Shooting Game Tournament 2007 (Themes/Game Selection Thread)

shoe-sama · Post by **shoe-sama** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:10 am

we should play progear

it has gems

and they're hidden

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:11 am

That is probably the only good idea you've had all tournament.

sikraiken · Post by **sikraiken** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:11 am

Twiddle wrote:You voted for Gunbird, so your opinion is worth 1% less than mine.

(USS Vasara crew, even though it was a joke vote)

You think Bakraid is a good game, so any opinion of yours that isn't in agreement with mine I'll completely disregard. : )

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:12 am

It's not good as in RFJ or Garegga good (Bakraid is probably a 5/6 out of 10 here where the two aforementioned are perfect scores), but it's better than every other game in the poll.

ps. gunbird. what the fuck.

shoe-sama · Post by **shoe-sama** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:15 am

Gunbird 2 also has hidden gems.

Arvandor · Post by **Arvandor** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:22 am

Where are the tacos?

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:35 pm

The theory is, the last games nobody knows enough about to bitch against may be our """hidden gems?"""

There's a reason why nobody played these.

In-thread writeup of the "top tier" nominations coming soon.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:38 pm

I'm way too lazy to complain about all of those, and then it comes down to matters of taste since having a scoring system is not required.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:41 pm

Having played some of the "top tier" nominations apparently being fun also isn't required.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:45 pm

I'd remove everything but Macross II and Omega Fighter from the top tier.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:54 pm

Nebula's Ray:
Piss easy stages.
Bosses that had the challenge the stages should have had (thankfully the stages are worth much more points!!)
Poor contrast of what you can shoot and what's merely in the background/foreground.
Destroy certain defenseless targets for 3000 point bonuses!
Subweapons for limited time? Thankfully they don't do any damage therefore there's little point of them existing.
1 star.

Thunder Dragon 2:
Number of Manabu Namiki one liners exceeding that of Batrider.
Huge amount of secret bonuses (shoot down secret areas with enough firepower for medals, shoot down stage messages for points and secret bonuses, shoot big enemies quickly enough for items.) Scoring system+3
Macroscopic hitbox (only excludes the tips of the players' wings) but that's forgivable because the bullet patterns are designed around that, at least in the first half of the game.
Bombing is encouraged!
You lose your missiles and only 2 levels of power upon death.
3 stars.

Daioh:
Shienryu, without any resemblance of polish whatsoever.
US version scores more points due to the weapon change icons being 5000pt icons instead and having all weapons available ala Radiant Silvergun (which is a much inferior game to this.)
Second loop difficulty achieved if one manages to go 4 or 5 stages without dying.
Dying seems to reduce rank to minimum, though, a nice and needed touch to a checkpoint shooter.
2 stars.

Cybattler:
Innovation: you hold your firing direction by holding the fire button!
Melee attack worth about 2x for most targets. Scoring system+1
Weapon tactics vary between levels, since you get a different one for each.
Not much else to note.
2 stars.

Varth:
This game would be great if it weren't for the first 11 stages. (NOTE TO DJINCOMPETENT: THIS MEANS THEY ARE BORING, SLOW, AND EASY.)
Tons of secret bonuses and a slight risk element (podless for 50k bonus per stage) though. Scoring system+2
Puzzling hit detection for enemies at parts, though.
Bombing is encouraged!
2 stars.

Air Buster:
Infinite supply of screen clearing bomb? Don't mind if I do!
I just saw Namco on this, too. Apparently they never knew how to make shooters.
0 stars.

Vasara 2:
Possibly the most hilarious chaining system ever.
Otherwise, enjoyable game with reasonable challenge since the milking actually becomes more difficult if you decide to do it.
2 stars.

Mazinger Z:
I like games where the enemies actually make an effort to kill me, thanks.
0 stars.

