What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[KAI]

I fixed my PS2 and I'm playing a lot of beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD.
Shoot'Em All

[Aquas]

Been playing a little Resident Evil 5 Mercenaries... god, 10 lickers on screen on the lab stage is disturbing.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Solar Striker (anoter day, another park). Still my favourite handheld shmup, not because it's that universally great, but because it does so much with so very little (Super Mario Land really must have been something else back in 1989). As there is so few objects on screen, the attention to their behaviour patterns is greater than usual. Everything seems to be targetting you (just before Raiden came along). Perhaps this is the way handheld shmups SHOULD be. (Yeah, I know bullet hell is possible on handhelds and may be playable there.) Solar Striker nowadays, on a bigger screen, would be dismissed as empty/cramped, but it WORKS where it counts. That's the way handheld games used to be and there was nothing wrong with it.
(I know computer games were something along those lines at some point, but in 1989 MD/Genny and PCE were already out, the market was well-consolised and first-gen GB games came up as a return to the gaming's roots.)
Also, autofire pulses gently. I like pulsing weapons. Makes "dog-fighting" all the more engaging.
P.S. Oh, wrong thread.

[shmuppyLove]

WRC 3!!

Loves me sum rallying

[drauch]

Pokemon Silver- around the house and at work when I can hide and corners and squeeze in some game.

Xanadu Next -Had my copy for over 2 years now, and finally playing since the patch came out. This sort of game is perfect to me. Absolutely adore action-rps and isometric views.

Cryostasis - Started with a few buddies the other evening. Heard it was underrated, but I'm not impressed thus far. The "storytelling" is a bit unnecessary and the delivery is kinda tripe. A little overambitious as a whole. I'll give it another chance before I completely dismiss it.

Lightning Warrior Raidy - The remake of the original PC game. Hentai dungeon crawler. Simple, yet entertaining if you like debauchery with your dungeon crawlers. "This room is covered in chains and holding devices. It looks like they were used to hold captive women."

[Vexorg]

I just finished my first playthrough of Borderlands 2 last night using Zer0 (the ninja\sniper type character) and I have to say that this might be the best FPS game I've played in quite a while and will probably be a strong Game of the Year contender at the end of the year. Granted, it's not the type of game you're going to be playing for its story (at least not after the first playthrough) and I can see that I'll most likely lose interest at some point, but it's been pretty enjoyable in the "popcorn movie" sense.

[Marble]

Been playing some of CS:GO's demolition mode. The idea of CS on smaller maps with a slight gungame element isn't that bad but a few things ruin it. Vacancies are automatically filled by bots, so everyone just teamstacks. Games are pretty much always lopsided when you don't have 10 players. Even when they are even, you can control bots after you die so you can quickly see the enemy players' points of view to discover their location then go take them out with a bot. Pretty lame.

[Necronopticous]

My girlfriend and I just played through Dragon Warrior over the last few days.



Dragon Warrior II is on its way.

[trap15]

Sorry to shit on that work, but I had to really un-focus my eyes to see what it was supposed to be
Maybe try using smaller ones?

[drauch]

He just zoomed in a bit too much.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I see two characters there: male and female (but I haven't played the game).
RGB ftw.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Maybe try using smaller ones?

The light from the window is making her hair look brighter than it is, that throws it off a bit. It's a sprite of the hero carrying the princess around.

[Necronopticous]

That particular sprite was one of the small flourishes that really stood out to me. The game is extremely stripped down and they clearly cut corners in basically every way they possibly could to keep the development effort down. There are literally only fifteen truly unique enemy sprites in the entire game, yet they still created an entirely new sprite sheet with the hero carrying Gwaelin in his arms for a sequence that typically lasts less than a minute. Dost thou love me?

[gabe]

Last night I revisited the original Super Monkey Ball (NGC) for the first time in 10 years. I was blown away! I had forgotten what a fantastic game this is. It absolutely oozes polish and charm. I've been operating under the assumption that the subsequent additions to this series were largely garbage due to controls (Wii, Mobile) or redundant, due to the simplistic mechanics and large number of stages in the original. Am I wrong?

[mesh control]

POKEMON BLACK 2

Elite four are dead.

35 hours.
I am dead.

[VixyNyan]

I've been operating under the assumption that the subsequent additions to this series were largely garbage due to controls (Wii, Mobile) or redundant, due to the simplistic mechanics and large number of stages in the original. Am I wrong?

