Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[BrianC]

I like the more arcade-accurate look of the HuCard sprites, but it's pretty clear Sega ports on NEC hardware need some careful vetting. The quality spectrum is broad, to put it mildly. That Golden Axe CD port.

yeah. Space Harrier is one of my favorite versions and After Burner II is a nice port, but Golden Axe has sound effects as bad as the DC Sega Smash Pack with graphics that look worse than some of the computer versions.

[Sumez]

Elevator Action Returns. A tad overrated maybe?

Whipped out my sexy F3 cart the other day for a couple of games, and I gotta admit, this game is still as beautiful and stylish as the first time I saw it. But gameplay wise I can't help feeling it a bit lacking. It might be too early for me to fully appreciate the game, as I'm still not good enough to beat stage 5 on a credit.

All enemies are very consistent to fight, and whenever I get hit it's almost exclusively simply because I overlooked one, so more experience in who appears where and when should deal with that. I kind of preferred the more random approach of the original Elevator Action, which despite being extremely repetitive in its concept, manages to remain fresh longer than the short, static stages of Returns. In fact, there are a lot of things I miss from that game. While being able to duck in elevators is a massive improvement, the inability to change the direction of a moving elevator completely eliminates one of the most fun and unique gameplay mechanics of the original game, when dealing with fast drawing enemies. It also feels like I waste much more time just standing around waiting for elevators in EAR than I ever did in EA. It's very much a "stop and go" game, and not really in a fun way. Basically, the elevators in EAR are just there, rather than being a core gameplay element.

I would have loved to see a mix of the classic EA with EAR, with more randomness, deadlier enemies, less waiting time, and for more focus on the elevators - and of course the same stylish look of EAR.

It's by no means a bad game, but I often hear this placed near the top when people are listing their favourite arcade games, but to me it seems more like an enjoyable curiosity than an ageless masterpiece.

[BIL]

Crank the difficulty up to max if you haven't. Enemies are decidedly slow to fire on defaults - max tightens the overly forgiving reaction window up nicely.

EAR is fundamentally solid and has immense filmic style. The omniscient viewpoint, inquisitive AI and slapstick ultraviolence make players as much the architects of as participants in its booming carnage. However, I always thought its lack of bosses or heavy midboss-type enemies, along with the low (by AC standard) difficulty left it feeling slightly incomplete. Could've used some real targets for the rocket launcher... and perhaps the stages lean more towards cinematic calculation than sustained oldschool volatility.

Not a masterpiece, but still a must-have imo. With its strengths, just getting within sight of its potential is a fine result.

I've still not played the original game much, regrettably. It's included with VING's superb EAR Saturn port FO FREE incidentally. I always loved that.

Have you played Ninja Five-O aka Ninja Cop (GBA) ? Developed by Hudson (with ex-Konami staff), published in NA/EU by Konami, perplexingly never released in Japan. Along with Shinobi's precision hostage rescues and Top Secret's grappling hook, it has some definite resemblances to EAR (tactical viewpoint, mild stealth and key-hunting elements, cinematic animations) - with the addition of those bigger enemies and proper bosses I wanted. Now this game I consider a masterpiece. Works superbly for both straight 1CCs and stage-by-stage time trials.

[Sumez]

Yeah, I managed to snatch a complete CIB copy of Ninja Five-Cop-o in amazing condition before the price exploded.
It's a game that looked sweet from the beginning, but upon playing it I was still very pleasantly surprised! It's a fantastic mix of Elevator Action, Shinobi and Bionic Commando.
Thanks for reminding me to put it on my list.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yes, there's a wall of text here, but this time I'll make an excuse: Duke Nukem II is hilarious for all the wrong reasons in gameplay (but the actual story presentation isn't so bad). Have a looksee if you dare.

One of the nice things about Ninja Five-O is the mission rankings, if I remember right.