More to come.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:05 pm

<bloodf> you forgot that omega fighter is boring
^stays in the bottom 1/5 of the screen in games

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:20 pm

Twiddle wrote:podless for 50k bonus per stage

That's good to know.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:22 pm

If anyone votes Varth in out of name recognition I'm going to wave my scoring discrepancy penis.

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:35 pm

Thunder Dragon 2

Wow, this game is alot of fun! I think you are over-exaggerating the hitbox. It's much smaller than I expected.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:40 pm

It's big, but not annoyingly so is what I was trying to get at.

Was Air Buster so nice that it warranted being listed twice?

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:12 pm

I think GunNail should make the shortlist, for the pain and suffering of all.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:24 pm

I'm starting to like Gunnail, actually, but not enough. This is a 5 star system.

Rabio Lepus:
Pick up milk for points. More points if the milk is fresh, apparently.
Expert Course easier on the basis that it isn't much harder and you get the extend much sooner. (LOL)
5 second boss fights.
Stages make this the functional equivalent of a sleeping pill.
US version is broken and has more one-hit kill deaths.
1 star.

Grid Seeker:
90% of the bullets in the game (pink bullets) can be absorbed by your sidepods which you can reposition to the front of your ship as a semi-permanent shield to those. Absorbing bullets = more bombs. Now, if it took more than 10 bullets to get a bomb back...
Sleeping pill stages and bosses.
Helper ship takes a ludicrous amount of health before fucking off.
0 stars.

Hyper Duel:
Boring. Can't get past the second stage without being bored to death. The amount of bullets that can be cancelled out by just shooting them doesn't help here.
I like the music that tries too hard, it's cute, but seriously, I want to play a fun game.
1 star.

Saint Dragon:
Haha.
0 stars.

P-47:
I like how everything is just one color.
I also like how the game's framerate is variable, like a PC.
0 stars.

P-47 Aces:
P-47 Plus One: More than one color.
The game is not afraid to throw bullets at you.
Messy, though.
2 stars.

GunNail:
Love the scoring system (CAN YOU REALLY 1LC THIS GAME?!?!? PROVE IT!!!) but hate the hitbox. Wish Under Defeat had stretched the death multiplier to this level.
2 stars.

Again, more to come.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:01 am

Twiddle wrote: Saint Dragon:
Haha.
0 stars.

It actually seemed decent the one time I played it, but for scoring competition... come on. That goes for most games here.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:06 am

I don't seem to say anything if a game lacks a scoring system, but I hope the 0-1 star judgement would say enough.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:32 am

I should be replacing the RAM in this computer, but I'm suffering bad games for the good of every player who actually wants to play fun games for the tournament.

Stuff I didn't cover:
Macross Scrambled Valkyrie - Not in MAME.
Aldynes - Not in MAME.
Wangan Sensou - Not in MAME.
Whip Rush - Not in MAME.

Feel free to correct me on this, but chances are the aforementioned games just aren't any good.

Dogyuun:
No sound.
0 stars. (technical penalty)

Zero Wing:
Bland. Unless you still find the 7-year-old AYB joke funny this shouldn't be anywhere in a "hidden gem" list.
0 stars.

The Game Paradise:
Shadowing nonexistent, rendering the game unplayable. I'm sure the system might be half-decent and all, but goddamn if the repeating sprites and graphical errors don't rape my eyes.
0 stars. (technical penalty)

Metal Black:
Bland. Doesn't get any difficult until maybe late in the 4th, early in the 5th stage.
0 stars.

Chimera Beast:
The eating gimmick wears really thin really quickly.
1 star.

Knightmare:
This isn't a shooter. No sound.
0 stars. (2x technical penalty)

Super Spacefortress Macross II:
Great game. Takes 5-7 minutes to complete, though, which relegates it to caravan status.
Many scoring tricks, secret bonuses, and wave destruction medals. Scoring system+3
Attaining the qualifying parameter for the 3rd stage on any of the courses is balls hard.
3 stars.

