What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[lilmanjs]

Super Mario Galaxy 2. Loving the world music and gameplay is solid. Worth playing the first?

[hermosaguy]

Super Mario Galaxy 2. Loving the world music and gameplay is solid. Worth playing the first?

I definitely loved the first. Such a great series, I may want to revisit it.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Has anyone here who's played Battle Circuit give me advice? I'm trying to 1cc it with Green, and the biggest roadblock is Zipang. He probably ruins 75% of my runs even if I manage to get past him. It feels so arbitrary whether he blocks or not, and I can't figure out when he's supposed to be vulnerable.

That whole level is a major roadblock, it's quite difficult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n222oe6m5M

This run clears Zipang's first form mostly by throwing the other enemies into Zipang, the second form by trying diagonal dash juggling and immediate using a defensive special for the invulnerability if he blocks. He still takes a ton of damage and uses a health recharge. Definitely not an easy boss by any stretch!

Thanks. I actually have checked out that video before, though. JWhat I'm having trouble with is that I can't tell when he's supposed to be vulnerable; it feels like he's able to block even immediately after whiffing a stomp attack, and I can only use the defensive attack so many times. I don't know if he really can block at any time or if I'm just missing when he's vulnerable. I feel like it has to be the latter.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I personally can't stand the GC analog stick, it just never felt "right" to me. Of course I'm not a fan of pretty much ANY aspect of the GC controller, but I rant about that regularly on here so I'll spare you.

I adore how the GC controller feels in my hand [fits like a glove], but actually using it as a controller is less nice [super long throw triggers and odd button layout are the main problems].

It's the Super Monkey Ball controller.

[hermit crab]

Still playing Metal Slug Advance.

With the GC controller... Yes, it sucks!

[null1024]

Panzer Bandit [PS1]
2CC'd it with a friend. It's piss-easy with two people, the game doesn't seem to ramp up at all.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 [PS1]
Fun times were had. V-ism is dumb shit.

X-ism is kind of dumb, but X-ism Akuma's Raging Demon does 60% and if you miss, X-ism meter fills quick enough to try again before the match end.

dumb things: getting off an immediate RD at start of match because my opponent didn't just hit me out of it

Also, semi-lost my voice today because fighting game yelling, yeah.

[BIL]

Lots of Akumajou Dracula (FC) this week. I could sworn I've cleared the third loop before, but tonight's endeavours ended at Creature+Igor (avoiding continues). The difficulty definitely ramps up another notch. Ghosts are now turbo-propelled and other nuisance enemies will overrun the screen if not dealt with promptly. Damage increases another tick too, with ever less margin for error. I want to hit Stage 99 + counterstop at least, then just see how much further it goes. Interesting how there are secrets in the loop stages not found in the first trip.

Picking this up, I wondered if there mightn't be much point beyond completism with its five traditional sequels all being so good. This is most definitely an essential game on its own merits, though. Past the brisk first loop it becomes wickedly hectic and ruthless, to an arcadey degree unique among the traditional series. Gold standard oldschool Dracula.

Glorious nippon cartridge ver has some interesting traits. It's based on the bug-fixed revision of the NES version, with the much cooler Japanese title screen reinstated. And it adds a new easy mode with generous starting ammo, persistent shot multiplier when changing subweapons, and most strikingly of all, zero damage knockback. Nice of Konami to chuck this in, I'm sure it was appreciated by some with the default game being so harsh. The FDS version's name entry + data saving is still missing - frankly I'm glad. I grew up with the US one and couldn't imagine saving and quitting here any more than in a Gradius. Also, the FDS Name Entry BGM ("Underground") is the only weak track in Kinuyo Yamashita's otherwise superb OST. A minor complaint is the game going to the attract demos a bit too quickly. I want to admire that lovely off-white filmstrip illustration a little longer!

