I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

[Arino]

F/A popularity is more of a cult following thing in Japan. The music style in particular was a big change for Namco, and went on to influence their later titles like Ridge Racer and Tekken.

It has aggressive play that feels a bit Psikyo, in how you need to move up the screen to eliminate high priority targets before they can do anything. Toss in an unnecessarily large roster of playable jets, and you get the Raiden Fighters of Xevious games.

Great post! Exactly what I was assuming, so it's nice to get confirmation! Some parts of the music sound A LOT like the music in Raiden Fighters.

[Steven]

Taito Hey had F/A the last time I was there. I want to say they swapped Grid Seeker for it, but I forgot. Didn't play it, though.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It's cool to fire up the F/A arcade rom on Final Burn Neo and play it on a low-res 15.7kHz candy cab setup for ol' times sake.

Out of curiosity, how much does a Namco NA-1 F/A jamma pcb sell for nowadays?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Steven]

Here's a broken one for 52200 with a missing instruction card: https://www.suruga-ya.jp/product/detail/180905664

[Skyknight]

Okay, the cult status in Japan definitely explains the emphasis Hamster gave it. Just obviously something not necessarily known on this side of the Pacific.

Even if I was thinking Gee Bee and The Outfoxies not for being ultra-famous games (they’re not, last I checked), but for historical import, in the same way Master of Weapon, for instance, is important for being a foundation for the Ray Series.

[Acid]

Is there a 2D game where you play a buff, shirtless dude, wielding melee weapons that isn't awesome?

[BIL]

I can think of a couple, but I have hard evidence the developers were fat. (｀w´メ)

Sword of Sodan Retrospective

[SavagePencil]

Is there a 2D game where you play a buff, shirtless dude, wielding melee weapons that isn't awesome?

Sword of Sodan

[BIL]

tbh in addition to the devs being fat, Sodan also featured a player character who wasn't topless. The kiss of death to an ailing barbarizer! See also Haunted Castle (pff) and Dragon Unit (a REAL tragedy, as Undead_TAMA and co are fuckin buff. the curse of modesty will undo even the sexiest men!)

Been MIRIN Rastan a lot in the few hours I've had for gaming lately.

Spoiler

A consummate barbarian swashbuckler! The striking/zoning aspect is FTG tight - while bump damage lacks oomph, player and enemy weapons alike are laser precise. And there's a surprisingly rich movement suite for its cruel terrain. Between low/high jumps, and their walking/running variants, it's versatile, yet snappily binary; completed by the bloodening rush attack, perfect for smiting foes and seizing ground in the same tactical heartbeat.

The x3 damage on jumpslash is an especially slick reward for artful OTG slayings - whether a vaulting divebomb, or a chasm-hurdling leap that beheads interceptors in one bloody swoop. There's also a killer aggression incentive via weapon timeouts. Not a fan of this ethos, typically; I prefer to budget my ammo, learning when to conserve, and where to brutally unload. But the level design complements perfectly, with pickups placed like oases. Grab that flail and bust some fuckin heads, son! Hanging back like a weenie will only complicate matters later on!


In pure aesthetic terms, it's a more varied game than I'd recalled. Decent sense of journey over valleys, swamps, and volcanic hellzones. Rastan himself, despite the clear AHNULD riff, is also perfectly-judged. Buddy is formidably ripped, but not bodybuilder-bravura; on the contrary, he's lean and taut and unmistakably hungry AF. "Used to be a thief and murderer to survive in a harsh world" indeed. Very arguably nearer Robert Howard's iconic rogue than his most famous screen adaptation; I could easily believe this was a Conan license, initially, ala Ikari's development as a Rambo II game ("The Furious Rescue," in Japanese theatres).

The rope setpieces can be a bit daft, but with the pace and intensity surrounding them, they're easily forgiven. A crisply technical yet viscerally momentum-based Combat Platformer, very unlike forerunning titans Green Beret and Makaimura, and their close descendants Dracula and Rygar. While it's certainly rougher-edged, their bullseye bump damage notably amiss, I find it every bit as invigorating and, above all, as amenable to lethal technique.

Gonna jump in hard once next week's out, after putting some hours on F/A. I so love a good new-to-me, never mind two, three, four, etc etc etc. Ham-chans working as intended.

