Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[BrianC]

The ending does the Ghostbusters thing where it says "Congratulations! You finished another great game." All I could think of is "if someone has to say they're great..."

At least the ending has a nice piece of artwork rather than a black screen with text. JP Ghostbusters FC didn't even get that. The ending is in the game code, complete with "Grate" instead of "Great", but an error message appears instead when the game is completed.

[BryanM]

Argh. Strategic Ghostbusters Business Simulator can't catch a break, can it? I guess the Nintendo version had to be made worse in order to make the Master Sytem version better. Karmic balance has to be maintained in the universe and all that.

I was raised on the original Commodore 64 version. Always appreciated it when games back then aspired to more than the bare minimum scraps (unlike a certain Dynowarz). Friday the 13th (either of them), etc. It's alright to be a bad game. It's not alright to be a nothing game, like how episodes of Zombie Simpsons won't stick into memory no matter how many times they're thrown at it.

A Ghostbusters game that looked like that final battle screen in the Master System version, like a kind of Space Harrier or GI Joe or Wild Guns kind of game... would have been pretty cool.

[BIL]

I guess the Nintendo version had to be made worse in order to make the Master Sytem version better. Karmic balance has to be maintained in the universe and all that.

Never attribute to karma what can be adequately explained by Micronics.

(I would make a Quality Shoop of a graveyard full of iconic 80s arcade titles ported by those shitbirds, but I find the subject genuinely too upsetting )

[BryanM]

Ah, NES (never released in Japan) Strider came up recently.

One thing that irritates me about Javascript was when I learned it uses a Double for its numbers. I... don't even see the point. An absolute pain in the ass when storing coordinates. (Maybe you can represent them as 10x or 100x their actual position... what a pain...)

So many classic computer games used to use such a worthless variable type, and had lots of fun rounding bugs as a reward for using something so stupid. Porting them to the Playstation and the like always took an eternity while they had to fix the geometry everywhere.

[BrianC]

Ah, NES (never released in Japan) Strider came up recently.

One thing that irritates me about Javascript was when I learned it uses a Double for its numbers. I... don't even see the point. An absolute pain in the ass when storing coordinates. (Maybe you can represent them as 10x or 100x their actual position... what a pain...)

So many classic computer games used to use such a worthless variable type, and had lots of fun rounding bugs as a reward for using something so stupid. Porting them to the Playstation and the like always took an eternity while they had to fix the geometry everywhere.

This is what happens when you take an unfinished JP game and give it a quick translation for US release.

[Sumez]

It's kinda baffling it was even started in the first place. This bug is the #1 most common issue you'll see with newbie NES homebrewers - and a lot of that comes from awful design practices promoted in a piece called "Nerdy Nights", posted at the NintendoAge forum years ago, and which has since been treated like a NES programming bible for no good reason. And honestly, respecting frame timing vblank and the NMI interrupt, is the absolute first thing you want to learn about before you even start programming for the platform, not something you patch up later

Though it's easy to be snooty about it, nowadays those things are well documented and easy to find thanks to the internet. But then again, this was made at Capcom in 1989 :/ They should know better.

[BrianC]

It's kinda baffling it was even started in the first place. This bug is the #1 most common issue you'll see with newbie NES homebrewers - and a lot of that comes from awful design practices promoted in a piece called "Nerdy Nights", posted at the NintendoAge forum years ago, and which has since been treated like a NES programming bible for no good reason. And honestly, respecting frame timing vblank and the NMI interrupt, is the absolute first thing you want to learn about before you even start programming for the platform, not something you patch up later

Though it's easy to be snooty about it, nowadays those things are well documented and easy to find thanks to the internet. But then again, this was made at Capcom in 1989 :/ They should know better.

It's not even the only major bug in the game. The game also has incredibly bad physics and input handling.

[Lander]

One thing that irritates me about Javascript was when I learned it uses a Double for its numbers. I... don't even see the point. An absolute pain in the ass when storing coordinates. (Maybe you can represent them as 10x or 100x their actual position... what a pain...)

So many classic computer games used to use such a worthless variable type, and had lots of fun rounding bugs as a reward for using something so stupid. Porting them to the Playstation and the like always took an eternity while they had to fix the geometry everywhere.

Probably in case anyone wanted to use it for scientific / fiscal math where precision errors are anathema. Though that still raises an eyebrow, since it's fucking JavaScript; ostensibly designed to glue together a user interface and leave real heavy lifting to server code.

More generally, having to reason about float bittage is a pain in the rear. Would sir like more or less epsilon problems with his datatype? And perhaps a side salad of generic parameters and typeclasses to satisfy the nagging but what if it needs to do both at the back of his mind? Very good sir.

