NeoGeo/Dreamcast/iPhone Shooter Fast Striker by NG:DEV Team

[NR777]

Maniac mode looks likes a lot of fun. Nice bullet patterns on the second boss.

[lilmanjs]

if this gets a port, I'd love to see an arranged or remixed soundtrack for it. nice videos ghegs

[ave]

Cool stuff, thanks for the upload. I wish I could do video capture. Anyway, I just recorded Stages 1-3 with my camcorder. I set it on 1/50 shutter speed, so it doesn't flicker like hell but still it's far away from the quality Ghegs' videos have. My intention is to show some scoreplay to show the game is not as bland as some users over at Neo-Geo.com want us to believe without ever having played it.

Stages 1, 2 and 3 are shown and feature a final score at the end of Stage 3 of 6,0 billion IIRC. The maximum I had after lvl3 was 6,3bil, so it will do for a demonstration.

Combos / score after boss:
I also added what is possible according to what I have actually achieved in preceding runs!

Stage 1 = 696 (799 possible) / 610mio (750 possible)
Stage 2 = approx. 2120 (2300 possible though) / 3,61bil (3,9 possible)
Stage 3 = 1875 / 6,39 (my current best)

I have put many hours into the game over the past few weeks and I think the video provides a good preview on what is possible - and what the game can look like when played aggressively for score.

[ave]

I finally managed to convert the video files. What a hassle if you don't do these things on a regular basis >_>

Please excuse the rather poor quality. The raw file (2gb) looks significantly better although it still differs from the real deal in terms of contrast and interlacing problems. It will do for now, you know what the game looks like so now it's time to show how the game works.

Stage 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae4cUF5fgyk

Stage 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQrgTAcsX8A

Stage 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNnbqaOY__k

Tell me what you think about it.

[J-Manic]

The soundtrack artists are credited with Christian Werdehausen and Ronny Leuendorf. Rafael Dyll is listed for voice engineering though

Oh, wow. I was samsonite. It does sound a little like Last Hope and DUX to me.

[THE]

@AVE

Das ist geil!

If you had a PC instead of a Mac we could lend you a RGB grabber card...

[Herr Schatten]

Thanks for posting those videos, Ghegs and Ave. The game looks good.

[AKAperly]

i'm starting to understand the scoring a little more.

just had a pretty nice run, i was holding devil rank probably 3/4 of stage 2.

really fun so far.

MANIAC - 01702761210 - x1067 - ST3

[Dragoforce]

Nice videos! Another vote for a DC release here.

Out of curiosity, what is that squeaky sound in the beginning of the first video AVE?

[ave]

The squeaky sound came from my ultra collectible official arcade chair

[Jockel]

After having played it for a bit, i think it's the best Neo Geo Shooter there is, at least to me.
Congrats to the Hellwig brothers.

[AKAperly]

After having played it for a bit, i think it's the best Neo Geo Shooter there is, at least to me.
Congrats to the Hellwig brothers.

what did you think? pretty slick huh?

I would say best vert shooter on neo.

not to hate on 1945+, because its great, but fast striker is more fun.

[emphatic]

My impressions and (hopefully) constructive criticism (these are only my opinions after all). I mainly played Maniac mode.

What I really like:

*Very smart idea to have a modern soundtrack, as you feel right away that this is a brand new game and not some old NEO-GEO title that you've missed out on before, hopefully this will get some attention if this makes it into an arcade
*The boss fights are excellent, really fun patterns
*Visuals are really stunning, especially for a NEO-GEO game

What I don't like:

*Objects that cannot be killed that you can crash into should only be enemy bullets or parts of an enemy that can be destroyed
*Even in Maniac mode, there is a real lack of popcorn enemies, which takes away lots of what I consider fun in a shmup. Add about 50 or so on each stage please.
*The animated backgrounds are very pretty, but it makes it hard to get a sense of recognition/visual cues what to expect which will make it pretty tedious to learn about enemy placement for someone not playing the game at home
*The vertizontal element sometimes makes bullets that move from side to side way too easy to dodge and top to bottom attacks almost unfair at times, but I think I need more time with it to judge that aspect fairly
*The time it takes to get from a GAME OVER screen to where a new credit is starting is 10 times what I would want to wait

Overall conclusion: A very nice game, arguably the best vertical action shmups on the NEO-GEO due to the deep scoring system (Plasmo let me in on the Devil rank, what the green laser is all about etc). If someone likes really sinking their teeth into a game and learn about every aspect of getting a high score, consider this a nice candidate for your collection. However, except from the boss fights, it's hard to get good at it fast, something I have a hard time with, as this is aimed at the arcades and not the home market alone.

[AKAperly]

*The time it takes to get from a GAME OVER screen to where a new credit is starting is 10 times what I would want to wait

this.

i have the game running in my 2 slot, and I had to take the other cart out temporarily.

what was happening is after the high score screen, Fast Striker doesn't go into attract mode, but instead it switches to the slot 2 game. I had Ironclad in there, so I had to wait for the neo jingle, and "winners don't use drugs" before being able to game select back over to fast striker.

i'd like to see this fixed in a future revision. FS should go back to attract mode after the game over.

[Xonatron]

60fps pre-rendered bgs... wow. that's a technical feat.

[Super Laydock]

60fps pre-rendered bgs... wow. that's a technical feat.

but too repetitive, short & boring/unimaginitive as well.

[RHE]

Just another hater.

[DEL]

Its an accomplished piece of programming, it just needs a reason for the enemies to exist - Does that make sense? It needs something like motherships in the background spawning the enemies and a more varied background topography, whether its stars and planets or varied landscapes.
At the moment you've got enemies and bullets coming at you but no Raison d'Etre.

