Is City Connection Really That Bad?

[Fussbudget]

It seems like they've handled a lot of amazing games, but I've only ever seen negative comments about them. I've seen mentions on input lag, frame issues, and a lack of new features. Should I just avoid them completely? Do they have any decent ports? Any games that got better after patches?

[Koa Zo]

No, they're not that bad.
You can find specifics by searching and reading the relevant game threads on this forum.
Most of their releases are fine, it was only their first Saturn port that was particularly laggy, iirc.

As a company, they rule. They've brought us tons of great releases, particularly OSTs, that otherwise would've never seen the light of day. They meet their release dates, they don't regularly lie to their customers like so many other physical publishers, and they offer quality merchandise for their collectors editions.

[Acid]

I have Deathsmiles I+II and Game Tengoku: Cruisin Mix on the PS4. Both perform fine.

[Jonpachi]

The real headline with them is that Saturn Emulators Don't Run Well on Switch. Avoid all the S-Tribute games on Switch and you're cool. They're otherwise, as said, a reliable publisher.

[TransatlanticFoe]

No. They aren't bad at all.

Cotton/Guardian Force was one of the earliest (their first?) Saturn tribute releases was laggy even on Saturn. Add in an unoptimised emulator. Yeah it won't be great. They patched the emulator and subsequent releases have performed fine. They inherited the ZeroDiv Psikyo ports which were a little laggy at first and were tightened up ahead of the physical releases (they remain barebones and Zero Gunner 2 is inaccurate - it's essentially hacked together).

The Saturn tribute releases have some fun extras. The straight xbox ports (Under Defeat, Akai Katana etc.) are fine.

[Creamy Goodness]

My main issues with the Saturn and Psikyo ports were they were pretty bare bones in terms of features.

[AGermanArtist]

I've been a good customer of City Connection's. I have Deathsmiles I+II, Akai Katana, Guardian Heroes, Batsugun S Tribute, all but 3 of the Psikyo games, Under Defeat and Game Tengoku: Cruisin Mix on PS5. And all but 3 of the Psikyo games on Switch. There is a slight difference between the Psikyo games on Switch and PS5 with PS5 feeling slightly tighter and more responsive. I'd vouch for them.

[Leandro]

I just bought Elevator Action Returns S Tribute on Steam and it's a fun time. The soundtrack is mesmerizing. Wish I could enjoy this game back then, wish I had a Saturn in the 90s.

Cleopatra Fortune S Tribute seems insteresting but the reviews are saying it's not a good work by City connection so I didn't buy

[charlie chong]

one thing to note is that i tried playing batsugun port on ps4 on my qanba 2009 using a brook wingman converter and the lag made it unplayable (ship would carry on moving a little etc) so if you use a brook wingman i'd give these city connection ports a swerve.

[Sima Tuna]

The real headline with them is that Saturn Emulators Don't Run Well on Switch. Avoid all the S-Tribute games on Switch and you're cool. They're otherwise, as said, a reliable publisher.

My main issues with the Saturn and Psikyo ports were they were pretty bare bones in terms of features.

These are my two major issues with them. Their psikyo collections are complete shit. They're a bit laggy on the switch at around 6-7 frames of input delay, but perhaps even more importantly, they have zero practice features or options. I don't think you can even remap your buttons, so if you don't like the default layout then you can get fucked. There's no level select or save state or anything else you might want to practice what are incredibly difficult shmups. Made even harder by the input delay.

The Cotton and Guardian Force S-Tribute titles supposedly have 10+ frames of input delay on switch. Which is inexcusable. I have heard it's a combination of the shit Saturn emulation, the naturally laggy Saturn itself and whatever wrapper was used by City Connection for the release. They take a base of 5-6 frames of lag in a saturn game and throw an additional 4 frames on top of that.

Their pricier and newer releases, which are not part of the S-Tribute line, seem mostly okay. I can't remember if they handled the switch port of Akai Katana? I have that one and it's fine. It's just the xbox 360 version ported over to Switch. No more and no less. If you have a working xbox 360 and don't intend to play portably, IIRC Akai Katana is still fairly reasonably priced for xbox 360 and you may as well buy it on that console over the switch port. But if you don't, well hey, no reason not to get it on switch.

I've heard the CC port of Deathsmiles is likewise just the xbox 360 game with some overpriced DLC added. But functionally identical in terms of input delay and features, minus maybe an extra +1 frame of lag for being on the laggy switch.

I bought the Elevator Action Returns port based on feedback from this forum and after much consideration. It honestly seems like a fine port. I didn't notice any particularly massive lag or anything. But I still see it as a budget port (despite that it has some practice features and save states) rather than the fully deluxe M2 Shottriggers-quality full showcase that a masterpiece like EAR deserves. It's nice these games can be purchased commercially but the releases are a bit half-assed compared to what the games themselves deserve. I'm sure others feel the same way about Batsugun S-Tribute.

[LordHypnos]

Looking at the Steam Dragon Blaze port, it is, indeed, pretty barebones, but it doesn't have noticeable (to me) input latency, and it does have a full array of difficulty settings, complete with patronizing descriptors like "baby" and "child," lol (these will be familiar if you've ever had a Psikyo home console port). I believe this is beyond what the arcade version had (I can't find it in MAME dipswitch settings, anyway). It also has screen rotation and some kind of scanline setting, but that's nothing out of the ordinary these days.

