NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
Op Intensify
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Op Intensify »

Stormwatch wrote:No, seriously, why are the NG and DC intros different?
Perhaps the DC crowd is more prudish, or they wanted to avoid anything that might invite Sega's ire?
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Ed Oscuro
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Ed Oscuro »

That would make sense if they were following a Sega-mandated commercial release qualification process, or if the change was removing a Sega owned logo, trademark, or copyrighted material.
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RaidenViper
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by RaidenViper »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZYajQ-H ... ture=g-u-u

Oh great, now Screwattack got their hands on this game...
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by TransatlanticFoe »

What a horrible review - bizarre critical analysis aside, he sounded like a work experience kid reading a news bulletin. Also, "one forth" the price? You mean what normal human beings call "a quarter"?

I e-mailed about the Dragon Box posters yesterday and so of course mine magically turn up today. They are currently posting them and expect the last ones to go out by the end of next week. They're extensions of the regular edition, limited edition and dragon box covers.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by RaidenViper »

Obviously no research was done before making this review.
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MOSQUITO FIGHTER
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by MOSQUITO FIGHTER »

That review actually made me want to buy the game. Sold! :lol:
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Op Intensify »

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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by gabe »

While I shouldn't be surprised, It annoys me that both reviews were short-sighted enough to suggest that NG:Dev.Team should start releasing their content via the traditional download services, and go on to call the game overpriced at €30. It's sad to see that the gaming public has been tricked into "buying" downloadable content, and no longer sees value in truly owning media. All of that aside, it should be pretty obvious that the only reason NG:Dev.Team isn't lost in the sea of indie shit, is because they are actually releasing games on dead formats, for dead consoles.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by psoslayer »

Op Intensify wrote:HG101 has their own review up as well. It's not very favorable.
I found that one was quite nice. :P

It's true that some of the CG effects don't match with the handrawn art.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by EmperorIng »

gabe wrote:While I shouldn't be surprised, It annoys me that both reviews were short-sighted enough to suggest that NG:Dev.Team should start releasing their content via the traditional download services, and go on to call the game overpriced at €30. It's sad to see that the gaming public has been tricked into "buying" downloadable content, and no longer sees value in truly owning media. All of that aside, it should be pretty obvious that the only reason NG:Dev.Team isn't lost in the sea of indie shit, is because they are actually releasing games on dead formats, for dead consoles.
It's quite a good strategy - appealing to a hardcore niche that will pay obscene amounts of money for your product (aka MVS/AES collectors).
The dreamcast stuff is just icing on the cake!

Unfortunately, most game reviewers these days are pretty damn dumb themselves, and likewise buy into every game-journalism buzzword that they're fed by IGN and Gamespot. Umm.... DIGITAL DOWNLOADS! Err.... STEAM!!! Ah...... INDIE INDIE INDIE INDIE INDIE INDIE
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Ed Oscuro
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Ed Oscuro »

Op Intensify wrote:HG101 has their own review up as well. It's not very favorable.
"After the horribly unfair mess that was Last Hope (the first Dreamcast release, not Pink Bullets), I decided not to care about any more releases from NG:Dev.Team."
Replace "Last Hope" with "the last HG101 review" for a good time (and accurate too).

Also, "Gunlord wouldn't be a NG:Dev.Team game if there wasn't some major collector gauging." I gauge the writer's ability to write a useful review at about zero.

The only thing that jumps out at me as something I could agree with is the criticism of the "shitty waterfalls," but just look at what you have to wade through to get there:

- Comprehensive (off-topic) history of Neo Geo Dev's releases. Nope, no well-poisoning here.
- What you were all waiting for: Let's get those version differences out of the way (traditional A/V reviewers had enough sense to put these things last, unless they were the point of the review)
- Ahh the story is bad! I'm very disappointed this didn't have the gripping storyline of a Falcom title. Very disappointed.
- Gunlord: Shameless Turrican ripoff or Shameless Turrican ripoff? We report, you decide! Maybe.
- Actually, gameplay seems more like Contra. I can't decide. I got dragooned into writing this nonsense at the last minute.
- Serious note: Does this description of the horizontal shooter level still fit the newer updates? Wonder if the author is playing off real media or just using an emulator (which was hinted at earlier)
- "Gunlord wouldn't be a NG:Dev.Team game if there wasn't some major collector gauging."
- "During the preorder process, there were no less than seven [TOTALLY RADICAL & AWESOME] different packages of the game."
- "arcade-short content" also, no provision for one-handed play
- "Sure, much of the price comes from producing the game for vintage home consoles and professional packaging, but it should be about time for NG:Dev.Team to forget about their pride and bring their games to download platforms as an alternative." What RaidenViper said about another review seems to fit this one: NG.Dev has talked at length about where they see their audience and their advertising. Of course, random guy on the Internet knows better.