I held off on posting more about DOS misadventures for most of the month, but I thought I'd share a few thoughts on a couple more from the sincerely tragic 3D Realms Anthology, which more or less wraps it up:

Cosmo's Adventure: Initially the incredibly bad framerate turned me off - even the standard Mario jump attack dicey against a moving enemy. I tried it again later and found a charming game with variety in levels and some gimmicks. Unfortunately its gameplay ideas aren't all good ones, and it relies too much on jumps of faith. There also seems to be just one type of bonus level, and it's exceedingly tedious (not only do you have to bounce over something like 13 pits, but to max score you also have to bounce off all the randomly-moving flying slug aliens, so it can easily take many minutes to finish this up). But the bottom line here is really that the game is pushing the iD engine too hard. I've not played far enough to give a final verdict, but I did like the early "haunted forest" level even if it was wholly derivative - the clear scoring "goals" (like the bouncing puzzle at the top of the stage) were interesting. I don't think the basic levels, and there seem to be a ton of them, are likely to keep people interested. Also, Bobby Prince's music isn't great here despite ripping off a number of famous acts (Joe Siegler says the title tune is adapted from ZZ Top).

Duke Nukem II: How Not To Make A Game, The Game. Most everybody who knows of it seems to have a favorable impression. How many players actually took the game up on its challenges and played it as intended, for points? The basic idea is the same as most other Apogee side-view titles - assault levels cautiously and execute special tasks for max points, which is the basic formula of many great arcade games. Next, things go wrong in almost every way possible. Even condensing my couple pages of raw text, there's still a few areas about this game that are worth noting for:

The framerate seems higher than Cosmo's and landing jumps is definitely easier, but it's not a very responsive game, which is coupled with many things moving far too fast, at the same time that Duke is relatively huge and you get little advance warning of things. It's also hard to line up shots. The engine seems to allow scrolling of two graphics planes in different directions at the same time, which is pretty pointless as the game seems to be designed with the idea you can't do that. I'm not sure exactly what engine they're using, but it's got elements of iD engines (the music is in iD's .IDF format, for example).

Special weapons are more pointless than Alien Carnage, though powerups provide an extra layer of "strategy" (annoyance). Unless you're smart and use the ammo replenishment cheat regularly, you'll find yourself gingerly picking your way through the death maze, afraid to pick up a weapon because you'll need it later to kill off the laser turrets. Of course, when you get that special weapon, it's very hard to line up very narrow shots with the very narrow enemies and only shots at certain jump heights are likely to land predictably. Unless you can shoot straight up at it, you'll probably blow a third or more of your rockets just trying to hit one laser turret. If you had lasers, you'd also have shot through half the level's supply of crystal orbs and soda cans, too. If you do use the ammo cheat regularly, you have to be careful not to shoot the wrong powerup box, because once you've uncovered the last powerup on the map, you can't use it anymore. Additionally obnoxious if there's rockets or lasers (which suck) and flamethrowers (the best weapon) in the same level, because your ammo cheat might start giving you rockets when you need a flamethrower (it's actually a bit more complicated than this). The default peashooter has all the problems of the rocket and lasers, except it has no special powers other than being able to milk laser turrets for 1 point a hit. Hey guess what: You're dropped into every boss battle without weapon pickups (except the final, which has the pleasantly overpowered rocket sled). Apogee made weapon pickups worth points, so once you've cleared a level, max point strategy dictates you run all the way through the level yet again so you can pick up every weapon item, making sure to save the best for last in case the next level tries to shaft you.

While small enemies are hard to hit and most likely to hit you, big enemies are a waste of time. This is especially true of the bosses, which only get easier as the game wears on, until the final boss is nothing but a big silly orb that flies directly towards your rocket sled, and an effective strategy is simply to keep him just offscreen while you lead him into the lasers in complete safety. Footsoldiers are a rare exception to being somewhat large but also dangerous, as Duke can stand right on top of them but not hit them with his gun - not to mention they usually pivot to fire very fast laser shots right at Duke the moment they appear. However, they can often be tricked into forgetting about Duke just by jumping.

Almost nothing works consistently. Duke's movement is on a coarse grid which doesn't match the level design - and there's also a mind-boggling number of programming oversights, like the ability to simply scroll most forms of trouble off the map by looking up and down. In the final normal level, you can't trust the map graphics, because the lips of some platforms aren't solid. Only some. To successfully complete maps without just blasting everything and taking tons of damage, you have to memorize not just the layout, but how Duke will actually react in many locations. It's always difficult to tell when Duke is actually as far along a platform as he actually can be. My favorite glitch: When you turn while crouched, Duke's sprite flips in the same place as you'd expect. However, the actual position Duke is crouched on changes - if you walk up to the edge of a ledge, crouch, and then turn back to face the ledge, he'll fall. I don't know of any other game where this happens.