I can't speak to any of the console versions, or the other Psikyo games, though.

[hamfighterx]

Their psikyo collections are complete shit. They're a bit laggy on the switch at around 6-7 frames of input delay, but perhaps even more importantly, they have zero practice features or options. I don't think you can even remap your buttons, so if you don't like the default layout then you can get fucked. There's no level select or save state or anything else you might want to practice what are incredibly difficult shmups. Made even harder by the input delay.

It's worth noting that City Connection was in no way responsible for developing the Psikyo ports, so IMO not very fair to blame City Connection for how they turned out. ZeroDiv made those ports and self-published them, before they had any connection to City Connection.

City Connection later acquired 100% of ZeroDiv in 2019, and went on to release compilations of the already released/completed games. If you want to blame CC for publishing those less than perfect ports, that's one thing - but they had no involvement in developing these ports. FWIW, CC went on to sell ZeroDiv to Edia in early 2025.

S-Tribute

Also, most of the S-Tribute games are... fine? Yeah, they're a little budget in scope and no-frills extras - they're emulated versions of the Saturn games with the emulator adding a couple frames of lag, which to me is far from unplayable. It's just that they started out with a release (Cotton/Guardian Force) that was ALREADY laggy AF on the Saturn itself, with an emulator that wasn't as optimized as it probably should have been. So that release REALLY didn't show them in a very good light when that was the initial release in the S-Tribute line. Very bad decision to release that one first, and as we can see it is still having some effect on their reputation.

Other S-Tribute releases are solid: Elevator Action Returns, Cleopatra Fortune, Assault Suit Leynos 2, Wolf Fang/Skull Fang, Steam Hearts/Advanced Variable Geo, Puzzle Bobble 2X/Puzzle Bobble 3, Metal Black (Xbox/PC only). All of those run just fine, the minor lag introduced by the emulator is really not a significant issue. I also have no real issue with Batsugun S-Tribute Boosted. They put a bit more effort into that one, with the addition of a budget version of M2's gadgets and a truly awesome arranged soundtrack.

Really, if you care about seeing releases of older shooters, CC is one of the companies doing the most work in that space today and carrying the flag for the niche genre. I can't see how that's a bad thing, even if they aren't doing ultra-deluxe ports like an M2 (who only has so much capacity, so they can't release a lot), or Hamster doing the lord's work with their weekly Arcade Archives releases.

[qmish]

As i play in Steam and don't have Switch (though I have PSP and Vita, lol), I don't have much choice haha

[Bassa-Bassa]

Really, if you care about seeing releases of older shooters, CC is one of the companies doing the most work in that space today and carrying the flag for the niche genre. I can't see how that's a bad thing

You can't because you're fine with CC's standards, but for the people expecting some actual quality, they're just the company preventing many long-awaited ports from getting a laudable release.

the naturally laggy Saturn itself

How's the Saturn "naturally laggy itself"?

[hamfighterx]

You can't because you're fine with CC's standards, but for the people expecting some actual quality, they're just the company preventing many long-awaited ports from getting a laudable release.

Who else is clamoring to port stuff like Under Defeat and Deathsmiles and Akai Katana? (also, CC's releases of those are quite good, it's ridiculous to say those aren't "actual quality"). Not sure who else you see out there who is making these "laudable" releases - are you just talking about M2? They don't have capacity to be releasing this stuff anyway, so it feels unlikely that these are going to come from them. Who else is out there making these mythical Criterion collection level ultimate releases? (answer: nobody)

And is this really preventing anything? It didn't prevent Hamster from releasing Puzzle Bobble 2 or Metal Black on Arcade Archives. It didn't prevent the Bitwave Batsugun releases on PC and now console. Layer Section/Galactic Attack S-Tribute didn't prevent Taito and M2 from doing the excellent Ray'z Arcade Chronology.

Nor are most of these really "long-awaited ports", because for the most part they are games that already HAVE ports. The Cave stuff still exists on 360 if you want to play it there, same for existing ports of the G.Rev games like Mamoro-kun Curse or Under Defeat. And CC's current gen releases of those games are good anyway, so what exactly is the problem? Just makes it cheaper and more convenient for people to play on modern platforms.

The Saturn stuff is literally emulating Saturn games that already exist, so if you really want the ports, go pay the going rate to get a used copy of Elevator Action Returns on Saturn. Besides, it seems likely that Hamster will get to Taito F3 in time, so stuff like EAR and Cleopatra Fortune are probably going to end up getting Arcade Archives releases once they get to it. And some of the other stuff... it feels like a pretty massive stretch to propose that someone else would have been re-releasing games like Steam Hearts or Wolf Fang, CC's releases are not blocking some mythical uber-port of those games.

the naturally laggy Saturn itself

How's the Saturn "naturally laggy itself"?

Not to speak for someone else, but I interpreted that comment as probably meaning that the Saturn PORTS of games like Guardian Force already have significant lag.