Best Rail Shooters

[m.sniffles.esq]

Question: these days, is there a preferred Xbox emulator that can run Panzer Dragoon Orta?

It's one of the few Xbox games that still works on the one/x, so everyone just does that.

RE Air Twister

I dunno, the purist in me is sorta into the fact there's no auto-fire

"How do I play??"
"Stick and trigger"
"But... uh... how were you doing that 'lock' thing??"
"Just move over the enemy"

Seriously, anyone can figure it out in 15-20 seconds.
BUT unlike the majority of "you see? I'm boiling video games down to their essence" malarkey, it actually looks and sounds good, and not some fake, low-poly, 1986 World Champion Mets shit.

The Queen knock-off? I got nothing.
To me, it makes it seem like you're playing the Hawkman raid part of Flash Gordon, and that's one of the best parts of the movie.

And yeah, it's a little weak you have to play the 'original' or whatever mode to unlock the other modes. But really, it's just the same game. And c'mon, it's the Switch. You're just killing time on the bus anyway. Give the girl some new clothes/hair while you're at it. What will it hurt?

[EmperorIng]

Question: these days, is there a preferred Xbox emulator that can run Panzer Dragoon Orta?

It's one of the few Xbox games that still works on the one/x, so everyone just does that.

Well, I am not in a rush to buy a new console to play a 20+ year old game, but I will keep this in mind while I look for suitable emulation solutions.

[velo]

I dunno, the purist in me is sorta into the fact there's no auto-fire

I wouldn't fuss if only it were assigned to a face button. Another bit of purism is that even the cosmetic unlocks can't be used in arcade mode.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Another bit of purism is that even the cosmetic unlocks can't be used in arcade mode.

into it.

Also into the fact that every fucking popcorn gets a paragraph of unlockable 'lore' like a in a ps1 game. The metal ball? There's a story behind that ball.
Triple into the fact Yu Suzuki attributes quotes to himself, none of which are like, quotable at all

This shit right here, this is my shit
-Yu Suzuki

---

I don't know, maybe due to the month of solid 'meh' feedback, my expectations got subconsciously lowered. But with that said, shit like:


"Wait, the girl can fly. Why does she need a separate flying animal to help her in boss battles? Does it have a special offensive ability?"

"no"

"Extra protection?"

"no"

"Some tactical advantage?"

"none"

"Then why???"

"Because flying animals are fucking awesome, that's why"


Will forever be my jam.

[Sima Tuna]

I don't know, maybe due to the month of solid 'meh' feedback, my expectations got subconsciously lowered. But with that said, shit like:


"Wait, the girl can fly. Why does she need a separate flying animal to help her in boss battles? Does it have a special offensive ability?"

"no"

"Extra protection?"

"no"

"Some tactical advantage?"

"none"

"Then why???"

"Because flying animals are fucking awesome, that's why"


Will forever be my jam.

The Komainu Barrier mode of Space Harrier is full of funny little bits of text about the Komainu and the flying creature in the bonus stages. Just 'cause they're cool.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Well, I am not in a rush to buy a new console to play a 20+ year old game, but I will keep this in mind while I look for suitable emulation solutions.

I was more suggesting a possibility as to why no one seems to be in a hurry to solve whatever emulation problems it's having. In that, there's not much of a need to emulate it in the first place.

[Steven]

Xbox Series plays those old games through emulation anyway, as it isn't actually backwards compatible with those games, so if you need an emulator, there you go. That emulator is the exact and only reason that I am considering buying a Series X, too.

Setting that aside, I'm here for Air Twister info. I've been planning on getting it but have not gotten around to even buying it yet. Lots of people say it sucks, but also only has positive reviews on Steam, so I guess there is only one way to actually know.

[velo]

Another bit of purism is that even the cosmetic unlocks can't be used in arcade mode.

into it.

Turns out, none of the unlocks are usable for any of the Challenge modes, except Turbo mode. I take that as a hint that no, they don't actually expect anybody to play this thing at 2x speed on factory settings, which is reassuring... but yeah you have to beat the Extra stage and boss rushes fair and square.