And honestly, respecting frame timing vblank and the NMI interrupt, is the absolute first thing you want to learn about before you even start programming for the platform, not something you patch up later

Ain't that the truth it's remarkably tricky to fight your way out of a paper bag if your hands are all knotted up in spaghetti!

I don't think we'll ever collectively solve that problem in broad; build a nice abstraction over the hardware nitty-gritty, document it exhaustively, and users will still gain just enough knowledge to be dangerous before diving in to build their janky masterpiece.

[BryanM]

it's fucking JavaScript; ostensibly designed to glue together a user interface and leave real heavy lifting to server code.

And here we are with WebGL and the like, and the thing's now more powerful than Flash ever was. Running games Flash never could have had a prayer of running.

At some point you'd think one of these browser corpos would slap together an alternative sandboxed language for people to use, but I guess it'd be hopeless. Their competitors would never use it, there's no immediate profit...

(But on the other hand, it would be kind of like a game console with exclusive games. Google Chrome has been the target exlusive platform for many a game, and that couldn't have hurt their share of the market...)

... it's gotta at least have a better cost/reward ratio than Google Stadia had, no?

[Ghegs]

There was some talk of Deathwish Enforcers some 10 pages ago, I got my Switch physical copy in the mail earlier this week. Been doing some single-credit runs and I just credit-fed through it to get a better grasp of the game overall. Doing that also opened up a new difficulty and a music player in the main menu.

I like the presentation and the theme, and the game doesn't take itself too seriously. The setpieces are great, though the enemy variety is a bit lacking...for the first few stages there's maybe four different kinds of enemies, then later some more are added and the last stage has a few more. I want to like the game more than I actually do, since it does have issues.

Out of the four, Charles Bronson feels to be the only viable character to use, with maybe Cleopatra Love, the shotgun-wielding lady, being applicable as well. Speed is a pointless attribute since they all walk slowly, and the special move isn't that important either since you only get one at a time, and it's lost if you lose a life while having one. The special move does make short work of bosses, though. Power is the only thing that really matters, and those two characters have a spread shot which helps out a ton. And man, the walking speed. Sliding is the way to go all day, every day. Until it doesn't work and you jump instead.

The slide is a weird thing. It's fun, it gives you tons of i-frames, it makes you move faster...but sometimes it doesn't work. It seems in places, if you hold directly down and press jump, you slide, but in other places, you need to hold down + diagonal to slide, otherwise you jump, usually into a bullet. And sliding upwards on slopes doesn't work.

The control issues aside, it'd be so easy to make the game considerably better without even actually touching the game part of it. Add Stage Select/Practice mode, remappable controls, and make it faster to get from Game Over into starting a new credit. If this was a port from the arcades, it'd be considered a very bare-bones one. To "fix" the latter two I took advantage of 8BitDo Ultimate Controller to freely remap buttons, and in case of a Game Over it's much faster to just continue, hit Select to pause, and quit the game. Saves you a good 20 seconds. A practice mode would be much appreciated, since the later stages have a lot of what seemed a little bullshitty on my credit-feed run.

Like the motorbike sections. You can't slide, so you don't get any i-frames. At least I don't think jumping gives you any i-frames in these sections. The player hurtbox is kind of large, there are enemies coming from all directions, and it's super easy to take hits because your options for dodging are limited. I'm not cherishing the idea of having to play ~20 minutes just to practice that part. Some of the bosses had some weirdness to them as well that would require practicing and testing things.

Not sure if the game was designed with single-player 1CC in mind, though I'm sure it's possible. The focus might've been more on the 4-player co-op experience.

I do still want to play it a bit more.

[Steven]

Anyone here get Mario yet? Normally I'm not interested in Mario at all, but Wonder looks really good from what little I have seen of it. Not a priority right now, but I will probably pick it up before the end of the year.

I have not passed my final judgment on Sonic Superstars yet, but I'm tempted to say that it will probably go in the スルメゲー (dried squid game) category; that which you don't really like at first but start to like as you experience it more, supposedly because dried squid is like this.

[mycophobia]

mario wonder is really cool

[Sumez]

At some point you'd think one of these browser corpos would slap together an alternative sandboxed language for people to use, but I guess it'd be hopeless. Their competitors would never use it, there's no immediate profit...

WebAssembly has pretty widespread support I think. Definitely the way to go if you're making any king of performance-reliant client applications.

Anyone here get Mario yet? Normally I'm not interested in Mario at all, but Wonder looks really good from what little I have seen of it.

