controversial opinion: savestates can be awesome

Ataru · Post by **Ataru** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 6:23 pm

I know that this is likely to be looked at as blasphemous by some people here, but I've been playing Gradius III using save states, and it's made the game a hell of a lot more fun.

I've long considered Gradius III to be one of the greatest shmups I've ever played, but simultaniously felt it to be so hard as to be impossible to really play (for my skill level.) It's mainly the "one life it or don't play" aspect that gets in the way, coupled with the absolute insane difficulty.

But playing with save states, I'm getting to enjoy the game without having to dedicate my entire life to it. It's also making the tedium of the slow pacing of the initial collecting of power ups disappear.

It also allows me to enjoy the game on the default settings without it being too punishing for me to enjoy. This is not a game one can just continue through, even with the save states (which I'm doing once or twice per level depending on level length), it's still hard as nails.

This kind of play is only applicable to older games that have cruel power-up systems and checkpoints... it wouldn't be fun at all to play Dodonpachi like this.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

OmegaFlareX · Post by **OmegaFlareX** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:11 pm

Save states + re-recording + frame advance + speed toggles = awesome

There are two Gradius III videos there. One is a play-around, the other is a max kill.

Anyway, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of save states. You're having fun with them. More power to you.

Edge · Post by **Edge** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:41 pm

Playing with savestates is no fun to me, but well, if it is more fun to you, why not. I rather like to play on Mame than on a home console. Because I always record my play. After watching my input file I often see the mistakes I made and know better what I did wrong.

They should have a replay recording feature on the console systems too. This ain't impossible, it's like recording a ghost of a racing game.
...they could also make a online highscore database for console shmups. If you connect to their server your input file would be send automatically to their server. After they checked your file your score will be uploaded to the official highscore table...

*guess I got a bit carried away, again* ^^

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:40 pm

Hey, if it makes the game more fun, go for it.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:51 pm

Cthulhu wrote:Hey, if it makes the game more fun, go for it.

My feelings exactly. And some shmups, like the 194X series (well, the first 3 games, at least!) just plain NEED save states, IMO, due to their length.