So far I've only unlocked Fluffy bonus stages from weekly rewards. If that's a general rule, you'd have to start up the game at least three times a week for like half a year to get all of them. I'm sure I'll be done with unlocks long before then. The kicker is that Fluffy mode sucks. For a brief moment I mistook it for a 2D shmup bonus level, so imagine my disappointment when I realized you're dragging around this unarmed momentum-laden elephant with the analog stick through a minefield of obstacles. That and the number clicker minigame are definite signs of iPhone origins.

Another such quirk: I don't think anything in the game tells you that R1 activates the slowdown powerup. It must have been an onscreen virtual button in the phone version, but here you just have to figure out there must be SOME way to turn it on, and guess. The alt weapons having a charge shot is easy to miss too. The description text mentions a "long press to activate", but if you're not a reader, you might assume the different weapons are strictly cosmetic.

No online leaderboards. Not even a convenient local high score summary that I see. You have to navigate to a particular mode to see the score for it, and it doesn't even show your grade, so if you want to make a goal of S-ranking all the modes, you'll have to take notes. In fact it's pretty easy to miss when you set a new high score, since the game doesn't make any fanfare over.

Setting that aside, I'm here for Air Twister info. I've been planning on getting it but have not gotten around to even buying it yet. Lots of people say it sucks, but also only has positive reviews on Steam, so I guess there is only one way to actually know.

Despite all the above, it really really doesn't suck. Once you start up the game, it's all good. I wasn't expecting that soundtrack but I got into it very quickly.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Another such quirk: I don't think anything in the game tells you that R1 activates the slowdown powerup.

I guess that explains why the cart comes with an instruction card, even though the controls are really simplistic.

[xxx1993]

Just tried Air Twister and Operation Wolf Returns: First Mission. The former has a god-tier soundtrack that is very Queen-esque and is a worthy successor to Space Harrier. The latter, while still fun, does NOT fuck around on Hard mode. You die once, you restart the entire mission.

[neorichieb1971]

I haven't played them but they interest me and I can't see them mentioned.

N20 - PS1
Internal Section - PS1

Wouldn't say they are the best but I think they are worthy of a mention.

[Despatche]

A thread as old as this and zero mention of Torus Trooper...?

[m.sniffles.esq]

N20 - PS1

While I concur this game is incredibly underrated (and may actually be historic, as it may be the first game where the disc could be ejected after the game loads, and the player could supply their own soundtrack CD, AND the game's soundtrack could be played independently in a regular CD player. Although, there's some debate about this), I believe it's officially categorized as a "tube shooter". See also: Tempest, Juno First, Polybius, etc al

[m.sniffles.esq]

While I don't know if this counts as 'best' by any metric, the Rainbow Cotton "Remake" is out on everything May 9th

(Remake in quotes because it looks exactly like the Dreamcast assets probably grafted on a new engine)

[Sima Tuna]

While I don't know if this counts as 'best' by any metric, the Rainbow Cotton "Remake" is out on everything May 9th

(Remake in quotes because it looks exactly like the Dreamcast assets probably grafted on a new engine)

That reminds me, the dude who made Raging Blasters and a bunch of other indie shmups is making an Afterburner-like for his next game. Release on switch isn't too far away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf9WYEC3tIg

"Sprite-scale shmup" is such a marketing meme term. But the game looks alright. Kinda rare we get any rail shooter upcoming releases. I'll probably at least watch videos of the Rainbow Cotton remake. I heard the original game runs at like 9 FPS and controls like ass.

[m.sniffles.esq]

I heard the original game runs at like 9 FPS and controls like ass.

As one of the six people that bought the Dreamcast version, it's got a lot of problems...

[Steven]

I heard the original game runs at like 9 FPS and controls like ass.

Pretty sure that is for Panorama Cotton on the Mega Drive, which does indeed run at like 9 FPS and control like ass, not Rainbow Cotton.