Honestly, I think if you think Mario Wonder looks good, you probably should be interested in Mario. It seems to share all the qualities of the better recent'ish ones that don't waste time with overworld fluff. Ie. NSMBW, NSMBU, and 3D World.
Probably more fit for other threads here though

[BryanM]

Eh, it's fair to feel like 2d Mario hasn't done anything that feels New in a while now. Maker just lets us relive the past. (And imperfectly at that, with them intentionally denying us the tools to fully recreate the old games.)

Mario 3/World shouldn't be one of the few high points. It's been 30 years, it's long past due they made a game that felt new and fresh.

Please don't talk about Wonder though because I don't want to be bullied for being a peasant that won't shell out hundreds of dollars for a couple of games. : (

[Marc]

Wonder is fucking awesome. That is all.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Can you play it with the d-pad?

[mycophobia]

yes! I don't think analog offers anything that the d-pad doesn't, in fact

[Bassa-Bassa]

I don't think analog offers anything that the d-pad doesn't

Otherwise, it wouldn't actually qualify as per my question. Thanks for confirming.

[Sumez]

Just chiming in to say I've been really unfair towards Bubble Bobble 2 on NES (the ITL-developed NES exclusive, not the port of Rainbow Islands, or the other port of Rainbow Islands also on NES).



I played it a bit in the past and thought it felt much more like an easy going (and sorta slow) casual console platformer, compared to Bubble Bobble's hardcore arcade precision action.
But I took the time to play further into the game, and it's actually got a lot going on, including ideas that are completely unique to the game, but still gel really well with the core gameplay of the series. The later stages have plenty of original setups and puzzles that are totally in the spirit of the original game.
It's a very easy game, but honestly only because it showers you in score extends. If you had as limited lives as you do in the original Bubble Bobble, it would be a really tough challenge still - the final batch of stages are vicious unless planned out.

As everyone knows it's a great looking game for the NES - using the palette extremely well, and not giving a crap about the sprite limit. But honestly I kinda wish this one had made it to the SNES. I'd have loved to see what they would have done with that.

[BIL]

Sounds great! Being a perennial distant admirer of the series, I always blank on its console entries (Final BB and Parasol Stars aside). I actually forgot about this one entirely. Extend-o-Mania is perhaps the most benign of balance issues, trivially solved by going for low/no misses, as you suggest.

There was some talk of Deathwish Enforcers some 10 pages ago, I got my Switch physical copy in the mail earlier this week. Been doing some single-credit runs and I just credit-fed through it to get a better grasp of the game overall. Doing that also opened up a new difficulty and a music player in the main menu.

Meant to say earlier, thanks for the review, marked for index! I'm still on the fence on this one, after velo's take.

Got a quick Majuu no Oukoku 1LC. Emphasis on "quick" - it's a short and generally easy game, by arcade standards. Not to be confused with the earlier NA release Dark Adventure, a much thornier affair, for reasons both good and ill. Oukoku's most critical challenge is learning each stage's item spawn points, to counter its violently erratic RNG. Other than that, unforgiving collision is the big threat. This was actually my second 1LC of the evening, getting the "bad RNG" versions of a couple stages, which I prefer.



As said, compared to Dark Adventure's light ARPG, Oukoku's Gauntlet homage is more straightforward: a surprisingly rampant topdown run/gun with platformer and treasure-hunting elements. It's also notably refined. DA's brutal HP drain has been reined in, from a relentless 1hz countdown, to just a tick every five seconds. Still dangerous, but far from DA's offputting quarter-muncher effect. In another attractive change, armed enemies and generators no longer do contact damage necessitating the Shield item; now it's just pests who bite, the Shield rendering them harmless. Striking/slashing weapons have also been ditched in favour of pure run/gun, complete with Gradius powerup bar, ramping up the pace while greatly evening the odds.

I'm impressed at this one's STG cred; it puts some walloping firepower onscreen. Save for the Machinegun, which offers little over the peashooter, its arsenal is easily up to Contra snuff. The Bazooka is particularly well-done, balancing its low firing rate with a monstrous AOE; unload it at point-blank into crowds, watch burning beastmen fly. The Dynamite sidearm is perfectly-judged for close combat, a short arc with a punishing bang, ideal for chucking over walls and landmining pursuers. While there's a hint of Konami's seemingly trademark 16way aim lag, it's to a far less overpowering degree than the Contras', let alone the truly difficult Manhattan 24 Bunsho's. I'm also very fond of the jump, which can be deftly converted into a strafing maneuver; invaluable for hosing crowds, and landing fadeaway speedkills on heavy targets.

I could've happily gone for a dedicated run/gunner on this engine. Not Willie-chan is a charmingly whimsical avatar of destruction, very proper in her blouse and skirt.