Not to mention that since the Mobile versions (specially on Windows Phone) keep track on how you move your phone around, thanks to tilt or motion control, you have keep the phone screen aimed towards the ceiling of any (real-life) room you are in to keep the monkey in the ball centered on the game. If you move or tilt the phone even slightly, they will speed up and move in that direction and it is troublesome to make them stay centered, if at all. And I haven't seen any way of changing those control settings. The Gamecube games were the greatest tho, I admit.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Last night I revisited the original Super Monkey Ball (NGC) for the first time in 10 years. I was blown away! I had forgotten what a fantastic game this is. It absolutely oozes polish and charm. I've been operating under the assumption that the subsequent additions to this series were largely garbage due to controls (Wii, Mobile) or redundant, due to the simplistic mechanics and large number of stages in the original. Am I wrong?

Super Monkey Ball Jr. (GBA) is a must-have game. I got to play the original SMB and Jr. about the same time (last year) and consider both essential.
(Not many pages ago...)

[BIL]

The Revenge of The Super Shinobi. Never really learned to play this game properly and got distracted by its sequel and Hagane (SFC)'s flashier ninja controls to boot. I've found its simplicity actually makes it trickier and quite satisfying to play competently. The POW upgrade is a minor work of genius; it lets you block, but only while advancing into enemy fire, neatly eliminating turtling and encouraging the player to close in for meaty and ammo-saving sword kills at risk of taking a hit and losing the upgrade altogether. The levels definitely lean towards heavy memorisation, due to unfortunate blind spots you'll need to know to chuck a shuriken into before the offscreen baddies can do likewise, but it's not such a bad feeling for a ninja game. You are already stabbed!

This is still one of the most panoramic sidescrollers around, up there with Strider and the first SFC Dracula. The graphical detail in each locale was always stunning but it's the cohesive sense of Joe hoofing it across land, sea and air towards Zeed HQ that impresses me most now. (STORY BGM "LONG DISTANCE")

Observant players may notice the name "YU DA" imprinted upon various machines and industrial surfaces throughout the game. It seems it's a reference to the game's lead designer if one pays attention to the staff roll. ^_~

[gabe]

Super Monkey Ball Jr. (GBA) is a must-have game. I got to play the original SMB and Jr. about the same time (last year) and consider both essential.
(Not many pages ago...)

Thanks for jogging my memory. I forgot that I own that game. As with the original SMB, I haven't played it since it was new. I remember being underwhelmed by Jr. at the time. In fact, it may be partially responsible for my belief that all non-NGC ports of the game are subpar. None-the-less, I'll give it another go based on your review.

[dannnnn]

The Revenge of The Super Shinobi.

I played through that a couple of months ago myself on the 360 port, just got the 1CC on Normal. Good game, but it felt more rigid than I remembered. As you mentioned, memorisation becomes key even as early as the waterfall stage. One thing I found odd was just how long certain bosses took to kill without a POW, most notably the brain in a container thing (think it's the third boss) and the Hulk/Terminator in the junkyard. I found the last boss quite tough also. I'm sure you'll come up with a better strategy than I had, but I basically had to make sure I went into that fight with a POW otherwise I was guaranteed dead. One thing that will keep me coming back though is the music, absolutely fantastic. It really elevates the game for me.

[BIL]

Most bosses definitely tend to drag without the powerup - conversely most can be killed in seconds with it. Bit of a Thunder Force V "Free Range" lack of balance, heh.

The T-800 can actually be taken out pretty quickly regardless - just get in close and knife the shit out of him. If he picks up an engine to throw, you can really go to town - a car will keep you out of knife range until he's hoisted it. If you've got a POW and he chooses an engine first, you can flip out like a real ninja and chop him to bits before he finishes throwing it. I loooove doing that!

I don't have a strategy for the last boss myself either, atm - have put it on the back burner for now while I get better at the rest of the game. Since there's a POW hidden right before the labyrinth's exit and it's easy to reach him with a spare ninjitsu, I just use the shield + sword to take a chunk out of him and wing the rest until he's dead. His flying wig's path seems random and very tough to avoid on reaction, doesn't help that you need to get in close for him to headbang and expose his underbelly. I wonder if there's some way of baiting the wig toss consistently.

[BIL]

HMM... I just realised getting behind enemies for spine-stabbing action is a pretty legit strategy in The Super Shinobi! There's a very pronounced delay before the majority can turn to face you*, more than enough time to kill 'em dead with the knife or sword. Try somersaulting over the first boss's head, then walking right up and chain-stabbing the fuck out of him! He is already dead!

*doesn't work on ninja dogs! army dog test pending!

