What do you think of Pulstar?

[Mero]

Did a search before starting this thread, the game gets a lot of fleeting mentions in various threads but no dedicated discussion thread that I could find, so here it is.

Anyway, I got the MVS cart of this about a month ago and I really think it's a great game (I wouldn't still be playing it otherwise). There's little hardcore memorization (thankfully) and the game isn't anywhere near as ball-breakingly hard as I think a lot of people think it is, the first 4 levels are easy enough but will still kill you if you're not paying attention, the next 4 a bit tougher but still beatable .

I can get to the final form of the final boss now so hopefully I can clear it soon. The only downside is that you basically need to do the game on 1 life, but that's not a problem once you know what you're doing.

What do the people here think of the game?

[mjclark]

Never understood why this is seen as the poor relation of Blazing Star. Pulstar is absolutely fucking fantastic, very atmospheric and just as good as BS but I hate the restarts- if there had been a Pulstar Pink Bullets this would be a number one

[shmuppyLove]

[BPzeBanshee]

What's that meant to be?

[kid aphex]

---of the memorization subgenre, I think it's the best. one of the best soundtracks, too.

[shmuppyLove]

What's that meant to be?

Ah crap sorry, I fixed the original.

[Captain]

I absolutely support pulstar, It's as good as Blazing star to me.

And heres a tip, on the final boss form 2, just use your pod bomb, it usually kills it instantly.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

I vastly prefer it to Blazing Star; yes, those two are almost belong to two different genres - old school VS bullet hell - but I still think Pulstar is easily the overall better game. Absolutely fantastic graphics, superb music, the stages and game design are great (while I feel that Blazing star is a sloppy in this department). And, of course, it doesn't have the annoying announcer... which makes for a much more serious atmosphere. Personally, I can't stand games that make you play parts of a stage over and over again until you can finish it on 1 life, but this game is an exception. For the R-Type fiends, this shouldn't be a problem anyway...

[Herr Schatten]

It's a good game with very high production values. It's also much better than Blazing Star.

[Austin]

Pulstar is an excellent R-Type styled game. It has some truly top-notch visuals for the Neo-Geo and the soundtrack is great. I also like that while it copies the R-Type formula, it still changes up how your pod and firepower works.

I have to disagree with some of the comments saying it's not as memory-based though. I remember having a much harder time with this one than the R-Type games overall. I still finished it (on the Neo-Geo CD at first, too, ugh. ), but it took me quite a bit of effort. Maybe I'd be able to cut right through it these days, but I probably haven't played it since 2002 or 2003.

Blazing Star is my favorite of the two (probably my favorite MVS shooter, regardless), but it's a vastly different game and shouldn't be compared, in my opinion.

[Sumez]

Never understood why this is seen as the poor relation of Blazing Star. Pulstar is absolutely fucking fantastic, very atmospheric and just as good as BS but I hate the restarts- if there had been a Pulstar Pink Bullets this would be a number one

It is??
Those two games are completely different, and it took a lot longer for me to get into Blazing Star, despite (or rather, because of) its seemingly much more simple gameplay.

Pulstar is probably my favorite memorizer shooter of all, it's a fantastic game in both gameplay and presentation. One of the first games I got for my MVS.

[Skykid]

I prefer it to Blazing Star too. Hell, I think I prefer it to R-Type.

[Ghegs]

Haven't given my MVS cart the love it deserves. Should fix that.

I sort of prefer Last Resort's sprites and Force-like-device, though.

[professor ganson]

I prefer it to Blazing Star too. Hell, I think I prefer it to R-Type.

This post caused me to add Pulstar to my wanted list. It's been so long (if I have played the game-- and I think I have) that I'm not even sure I've played Pulstar.

[dpful]

I'm critical of the giant beast check point on the fire level. It's fucking LONG. If it die there, I usually give up--- and I Love checkpoint games. I could grind away on the other checkpoints all day. I love the game. That fire level checkpoint is the only ball drop in the whole thing- otherwise a masterpiece.

[null1024]

I like Blazing Star more, but Pulstar is in no way a bad game [but I still prefer R-Type to it a bit].

And like everyone says, the two are vastly different games. It all boils down to which type you like more.

[Drum]

I like Blazing Star a lot more and I want to hear why people like Pulstar more because that seems wrong.

EDIT: Oh, I just tried playing for score and I think I see now. Also, it called me a poor player. Fuck that game.

[Strider77]

I LOVE Pulstar.... blows Blazing Star out of the water to me. The music and visuals are some of the best on the MVS, much better than Blazing Star. The only reason I could see folks hating on Pulstar or liking it more than Blazing is that it's a check point shooter.

I like check point shooters so it doesn't bother me. It's just the production values... they are through the roof and it oozes with atmosphere along with a fantastic soundtrack.

