Night Striker Gear announced!

[m.sniffles.esq]

Press the Gear button! It does serve a purpose, BTW — your shots become homing shots in that form.

Yeah, I didn't see the "Manual" option initially.

I kind of wish there wasn't so much visual noise. Like it's pretty messy on a television, on the Switch screen it's just a mess. So while the game sorta lends itself to being played portably, I don't think I'll be doing it that often, as it's way too hard to see what the fuck is happening on the small screen.

That said, it exists to be rad, and it is. One small caveat, I wish the level choices were more of a choice.

"Sky vs. Big City"

Which do you think I'm going to pick?

"Okay, how about Sky vs. Highway?"

There's no warm-blooded creature on the planet that's going to pick the fucking sky over tearing-ass down some crazy future highway. Literally, none. I think even reptile lizard-men would pick the highway.

[qmish]

Looks like you're not sentimental dreamer who finds beauty in skies with sun and clouds.

(joking, I haven't seen how it looks here).

[Jonpachi]

I have picked Sky every single time I've played.

[hamfighterx]

I kind of wish there wasn't so much visual noise. Like it's pretty messy on a television, on the Switch screen it's just a mess. So while the game sorta lends itself to being played portably, I don't think I'll be doing it that often, as it's way too hard to see what the fuck is happening on the small screen.

Personal taste, but I haven't felt that Switch screen size is a significant issue for me and I've played quite a bit in portable mode on a Switch 2. A full sized original Switch/OLED feels like it would be fine to me too, though the Switch Lite is a bit cramped for this game.

But the big issue for me: I don't love the controls when playing with Joycons, so that's a downside for playing handheld on a Switch. I've actually found that I love playing this game with the Nintendo Switch Online Gamecube controller - the sticks have just the right amount of resistance that I don't feel like I'm fighting against excessive dead zones, which I do when playing on Joycons.

That said, it exists to be rad, and it is. One small caveat, I wish the level choices were more of a choice.

"Sky vs. Big City"

LOL I think the visual design in this game makes all of the stages look kind of samey. Highway, Sky, SEWER? They all pretty much feel like the same futuristic techno-scape with the bloom effects cranked to 11.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Switch digital download is only 269mb. Quite impressive with what M2 can do with the Switch 1 hardware as it is.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[xEbb1993x]

Already played and beat it. It’s actually really good. I still have yet to conquer the B-Side Mode.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Cool to see that the Steam & Switch ports of Night Striker Gear support on-line leaderboards + the Steam version has a "bilinear filter" option if it needed be.

M2 released a NSG 1.9mb patch today, 10/24/2025, to fix issues if playing it with an analog stick with the Steam port (in keeping par with the Switch port).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Klatrymadon]

I think I still have the same reservations about the mechanic that I did back in August, see item #1 in my earlier post viewtopic.php?p=1584758#p1584758
I can see the potential in a game that leans into the whole expending your shot meter then building it back up, if there was more of a rhythm to it. Almost thinking like a Giga Wing or Mars Matrix feel, where you use your reflect shield/ability at the right time to destroy everything and then feel a bit underpowered and exposed while you wait for the cooldown to be able to use it again. If Gear was more designed around smart use of the transformation (which I don't really think it is, though maybe I'm just terrible) I'd appreciate that more.

It's just that there are so few mechanics in this game that when using your ONE ability (transform) other than your standard shot actually reduces the power of the standard shot... IDK, it feels a bit too limited and underbaked for my liking.

Yeah, I tend to agree with this. There's no feeling of push and pull to emptying your meter and refilling it again, despite there being incentives in the stages like large groups of enemies and Gear icons to collect, etc. It's like it has one mechanic and doesn't really care if you engage with it or not. All my attention is taken up with just trying to survive all the attacks, which are refreshingly merciless, but at this level it still feels slightly undercooked.

(Of course, this is a woolly criticism that could be levelled at plenty of other games — you can ignore the scoring systems in lots of shmups if you want — but I don't feel this anywhere near as strongly elsewhere...)

[AGermanArtist]

I don't think there's anything deeper with it than to use it to help with a boss, sub boss or on a section you find it difficult to maintain a 100% kill rate.
Essentially anything that benefits with the use of homing attacks.