[gabe]

Lately I've felt the need to take a break from arcade gaming to play something that doesn't demand as much mental energy. I've also recently been bombarded with Dragon Quest references, so I decided to play through the first game of the series to relax and increase my overall gaming literacy. After some research, I concluded that the best way to experience DraQue in English is via the Dragon Warrior I & II GBC cart, which is supposedly truer to the Japanese release than the NES version thanks to improved art and translation (I just paid 20G for some puff-puff). My local game shop had this boxed copy, along with a boxed copy of DWIII, which I was suckered into buying:

[soprano1]

Final Fantasy IX (on PSP), and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (DS).
The last one has a surprising nice story, and being a beginner in roguelikes, I find it pretty challenging.
Shiren will probably be harder, from what i've read.

[manatworks]

Pacman CE DX2+ on pc
this and sometimes Tomb Raider 2013 (get it for free as the guy i know in there throw me a copy)

I never play CE on X360 before so it's really fun twist they did on pacman, really manic when gamespeed hits 50. Tomb Raider got some nice atmosphere going on but i just in the really beginning of the game so still can't really tell how good is it yet.

[dcharlie]

Time is pretty short at the moment but yeah, not much changing :

Monster Hunter 4 - 3DS
fantastic - utterly fantastic. I don't particularly care about reviews - especially not Famitsu ones - but how this is a 38/40 yet the Wii MHTri is a 40/40 just strikes me as crazy - then again - maybe they're saving the 40 for the Wii U HD version or something? Anyways - this is my... i dunno... 12th? Monster Hunter game and i've been vocal about it needing a change and , yeah, things feel so so much fresher , the battles even more dynamic, the traversal system is brilliant.... all the organic things that happen in battle make it an utter joy: Dropping down from a cliff top and smashing Gerious in the face, then to run off but turn and vault off a small ramp onto it's back ? yeah... wow. No SQUARE - TRIANGLE - CIRCLE setups - just all solid in game organically occurring action. Brilliance.

FF14 - PC
yeah, it's an MMO - either you like them or you don't and -shrug- i quite like FF14. Playing with Wife after work in a pretty Family Member Friendly LS/FC.

This week has a few games i want to try out - but not sure on time to play them - Sen No Kiseki i have on preorder for Vita so i should at least pick that up, Armored Core - Verdict Day looks like it now has the full Chromehounds online system - but without pursuading the old team to reform that's probably a waste of time and Wind Waker on the WiiU - i enjoyed it on the GC but.... can i be bothered to play it again? Hmm - maybe once it hits the bargain bins.

Plus - the elephant in the room is that MH4 is simply going to dominate the next XXX hours of spare time if and when i can find it.

[CStarFlare]

I want to hit Stage 99 + counterstop at least, then just see how much further it goes. Interesting how there are secrets in the loop stages not found in the first trip.

The counter rolls over, unfortunately. I once milked the stage 1 zombies with the holy water - before the first door, you can get chainkill bonuses on the infinitely spawning zombies and gain extends faster than you lose them. Could be a good way to get the extends you need to clear the 3rd loop though.

Also, the FDS Name Entry BGM ("Underground") is the only weak track in Kinuyo Yamashita's otherwise superb OST.

I love Underground - it's a shame it wasn't in the NES version.

[BrianC]

Pacman CE DX2+ on pc
this and sometimes Tomb Raider 2013 (get it for free as the guy i know in there throw me a copy)

I never play CE on X360 before so it's really fun twist they did on pacman, really manic when gamespeed hits 50. Tomb Raider got some nice atmosphere going on but i just in the really beginning of the game so still can't really tell how good is it yet.

Champion Edition DX updated to DX+ on 360, as well, but I'm not thrilled that almost all of the new stuff is paid DLC, even on Steam. No new achievements either (there are new in game goals, mostly connected to facebook sharing, though. Achievements are exactly the same on Steam, as well). Namco's announcement about the DX+ update was very misleading.

Also, the regular non DX CE and CE DX/DX+ are very different and stand on their own, despite the DX. DX+ is pretty much just DX with added DLC.

[BIL]

I want to hit Stage 99 + counterstop at least, then just see how much further it goes. Interesting how there are secrets in the loop stages not found in the first trip.

