The Super Famicom / Super NES Thread

[Skykid]

Well fuck, just discovered a translation patch on romhacking.net. I'm hitting reset and starting over. I didn't know you could power up your beast, no wonder the imp is taking so long to die.

From what I can ascertain to get the good ending, you need to cycle all the gems - so play as each beast - and then collect the black gem when it appears last. If you stick to one form and power up, you get the bad ending. I'm going to start over, get the bad ending, try for a 1CC. If it doesn't work out, I'll try for the 1CC on the good ending. Here we go, ten past midnight!

EDIT: Got the 1cc first go!

End screen spoiler!

The bad ending is amusing, but short... and not very informative. Going to try to 1cc for the good ending tomorrow and see how that goes. Will definitely be more difficult b/c I'm used to just using one character. The green thing is a bit rubbish iirc.

Also, why no results screen on these games. Why give a score if I don't get to see what I ended up with?

[BIL]

That's cool that there's an incentive for using all three forms. They seemed to play pretty differently, but I cottoned onto the dragon quickly since it has some nice invincible frames. I wonder if some are more suited to a given level than others. I'd thought about a human form-only run too.

Like the game quite a bit, definitely planning to get the cart at some point.

[CIT]

The best order in which to select the gems is orange-green-blue.

The abilities of the transformations are actually designed to fit the stages and bosses in this order. Green dude works really well on stage 3!

I 1CC'd the game a couple of weeks ago, but didn't feel there's much potential for scoring play. Scores aren't saved, and you don't even get any points from the final boss.

I really like the game though, it's got some really neat set-pieces (intro scene, giant worm thingy, train crashing into the walls of hell) and great bossfights.

[EmperorIng]

One of these days I'll need to get a hold of my older brother's SNES and pick up R-Type 3.

There aren't a whole lot of worthwhile shooters on the system, so you might as well get the best, right?

I still sort of kick myself for not picking up R-Type 3 at the ol' used game shop I frequent when I saw it for $25. I bet you the ebay prices are twice that right now for whatever ass-retarded reason.

[BrianC]

One of these days I'll need to get a hold of my older brother's SNES and pick up R-Type 3.

There aren't a whole lot of worthwhile shooters on the system, so you might as well get the best, right?

I still sort of kick myself for not picking up R-Type 3 at the ol' used game shop I frequent when I saw it for $25. I bet you the ebay prices are twice that right now for whatever ass-retarded reason.

I actually picked up a loose Japanese version for 20 dollars at a video game convention. Last I checked, the US and JP versions seem even in price (around 40-50 dollars).

[Skykid]

The best order in which to select the gems is orange-green-blue.

The abilities of the transformations are actually designed to fit the stages and bosses in this order. Green dude works really well on stage 3!

I 1CC'd the game a couple of weeks ago, but didn't feel there's much potential for scoring play. Scores aren't saved, and you don't even get any points from the final boss.

I really like the game though, it's got some really neat set-pieces (intro scene, giant worm thingy, train crashing into the walls of hell) and great bossfights.

It's certainly got character but it's super easy, and apart from some decent boss fights, is a little short and uneventful. Looks really nice though, and the controls are respectably tight. Looking forward to attempting the good ending, I'll follow your gem pattern.

Score, I realise, is really only there to show you when your next extend is approaching, but an all clear screen with the total and number of continues would be nice. How many 16bit games incorporated results screens? I remember quite a few.

[glyphs]

My childhood:




I need to get my SNES from my old apartment, I've actually got a couple of games that are harder to find or expensive now, EarthBound and Mario RPG, Mario Paint with mouse. I had two Megaman X3 carts but sold them. Tetris Attack is actually my fav SNES game though, my roommates and I used to come close to murdering one another over it.

Anyone play Terranigma?

[null1024]

I remember playing Uniracers so much with my cousins in Trinidad.
Never had it for the SNES itself [and I hadn't had my SNES at that time anyway], so we'd emulate it on my old iBook. Love that game.

[ST Dragon]

In case it's of interest to other Valken fans, here's a few scans of related art from Satoshi Urushihara. They seem to appear and disappear on the web, finally got sick of bookmarks dying and grabbed a torrent of his Cel Works. Annoyingly there was a much higher-res set than this, will have to look around. And yep, these and Langrisser's were the only pieces out of hundreds that weren't hentai. I... don't think there was Langrisser hentai in there, anyway. Don't really know the series tbh!









spoiler - ending a

spoiler - ending b

I've been wanting to play Assault Suit Valken for a long time now.

So which is better to complete, the fan translated Japanese SNES ROM version, or the PS2 US 2005 remake?



I remember reading that the script of the US SNES version was highly censored, is it the same case for the PS2 version?

By the way, that cool Valken art you posted, wasn't it created by the same guy that made the Langrisser and Macross II art?

[Skykid]

PS2 one is ruined afaik. JP SFC is the way to go and weirdly cheap for some reason. Comes fully uncensored. Best of all is the fan translation rom patch.

[drauch]

Pretty sure someone posted awhile back that the PS2 Valken remake is absolute trash. May need someone for clarification, but I coulda sword.