Christ that came outta nowhere, or rather, IT WERE ALWAYS FOOKIN THERE M8 You know I stand for every school of hardcore killing! Imma spoiler it and give it its proper happy home.

[MJR]

Sword of Sodan is a funny case. It was much hyped on Amiga / computer press for being technically competent - large characters with "smooth" "animation", digitised speech, multi-disk.. all production values. And I remember one magazine who gave it all round 10's for graphics, sound, etc, only complaint was that it was too short.

When I saw the game I was like, my god, this is so bad. And it just ages worse and worse. The title screens looked bit better, only because they were ripped off from some fantasy paintings. In-game art looked like they were made by a teenager, which was probably the case. Playability.. let's not even go there. SoS epitomizes everything that was wrong with amiga gaming at it's worst. And computer / video game press too. Armies of morons who can only read the most superficial surface with zero clue on anything, be it art or design or gameplay..

And sometimes I feel that western/european game devs these days are not much better. Feck, for decades I've felt that the basic western game designer can't even design their way out of a brown paper bag. They should be flipping burgers instead.
uh.. carry on
/angry old game dev rant

[BrianC]

Is there a 2D game where you play a buff, shirtless dude, wielding melee weapons that isn't awesome?

Rastan Saga II/Nastar/Nastar Warrior?

[Bassa-Bassa]

I don't know. I remember myself having a better time with Sodan than with stuff like Torvak, Chuck Rock or Psygnosis' Barbarian, which got much better press reviews. I guess I already appreciated by then a bit of visual variety and short stages on my games, which you rarely found on the Amiga. Not saying it was not a bad game, mind, just that it could get much worse than that outside Japanese systems.

Then again, I'm apparently the only one here saying that Castle of Dragon is not kusoge, so nevermind me.

[BIL]

Then again, I'm apparently the only one here saying that Castle of Dragon is not kusoge, so nevermind me.

In all honesty, I'm reserving judgment. The FC port is pretty bad, and trap once told me the AC one is even worse. But I only saw it once briefly, on Awesome Games Weekly, forever ago. Some would say their Strike Gunner is an STG war crime, but I found a lot to like about it, in its "Mark III Zanacesque escaped to JAMMA" way. (a single truly godawful BGM aside, but at least the stage is easy and short, and it's never re-used)

Definitely gonna give it a spin in MAME first, but I'm not entirely resigned. Won't lie that it's JJ Squawkers I'm really after though, ala Daioh to Strike Gunner!

[Bassa-Bassa]

It's an easy clear and a short game, so face it with that in mind as practicing it likely kills it too soon once you know about the weapons and your range.

JJ Squawkers is great indeed, a bit simplistic and short, but it controls so well and has such a good pace that you'd easily think of it as the best thing Athena made.

[Arino]

https://ibb.co/sKWYKHz

there aren't any games revealed yet, are there?

[Sturmvogel Prime]

Arcade Archives Namco Bird.

Arcade Archives F/A screenshots are up, and fortunately, the jets were not censored due to copyright/licenses.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5026

[BIL]

F/A screenshots are up, and fortunately, the jets were not censored.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5026

Hell yeah, I was wondering about that. Great news! The military aviation porn aesthetic is very important ala Sonic Wings and Task Force Harrier.

[Arino]

"ARE YOU READY?"

https://youtu.be/M7gstEivDRE?si=sEbR4rdye171g4v4

This will be dope as hell!

So any target on the ground can only be hit by the red laser, in this case, but both weapons can be used at the same time it looks like.

[Lemnear]

F/A popularity is more of a cult following thing in Japan. The music style in particular was a big change for Namco, and went on to influence their later titles like Ridge Racer and Tekken.

It has aggressive play that feels a bit Psikyo, in how you need to move up the screen to eliminate high priority targets before they can do anything. Toss in an unnecessarily large roster of playable jets, and you get the Raiden Fighters of Xevious games.

this arouses curiosity, especially because i like Namco's style.

[OldSkoolShmuper]

Wait, F/A is actually coming? That's cool!

[Arino]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIMPuItw21M

already out in Japan

[BIL]

Whoa, that's early! Bedtime is postponed.

I wonder if that means something for the upcoming week. Typically they go up on PSN Weds afternoon GMT.