Sadly, it retains a churlish mean streak. The pickup detection on powerups and keys is comically unhelpful; like a danmaku hitbox a decade ahead of schedule. Conversely, enemy projectiles and blades have hitboxes the size of the known universe; to be fair, your own weapons are just as massive, this being by far the lesser annoyance.

Much more concerningly, the random key+food distribution is wildly unbalanced, creating a slot machine feel. In truth, especially with the game's tight duration, even the worst key RNG can be mastered with practice - though the sense of dodging a bullet on lucky runs remains. Food is my bigger worry... I'm tentatively pretty sure that you'll always get some, in one stage or another. But I could swear I saw rare runs where the game just starved me out. More research needed.

On that note, this is one of those deathclock games that deliberately wastes your time; the slain final boss takes agonisingly long to keel over, and his preceding troops - who must be killed to summon him - have a willfully unhelpful habit of spawning s l o w l y. Witness my distraction as I check if I've missed one, eating a trade, which sees me survive the big dude's death sequence by seconds.

I'm not sure if that near-death is why I got the "normal" ending, having only seen the supposedly rarer alternative up to now. Incidentally, that other 1LC gets the alt ending. I like the latter, which I'm headcanoning so...

SUPER SECRET DEETS

Your characters aren't merely "starving" in DEVIL WARUDO, they're being actively eaten away on an existential level - hence COKEY COLA being vital sustenance, the sugary sacramental offering of MURICA's own guardian deity

I'm gonna see if I can salvage Dark Adventure, and/or discern anything about Majuu's RNG. I'd like it if I could pressure-wash a bit of the jank off these two. The latter issue seems truly enigmatic; a quick scouring of Japanese-language sources turned up little conclusive.

Speaking of hitbox issues, the volcano stage (winningly-named Kalamazoo) has a glitch I saw even veteran JP players speak of in dread.

HOW II KALAMAZOO

I'm guessing it's in the PCB too, given the posts I saw mention it far predate 2023. It's pretty harmless once understood, fortunately... initially I was like "Nah, nope, GTFO."

Hamster's ACA release includes both the above versions, plus the Japan-identical EU Devil World (again, not to be confused with Nintendo's FC dot eater). It recently updated - besides a customarily attentive bugfix, it now lets you open the map with your start button. Previously, you had to assign it to its own action button; this was due to a quirk of the dedicated cab's layout, where there's a single map button shared by all players. I'm guessing this'll be appreciated by players who might have JAMMA-accurate three-button sticks. The update also adds the PCB's stereo output option.

"Wait WTF, there's a map?" I said, because Hamster and M2 are on a legendary near-decade hot streak, and my PS4 has become a veritable suitcase nuke of reference-standard home arcade translations. Lovably flat-shaded, blocky little thing I initially wondered if it was an ACA feature, ala Libble Rabble's stickers and Druaga+Ishtar's stage guides. But nope, it's straight off the PCB. I totally forgot - so many great releases this gen-and-counting.

[Bloodreign]

Just chiming in to say I've been really unfair towards Bubble Bobble 2 on NES (the ITL-developed NES exclusive, not the port of Rainbow Islands, or the other port of Rainbow Islands also on NES).



I played it a bit in the past and thought it felt much more like an easy going (and sorta slow) casual console platformer, compared to Bubble Bobble's hardcore arcade precision action.
But I took the time to play further into the game, and it's actually got a lot going on, including ideas that are completely unique to the game, but still gel really well with the core gameplay of the series. The later stages have plenty of original setups and puzzles that are totally in the spirit of the original game.
It's a very easy game, but honestly only because it showers you in score extends. If you had as limited lives as you do in the original Bubble Bobble, it would be a really tough challenge still - the final batch of stages are vicious unless planned out.

As everyone knows it's a great looking game for the NES - using the palette extremely well, and not giving a crap about the sprite limit. But honestly I kinda wish this one had made it to the SNES. I'd have loved to see what they would have done with that.

I've warmed up to it over time as well, still don't think it's on the same level as the original, but time was taken to at least add some new mechanics to the game, like inflating yourself to reach out of the way places, of course having to respect the same air currents that move the bubbles around the screen (having to navigate up narrow corridors lined with spikes above and below, yikes). Just wish it had all the secrets and nice little bonus items (for points, or to clear a room instantly) that the original game had, but I figure since it was a home game, and you'd only have to pay for it once, the programmers decided to make it more a platforming game (not quite the same kind of platform goodness a Don Doko Don 2 was, but that's Natsume for you), that they didn't need to add all those neat little touches to the game. Of course the ending boss is a nod to Rainbow Islands, when 3 Skel Monstas ultimately escape, but they finally get their comeuppance in this game. The game is tough, and the continue limit makes sure you git gud, because while it is not as long as the original game, it still has I believe 80 levels to it. A friend of mine got me a cart only copy years ago, took me a long time to warm up to it, the GB game of the same name, I honestly warmed up to it a lot sooner, and I love the hell out of the series. Was so happy when Taito included Symphony, Memories, arcade Rainbow Islands, and Rainbow Islands to the Taito Memories set, but in the US, Taito only gave us Bubble Bobble and vanilla Rainbow Islands.