The counter rolls over, unfortunately. I once milked the stage 1 zombies with the holy water - before the first door, you can get chainkill bonuses on the infinitely spawning zombies and gain extends faster than you lose them. Could be a good way to get the extends you need to clear the 3rd loop though.

Unfortunately it seems I'm either going crazy or was really tired, but I made it to Loop 4 last night and it appears the difficulty increase really does level off at the second loop. It's still awesome as it's pretty tough and manic to begin with, but it seems to be an endurance test from therein. You'd need to loop it five times or so to reach Stage 99, so that's still something to shoot for.

Yeah, I figured as much with the counter... in the second loop you can rack up points even more quickly if you return to the first stage with a boomerang and get x4 bonuses on lines of zombies and the newly-added bats.

[Ruldra]

Right, only Deimos left to learn. Might still take a while to clear this but I'm glad I can get this far now.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Monster Hunter 4 - 3DS
fantastic - utterly fantastic. I don't particularly care about reviews - especially not Famitsu ones - but how this is a 38/40 yet the Wii MHTri is a 40/40 just strikes me as crazy - then again - maybe they're saving the 40 for Monster Hunter Portable 4th G for Vita or something?

Fix`d

[dcharlie]

lol- well, without getting into the big ins and outs of it - here's the -probable- reality of it :

the exclusivity deal for MH likely covered MH3G and MH4 - then there's almost certainly a renegotiation planned (sorry fanthings, it doesn't work on a "we weally wub <company>" basis - it's about leveraging your position and Capcom's MH position is one of POWER!)

The truth of the matter is that a G revision and possibly a 5 on 3DS makes most sense in terms of base profit　and sales units - that's a given.

however, the thing is that there appears to be two other factors :

1) establishing the franchise -for all time- - again in truth as a portable game then Nintendo makes more sense , the other alternative is to go iOS/Mobile. Regardless of anything else i suspect once phones can fully handle a "full" MH game they'll get it regardless in some IAP way or other . I also suspect that there's some concerns about -series- continuity : i wonder if Capcom could establish a "MH CLOUD" save set up whereby you upload your save data to cloud so if there -is- ever a platform change then you could , theoretically, jump over? then again - the games popularity is built on adhoc play so ... that probably is a minor thing in Japan, maybe major in the west.

2) Cracking the west - Nintendo have helped but not with , i suspect, the results that Capcom wanted. The problem is the west is PC/Console skewed - the idea that the WiiU might help as an in road is pretty much as dead as ... um... the WiiU? So the reality might be that they need to go PS3/X360 or even PS4/X1? I doubt they'd want to invest too much so , whilst i dream of an MH game that looks like Deep Down, i suspect we'll never get it .


So anyways - we might well see a Vita MH - not because of the user base but more to do with whether Sony outbid and out-incentivize Nintendo - i'm sick of seeing "but they sold XXXXX Copies so NINTENDO!" - it doesn't work that way - the franchise is strong enough it can go whereever it wants and it would propel that platform in Japan REGARDLESS. It's all to do with what each company offers.

[Ed Oscuro]

Dawn of Sorrow: Because we wanted to make Aria of Sorrow prettier and sound a bit better (what's with all the funky music in this one, though?)

Not a total trainwreck, but (as always) item and soul grinding and unengaging level designs (and the corresponding soul/item systems which are terrible at actually supporting the character - outside boss battles, why would you EVER want to replace the Ghost Dancer soul and the Lucky Suit? - not to mention some of the terrible soul choices for the weapon upgrade system) which kill attempts at pacing dead. After just three games of this type (I still haven't touched Symphony much; my disc's the import version) it's oppressively stale. It's interesting, though, that I find some aspects of the game intriguing even though it is just two years newer than the now-ten-years-old Aria of Sorrow.

Castlevania's first decade was pretty awesome overall. Castlevania's second decade, aside from the cult classics at the outset, was quite disappointing from what I've played so far.

Next up: Will I ever care enough to hunt down Igarashi's 3D attempts? When there's still Onimusha, Devil May Cry, and Otogi games to play (not to mention a lot of legitimate classics from the olden days)?