I like Blazing Star also but it's later stages start to have some odd color pallets and the pre-rendered thing starts to be used to heavy or at least not as well. The music is no where as nice either. But it's not ugly or bad by any means.

Just my 2 cents but I will go on the record and say to me, it's one of the best looking and sounding MVS games out there. Easily my favorite shooter on the MVS.

[Sumez]

I think the later levels in Blazing Star look almost as good as Pulstar, but it does start out slow.

[Captain]

agreewed.

[Mortificator]

The problem with games inspired by R-Type is that the original R-Type nailed the ship mechanics so well that almost any change is going to be for the worse, and non-Irem shooters haven't been willing to totally ape the R-9's functionality. In Pulstar's case, it's hard to deny it'd be fun if you could launch your pod, have it fight alongside you, and reattach it to the front or back at will.

Still a good game, though.

[Sumez]

True. That's the one thing Pulstar doesn't have on R-Type. In an attempt to somehow not make it completely identical to an actual R-Type game, they had you sacrifice the pod instead of using it strategically as a gameplay element.

Everything else is better than R-Type though, IMO.

[SunJammer]

pulstar's "wake up" continue screen is the greatest. I'd put it right up there with the "put in a quarter or we'll blow you up" from Final Fight.

[valgalder]

love both.. hard for me to pick one over the other because I feel they play a bit different. I like the different ship variations of Blazing Star and of course the fact that it's not a check point shooter, greatly benefits my mediocre skills - thus i'm able to get through Blazing Star with a few credits, where I still have yet to get that far in Pulstar despite owning it for Neo CD for years and now own it for MVS. Pulstar is a beautiful game though and the production value is top notch. One of these days i'll actually sit down with it and try and get through it all, but it's frustrating as I'll be doing very well (for me) and then have to start over because of getting killed by something dumb or something I didn't yet memorize.

Oh well.... That being said I still like Last Resort a lot, but that is probably more nostalgia- as it was one of the first Neo Geo games I played as a kid at the arcade and would play it A LOT.. I still suck at that one too though.

[Strider77]

I like Last Resort also, the only shooters I have on the Neo are Blazing Star, Pulstar and Last Resort. Use to have Prehistoric Isle at one point.

[Captain]

Pulstar is a dream before the mission in Blazing star, that is why
A:the ship is so powered up (lotsa weapons and overkill at high power levels)
B:the enemies ( mostly bosses) look scary-it was a nightmare
C:the ending, where most people think the pilot falls asleep after all the fighting and then wakes up, when only the waking up part is true.

The continue screen has the opposite effect, you put a coin for the Wake Up sign to stop, not for the pilot to wake up.

Thumbs up if someone other than me realized all this.

[Drachenherz]

Pulstar is a dream before the mission in Blazing star, that is why
A:the ship is so powered up (lotsa weapons and overkill at high power levels)
B:the enemies ( mostly bosses) look scary-it was a nightmare
C:the ending, where most people think the pilot falls asleep after all the fighting and then wakes up, when only the waking up part is true.

The continue screen has the opposite effect, you put a coin for the Wake Up sign to stop, not for the pilot to wake up.

Thumbs up if someone other than me realized all this.

YOU!!!!!!!! WHY COULDN'T YOU PUT A SPOILER-TAG!!!! NOW THE STORY LOST ALL ITS APPEAL AND THE GAME HAS LOST ITS MAGIC FOR EVA FOR ME!!!!

[Mero]

Thanks for the replies, it's good to know there's people on here who rate the game as much as I do.

I finally managed to clear the game on Wednesday morning, which should tell you that you really don't need amazing skills to do well at this game, just a bit of dedication . Took me about a month of full runs to be able to pull it off (I never credit feed to practice, but in this game credit feeding would be useless anyway).
The parts that took longest to deal with are level 6 and level 8 (level 7 is much easier for some reason), and it never felt like a chore slogging through the early levels again and again while I was learning those levels either.

Regarding comparison to R-Type, I would say that R-Type 1 and 2 are both much, much harder than Pulstar, especially 2.

I think the reason that Pulstar has a reputation for being really hard is a lot of people arrive at level 3 (the fire level) underpowered and get totally annihilated. As long as you're fully powered up that level is easy as the key to success in this game is don't die and lose your power ups. The real killer if you die is losing the ability the charge the charge shot quickly, if that happens from level 5 onwards you've had it.

[BurlyHeart]

https://psprices.com/region-us/game/152 ... eo-pulstar (at work and can't link to the store, so this will have to do).

Didn't see it mentioned anywhere, but Pulstar was released for PS4 this week.

[MintyTheCat]

I sort of prefer Last Resort's sprites and Force-like-device, though.

I prefer LR too. It definitely has some nice graphics and themes. Really nice toning style to the graphics. The music is very well done.
I have the Soundtrack CD and I am still looking for the flyer.
I will give Pulstar some more plays though. I never liked Blazing-Star.