Working out speedkill methods sans POW might be a lot of fun too... man, I'm loving this. I'd consigned this game to being a beautiful shell of a ninja sidescroller, but once the initial memorisation hurdle is cleared you can really ninja the fuck out. I just wish it had Shin ShinobiDen-style gore kills, as pyrokinetically sweet as those explosions are. Now there's a game that nails the classic "dead before they hit the ground" collapse.

edit: woop woop! How a day's worth of seminars can inspire. Figured out a neat vanilla speed(ier) kill for the third boss (brain in a box). Get where the laz0rs can't hit you, just in front of the tank. As the enclosure opens, jump over and into it while hitting the brain with a shuriken on the way down (the back of the enclosure is harmless to touch). Duck immediately so the brain passes harmlessly overhead, then turn, jump and nail it with another shuriken on the way down (so you'll have time to duck the returning brain). Finally hit it with a standing knife and hop out of the enclosure as it shuts. Shouldn't take over a minute, not exactly speedy but it's a hell of a lot quicker and more entertaining than one shuriken per brain popup.

I guess the brain is claustrophobic (or lonely and tragically misunderstood)? All it needs is a piece of masking tape marked with "DO NOT HIT" on its tank and it'd be a great parody of terrifying boss mechanoids with a fatal urge to expose glaring weak points!

[Ed Oscuro]

Any thoughts on the worthiness of playing no-shuriken mode? I recall that it was a huge pain in The Super Shinobu Suspension Bridgewalker 2 because damn item boxes. However, it was quite possible and even recommendable to play that way in Shadow Dancer.

Definitely going to plug in RoSS next, now. Last time I played I got to the laser turrets in a vertical section, and my interest petered out somewhat there (because c'mon).

YU DA ..?

[Ruldra]

Any thoughts on the worthiness of playing no-shuriken mode? I recall that it was a huge pain in The Super Shinobu Suspension Bridgewalker 2 because damn item boxes. However, it was quite possible and even recommendable to play that way in Shadow Dancer.

I've beaten the game on the hardest difficulty and found that no-shuriken actually makes the game easier. Most enemies later on will block all shurikens, so being able to use the sword whenever you want makes them a lot less painful to manage.

EDIT: I'm referring to Shadow Dancer here.

[BIL]

Found a weird little quirk in the brain tank boss with POW - it seems the game counts the brain as a projectile, since your cross-guarding knives will damage it on contact. So if you hop into the enclosure, crouch and wiggle back and forth rapidly you'll hit the brain way faster than conventional attacks allow. You can blow it up on its first appearance this way, haha. It's also possible to kill it "fairly" on the first pass, especially if you use shield magic. Sans POW and magic, I can kill it in two passes using the triple-hit method from my last post.

I wonder if there's any other enemies the block can damage. Sure as hell not dogs. Army dogs aren't fooled by sneaky backstabs either btw - but they can't catch shuriken in their teeth like ninja dogs, so "best Super Shinobi attack dog type" must go to the latter! However, neither type got invited to the last stage's All Enemies Curtain Call. Where's PETA's phone number...

Doesn't the first SS just have a "start with zero shuriken" setting, as opposed to Shadow Dancer's bona fide none at all (outside of boss battles)? I could see being able to use the sword in the air coming in handy (you can only do this with no shuriken left). OTOH projectile enemies I'm used to shooting rather than charge n' chopping could be a pain in the ass. Either way, I'm happy with the default 50 setting - this game has an excellent balancing of ranged and melee combat. I have been playing with no ninjitsu wherever possible for my current skill level, though.

Definitely going to plug in RoSS next, now. Last time I played I got to the laser turrets in a vertical section, and my interest petered out somewhat there (because c'mon).

For that stage you want to crouch-walk whenever you can't see either wall. The horizontal lasers can't hit you that way, and the vertical ones can't hit you while you're moving. The easiest way to scale the level is to keep near the edges and hop on the horizontal laser turrets, so the vertical ones can't hit you at all. Use jump magic to virtually skip the stage. I wish you could speed through SS2's first vertical scroll, it's booooring. :[ (fucking SNAZZY TUNE though!).

YU DA ..?

I noticed it's printed on several bits of pixel art throughout the game - eg the square panel on the brain tank, the bases of 5-2's pylons and the side of the missile transporter boss, among many others - and a "Thomas Yuuda" is credited as design lead (but not Coffee Maker, that post went to the illustrious PAL-KO). Seems like an "X wuz here" touch, or it might just be an odd coincidence of course. Or maybe YU-DA DUCTILE MATERIALS INC is a puppet corporation of the nefarious NEO-ZEED! The scrap metal market can't be cheap in 199X, even for the most powerful crime syndicate the world has ever seen. Stealing that shit is dangerous too!