I'm not a hater though RHE .

[linko9]

That's a very strange complaint that I've never seen leveled at a shmup before. Honestly, you'd never know what the "reason for being" of enemies are in most shmups unless you read about the story, and even then you might not be satisfied. Hell, most people seem to love DDP (I know I do), and there's no obvious reason for those ships to exist. If you played the game without reading the story, and without getting to the second loop, you'd probably assume you were protecting the Earth or something, but that's completely wrong. Does finding out that you're killing your homies or some BS really increase your enjoyment of the game? If your complaint is purely in terms of the visual aesthetic of the game, I guess that makes sense, though most shmups don't have motherships in the background and still look good. The problem is, as others have stated, that the backrounds are somewhat empty and repetitive. With a small team, that's pretty hard to avoid, but hell, at least it's got better backgrounds than Touhou!

[Super Laydock]

Just another hater.

just saying what was actually my first impression on the footage shown.
I can respect & enjoy the technical marvels of it, but it IS repetitive & boring to look at.

and don't file me as a pro disser of u (lif that makes sense ^_-), as I was and am 1 of few to defend Last Hope version on DC.

[RHE]

I know the backgrounds are repetitive, but once poeple play the game they don't mind this anymore because its not half as boring as it looks on the video. It doesn't make it easier to learn the stages though.

And c'mon Laydock, I know you enjoy Last Hope. No offense man.

[clp]

Personally i dont think it looks boring at all , heres the millionth hope for a dreamcast port.

[highlandcattle]

NeoGeo CD port. Pretty please

[Sier]

You've got some pre-order promo poster shizz available of course :p

Fast Striker Ready to Pre-order for Dreamcast™. A 2D Shoot 'Em Up for NEO·GEO™ and Dreamcast™.

Hannover – August 30th,2010
NG:DEV.TEAM, Germany based game developer proudly announces that Fast Striker - originally developed for NEO·GEO™ - is ready to pre-order for Sega Dreamcast™ at NG:DEV.TEAM's direct sales shop ngdevdirect.com (URL: http://www.ngdevdirect.com).

About FAST STRIKER
FAST STRIKER (URL: http://www.faststriker.com) is a 2D arcade shooting game with emphasis on scoring originally developed for NEO·GEO™. The game lets the player choose between 3 game modes with different scoring systems. Novice Mode for beginners, Original Mode for classic Shoot' em Up players and Maniac for very experienced players. It features six stages of excellent 2D arcade game play with over 40 unique enemy types, super smooth 3D scrolling backgrounds, huge CGI bosses and it features the biggest megabit count ever since the beginning of NEO·GEO™ games.

FAST STRIKER will be ready for release on Dreamcast™ in Winter 2010.
FAST STRIKER will be available both as regular edition and as limited edition. The limited edition includes an original soundtrack/OST. Please check ngdevdirect.com for exclusive bundle offers.

Picture of Fast Striker DC Limited Edition: http://blog.ngdevteam.com/img/fslepreorder.jpg
Screen shots: http://blog.ngdevteam.com/img/fsscreens.jpg

Key Features

Game:
- 6 carefully designed stages
- 3 game modes: Original/Maniac/Novice
- Maniac mode offers an elaborate scoring system with enough depth to provide hundreds of hours playtime
- Up to 180 enemy bullets simultaneously on screen
- 40+ fully animated CGI enemies
- 6+ huge fully animated boss enemies
- 3D scrolling CGI backgrounds
- Constant 60 fps
- Dynamic difficulty rank system which kicks in for experienced players
- Internet ranking via code
- The soundtrack offers 17 tracks of melodic ambient tunes and psychedelic trance beats to suite the on screen action.

Accessories (Dreamcast™) :
- VMU
- VGA
- Original pad
- Arcade stick


~ Game Modes ~

*Novice* / Easy

This mode is for beginners only. It's comparable to Original Mode, just easier to get into for novice shmup players. Just shoot up enemies and collect gold star items.

*Original* / Medium

This mode is focusing on blasting survival action. Yet it has a simple scoring system, which is mainly about collecting gold nuggets that enemies are dropping by shooting 'em up. The amount of nuggets you own, multiplies with the amount of enemies you destroy.

*Maniac* / Hard

This mode has it's focus on scoring, so naturally the scoring system is more complex. It's mainly about building chains by shooting up enemies within a short time window, and getting as much as multipliers as you can. By holding down the shoot button you get a blue laser beam, now you can focus on bigger enemies for a certain time and the blue laser turns into green, which means you get scores double as high as with a blue laser.

Additionally this mode got a risk and reward system, which means the closer you get to the enemies the more score you earn but you also higher the risk to get hit by an enemy bullet to the same time.

-> More Detail on The Scoring System can be found here http://www.faststriker.com/mode.html

You can get a 2nd Trailer and other videos of the game in this blog entry http://blog.ngdevteam.com/#roundup

[clp]

Holy shit awesome ! will definitely be buying this . Wonder if it will be vga compatible on dreamcast?

[mesh control]

Will buy.

[emphatic]

Wonder if it will be vga compatible on dreamcast?

[mesh control]

You've got some pre-order promo poster shizz available of course :p

Fast Striker Ready to Pre-order for Dreamcast™. A 2D Shoot 'Em Up for NEO·GEO™ and Dreamcast™.

Accessories (Dreamcast™) :
- VMU
- VGA
- Original pad
- Arcade stick

[CStarFlare]

cool shit

is DC emulation any good? I don't own a console

[Kron]

DC emulation is not accurate and does a poor job of showing off the systems abilities.