But yeah, that's Satoshi Urushihara who did the art. You were right about him doing the Langrisser art, but that's Haruhiko Mikimoto who did the Macross 1/2 designs, Gunbuster, Megazone 23, among many others.

*EDIT* "...but I coulda sword." Keeping that. Concrete evidence that social networking is ruining my English.

[BIL]

I've heard virtually nothing but bad things about the PS2 remake, both aesthetically and mechanically, from several sources I trust. I'd like to at least try it out as it's fairly cheap and I'm a huge mech sidescroller fan, but for now it's a distant curiosity at best. I find it hard to believe it'd remove the ability to lock aiming direction, with that being so critical to the original's feel, but so many have claimed it does - utterly moronic if true.

You can't go wrong with SFC Valken. Fundamentally airtight and stacked from beginning to end with setpiece after setpiece from the last days of a titanic global war, putting the player front and center. A one-hour epic.

JP SFC is the way to go and weirdly cheap for some reason.

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by how trivial nabbing a mint+complete copy was. I'd have gone to a hell of a lot more trouble than I did for this game.

[BIL]

After a few months on/off, finally cleared The Ninja Warriors Again on Hard with my favourite character, Ninja. It's a bit shaky and defensive on the whole, but I've still got a lot to learn. I considered restarting after getting smacked around a lot more than usual in stage 5-1, but I've had much better runs end at the seventh or eighth stage due to carelessness and/or bad luck, so I stuck with it.

He almost stopped being my favourite when I started having lots of trouble on the last three stages, but going back to Kunoichi and Kamaitachi and messing about, it's apparent that if Natsume had allowed Ninja their mobility he'd have been a totally overpowered character. That's the price paid for superior reach, screen-clearing capability and damage output. I do find the two lighter characters easier to use, since you can just vault over crowds and turn the tables in a split-second where Ninja has to attack head-on (gunners firing from behind armoured robots are a particularly onerous combo). But I had a shock when I tried to just bludgeon bosses with strikes and grapples like he can and got swatted like a gnat. There's a nice balance here. Smaller enemies are the main threat for Ninja, bigger ones for K/K.

Even the latter two play markedly differently, with Kunoichi's grapples the middle ground before Kamaitachi's almost entirely strike-based moveset. Then there's idiosyncrasies like her theoretically unlimited air combo and his bizarre crouch-running popup kick. The dev team either were hardcore gamers, or categorically understood them. There's so much finesse and detail work in how each of this game's characters control, down to seemingly tiny but vital touches like Kunoichi's jump kick being a selectable knockdown or combo starter, and Ninja's hover attacks being delayable by a split-second. I'm repeating myself, but Natsume were on astounding form with this, Wild Guns and the SFC Kiki Kaikais.

Apparently the western versions dropped the female katana enemies, subbing them with the midget claw guys. This really sucks and goes beyond mere censorship, since they're completely distinct enemy types and form one of the game's many crowd mixups. Even the Japanese version has green blood, but in such an intense game it quickly becomes a hitspark first and foremost, and it's easy to imagine the enemy forces are rocking some manner of bio-tech to go mano-a-mano with killer androids. The stage 7 boss "Piccolo in a cyber-mankini" certainly is.

[superpretendo]

Finally got my hands on a Super Famicom copy of Undercover Cops, unbeknownst to me that the game lacks a two-player mode. Sigh.

[Skykid]

Finally got my hands on a Super Famicom copy of Undercover Cops, unbeknownst to me that the game lacks a two-player mode. Sigh.

Not a big deal, it's not a game that works amazingly well in 2P anyway: it's very strict and strategy is paramount (stage 3 is a wall!)

@BIL well done! I'll study that sometime.

[BIL]

Thanks. It really is a very tentative clear, but it should at least give survival tips. I was ignoring the hover attacks until this latest attempt - the down version is invaluable when you need to floor a middle-distanced enemy, although the startup time means they're easily snuffed out by anything nearby. Still haven't found a consistent use for the King's Surprise Rose-esque down+jump stomp, it can punish ducking attackers but the recovery makes it hugely punishable itself. Seems better to use the hover dive so anything waiting behind the ducker will get clobbered too.

I can see lots of places (especially in stage 7's two elevator battles) where the character should be dead-center cracking skulls with the nunchaku and slamming enemies into the floor and each other, but I hang back. Another thing that'll help more aggressive play is simple memorisation. It's very handy to know when an enemy is going to drop out of the ceiling or materialise out of thin air, particularly since Ninja is more committed to his location than K&K. On that note, I really like how the division between military and ninja-type enemies isn't merely cosmetic. Only the latter pull that sneaky shit.

And man, this game's characters really play absolutely nothing alike. Had to completely re-evaluate the game as Kunoichi, then promptly got my ass kicked as Kamaitachi. Lots of replay value here.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Assault Suits Valken/Cybernator. Is it true that you can upgrade the napalm gun if you only shoot the boss on stage 2? I've never been able to do it, so either it's BS or just one hit on his satellite guns is enough to prevent it.

[CIT]

I think it's BS. Napalm is already super powerful as it is anyway.

Where did you hear about this?

