Bike Banditz

[CIT]

I'm thinking of getting this game. Is it worth it? Apparently some of the music is by Manabu Namiki - that alone should make it worthwhile.

I hear the game is hard to find now. I couldn't even find a demo on Frenchbread's website. Kinda would like to try it.

[Damocles]

Fun, but easy. It's a good experience, though, and worth the money.

[Icarus]

Did someone say "demo"? Because I thought I heard someone say "demo".
http://mirror.fuzzy2.com/french/
(Use mirrors 11-14 as stated on the page.)

[namagomi]

I found it to be fun, too. but I never got very deep into it. a doujin shooter I really love is zen ichi.

[kong]

Palletweb has the full version in stock. I liked the demo but I never got around to ordering the game.

[Frederik]

I found it to be fun, too. but I never got very deep into it. a doujin shooter I really love is zen ichi.

Do you have a link?

[Twiddle]

i need the fuckin' soundtrack

nowhere and no online shop i can think of has it

[captain ahar]

good game. play it on the harder difficulties though.

[TerminasluT]

Awesome game indeed!
I don't really know why some people said it was easy... It really took me a while to complete since you only got 1 credit in this game. At least playtime unlocks more lives where you can change that in the options.

And yeah the soundtrack is pretty good!

[Twiddle]

Over-generous extends and the fact that autobomb is a ship selection feature instead of an options setting make it really easy.

Should they ever make a sequel they should remove extends and autobomb.

[Damocles]

I think it took me two tries to 1cc the thing. On the first try I made it all the way to the final boss and some of the patterns took me by surprise. Second time was cake, basically. Indeed, autobomb made the game much easier than it should have been...and holy shit is the secret character fun.

[BulletMagnet]

The autobomb is good for survival but hurts your score, since getting hit and activating it lowers your medal level by 2, while using a manual bomb only lowers it by one, IIRC. It also (again, IIRC) launches your missiles automatically (which you might not always want) and requires the bar to be completely full to use, while the normal bomb only requires it to be partly full.

Very good game overall, accessible to many skill levels, a nice combo of scoring systems, and great presentation for a doujin game too.

[Twiddle]

The autobomb is good for survival but hurts your score, since getting hit and activating it lowers your medal level by 2

hurts your score by 5 whole percent

[BulletMagnet]

If you're HARDCORE enough, you'll care! Or are you one of those lame-os who play "for fun?" Should they have put in a "win" button for you so you don't feel bad?

[Twiddle]

well i dunno, such a gameplay difference making the game magnitudes easier affecting your score negatively by only 5 percent instead of something significant like 30-50 percent doesn't sound too good

this is how you do it: in raiden fighters you lose 15-20% in potential points by keeping the safest slave formation throughout the game (snake) and not grazing. you lose another 8-10% in points by saving your bombs for bosses instead of using them to get more quick shot and destruction bonuses

[BulletMagnet]

This after the heaps of "if you don't like feature xyz, use some willpower and don't select it!" speeches that have been put forth around here? At least BB has the good sense to not give you any continues, it'd seem.

[Twiddle]

it's not a feature, it's a ship type accessible with all defaults in the options menu.

they could have made the rank (omgz rank) go up faster and earlier if you chose autobomb to balance the effective free life every 20 seconds, but naaaaah

[BulletMagnet]

it's not a feature, it's a ship type accessible with all defaults in the options menu.

So are continues in most games. If you don't think they're kosher, don't use 'em. Heck, if someone started a BB high score thread, it could even be split into "autobomb" and "regular bomb" lists without any fuss.

[Twiddle]

I'm pretty sure all well designed shooting games all have a --PICK THIS SHIP AND/OR WEAPON TYPE OR ELSE YOU'RE MAKING THE GAME HARDER THAN IT SHOULD BE-- upon insertion of a credit.

oh, wait



I like the game, but the autobomb was such a Compile thing to do and the disadvantages of having it are not severe enough to justify using the other option. Hell, if they made the transform-on-explosion radius twice as big for those who chose the Manual option, that would bring the scoring difference up to 15-20%.

[BulletMagnet]

I like the game, but the autobomb was such a Compile thing to do and the disadvantages of having it are not severe enough to justify using the other option.

