a different experience for each level. Once I started seeing break combo opportunities and figuring out how to balance using the break cannon and draining the power level so I could still manage to hit most of the things on the screen I just fell in love.

And don't even start talking about 300m yet, I need to 1cc the game first :D

Also, I'm so used to games slowing you down when you focus your attack (holding down A) that I'm finding it difficult to remember that my speed will remain the same regardless of what I do. Likewise, I feel like I'm not changing my speed at all for the most part and that could be why I'm finding the game a little tricky to get through.
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chtimi-CLA
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Post by chtimi-CLA »

ghibli99 wrote:I didn't think much of Border Down the first time I played it. It took some nudging from online shooter fans on other boards to get me to play it again just a few months ago. I'm glad I did. I love it, and especially love that Stage 2 music. Retro, with that Amiga .mod file sound that just makes me smile. I still prefer verts, but Border Down keeps my DC hooked up in my living room.
i used to dislike it too, i initially shelved it after a few hours of disliking the cold graphics, elevator music and frustrating gameplay. i still can't do shit after practicing for a while recently. still not my kind of shooter but after watching the superplay at superplay.co.uk i can see it's a great game. the stage 1 boss break looks incredible, i've even gained some appreciation for the music too.
is it me or the stage 1 boss looks like bigger version of your ship? like opa opa's father
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Rastan78
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Post by Rastan78 »

Border Down is one of those really tactical games that requires you to do everything right in order to pull off the big scores. One death or mistake in the wrong spot and you can drop millions of points. For the highest scores, you will have to one life the game at high rank with zero unintentional deaths, not counting intentional "border downs." :wink: Also, it takes a lot of practice to perfect precise break timings to get the most out of them.

I only ever got to about 60 mill. or so myself. The real veterans here like Rando and DEL were able to post some amazing scores only after totally dedicating themselves to this game. I think it would get my vote for the most "technical" hori out there.
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