Rob's 91-95 arcade countdown: hidden gem search.

shinsage · Post by **shinsage** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:02 am

1. I never knew Blaze On was an arcade game.

2. looks so, so much better than the port.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:18 am

#7 Cybattler (Jaleco, 1993)

Flashy scrolling arena-style shooter. Move in eight directions and hold the fire button to lock in place or slash up close with the second button. Hectic action on the stages preferred to the lifebar-draining clunky pattern heavy bosses. Feels a little too imprecise, or just cheap.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:43 am

#6 Super Spacefortress Macross II (Banpresto, 1993)

You get infinite lives and the focus is shifted to meeting a scoring goal before the time runs out. Of course you won't be able to meet the third or fourth level goals, since losing a life resets the medal values and you miss out on numerous surplus item bonus points as well. Lots of hidden bonuses, emphasis on destroying everything quickly so more enemies will appear. Much like Caravan games/modes, except with more scoring items. Huge improvement over the first game.

Trivia!: appeared in STGT '06 week 1 poll, receiving 3% of the vote. Over 50% less than Cotton.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:34 am

Finally the best.

#5! Turbo Force (Video System Co., 1991)

Some environment obstacles and projectiles shaped like something other than orange circles. Huh? Who is this? I never would've imagined this would be any better than Aero Fighters. I loathe Aero Fighters as much as I love Psikyo. AF is everything that is bad about early Psikyo games with none of what I find appealing. So how can I enjoy Turbo Force so much? No pretend ship "variety" - you get a flying car. There is no bomb button, no way to panic out of a boss pattern. You have to dodge it or you die. There are special bomb-like items that can be grabbed on a stage, but there are none to lose unless you let them time out. After playing this I can kind of relate to the guy who doesn't like later Psikyo games for not being pure enough. This is the (pre-)Psikyo spirit at its most pure.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:44 am

#5! Turbo Force (Video System Co., 1991)

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:47 am

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:57 am

#4! Thunder Dragon 2 (NMK, 1993)

This is the biggest improvement in any shooter sequel I have ever played (65 place jump on this list, basically from worst to best). They fixed the main problem with that game, which was the inability to dodge anything without knowing or lucking upon a safe spot. My one complaint is bullet visibility, the dark blue to white flashing an extremely poor choice with an outline of little benefit. The ship is smaller and faster, perfect. Lots of hidden bonus items to hunt around for while dodging. You can even destroy the stage intro for extra points (and an extra bomb if you can get every last letter). Awesome announcer, I only wish I could understand. I can almost see the reason for NMK fandom.

Top 3 tomorrow.

Shinichi Chiba · Post by **Shinichi Chiba** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:01 pm

CIT wrote:
#5! Turbo Force (Video System Co., 1991)

The final boss is a huge car throwing freaking lexus symbols at you !
I mean come on !!

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:13 pm

Those three must be MONSTERS of innovation in recreational electronic media if they can out-GAMEPLAY Turbo Force.

D · Post by D » Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:17 pm

the thread eva

Top 3:
-Gunbird
-
-

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:27 pm

I don't think Gunbird qualifies as "hidden"

Final 3 already?? I think there are a few missing...

Operation Ragnarok and Rapid Hero (NMK 1994)
Double Wings (Mitchell 1993)
Fixeight (Toaplan 1992)
Ninja Commando (ADK 1992)
Varth (Capcom 1992)
Chimera Beast (Jaleco 1993)
ASO II (1991)

Oh the excitement... will R-Type Leo and Xexex be among the top 3?

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:28 pm

Operation Ragnarok = Zed Blade

j^aws · Post by **j^aws** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:31 pm

D wrote:the thread eva

Top 3:
-Gunbird
-
-

Gunbird wouldn't surprise me; just been playing it. It's still enjoyable; maybe even more than Strikers 1945...

It's a shame that a lot of games were missed from the overall list though...

P_HAT · Post by **P_HAT** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:30 pm

CIT wrote:
#5! Turbo Force (Video System Co., 1991)

JoshF wrote:

szycag · Post by **szycag** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:41 pm

Turbo Force is so broken. At least I can bear to play the Aero Fighters games. You mean to say you like the handling of that POS car and the weapons that power down after a few shots? I hope never to play so many crappy shmups that Turbo Force would look remotely good.