[BIL]

Oof, seems my fondness for Majuu no Oukoku had clouded my brief memory of Dark Adventure. 95% on it being a straight quarter-muncher; the HP drain is ridiculously fast, overpowering its combat and exploration. Even if it were possible to mitigate with practice, I couldn't imagine it being enjoyable. This is exacerbated by that enemy contact damage, making close combat a prickly chore. Even whacking stationary, inert Generators requires pixel-perfect zoning.

I still like a few concepts here, like facing the barbarian horde with only slashing/stabbing weapons at first. Suits the Savage Land aesthetic, and gives excellent catharsis when you secure firearms, sending the bodycount rocketing. And the nonlinear maze progression - each of its forty stages has two exits, only one of which advances to the endgame, others sending you back a ways - could make for compelling exploration under pressure, as well as a nice tactical routing exercise.

It all goes to waste when you can barely make it across the screen before keeling over, unfortunately. "Late 80s Konami AC title mangled for NA market" isn't startling news, but this being A) the original release, and B) a categorically different game gave me some hope. ~Dream Game Hackz~ would be Dark Adventure's model, with Oukoku's sensible HP drain and revised contact damage. As-is, DA seems either unplayable, or so near it as to become a mere curio.

[BrianC]

Oof, seems my fondness for Majuu no Oukoku had clouded my brief memory of Dark Adventure. 95% on it being a straight quarter-muncher; the HP drain is ridiculously fast, overpowering its combat and exploration. Even if it were possible to mitigate with practice, I couldn't imagine it being enjoyable. This is exacerbated by that enemy contact damage, making close combat a prickly chore. Even whacking stationary, inert Generators requires pixel-perfect zoning.

I still like a few concepts here, like facing the barbarian horde with only slashing/stabbing weapons at first. Suits the Savage Land aesthetic, and gives excellent catharsis when you secure firearms, sending the bodycount rocketing. And the nonlinear maze progression - each of its forty stages has two exits, only one of which advances to the endgame, others sending you back a ways - could make for compelling exploration under pressure, as well as a nice tactical routing exercise.

It all goes to waste when you can barely make it across the screen before keeling over, unfortunately. "Late 80s Konami AC title mangled for NA market" isn't startling news, but this being A) the original release, and B) a categorically different game gave me some hope. ~Dream Game Hackz~ would be Dark Adventure's model, with Oukoku's sensible HP drain and revised contact damage. As-is, DA seems either unplayable, or so near it as to become a mere curio.

Hopefully, a more playable JP prototype of the earlier version exists. Would be surprised if one didn't exist at one time with a JP flyer reflecting the earlier version of the game (with melee weapons and the third playable character shown).

[BIL]

Hopefully, a more playable JP prototype of the earlier version exists. Would be surprised if one didn't exist at one time with a JP flyer reflecting the earlier version of the game (with melee weapons and the third playable character shown).

Good point! I'd forgotten about that rad flyer, which indeed shows the Japan release hewing far nearer Dark Adventure. I could easily imagine that being in the works at one point, pending sales data. While I genuinely like Oukoku, it has an unmistakable sense of quick rejig; almost like an official ROMhack in proven Gradius mode. Aesthetically, the shift from dire struggle to Contra overkill feels near-parodic, of movies and videogames alike; no bad thing, but again, decidedly odd.

OHO, BIG (◎w◎;)

Such a charming pick n' mix pastiche. Luke Skywalker, Indy, and Red Sonja on the same flyer. Although the first and last's in-game personas are very different, riffing on Raiders' Belloq and Temple's Willie, the rest of the flyer is impressively on-model. I always like that, when you can tell the artist paid attention to the game's content. There's the Dryad on the bottom-left! I wish they weren't confined to just the one stage, their pouty "WEHHH!" when you blow 'em up is so cute.

[BryanM]

Thread friend Jeremy has finally worked his way up to Ninja Gaiden. It's a landmark little moment here. He even managed to work in another little diss of arcade Rygar, as salt on the cupcake.

[Sumez]

At least he caught on to how the "quirky" enemey spawning mechanics of the game work in its favor, and force its forward momentum, and continues bring it up as the game's biggest quality, rather than tapping into the misinformed narrative that it's somehow bad and janky. It's honestly a pretty fine description of the game, Rygar jab notwithstanding. He almost evades harping on the final boss checkpoint-of-shame too.