[Sima Tuna]

I'm still too busy waiting for Slayers X Terminal Aftermath Vengeance of the Slayer to drop on the Eshop to care about Ham-chans at the moment.

You terdburglars should check out Slayers X btw.

[BIL]

F/A has a few annoying dings, on an otherwise solid latterday Xevious-esque. Primarily the lukewarm shot power; even smaller flying enemies tend to take a couple hits, so that diving heli will merrily plow into you, if you try to swat it with a late pointblank. It works fine in-context - this is very much a Xevious throwback, where figuring out how to shoot all or even most things down is less self-explanatory than in later screen-shredders - but it's something you have to adjust to, zoning oncoming threats. (I wonder if suiciding off the two bonus Armours might drop enemy HP? may be the Phelios PTSD talking there, haha)

An absolutely critical bit of information for the air-to-air stages, noted in Hamster's customarily informative manual: you have to hold both [air shot] and [ground shot] to do full damage. Makes a big difference when speedkilling those bomber convoys.

Another is the way POWs spawn a bit after the tank holding them blows up. Can be irksome in the heat of battle, when you're zipping from target to target under fire. Also, scenery POWs seem randomly-allocated. Between this, it's tempting to regard them as a bit of a joke, ala the Metal Slugs' penchant for wildly randomised score items.

Finally, I have no idea why the third boss got mad at me here.

All that said, the stage design and overall tenor is exactly what I wanted. Xevious with a shiny coat of early-90s gunmetal, swarming with sneaky tanks and gunboats. I'm especially fond of how hyper-aggressive certain ground enemies can be. Quickly learned to swat down those grey anti-air tanks pronto. BGM is outstanding, it goes without saying.

The aerial stage POW sprites are so cute. Seems familiar, I'm sure someone used them as an avatar here, at some point.

I wonder how pivotal this week will prove, or not. F/A would aptly bookmark their first Namco epoch, started with Xevious itself 2.5 years back, and its OST heavily prefiguring their 90s staples. On the other hand, Hamster aren't known for sudden moves, as noted ITT.

What this really makes me want is NebulasRay, tbh.

[Arino]

Damn I was planning to get it from the US store and it's still not available

[m.sniffles.esq]

Damn I was planning to get it from the US store and it's still not available

Usually shows up in the US store Thursday (ish)

[Arino]

Damn I was planning to get it from the US store and it's still not available

Usually shows up in the US store Thursday (ish)

Ok thanks, got impatient and just grabbed it from the J store

Edit: this is not as easy as it looked in the trailer which jet are you playing BIL?

[BIL]

Edit: this is not as easy as it looked in the trailer which jet are you playing BIL?

Everybody's favourite, the JA37. It's one of the 5 Spread set, IIRC. Wide shot, decent speed, and the Vulcan ground shot's comfy.

I was messing about with the Straight set's Harrier too, which is a bit faster, and has a concentrated shot, plus the Vulcan. I missed the zoning options of the JA37's spread, though. Might stick with it. NMK represent.

Warthog's the coolest though. Taito represent!

Per maximo, from the HS thread:

For different ship types, most of the ships with a straight secondary shot seem to be the easiest to pick up, with JA37's spread shot doing awesome point blank damage; in comparison the Full Auto F-117A is considered to be the toughest ship to clear the game with.

EDIT: omfg it's Shinji Hosoe :O

[Arino]

Thanks, will look into it. Unfortunately I don't have time right now. I can't remember the names but there was only one Swedish jet, I tried that one fist because spread shot plus laser. Then I thought the spread shot was not needed and I tried a jet with the UK flag and the narrow shot took things out faster. I have only played three credits so far, all three times it went well until the aircraft carrier killed me before I could take out its guns! lol. Looking forward to playing this game, hate how I got shit to do today.

Btw Prehistoric Isle 2 is 50% off atm For anybody who doesn't have it yet on ACA. Last Resort is reduced as well, but I would not recommend that one.

Edit:

Finally, I have no idea why the third boss got mad at me here.

OMG BIL are you already playing the loop?

[BIL]

OMG BIL are you already playing the loop?

lol no, only put an hour or so on it so far

I don't think there is a loop actually; always a positive, imo