I think they said it was a fun game, somewhere in there. Jack shit about how the game actually plays other than saying it's just like Turrican II...or Contra, if the author could make up his mind.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by TransatlanticFoe »

HG101 actually gives it a fair, albeit not particularly descriptive, review before going off on a hurrhurr physical media lol at the end. Yeah, I paid about what the standard edition/limited edition is sold for back in the day for Master System/SNES games. I remember when games were short but tough and you had to work your way through them, not respawn indefinitely at checkpoints until you stumble over the line. So yeah, I don't mind paying retail price for an indepedent game.

Frankly, I'm happy to support anyone who makes a half-decent game and gives it a physical release.

The only thing which really disappointed me about this game was that the shmup section was so short and appeared just once. Stretch that stage and throw in two more of them!
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Ed Oscuro »

TransatlanticFoe wrote:HG101 actually gives it a fair, albeit not particularly descriptive, review
Where? I don't see any review to speak of. It's Turrican! It's Contra! It's neither, but it's overpriced!
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Op Intensify »

Serious note: Does this description of the horizontal shooter level still fit the newer updates? Wonder if the author is playing off real media or just using an emulator (which was hinted at earlier)
You're reading way too much into an offhanded mention of Contra's controls, but this is a legitimate point. I've heard that the shmup stage was made much harder in the latest update, as well as the bosses. The screenshots he's using are also from the original version, when the toothpaste laser was overly long.

So yeah, probably emulator.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Ed Oscuro »

Op Intensify wrote:You're reading way too much into an offhanded mention of Contra's controls
There's not a lot of meat in the article, though, and the author leaves it as his verdict, so I think it's warranted to point it out.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

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"OH MY GOD $40 IS SO MUCH MONEY WAAAH!"

Pitiful. Hardly any of the recent reviews mention it's inspired mostly by Turrican II either, because most of the reviewers aren't old enough to remember Turrican II presumably.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Ed Oscuro »

system11 wrote:"OH MY GOD $40 IS SO MUCH MONEY WAAAH!"

Pitiful. Hardly any of the recent reviews mention it's inspired mostly by Turrican II either, because most of the reviewers aren't old enough to remember Turrican II presumably.
Or European / white enough? 8)

In all honesty I have very little Turrican experience myself, including T2 (haven't even played it). It is funny to think how many people out there might be saying "it's just like Turrican!" who didn't play that series, though, as you say.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by system11 »

I've seen a couple say Turrican, a couple say Mega Turrican, and none point squarely at Turrican II.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by TransatlanticFoe »

Ed Oscuro wrote:
TransatlanticFoe wrote:HG101 actually gives it a fair, albeit not particularly descriptive, review
Where? I don't see any review to speak of. It's Turrican! It's Contra! It's neither, but it's overpriced!
Come on man, the review mentions Contra once with respect to having angled shooting (because it's the easiest comparison to make, given that all manner of other platform shooters have it). And I mean fair in the sense that what's written is largely true, rather than "fair" meaning "decent" in terms of how good the game is.