[BIL]

Thread friend Jeremy has finally worked his way up to Ninja Gaiden. It's a landmark little moment here. He even managed to work in another little diss of arcade Rygar, as salt on the cupcake.

The very best of Reddit, delivered straight to my doorstep! Like a newspaper! Thanks again Bryan. If only it had coincided with April Fool's of this year, a bad take on the boss rush to match the one which began this thread a decade ago.

Jerry might be interested to learn that the NES releases of Rygar and Bionic Commando, which he meanly describes as "mutant" spawn of the arcade games, are in fact distinct entities with their own Japanese subtitles: Hachamecha Daishingeki ("Legendary Great Advance") and Hitler no Fukkatsu ("The Resurrection of Hitler").

There is a discussion to be had here, on the line between home reinterpretation, and fully-fledged home sequel. FC Double Dragon II has no distinguishing labels, yet is easily as deserving of one as the aforementioned. And what about FC Ikari and Dogosoken? They may play horridly - because Micronics - but the same spirit of innovation is there.

Regardless, in objective canon, Hachamecha and Fukkatsu stand alone. Ironically for someone with such a churlishly myopic view of arcade gaming, Jerry does these titles a disservice!

It's honestly a pretty fine description of the game, Rygar jab notwithstanding. He almost evades harping on the final boss checkpoint-of-shame too.

On one hand, I must concur - it certainly beats the oilslick-deep "bitterly cheap Castlevania clone" crack that appeared on EGM's website a million years ago! It was nice to see a measured contrast with Konami's title. He could've even gone further - I don't think it's extravagant, or reductive, to call NG fundamentally indebted to CV. It's a testament to the quality of both, and the transformative power of keenly-observed iteration.

The gang is all here! :O

Genealogy of NG1 Startup

He does parrot some unhelpful misconceptions - the classic beginner's death spiral of taking a hit, panicking, and taking another, for one. And if you're going to extol subweapons for J & J - subweapons only granted after being punted downstairs - why rate the Firewheel essential? The Jumpslash will delete them handily. And either Shuriken will do in a pinch. Other than the Firewheel being right outside, easily grabbed while taking a beating from the enemies you've never bothered learning to fight. And the Shuriken granting not certain victory, merely a vital advantage.

I know you can't expect hobbyist passion from nostalgia merchants who regard these games as a revenue stream first, a key-jangling distraction second. To be sure, in comparison with Konami's ruined Dark Adventure, or even the Gradius V review from Jerry's old outfit, which described Treasure's eminently well-judged gateway STG as nigh-impossible sans Free Play, this is very benign stuff.

But on the other hand, that Rygar drive-by taints Jerry's article more than perhaps he himself could know. The tactical emphasis he commends in Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania is not merely apparent in Rygar, which he again derides as "mindless;" it is vital, the designers never enjoying nor granting the luxury of a lifebar. Were I a mean-spirited elitist prick™, or a content producer of limited engagement, I'd have trivial work making both FC games look pitiably sloppy, next to the restraint Rygar maintains over its considerably longer (yet still arcade-compact) runtime.

So while it's a decent appraisal of NG for casuals, it's also paradoxically, pettily toxifying of them, against another outstanding game which made the unforgivable error of killing Jerry too soon - consigning him to a nightmarish agony of mindfulness. Or not! As our intrepid Retro Sherpa™ writes the game off wholesale, another tubular, radicool, XTREEM retrospective in the bag. Cha-ching! Cowabunga, dude!

Absent the expertise of an Akamatsu or Sakurazaki, this is how you get Euroshumps. 3; Digital Eclipse also comes to mind, with Frank Cifaldi's remarkable statement that re-releases of older games must include rewind as a matter of policy - not as a practice tool, but because they are otherwise no longer worth playing.

[Sengoku Strider]

Heh, I watched that episode and thanks to you all the (pretty anodyne) Rygar remark jumped out. But I'll be the resident guy to stick up for ol' Parish again here. He's not doing an arcade fetishist series, he's reviewing everything chronologically by platform. He basically borrowed (with permission) Dr. Sparkle's schtick when the good doctor was (mis)diagnosed with a major health problem and had to step aside. Until he was properly diagnosed and didn't. But TBH Parish is doing a more thorough job so I cannot complain.