Are we going to get a list of the games that you didn't think were crappy enough to include (read: too popular or whatever)

Macaw · Post by **Macaw** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:00 pm

Well the top 10 has already had 2 NMK games so far (Macross 2 and Thunder Dragon 2) and Rapid Hero is certainly still to come in the top 3, and not to mention P-47 Aces was 12th.

Final Conclusion = Rob is an NMK fan.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:08 pm

Wow...I almost feel proud to have cleared Macross II now. I used to just feel shame. A memorizer if there ever was one.

BTW...final boss = pain in the ass.

yojo! · Post by **yojo!** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 7:33 pm

CIT wrote:
#5! Turbo Force (Video System Co., 1991)

me too.

Funny how the automatic powerdown that Rob finds as an issue in #51 (A.F #2) is not a problem here... Turbo Force is also flawed w/ so many bugs irt almost embarrasing to play. And yes I own the PCB and there 're not emulatoin bugs. Im sure Rob's list was meant as an april fool joke 6 months late.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 7:40 pm

It's not an automatic powerdown.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 7:43 pm

Haha.

But I... like it. The powering down aspect is much more tolerable in Turbo Force.

Are we going to get a list of the games that you didn't think were crappy enough to include (read: too popular or whatever)

Yeah. For the record I think the games at the top of the list here are at least as enjoyable as the games I excluded.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 7:46 pm

Twiddle wrote:It's not an automatic powerdown.

And there seem to be much more power up items, which occasionally increase it more than one or two levels. I'd much rather play this than "get max power for 10 seconds!" Sengoku Ace or Gunbird.

yojo! · Post by **yojo!** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:09 pm

Twiddle wrote:It's not an automatic powerdown.

What are you talking about ? Your firepower nudges 1 level down after 20s once it got maxed out. Just like in Aerofighter.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:16 pm

The powerdown is ammo based instead of time-based. You power down after 10-12 "bursts" instead of 20 seconds, encouraging ammo conservation without cutting you off like in Cyvern. You also get enough pickups so you can be in max power 2/3 of the time.

viniciusvbf · Post by **viniciusvbf** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:42 pm

Twiddle wrote:The powerdown is ammo based instead of time-based. You power down after 10-12 "bursts" instead of 20 seconds, encouraging ammo conservation without cutting you off like in Cyvern. You also get enough pickups so you can be in max power 2/3 of the time.

Aero Fighters 2 is also ammo based.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:49 pm

So many games better than Viewpoint can only mean: life is good.

viniciusvbf · Post by **viniciusvbf** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:49 pm

Oh and you forgot the best part of turbo force:
3 PLAYERS CAN PLAY AT THE SAME TIME

yojo! · Post by **yojo!** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:31 pm

viniciusvbf wrote:Oh and you forgot the best part of turbo force:
3 PLAYERS CAN PLAY AT THE SAME TIME

With everybody kung fu fighting evertime a powerup shows up.

viniciusvbf · Post by **viniciusvbf** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 10:47 pm

yojo! wrote:
viniciusvbf wrote:Oh and you forgot the best part of turbo force:
3 PLAYERS CAN PLAY AT THE SAME TIME
With everybody kung fu fighting evertime a powerup shows up.

Power ups that stays on the screen for 2 seconds are fun.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 10:51 pm

Especially when they don't bounce around the top half.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:03 pm

#3! V-V (Toaplan, 1993)

V-V has all of the difficulty of Toaplan's other games with as many bullets as they could manage with V-V's midsized, relatively slim hitbox. If you die you can speed up right away (no reserve power up items needed and to perfect speed - Toaplan actually took a Gradius formula and made it less frustrating, mind blown). You have a powerful combined "laser" and spread shot by default, like DonPachi without manual rapidfire. So refreshing after playing games like Tatsujin-Oh, a game that sends you back out with nothing. They were even feeling generous enough to offer a one-time shield. They let you enjoy an abusive game the fun way, finally. Shame the graphics aren't as nice as they were in Dogyuun or Tatsujin-Oh, but GAMEPLAY COUNTS FIRST!

This is Cave's Turbo Force.