I love this game's pixels. Seeing the leaves blowing through the first stage was the "next-gen" graphical revelation of my childhood. Even now though, there's so much subtle attention to detail I never appreciated. I really wish those floating platforms in (edit: 5-1) weren't there, as the game's settings otherwise feel pleasingly mundane. Airfields, cargo holds, junkyards, trains, highway overpasses and docks... cool. I dig the contrast that style creates in avowedly fantastical games (see also Silent Hill 4's subdued, dourly urban Places That Should Not Be).

[null1024]

Fatal Fury: King of Fighters [Neo Geo].

Wow. Didn't expect this to hold up as well as it ended up. Sure, it's not as good as SFII [even World Warrior], buuuut, it's pretty enjoyable.
Fatal Fury 2/Special shits all over this one, but hey. For 1991/1992 [and hell, it didn't have the luxury of being developed after SFII, it was made almost concurrently], this isn't bad. The biggest problems are that the layer switching is retarded [not being able to initiate it yourself sucks dick] and that it's slow as fuck. At least hits do fucktons of damage so that fights don't take so long, but that means 3 Power Waves kills nearly everyone if they connect. Beter than SF1, where 2 Hadokens [if you can do them] are a guaranteed KO.

[Ed Oscuro]

LOL @ brain boss's projectile tendencies. Oversight, or sneaky programmer's goodie? Man, there needs to be more stuff like these.

I love this game's pixels. Seeing the leaves blowing through the first stage was the "next-gen" graphical revelation of my childhood. Even now though, there's so much subtle attention to detail I never appreciated. I really wish those floating platforms in (edit: 4-1) weren't there, as the game's settings otherwise feel pleasingly mundane. Airfields, cargo holds, junkyards, trains, highway overpasses and docks... cool. I dig the contrast that style creates in avowedly fantastical games (see also Silent Hill 4's subdued, dourly urban Places That Should Not Be).

Not to mention the rotating walls! Yup, SH4 was another of those favorite "NEXTGEN" experiences. Loved the oddly adventure-game-esque apartment exploration stuff too.

About YU DA, I was just daydreaming about the kinds of phrases it could be used to invent.

[Acid_Rain]

Is anybody here on the board planing to play halo 4 multiplayer?

[BIL]

Cleared The Superb Shinobi on highest difficulty - it's one of those modes where the only thing that changes is damage dealt to the player, so it's not all that noticeable outside of the last boss, whose flying barnet attack is now absolutely lethal (death in two hits @ max health). Still no idea if its path is random or aimed, or how to bait it. But since I always get there with two ninjitsus, and the POW right before 8-2's end is impossible to miss, I can just easy-cheese him in the corner with shield+sword.

Also, getting knocked down on 5-2's highway is far deadlier too - the most dangerous non-boss hazard in the game in fact. Something amusing about a master ninja storming his way through a military base, destroying a T-800 in single combat and then getting ran over by a Toyota.

More weirdness: starting a new game after the credits will give you the max healthbar from the start. I'd hoped it was a second loop thing but doesn't seem so.

Starting with zero shuriken is actually interesting, since you won't have built up that massive reserve of around 200 by 3-1. Forces you to be more judicious about shuriken bursts. The game still feels balanced around 50 though, since 3-1 is where you cash in that reserve with a fence-hopping Shuriken Burst Bonanza and screenloads of baddies getting shredded. Er, exploding.

edit: just received my own MD Super Shinobi rev1.00, featuring Batman, Spiderman, Rambo, Godzilla and Sonny Chiba in full unedited glory! Fuck the police! And as I'd hoped, the tiny, monochrome but unmistakably cool enemy illustrations from the Genesis manual are here in full scale and colour, plus cute animu-style Joe. Whoever took the screencaps made damn sure to get a lot of carnage onscreen too. <333 MD manuals.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Finished the first Burnout (the game told me so and played the staff roll). Can't make up my mind whether to play it for a little bit longer, or to move on to Burnout 2. There seems to be a consensus that 2 rendered 1 obsolete, but I expect 2 to be short of something I like about 1.
For one, split-screen in 1 is very good and I'd like to drive the tow truck against the bus and vice versa one of these days. Furthermore, that sort of Euro-demoscene-like music in 1 is out there. Would make a Burnout convention in one of Euro-continental cities all the groovier (not that I attend any such events, but it sounds becoming of the area).