[Udderdude]

Your setup will never be this cool .. https://x.com/rcd_rcd33/status/1982009795583623169

[Necronom]

I don't think there's anything deeper with it than to use it to help with a boss, sub boss or on a section you find it difficult to maintain a 100% kill rate.
Essentially anything that benefits with the use of homing attacks.

Homing attacks help with catching the shield upgrade faster. It also helps with blasting the red captain enemies quickly and therefore getting rid of the whole formation BEFORE it starts spewing bullets.
I would however prefer if the game would give the player a sound cue once the homing shooting robot can be used.

Has anyone tested it with Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas One? In theory it should work...

[dmk1198]

[/quote]

Cool! By the way, I noticed M2 has only 55 followers on Steam.....fifty-five! Give them a follow if you give a chance.
[/quote]

786 now!

[caincan]

rc33 setup sounds like... "Vertexer" would have been !

and seems like a Taito hommage...there are some feelings in the "road scheme"

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Your setup will never be this cool .. https://x.com/rcd_rcd33/status/1982009795583623169

For Udderdude,

What is the name of that motion-inducing gaming chair called and where can you buy it (as shown in that X.com video clip)?

It looks like a "game center-grade" motion-gaming seat worthy of the arcades pedigree -- akin to Sega's DX & Super DX variant Galaxy Force II full-motion cab setup back in 1988. It was available to play at Disneyland's famed "Starcade" arcade hangout back in May of 1990 -- it was four quarters per credit to try it out indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Udderdude]

Your setup will never be this cool .. https://x.com/rcd_rcd33/status/1982009795583623169

For Udderdude,

What is the name of that motion-inducing gaming chair called and where can you buy it (as shown in that X.com video clip)?

It looks like a "game center-grade" motion-gaming seat worthy of the arcades pedigree -- akin to Sega's DX & Super DX variant Galaxy Force II full-motion cab setup back in 1988. It was available to play at Disneyland's famed "Starcade" arcade hangout back in May of 1990 -- it was four quarters per credit to try it out indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

According to this .. https://x.com/160SX_Onaga/status/1982377284951802122

This is the chair from the arcade game "Hoshi to Tsubasa no Paradox (STAR WING PARADOX)," which has already ceased its online service.
It has been removed from game centers, so it can only be purchased as a used item.

In fact, you can see the chair attached to it's original cabinet on Wikipedia. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... aradox.jpg

[Tokyo-J]

Not sure why but cannot get controllers to register with this.

[Faith]

Anyone play this with keyboard O_O?"...

[Tokyo-J]

Anyone play this with keyboard O_O?"...

I did play with a keyboard, then I just binded the controls with joy2key. Fun game. Really enjoying it so far. Iuchi nails it once again.

[Faith]

I did play with a keyboard, then I just binded the controls with joy2key. Fun game. Really enjoying it so far. Iuchi nails it once again.

Oki thank you!~ For these kinds of games I am a keyboard player, so just need to make sure I can still have fun with this game if using keyboard only >.<!~

[Udderdude]

Not sure why but cannot get controllers to register with this.

I think they might've just patched this. https://x.com/M2_game/status/1983059249954803822

[Tokyo-J]

Not sure why but cannot get controllers to register with this.

I think they might've just patched this. https://x.com/M2_game/status/1983059249954803822

Great for everyone who could not fix it themselves.

[xybur]

Has anybody gotten a perfect wipe out???
I keep trying to do the first stage, and I'm pretty sure that the small soldiers on the bridges count towards the total. There is a set of soldiers on the fourth bridge near the final stretch of the stage after the mini boss that is nearly impossible to hit.

Any help with this? Any better stage to try this on? It's literally the last achievement I need to unlock to get them all.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

I have picked Sky every single time I've played.

[Sengoku Strider]

Has anybody gotten a perfect wipe out???
I keep trying to do the first stage, and I'm pretty sure that the small soldiers on the bridges count towards the total. There is a set of soldiers on the fourth bridge near the final stretch of the stage after the mini boss that is nearly impossible to hit.

Any help with this? Any better stage to try this on? It's literally the last achievement I need to unlock to get them all.

I haven't played this, I just wanted to say that is a fantastic avatar.

[Tokyo-J]

Steam Deck Certified now.

https://x.com/M2_game/status/1983461670220668966

[-Fish-]

GOTY for me personally and I wasn't a massive fan of the original. Gameplay here is just about perfection. B-side mode, once unlocked, is where it's at.

