Impressions on my new shipment (LoT, Aniki, Batsu)

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:56 pm

just received lords of thunder, cho aniki, and batsugun the day before last.

lords of thunder - far better than i was expecting, and my expectations were dangerously high. bleeds quality. also it looks amazing (in a super cd kind of way). as an added bonus the avatar runs when you land on the ground. ^_^ i knew about this before, but it was just too cool not to mention. generally play solely as Water type, but Earth really tears shit up at full power.

cho aniki - definitely a curiosity, and not half bad either. its really easy (the charge laser doesn't help in this regard) and as far as game design, very generic. but it looks great (i love the style to this game), and i find the music very nice (somehow). very happy with this one as well.

batsugun - another one that exceeded my high expectations. having a tough time with Original, but at this point i can all but clear Special (piggies!!!). my current favorite character is Beltiana, i love the focused lasers (with the powered up side shots when i start to need them). strangely though the game won't let me plug and play on port 2 (alteeno being so awesome and all). next to Shienryu this is pretty much the closest thing to Raiden i've played at this point. also the hitbox in special must be really friggin small, i am surprised at how well i've been dodging (and i know about the one hit shield).

anyway many thanks to Zieg for the many hours of fun he has surely enabled.

and hopefully, some of my newer acquisitions will become my first reviews for the site in the near future (who else is going to think analytically about Cho aniki? ...no puns please).

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 3:58 pm

Make sure to visit the Batsugun ST, and marvel at some of the weirdest scoring opportunities ever programmed, heh heh. Glad you like the games, cap'n.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:37 pm

Hey, Captain. These are all games I'm interested in getting eventually, so I'm glad to hear you're enjoying them.
Couple questions, if you don't mind:
So Batsugun on Saturn includes two modes, Original and Special? I wasn't sure whether you needed to find a Special Edition edition of Batsugun to play the Special version, but I had never seen one for sale, so I assumed these were both on there.

Which version (i.e. which port) of cho aniki do you have?

How does Lords of Thunder compare to other PCE CDs you have played?

Tychom · Post by **Tychom** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:45 pm

strangely though the game won't let me plug and play on port 2

I'm pretty sure that as long as there's a controller in P1 then you can play the game as P2..odd for sure but that's what I recall..

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:48 pm

I'm looking forward to Lords very much. I am happy to see it pleased you.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:52 pm

professor ganson wrote:So Batsugun on Saturn includes two modes, Original and Special? I wasn't sure whether you needed to find a Special Edition edition of Batsugun to play the Special version, but I had never seen one for sale, so I assumed these were both on there.

Yep, to the best of my knowledge there was only one release of Batsugun on the Saturn, and it includes both the "original" and "special" versions of the arcade game. And I'm sure you've heard that both are excellent ports.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 4:53 pm

Batsugun may be my #1 shmup...at least in my top 5 for certain.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:05 pm

Tychom wrote:
strangely though the game won't let me plug and play on port 2
I'm pretty sure that as long as there's a controller in P1 then you can play the game as P2..odd for sure but that's what I recall..

i don't have two controllers. i mean that, in ddp for example, if i want black type c, i can just plug my controller into port 2 and BAM instant fun. batsugun, no such luck.

Xexyz · Post by **Xexyz** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:17 pm

So Cho Aniki isn't that bad eh? Alright, maybe I will consider it down the road after all.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:34 pm

Well, Batsugun Special Ver. is a pretty easy 1st loop.

Choaniki really offers nothing special. Only worth a purchase if you like eclectic stuff, homoerotic stuff, or don't mind playing completely mediocre stuff.

MadSteelDarkness · Post by **MadSteelDarkness** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 5:41 am

Congrats on the acquisitions, captain!

Enjoy the brilliance that is Batsugun. Sure, the special version's pretty easy, but between the excellent, deep scoring system and the second loop, you should get a ton of mileage from her.

Of course, I still haven't 1CC'd the first loop yet, but that's because my skills are, well...lacking, to say the least.

biocat · Post by **biocat** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:32 am

I always loved the earth armor in LoT. You could really tear up enemies above and below you with that thing. Too bad its forward shot is so weak.