It doesn't even have to be about scoring or "advantages," just if you find the game more enjoyable/challenging depending on how you play it...speaking of Compile, it's sort of like those who find their games too easy on defaults...if so, crank up the difficulty level in the options menu and you're all set. Playing on something other than defaults isn't a cardinal sin or anything.

[Twiddle]

The thing about Compile games is that cranking up the difficulty doesn't actually do much if you know the simplistic enemy attacks and patterns already. Couple that with one-extend-a-minute.

It's a shame, Zanac and Zanac Neo would have been well balanced if they granted an amount of extends that were one or two, tops.

[BulletMagnet]

In any event, methinks you at least see what I'm getting at. Play however it best suits you.

[Twiddle]

I tend to look at the base design of a game as opposed to the "patches and workarounds" difficulty settings supposedly fix. Autobomb as a ship type available to the player AS A VALID SELECTION METHOD OUTSIDE OPTIONS? I don't think even Touhou did something like this, and the broken characters for scoring there are really only broken if you knew how to score in the first place.

Also, if you're going to have additional difficulty settings, be creative with them.

Bike Banditz adds patterns to bosses if you set difficulty to Arcade = great!
Super Aleste and Zanac Neo only makes bullets faster and enemies slightly stronger = orz

[BulletMagnet]

I tend to look at the base design of a game as opposed to the "patches and workarounds" difficulty settings supposedly fix.

Using "all-defaults" as a "control" of sorts when judging a game is fine, but I don't think that should stop one from enjoying the game on alternate settings if one prefers those better, and at least giving a little credit to the developers for allowing the player to tweak things a bit, rather than just saying "this is all you get," since unless the game is completely flawless as it is (which is impossible) not everyone will like it "as is."

[CIT]

It's a shame, Zanac and Zanac Neo would have been well balanced if they granted an amount of extends that were one or two, tops.

No, in Zanac Neo that would totally ruin the essence of the gameplay. You need those extends to be able ram into the power up boxes, and you need to generate as many boxes as possible to be able to get up to a 999+ chain. A good Zanac Neo player will deliberately waste around 50 extends per run just to push his score.

People always complain that Zanac Neo is too easy to 1CC. Well, it is easy to 1CC, but that's not the point of the game anyway. The game is really only fun when you play it for score.

[Twiddle]

Well, "auto/manual bomb" is not exactly "alternate difficulty settings", and your score is put on the same board as those who use manual.

Play on easy? Who cares. Play on hard? It's your game.

The problem is that the game itself does not pass different judgement on scores using different bomb types, which radically alter the challenge of the gameplay without punishing the player significantly in other aspects.

[Twiddle]

It's a shame, Zanac and Zanac Neo would have been well balanced if they granted an amount of extends that were one or two, tops.

No, in Zanac Neo that would totally ruin the essence of the gameplay. You need those extends to be able ram into the power up boxes, and you need to generate as many boxes as possible to be able to get up to a 999+ chain. A good Zanac Neo player will deliberately waste around 50 extends per run just to push his score.

People always complain that Zanac Neo is too easy to 1CC. Well, it is easy to 1CC, but that's not the point of the game anyway. The game is really only fun when you play it for score.

I tend to get confused when my score is going way up while my rank goes rock bottom, below the starting point. (I guess this is why I play Gain in Battle Garegga, but it's designed so you can't ever get below your starting point, unless you're using Chitta, in which case it's necessary to do so because her ship is just so awesomely weak.) I can very easily kill myself over and over to get 40+ million, but I'm getting a much easier game by doing this.

There should have been a floor for rank based on your score.

[BulletMagnet]

Well, "auto/manual bomb" is not exactly "alternate difficulty settings"

Methinks it might as well be.

[Twiddle]

Well, "auto/manual bomb" is not exactly "alternate difficulty settings"

Methinks it might as well be.

The game doesn't think so. My 33m Manual ALL score cries because the Auto ALL is right above it instead of being in a segregated table.

Airrade -AIR- is such a design gem, even if it has hard to see Garegga bullets and buggy as hell replay recording and playback.

[Icarus]

Airrade AIR is awesome. I haven't given it nearly as much time as it rightfully deserves, something I should rectify soon. Thats if other games don't get in the way first. -_-;;