There's always opinion floating around but there's enough in there to describe what goes on in the game. Only the rage about price and digital distribution is bullshit. Some snippets:
Gunlord is full of stunning graphics and may well be the best looking pixel art-based indie game yet
If that's not a positive point...
Gunlord doesn't even make any attempts to disguise that Turrican was its dominant influence. Like the German classic, the stages in Gunlord contain hundreds of little secret passages, although here there's a little more focus on the main path
Fair statement referencing Turrican, rather than the many reviews which just go "Explore? Metroid! Shoot? Contra!" (because only Europeans know what Turrican is :roll: ), and a note that the levels are not as expansive.
The design as a whole is a little more explicitly designed like a straightforward arcade experience. This is also reflected in the weaponry, which on the surface seems copied directly from its ancestor. In reality though, the action is more fast-paced and immediate: Whereas the standard weapons all started out relatively weak in Turrican, here they all fire with full power all the time; the spreadshot fills the screen with five streams of bullets, while the equivalent for the laser starts out as the devastating flamethrower that it became only when fully upgraded in Turrican II
A fair statement comparing weapon balancing and pacing with Turrican games.
The Turrican trademark 360° all-around beam won't get that much use as a result, until one gets used to viewing it not predominantly as an offensive weapon, but a means to neutralize most enemy projectiles. Then it becomes an extremely powerful tool, but one has to wait for it to get recharged after prolonged use
Point on strategy.
The game as a whole is far from being as difficult as one would have expected from the makers of Last Hope. For beginners, the first big step to success is finding as much of the hidden extra lives as possible. Some of the bosses are daunting at first, mostly because they're larger than the screen and it seems almost impossible to avoid them, but once the right strategy is found, they're dealt with fairly quickly
True statement about the difficulty curve.

It gives you enough to go on to circumvent the reviewer's own opinion, which is the mark of a decent review. However it's not particularly descriptive about its content, other than "Turrican", and the final part is embarrassing but not actually about game content, just the reviewer's opinion on distribution.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by TransatlanticFoe »

system11 wrote:I've seen a couple say Turrican, a couple say Mega Turrican, and none point squarely at Turrican II.
Lower profile I should think. Turrican and Mega Turrican were both released on the Mega Drive and Genesis, but Turrican II was butchered and released as Universal Soldier. Plenty of reviews from the time don't acknowledge/know this and instead quote it as a Turrican rip-off. Blame Van Damme!
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by system11 »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXiDHriOJUw

Classic Game Room liked it, I like them - their pinball videos are good.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Ed Oscuro »

Those statements are almost all superficial - except their mention of the strategy used by the 360 degree beam; ignoring that was my mistake. Still, that's about it for strategic discussion in this one. If you're going to use this much text you might as well spend more time talking about what the game actually plays like, and less showing off your ignorance of the developer's reasoned stance on marketing.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Fudoh »

Posters came in yesterday. Haven't unpacked them yet, but they were shipped in a rather solid tube.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by Strider77 »

Got mine yesterday also and haven't opened them either..
Damn Tim, you know there are quite a few Americans out there who still lives in tents due to this shitty economy, and you're dropping loads on a single game which only last 20 min. Do you think it's fair? How much did you spend this time?
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by mrsmiley381 »

Well, my posters came in a shitty box. Yeah, I'm somewhat pissed.

Image

Did they use boxes for international orders and tubes for German orders or what?
Why is it called the Vic Viper/Warp Rattler? Because the Options trail behind it in a serpent-like fashion, and the iconic front fins are designed to invoke the image of a snake's fangs.
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TransatlanticFoe
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by TransatlanticFoe »

Mine were in a box too, but the box survived fine - yours looks like the postal service have been using it as a cushion.

If there's just crumpling you might be okay to iron it out (low heat, underneath a t-shirt or similar).
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by mrsmiley381 »

TransatlanticFoe wrote:Mine were in a box too, but the box survived fine - yours looks like the postal service have been using it as a cushion.

If there's just crumpling you might be okay to iron it out (low heat, underneath a t-shirt or similar).
They don't look to be totally creased. I'm sure a flattening method of some sort would be fine, though I was originally planning to frame these and hang them up. Wonderful art, great printing, retarded packaging.
Why is it called the Vic Viper/Warp Rattler? Because the Options trail behind it in a serpent-like fashion, and the iconic front fins are designed to invoke the image of a snake's fangs.
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by psoslayer »

I'd request to send the posters again in a solid tube. :|
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Re: NG Dev Team announce GunLord for Neo-Geo and Dreamcast

Post by guyot »

A couple of positive uk reviews:

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/90618 ... a-turrican
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... ord-review

Per the metro gamecentral one; I was thinking SOTB myself. Wish more games had those kind of visuals these days.
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