Anyway, the idea that you'll have anyone - or even a community - doing a generalist archival series who is simultaneously a code-level expert on every action game, golf game, gameshow game, rpg, horse-racing sim and everything else in between is just not feasible, Vidlords of this esteemed forum included. So I'm not at all bothered if there's a deep-dish detail or five he doesn't excavate from something, when he's literally the only person in the world (I can't fnd a Japanese equivalent on YT, if you know one lemme know) doing serious long(ish)-form looks at SG-1000 pachinko games and the bizarre world of EPOCH Cassette vision IP theft. I'm less interested in him bringing up things I do know, than him introducing things I don't.

Jerry might be interested to learn that the NES releases of Rygar and Bionic Commando, which he meanly describes as "mutant" spawn of the arcade games, are in fact distinct entities with their own Japanese subtitles: Hachamecha Daishingeki ("Legendary Great Advance") and Hitler no Fukkatsu ("The Resurrection of Hitler").

I think you're misreading him as critical of those games, he's had little but praise for those home adaptations and seems to mark both as significant points in the evolution of home console games. He dedicated the entirety of episode 100 to Bionic Commando, so he has given Hitler and his top secret daifukkatsu its due: Bionic Commando retrospective: This machine-arm kills fascists | NES Works #100

There is a discussion to be had here, on the line between home reinterpretation, and fully-fledged home sequel. FC Double Dragon II has no distinguishing labels, yet is easily as deserving of one as the aforementioned. And what about FC Ikari and Dogosoken? They may play horridly - because Micronics - but the same spirit of innovation is there.

This is one of the major through-lines of his commentary (as is the terrifying ubiquity of Micronics), as he's doing a parallel Sega series and their 8-bit era policy of absolutely reverent home ports stood in stark contrast to Nintendo telling everyone to make something new. In fact I think he brought up Ikari in this very episode as a point of reference. He's only at early 1989 in the timeline, so he hasn't hit Double Dragon II yet.

I don't remember what he said about Ikari II because TBH this ZX Spectrum title screen is currently hogging all my mental ROM access on that one.



Where is Jay Leno twin A trying to hide with those magenta camo pants???

[velo]

There was some talk of Deathwish Enforcers some 10 pages ago, I got my Switch physical copy in the mail earlier this week. Been doing some single-credit runs and I just credit-fed through it to get a better grasp of the game overall. Doing that also opened up a new difficulty and a music player in the main menu.

Yeah, you're echoing a lot of my gripes. It finally got a patch recently, which fixed some issues, like jump inputs just not reading when you're firing under certain conditions. You can now mash to speed up the "Continue?" counter. You might be playing the patched version already; the slide input problems still stand, but if you always use diagonals I suppose you'll always get a slide. It could use another 100 low-effort QoL fixes, but at least it's not as bad as it was.

Other news: Tanuki Justice and Wallachia: Reign of Dracula are back in the Switch eshop after being delisted for a time. Probably other games published by PixelHeart as well. Apparently whatever the deal was there, got resolved.

[BIL]

He's not doing an arcade fetishist series

That is one of the more comically flailing strawmen I've come across ITT! And believe me, this thread began in a veritable gotterdammerung of the madly dancing things. Secret lair of the infamous NES Ninja Gaiden Arcade Fetishists! Psh... only an Arcade Fetishist could object to these august Console Writings.

For new friends, this thread's arcade content is like a pizza atop your high building of choice. It would be astonishingly ill-advised (and amusing!) to suggest it has some bias towards coin-ops, or a blind spot WRT console titles; the situation is precisely the opposite! Did you know our brave leader BLOODF despises the NES incarnation of Ninja Gaiden, or - as he calls it, in his homeland of poundshops and chippies - "Shadow Warriors?" It's true! This thread's title is a deliberate provocation on my part, designed to anger him every time he sees it, in the hopes he'll do another one of his hilarious Judgment Bans.

Tell you what, I'll give this silly post some terrible gravity by promising to get the new index up before 2023 is out, so next time I can just link that.

I'm not at all bothered if there's a deep-dish detail or five he doesn't excavate

You made me so hungry I ordered a pizza! But you are again working not with hot cheese and zingy sauce, but punishingly empty vapour. Whoever critiqued Jerry's neglect of the secret end-stage bonus, triggered by holding the stick [down/right] with matching digits in the hundred points & single second rows, they're not here. If the merest acknowledgement of substance is your Pro Review version of a Triple XL Stuffed Crust NYC Man Meat Paradise, I'm guessing pizza day at your place involves an aircraft carrier!

An admission

I deliberately said [down/right] instead of [down/left], so if our mysterious third man appears, he'll correct me and give himself away - a textbook ruse.

I'm less interested in him bringing up things I do know, than him introducing things I don't.

I don't watch or read Jerry, having left his ilk shortly after they almost talked me out of Gradius V ("You are a living legend" "Ha thanks, wait what the fu-"). However, that is my interest also!