Also, I read an interesting review with the eeguh about his design philosophy and "the battle of 1999." He finds a story to fit the game mechanics possible. I guess that explains why Castlevania Judgment was...well, what it was...I think it's understandable, but still dangerously presumptuous, to say that people are going to care about his silly Battle of 1999 if and when he ever gets a system that he thinks could do it. At worst, he's unconsciously been flogging us all for buying mass market 3D brawlers by mentally equating directives to make games of that type with "needs a stupid non-story." At best, a "Battle of 1999" game would likely be anticlimactic after everything else. Also fuck you Hammer, you creepy pervert. This one makes especially little sense to me given that I thought he was some motivated soldier guy who stayed alive and (kind of) sane, possibly for many years, in a creepy castle filled with rotting horrors (including many of his former comrades who didn't evacuate in time, never 4get).

I do like a lot of the little graphical touches in the game - there's stunning detail here in many places, although like any other game of this type, when you see the same graphics set repeatedly applied to unimaginative architecture, they lose quite a bit of their charm. I just wish it was in a better game than "let's play skull kickball with dancing Yorick skeletons" and "try not to fuck the seal up."

What has Konami done for you lately?

[BIL]

What has Konami done for you lately?

Axed Silent Hill Homecoming's Japanese release

About a year back I got into an "AWW YEAUHH BOI, GON GET ALL DEM PORTABLE CVS" phase and was briefly infatuated with HOD and AOS. Yeahhh. Glad I sobered up before hunting for copies. SOTN's quite enough of that, tyvm.

[dcharlie]

Axed Silent Hill Homecoming's Japanese release

and still allowed the turgid Silent Hill "horror dungeon crawler" on vita to come out in Japan... #sad

[BIL]

Indeed, it was only a brief concession to cost/benefit ratio, I mean class, from our stalwart game development outsourcing agency.

[Jonathan Ingram]

So anyways - we might well see a Vita MH - not because of the user base but more to do with whether Sony outbid and out-incentivize Nintendo - i'm sick of seeing "but they sold XXXXX Copies so NINTENDO!" - it doesn't work that way - the franchise is strong enough it can go whereever it wants and it would propel that platform in Japan REGARDLESS. It's all to do with what each company offers.

Capcom can`t be too picky given the sorry state of affairs they are presently in(less than $150m in the bank and even Deep Down, the only in-house project they have in the cooker for next-gen, is being helped with by SCEJ since Capcom is apparently not up to the task). Ultimately, it`s in their best interest to spread Monster Hunter to as many platforms as possible.

whilst i dream of an MH game that looks like Deep Down, i suspect we'll never get it

O, ye of little faith. This forbidden fruit thou speaketh of exists and henceforth you shalt refer to it as... Monster Hunter Online, a divine manifestation of our Lord CryEngine 3`s many forms.

On a more serious note, the thing looks completely bananas. I`m personally much more interested in it than I am in MH4. If only it wasn`t an F2P MMO.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Finished Onimusha 3 (Normal, PS2), or should I say - spammed through the last Dark Realm course and bossfight(s). Might have left Dark Realm uncleared as Jaques, for I was in a hurry to decrease my backlog at least on the Capcom front.

[broken harbour]

Still playing Ocarina of Time....

Just finished the Water Temple, which was 5 hours of total BS! What is with Nintendo's design choices? I know they want to make a game challenging, but the way they do things takes it from challenging to just frustrating and unrewarding. First of all the regenerating enemies thing is idiotic, in the water temple you have backtrack to the 'central structure' about a hundred times, and each time, you have to kill the enemies, that just gets tedious. Then if you die, or make a mistake, it sends you to the beginning of the flipping temple! If you save and come back, guess what? back at the beginning for you! (even in 1998 we had the technology to save and load wherever you want.)