Gun Frontier:
AUTOFIRE SUPRISE! Rank system goes haywire if delay is set to less than 3.
Ugly.
This marks the beginning of an era where Taito doesn't seem to know how to make decent shooting games that aren't Space Invaders sequels, until what became G.Rev came along.
1 star.

Gemini Wing:
From the makers of Star Force.
0 stars.

Rayforce:
This isn't hidden.
0 stars. (technical penalty)

More to come. AGAIN.

shoe-sama · Post by **shoe-sama** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:34 am

We should totally play Image Fight.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:42 am

Image Fight:
This isn't hidden.
0 stars. (technical penalty)

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:33 am

Twiddle wrote: Gemini Wing:
From the makers of Star Force.
0 stars.

Target destroyed.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:55 am

Kotsujin - Not in MAME.
Violent Soldier - Not in MAME.

Prehistoric Isle 2:
Clunky. Terrible. Scoring system entirely dependent on low-difficulty boss milking, like Blazing Star.
0 stars.

Alpha Mission 2:
A S O 2 LAST GUARDIAN (ALPHA MISSION 2) - NO SCORE - INFINITE SCORE PROBLEM
0 stars.

Gekirindan:
A Toaplan game with '90-'95 Taito shooting game balance.
1 star.

Hellfire:
Unwieldy weapon switching mechanism. Counter Stop.
1 star.

Trigon:
Konami's take on the Kyukoku Tiger/Raiden formula. Unfortunately, they forgot the reason why that formula worked.
Also, don't expect to recover after death, ever. Poorly defined checkpoints.
0 stars.

Kingdom Grandprix:
Man, oh man. Let me tell you how shitty this game is:
-CPU contestants can pass right by you while you fight a boss.
-CPU contestants are invincible, you are not.
-Only two or three characters are useful.
-You cannot shoot and race (hold fire) at the same time. You can drop bombs, but there aren't nearly enough to keep the invincible contestants with Super Mario Kart speed boosts at bay.
-Enemy and stage design rivaling Gallop in amount of clutter. Did I tell you this game was based on Gallop?
Raizing's worst game, a hair below Dimahoo.
0 stars.

more II come

Arvandor · Post by **Arvandor** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:07 am

The problem with a hidden gem week is clearly that amongst an already niche genre, most fans of the genre already know where all the gems are, and there aren't any that are hidden. If the majority of this board doesn't know about it, it probably isn't worth knowing about.

Game Tengoku would be perfect though if it weren't emulated like shit (I need to download it and find out just how bad it is). Quick, everyone buy Jp Saturn's and Game Tengoku! =D

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:17 am

Arvandor wrote:The problem with a hidden gem week is clearly that amongst an already niche genre, most fans of the genre already know where all the gems are, and there aren't any that are hidden. If the majority of this board doesn't know about it, it probably isn't worth knowing about.

Game Tengoku would be perfect though if it weren't emulated like shit (I need to download it and find out just how bad it is). Quick, everyone buy Jp Saturn's and Game Tengoku! =D

If I had cash to splurge like that, I'd be nabbing Garegga or Batsugun before Game Tengoku. Fuck the tournament.

Arvandor · Post by **Arvandor** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:34 am

Well, I can't argue with that at all. =) I'd be of a very similar opinion if I were in the same position. Fortunately I own all three, so all is well with the world.

Zebra Airforce · Post by **Zebra Airforce** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:44 am

Arvandor wrote:Well, I can't argue with that at all. =) I'd be of a very similar opinion if I were in the same position. Fortunately I own all three, so all is well with the world.

Lucky

Raizing's worst game, a hair below Dimahoo

What is so terrible about it (Dimahoo)? I heard the scoring system is crap (can't even figure out what it is, tho.) Is the scoring system so bad that it ruins the entire game?

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:46 am

The fact that OCD timing on the charge release and destruction control is needed or else you lose 5-15 million off your potential score? That's pretty terrible.