"Mindless" is a strong word; used to jarring effect in both NES Rygar and now NES Ninja Gaiden's reviews. Despite Rygar only cameoing here - no footage of Jerry eating many hot loads while praising Daishingeki's D33P D1SH D3PTH5 - the charge actually gains significance. Because here, it anchors Jerry's glowing endorsements of Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, and Makaimura. I would not have bothered invoking Capcom's title; NG can be comprehensively detailed without leaving CV's blueprint, a great source of its charm imo. But potato, potahto; hardcore twitch/method action is indeed their raison d'etre.

Bizarrely, he has couched this broadly agreeable judgement in a repeated insistence that another outstanding action/platformer is not merely inferior, but outright vacant, derelict, bereft. Lest that deranged strawman rustle back to life, and call me an Arcade Poseur, I will point out for new friends that "Rygar" is about as X-TREEEM and TOTES OBSCURE a D33P CUT as "Contra" and "Shinobi." Everyone knows Rygar. Except me, I didn't know Rygar. I only played it for the first time three years ago. Because I'm a fuckin Arcade Noob, you see.

It's a very finessed game! If someone were to describe it as "mindless melee," I would wonder if we were discussing the same title, or if (*ding ding ding*) they were simply talking out of their ass. With the enemies' numbers, speed, and ground/air mixups, "mindless melee" is a surefire way to wall yourself in. Mindless jumping is also a bad idea, as jumps are tied to your stomp and its i-frames; the pinpoint air control as much for targeting attacks as evading danger. In fact, attack and evasion frequently coincide; crushing a foe underfoot while somersaulting clean through their backup to safe footing.

You might think a gaming historian would note this deft use of i-frames, a progressive feature which mainstream audiences continue to misunderstand, nearly four decades on; cf the histrionics surrounding Dark Souls, et al. But all this would require engagement far beyond the script, which calls for a dumb as rocks "barbarian platformer" to be redeemed by a "fully fledged ARPG," one in which the reviewer can run around eating hot loads and idly pondering the "weird" stomp mechanic, now without the arcade game's lethal impetus.

It's an extravagant overreach, supported by nothing, made outright inexplicable by the later Ninja Gaiden review. In this ensuing episode of Bad Journalism Cluedo, the most apparent solution is that Jerry has a narrative - console vry good and smart - and a deadline, and he's sticking to them. Which is fair enough, at the cost of sounding - and looking, in his footage - like a blundering chimp.

"So what? He's not here to impress the likes of you, you... Arcade Fetishist!" Ahh! It's alive! No, of course not. IDGAF, personally. The only reason I'm aware of any of this is lovable BryanX. But Jerry is purporting to be a journalist, more specifically a historian, and as mentioned, I know what it's like to be young and dumb and regard his lot as authorities.

Jerry might be interested to learn that the NES releases of Rygar and Bionic Commando, which he meanly describes as "mutant" spawn of the arcade games, are in fact distinct entities with their own Japanese subtitles: Hachamecha Daishingeki ("Legendary Great Advance") and Hitler no Fukkatsu ("The Resurrection of Hitler").

I think you're misreading him as critical of those games, he's had little but praise for those home adaptations and seems to mark both as significant points in the evolution of home console games.

No, I'm afraid not. I'm a textualist by training and preference, I can only go by what is said in the videos. No comment whatsoever on his rating of BC; only a Sensible Chuckle™ at the recitation of Ancient Playground Lore, straight from buddy's uncle at Nintendo, that the NES versions of BC and Rygar are inexplicably wildly different - you could say "mutated!" - games.

Just seemed a bit obvious, given how widespread those "Same Game Different Name" cliches still are. And you know, I love these games. It makes me happy that they enjoy their own little place in the world.

There is a discussion to be had here, on the line between home reinterpretation, and fully-fledged home sequel. FC Double Dragon II has no distinguishing labels, yet is easily as deserving of one as the aforementioned. And what about FC Ikari and Dogosoken? They may play horridly - because Micronics - but the same spirit of innovation is there.

This is one of the major through-lines of his commentary

What I would do is communicate this in the soundbite; it would be trivial to refer to them as sequels. Perhaps Jerry, for all his research, isn't a particularly deft writer? That would explain this entire tangent. Maybe he just meant "uninteresting."

Other news: Tanuki Justice and Wallachia: Reign of Dracula are back in the Switch eshop after being delisted for a time. Probably other games published by PixelHeart as well. Apparently whatever the deal was there, got resolved.

Great news! More people should play Tanuki Justice, it's superb. That 100% shootdown is gonna last me a while yet. Love Aggelos too; I'm still only a few stages in but trusted peeps said it's great, that's why I bought it and you should too