Then Faroe's Wind, the teleport spell, doesn't even work right. You might cast it right after a tricky part where you might fall off a cliff, so if you do fall off the cliff, you can cast it to send you back to the top, except when you re-cast it to go back to the top, it sends you to the beginning of the damned temple!!! The battle with Dark Link was BS too, there's no AI, it just copies you, so the only way to defeat him is just slash, slash, slash mindlessly, hopefully hitting him, so it's attrition + randomness... it's stupid, even for 1998!

All this combined with the garbage analog stick on the GC.... I dunno if I even want to play through the rest of this game, which is supposedly the best game of all time, hardly, I'm afraid.

And don't get me wrong, I like challenge (I play shmups after all) and I play old games all the time and can usually look past the old timey game design, but WTF Nintendo? Why are all your games frustrating and unrewarding? Even Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 have the same problems....

Am I alone with this? I find so many Nintendo games just become irritating 2/3rds of the way through.

[ryu]

the water temple is a test of the player's ability to pay attention. sure it's annoying to have to constantly swap the iron boots, and the key beneath that one platform is maybe a bit too well hidden, but otherwise all the issues people might have with spring from their own incompetence to do things right and use their heads well.

i think it feels good (rewarding) when you figure out how the dungeon works and rush through the thing like nothing although the map may have looked totally confusing only moments earlier.

but i agree on the battle with dark link. is there even a legitimate strategy to fighting him without cheaping out with din's inferno?

[broken harbour]

No issues really with the puzzle aspect of the water temple, just the stuff I posted earlier.

I still don't know how ppl can consider this the best game of all time, it's good, but my god it is flawed. I think a lot of people are seduced by nostalgia.

[Obiwanshinobi]

MGS2: Sons of Liberty, this time on PS2 (Substance edition). Quite a nostalgia trip. I miss the sort of vanity projects that were, at the end of the day, fairly playable.
We won't be seeing many anymore methinks. Either messive budget productions playing it safe, or daring, yet austere endeavours.

[Zaarock]

Armored Core: Verdict Day

Really enjoying this, they pretty much fixed everything you could want in ACV and added a ton of new things and maps.
The new bosses are great as well. There's still one boss no-one (even in japan) seems to have figured out how to fight properly

FROM keeping up their sense of humor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nk9pfe-Kik

[CStarFlare]

Played a little Phantom Brave again tonight... put some more work into improving my already god-tier weapon. Pringer XXX is a snap now - one try, he didn't even kill anyone. Makes me sad there's not a XXXX - I'd like a little incentive to keep going.

It's a shame it never got a proper sequel. It's my favorite NIS game by far, and grinding is far less painful and endless than in their other games. Oh well.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I was at a friend's house. I tried Spelunky HD again. And I remembered why I fucking hate the remake.

* The HUD takes up too much goddamn space. The scrolls behind the numbers (particularly the money indicator) take up way more space than they did in the original, and really their sheer size covers too much of the top left corner. This is especially bad in multiplayer as players easily get obscured if they're higher up on the screen.

* The view distance is horrible. In the original Spelunky, you can see a huge number of tiles around your character, whereas in the XBLA version, the vertical view distance is particularly awful. This makes speedrunning a chore more than anything; originally you could just barely see the top of bricks at the max safe drop distance, but in Spelunky HD your safe drop distance (where you won't take fall damage) is actually several tiles offscreen, so pits that look unsafe could have a tile below, but to know where you need to drop you constantly have to stop and look down/ledgehang at most pits, whereas you could zip through levels in the original because you knew that if you could see the ground below it was safe to drop down to that point, and if you couldn't, you had to ledgehang.

* Ropes can't be thrown downwards when hanging. Originally, pressing down + rope would pin a rope to the background at your location and drop it. In Spelunky HD, you can only drop ropes by ducking at the edge of a ledge and using one. If you're hanging from a rope, down + rope throws the rope upwards and wastes it completely, instead of simply extending the rope downwards. This makes speedy descents in the jungle/ice chasm much more irritating.

* You grab ledges if you're near them even if you're not moving towards the ledge. In the original, you had to hold left/right as you dropped to grab a ledge or grab a wall (with climbing gloves), but here, if you try to drop straight down, you will automatically grab any ledge you touch, or if you have climbing gloves, any wall you touch as you drop you'll grab. This makes speedy drops through single block gaps especially annoying as you have an irritating tendency to ledgehang unintentionally.