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:32 am

Xexyz wrote:So Cho Aniki isn't that bad eh? Alright, maybe I will consider it down the road after all.

the first one is actually a good shooter.
the slightly homoerotic stuff in the series has been way overblown imo, but if you have a problem with it, it has much less than the sequels.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:51 pm

when i first got GoT i made a thread about it spiking in difficulty later on in the game, and LoT undeniably does the same thing. i got to the 3rd form of the last boss (probably last, from the looks of it) and lost it with the 90 degree lasers, yup a Hudson shmup, and i forgot to expect the lasers...

i've been going through
Dezant, Auzal, Bosque, Helado, Cielom, Llamarada, with my first loss of power at the end of Bosque

note: i hate the helado boss. i should also note i play through pretty much just as water, earth comes up if i don't feel dodging is worth the effort.

TerminasluT · Post by **TerminasluT** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:42 pm

LoT as one of the best soundtrack ever in a shmup, I still listend to it in my CD player

Choaniki is fun stuff... but Im one of the rare ones that like the Homoeroticness about it. ( the Ps2 one is by far my favorite tho )

Batsugun... please just kick me in the ass for trading this for some mediocre ps2 wrestling game

Rumble roses....

a really,really bad move...

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 4:43 pm

TerminasluT wrote:Batsugun... please just kick me in the ass for trading this for some mediocre ps2 wrestling game Rumble roses.... a really,really bad move...

consider your self kicked, and seconded on Cho Aniki. ncs-masaya rules for running with this concept.

just fantastic.

also, videogameimports calls choaniki a sequel to gynoug. what?

link

Kiken · Post by **Kiken** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 5:10 pm

captain ahar wrote:when i first got GoT i made a thread about it spiking in difficulty later on in the game, and LoT undeniably does the same thing. i got to the 3rd form of the last boss (probably last, from the looks of it) and lost it with the 90 degree lasers, yup a Hudson shmup, and i forgot to expect the lasers...

i've been going through
Dezant, Auzal, Bosque, Helado, Cielom, Llamarada, with my first loss of power at the end of Bosque

note: i hate the helado boss. i should also note i play through pretty much just as water, earth comes up if i don't feel dodging is worth the effort.

Yeah, the first few times I played, I noticed that the difficulty pulls the infamous "Level-4 Skyrocket".. that was until I had all the patterns down. With GoT, I didn't see any particular spike in difficulty until level 5.. and that might have been a result of my own stupidity.

The form of the boss you made it to, the giant metal skull, is the final form.

Personally, I stick with the Wind Armour throughout the whole game. It reminds me of Sever from TFIII.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 5:13 pm

i've tried making with the other 2 armors but i don't like wind's coverage, and fire, while cool looking, is too "up close and in your grill" for my comfort.

DC906270 · Post by **DC906270** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:56 am

You have the 2nd Choaniki game for the -PCE judging by the cover. The 1st Cho-aniki game is what is supposedly a "sequel" to Gynoug, although it is actually not as good a shooter as gynoug. it just features the same character (i think).

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:50 am

Batsugun special takes way too long to get hard, even on the highest difficulty. Normal is good times, though.

I'd say it's 3rd to Battle Garegga and Layer Section, as far as Saturn shooters go.

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:31 pm

DC906270 wrote:You have the 2nd Choaniki game for the -PCE judging by the cover. The 1st Cho-aniki game is what is supposedly a "sequel" to Gynoug, although it is actually not as good a shooter as gynoug. it just features the same character (i think).

actually i have the first one, i just posted the above pic to show how great a game concept it is.

interesting about the character though.

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:17 am

Kiken wrote: note: i hate the helado boss. i should also note i play through pretty much just as water, earth comes up if i don't feel dodging is worth the effort.

the earth armor is great for the water stage because of the corridors, the fire armor is good for the fire stage.
for the normal stages bosses, i just stock up on bombs.

Zigfried the Trizealot · Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:50 pm

The characters in Gynoug (Wings of Wor) and Choaniki are different. Neither one is a sequel to the other, although they're from the same developer so there are similarities in play style and weirdness.

Glad you're digging the games, cap'n!

//Zig