[BIL]

Have never bothered with the Napalm, so I'm not entirely sure what his method is, but I have seen the Japanese Youtube user "ikagin" upgrade it. Check out this run: part 1 (stages 1-2) & part 2 (stages 3-4). After the usual method for getting the weapon from stage 1, he does avoid killing anything besides the boss in stage 2. By the start of stage 3, he's able to start upgrading it.

Edit: doh, should've read the comments. From ikagin:

Napalm is secret arms.

Napalm can be obtained by clearing stage 1 by score 2800.

If stage 2 is cleared by score 5600, the improvement of napalm becomes possible.

[CIT]

Napalm is secret arms.

Napalm can be obtained by clearing stage 1 by score 2800.

If stage 2 is cleared by score 5600, the improvement of napalm becomes possible.

Holy shit, who knew!

Guess I will be playing ASV again soon.

[Skykid]

Assault Suits Valken/Cybernator. Is it true that you can upgrade the napalm gun if you only shoot the boss on stage 2? I've never been able to do it, so either it's BS or just one hit on his satellite guns is enough to prevent it.

Never had a prob pulling that off, did it on the first attempt as far as I know. Not sure if part of the trick involves completely avoiding setting off mines in stg2 also.

The powered up napalm is fun, but the game becomes ridiculously easy (and its not too tough as it is.)

[TransatlanticFoe]

Maybe I never tried it before in Valken and it was removed from Cybernator. The score thing is a good check cheers, I'll give it a go. Looks like the boss satellites don't count either, based on that vid.

Agreed, it doesn't need to be any easier but occasionally it's fun to do things differently.

Edit: yeah, tripping mines and colliding with either small asteroids or small asteroids with turrets on gives you score. That'll have been where I've gone wrong.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

One of these days I'll need to get a hold of my older brother's SNES and pick up R-Type 3.

There aren't a whole lot of worthwhile shooters on the system, so you might as well get the best, right?

I still sort of kick myself for not picking up R-Type 3 at the ol' used game shop I frequent when I saw it for $25. I bet you the ebay prices are twice that right now for whatever ass-retarded reason.

Funny you mention it, just a couple of days ago an auction for a Japanese R-Type III cart ended on Ebay Germany. Lemme check again what the final price was...
...
51 Euros.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Super-Famicom-Ni ... 19ddc56b99

[andsuchisdeath]

Thanks. It really is a very tentative clear, but it should at least give survival tips. I was ignoring the hover attacks until this latest attempt - the down version is invaluable when you need to floor a middle-distanced enemy, although the startup time means they're easily snuffed out by anything nearby. Still haven't found a consistent use for the King's Surprise Rose-esque down+jump stomp, it can punish ducking attackers but the recovery makes it hugely punishable itself. Seems better to use the hover dive so anything waiting behind the ducker will get clobbered too.

I can see lots of places (especially in stage 7's two elevator battles) where the character should be dead-center cracking skulls with the nunchaku and slamming enemies into the floor and each other, but I hang back. Another thing that'll help more aggressive play is simple memorisation. It's very handy to know when an enemy is going to drop out of the ceiling or materialise out of thin air, particularly since Ninja is more committed to his location than K&K. On that note, I really like how the division between military and ninja-type enemies isn't merely cosmetic. Only the latter pull that sneaky shit.

And man, this game's characters really play absolutely nothing alike. Had to completely re-evaluate the game as Kunoichi, then promptly got my ass kicked as Kamaitachi. Lots of replay value here.

There certainly is quite a bit of replay value in this game. I've 1CC'd the game on normal with Kamaitachi. I plan on clearing it with him on hard. I've attempted to clear the game with Ninja on normal, but it took me awhile to adjust between these two characters. Ninja Warriors Again really is the ultimate single plane beat 'em up ( thanks to the crowd control emphasis and all of the strategies to maintain that control), and definitely one of the best SFC/SNES packages period. Natsume for life.

[Bloodreign]

I've had a fun time playing Ghost Sweeper Mikami, sure it's based on an anime and doesn't really stand out too much as a platformer, but man is the game fun and the music is quite nice. There's even a stage where you are flying on your broom and I believe you get to shoot at things.

The thing that gets me is one stage you must make platforms appear out of thin air, but you must be quick about it as the platforms don't last long before they vanish sending you back down to floor level (and not over a tall obstacle) and you must make the platforms appear once again.

[Necronopticous]

[Obiwanshinobi]

Arcana sounds pretty badass. If I was done with the PS2 Wizardry, I'd likely give it a try.

[Necronopticous]

It was one of my favorite games when I was kid. I recently played through the Super Famicom version. It still holds up.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I suspect console gamers of its time found it bewildering (not unlike Herzog Zwei).

[trap15]

I feel bad about saying this, but I don't think I really like Final Fight 1 or 2. 1 feels really slow and feels really clunky and the enemy AI is really dumb and the damage balancing is absurdly wonky. 2 feels faster and not nearly as clunky, but the enemy AI is still dumb as fucking rocks, the damage balance is again really off, and the stages are way too fucking long. I ended up just turning the game off in the middle of stage 3 because it'd already been like 20 or so minutes. I don't want to play a marathon.