[-Fish-]

Has anybody gotten a perfect wipe out???
I keep trying to do the first stage, and I'm pretty sure that the small soldiers on the bridges count towards the total. There is a set of soldiers on the fourth bridge near the final stretch of the stage after the mini boss that is nearly impossible to hit.

Any help with this? Any better stage to try this on? It's literally the last achievement I need to unlock to get them all.

I answered on Steam forum but will post my response here as well. With a bit of practice its possible to wipe out all stages.

In the 1st stage small soldiers don't count nor do the 2 - 3 parked box trucks. What counts is squadrons/groups and midboss. Just try to hit all reds throughout the stage to make destroying them all easier.

A good tactic is to swap to the mech just for a spilt second and launch a few heat seekers when hard to reach squadrons/groups appear then quickly swap back to the vehicle. This will make short work of them. Don't stay in mech form too long though or your weapons power level may drop. Only stay in mech form for extended periods when there are massive hordes of enemies on screen. Their constant deaths will work towards refilling your weapon power level very quickly.

[xybur]

Has anybody gotten a perfect wipe out???
I keep trying to do the first stage, and I'm pretty sure that the small soldiers on the bridges count towards the total. There is a set of soldiers on the fourth bridge near the final stretch of the stage after the mini boss that is nearly impossible to hit.

Any help with this? Any better stage to try this on? It's literally the last achievement I need to unlock to get them all.

I haven't played this, I just wanted to say that is a fantastic avatar.

Heck yeah, I love Ketsui

[xybur]

Has anybody gotten a perfect wipe out???
I keep trying to do the first stage, and I'm pretty sure that the small soldiers on the bridges count towards the total. There is a set of soldiers on the fourth bridge near the final stretch of the stage after the mini boss that is nearly impossible to hit.

Any help with this? Any better stage to try this on? It's literally the last achievement I need to unlock to get them all.

I answered on Steam forum but will post my response here as well. With a bit of practice its possible to wipe out all stages.

In the 1st stage small soldiers don't count nor do the 2 - 3 parked box trucks. What counts is squadrons/groups and midboss. Just try to hit all reds throughout the stage to make destroying them all easier.

A good tactic is to swap to the mech just for a spilt second and launch a few heat seekers when hard to reach squadrons/groups appear then quickly swap back to the vehicle. This will make short work of them. Don't stay in mech form too long though or your weapons power level may drop. Only stay in mech form for extended periods when there are massive hordes of enemies on screen. Their constant deaths will work towards refilling your weapon power level very quickly.

I saw your response there after reading this one. Thanks to Orange (the current top guy on a few leaderboards), I was able to get it by using the advice of going for the perfect wipe out on stage B, sky.

[XoPachi]

Very much mixed on this. I absolutely like the original better. Gear feels great and maintains the main things I was looking for. The gear change system, unless I'm missing something is quite basic, but welcome and I've got no actual issues with it. The pacing is good though 4 stages is kinda low. But a lot of this game annoys me.

I do not like the visuals both in aesthetics and function. I would rather scaling sprites just be pixel art instead of prerendered visuals. Prerendered is just an approximation of 3D at which point, for a railshooter, I'd rather just take the 3D visuals. It is an objective high quality, but there's a disconnect to me. A personal gripe and I know going full 3D for this studio was basically out of the question for something like this. So it's something I have to live with. The game is not ugly, far from it. But it's not fully there for my taste.

What I actually can't stand is how messy I'm finding the game. The moment action starts, especially on hard mode, I cannot see -shit-. This sort of chaos works in top down and side scrolling games. But in something where, by it's nature, will have things flying at the camera, it really hurts the visibility. The amount of smoke and glowing and large shrapnel flying at full speed towards you makes it SO hard to discern incoming threats. And even with how large energy projectiles are, there's a lot of fast moving similar lighting effects that are clumped up making it a bit too easy to catch a stray amidst the blender of other intense effects. Thankfully, your shots are massive so you don't miss a lot and the red captain enemies taking out entire formations on death is a bit of a grace. The lack of options is genuinely surprising considering who made this and what year it is. Especially for visibility.

Another personal thing, but I also don't care for this music. I don't really have any deep thoughts on that. The sort of "epic" cinematic score rarely works for me in arcade games. Much prefer the original's OST.

I dunno. This is just...kind of underwhelming. The trailers looked amazing but I'm not really going nuts over the final product. :/