* Item throw distance is way too fucking long. Seriously, Spelunky HD's default throw distance makes it impossible to toss the damsel over short gaps safely. Originally, you could control your throw distance depending on whether you were moving forward when you threw the object (standing still and throwing only tossed an item a small distance). Instead, it's like you've got a pitching glove all the time and you have ridiculously fast throw velocities, making it difficult to safely throw damsels where you want them.

* Autopickup on sticky bombs. Sticky bombs suck, I hate them. I can 'cook' bombs to blow open ceilings just fine, thank you, and I prefer to retain my ability to ricochet bombs around walls, so why the fuck must I be forced to pick up sticky bomb items if I accidentally touch one instead of the original game, where you had to physically press down+whip to collect it? Lame. Yes, paste is handy for the secret boss, but why didn't they IMPROVE on the original by giving you a button to toggle sticky bombs on/off so you could have the best of both worlds? It's not like they didn't have enough buttons on the 360 pad to do this!

* The scepter is now fucking useless. Instead of being an awesome endgame weapon that let you tear through shit like a boss or trade it for a journey to a kickass level filled with tons of hawt loot, the scepter is now a piece of shit garbage weapon that's more likely to kill YOU than it is to be useful. The glowing orbs will kill your teammates, and they'll kill you if you touch 'em, instead of being homing orbs that only damage enemies. This is possibly the most idiotic change made, especially considering the orbs now travel so slowly that it's quite bad offensively even if it weren't programmed to murder you.

Sure, the new enemies and maps are nice and the graphics are pretty, but the game frankly feels like it's a shoddier, less polished game engine, one that just makes me want to play the original version. I loved the original Spelunky, but this one just feels all wrong. I imagine most people who lavish the game with praise don't notice these issues as much because they haven't played the original enough to really appreciate its game engine. The only real change I like is that holding down the whip button doesn't cause you to run, running is truly a separate button now only and you can't accidentally run by holding whip, but even this is fairly minor.

EDIT: More stuff I forgot to bitch about (I truly hate the remake's poor balance issues):

* That bug where fliphanging would cause you to THROW items violently, usually causing them to ricochet and hit you. Fliphanging normally drops items gently down... this was fixed in a patch, but the fact that it went unnoticed by playtesters in the initial release frankly is such a disgusting display of poor playtesting/quality control that I feel it's worth a mention. I can't count how much I used fliphanging while carrying items, especially when I could see there's a platform below I know I can retrieve them from. It's one of those things that really showed the lack of polish the game had with respect to the basic, core mechanics and physics the original had.

* Dark levels are irritating to navigate in Spelunky HD. Originally, they were frustrating, but you started the level with a box of flares which dropped three light sources that you could juggle and throw ahead of you to give you quite a boost to your view distance. Now, you get only ONE torch, which has a frankly pitiful light radius compared to the original flares. . You can use it to light torches on the wall, but that's nearly useless as you want to see what's ahead of you, not just light up areas you've already been to, though you can also use them to relight your torch if it goes out which is nice. I still prefer having three separate light sources I can use, though. I suspect the brightness setting on the console I was playing on might've been too low, as I notice YouTube videos of others playing Spelunky HD and they can see quite a bit more in the dark levels. The Spelunky HD options don't seem to have one of those bars that tell you "adjust till you can't see this" though, so I guess you just get to a dark level and adjust until it's playable?

* The Croc Men. They basically can't be killed normally because they teleport and negate the damage anytime something hits 'em. You have to hope they teleport into a wall and die, or that they simply leave you alone. They can instantly kill you if, by random chance, one decides to warps into you. Frankly that sounds like the lamest enemy ever. Yes, Spelunky is about learning to deal with the various situations the RNG throws at you, but you've usually got the tools to manage whatever's thrown at you. If you're forced to fight this guy or hit him to get rid of him, it's basically pure bullshit luck if he warps into you and telefrags you.