The meat of the scoring system seems to be bonuses (100,000 points each, but I rarely got more than 3 at a time), crystal orbs, and the old stunt, shooting and catching soda cans. I drew the line at no-damage runs (at least usually; a few levels are good enough). One bonus makes absolutely no sense though - the crystals. Sure, there's crazy insane oversights in the game, but this was designed as it is. No matter how you cut it, the crystal orbs are probably the biggest convergence of game design failures I've seen in a game.

First failure: Orbs are placed so that it's at least difficult to find them all, if not extremely so.
Second failure: They are usually placed below ceilings, and start falling the moment they are onscreen. Good little boys using the peashooter for the first sweep of the level have something like a 1 in 8 chance of hitting a crystal falling past, if that - they are one of the fastest "things" in the game along with turkeys (which also run into Duke when you don't want them to, but at least that's not a mistake that costs points). It's also difficult to avoid and shoot them successfully, since they fall very quickly and your peashooter sucks. A single crystal falling out of the level, or onto Duke, means you must start the level again. The very first level is a brutal intro, since some of the crystals will fall on access hatches, where you can't avoid them or have to backtrack like crazy to shoot them.
Third failure: Exploring isn't always a good idea, as there are design oversights in the game that will screw you up or make progress impossible - like wasting your flamethrower ammo flying out of the map, so you can't progress or finish killing laser turrets. You also can jump into an area you can't get out of again (I've found two of these and there's probably more).

The deadly fourth failure: In almost every level I know you can score at least 100,00 points or more just by picking up the crystals, so the bonus is almost entirely irrelevant in every map! But you still have to protect the crystals from errant bomb flames...

That $2000 IBM compatible doesn't deliver like a secondhand NES; people who enjoyed this game were culturally deprived, even if I'll admit it lights up the chipmunk parts of my brain sometimes The story presentation is legitimately legendary, too, which is definitely worth something - though it's mostly just the opening cutscenes that are worth it. I think the basic problem is that Apogee had no focus, aimed too high, and failed to hit the mark - an oversight failure. If you approach the game like just another Mario clone with guns and ignore most of its intended replay points, as I think most of its fans must have, it's simply unremarkable but still surprisingly unbending at times. To close on a happy note, the BUILD engine games 3D Realms is famous for take the basic Apogee spirit of fast but thoughtful action through complex levels with lots of fun little gimmicks - and they made sure it worked this time.

Bobby Prince's music for this game poaches from famous acts, and mostly sucks (love the menu tune though, if only for that clear long bass as this guy says).

[Sumez]

I liked Duke Nukem II as a kid, but man there's so much stuff wrong with it. The fact that anything will assault you from offscreen should be enough to not even bother looking for any other flaws.
Speaking of which... Turrican!

[BIL]

So having been disappointed by the Famicom's playable but bastardised beyond recognition Majou Densetsu II, and delighted by its MUCH nicer treatment of Dragon Slayer IV, I fired up Castle Excellent hoping to go 2 out of 3 in maze-plumbing MSX On FC funnin'.

OH LAWD ITS AWFUL. D: At least interface-wise. I've no idea how the MSX original handles, but the FC game's input lag is utterly atrocious. Your dude doesn't respond to any input without it being held for a perceptible chunk of time... you can easily tap directions without him actually moving, for example. I was instantly liking the savagely unforgiving exploration and adorable micro aesthetic (others will quite reasonably wish to substitute "cynically unfair" and "suicide inducing" here ;3 ). But it's just too goddamn clunky - for although primitive, the action is intensely exacting. Bad combination!

Were this half as forgiving as DSIV, I'd have given it more time in spite of the clunk (especially with dead-ending yourself being a massively greater threat here than there). Seems fairly cheap at least. Back to the test folder with thee.

Also, one of those examples ala Mashou/Deadly Towers where the NES box rocks the FC's goddamn face off:

Badass:

Spoiler

LOLwut:

Spoiler

(albeit accurate to in-game art of the protagonist. unfortunately.)

[Sumez]

FC Majou Densetsu 2 is terrible. I don't know why I bought that game on a bad trip or whatever. It must have looked good to me at some point.

[__SKYe]

Alright, so I fired the JP Contra (again) to see just how far I can reach, since last time I quit too early.

Ended up getting a 5-ALL, losing at the last stage of loop 6.

Here's a nice pic of the helicopter with the 5 flags, and another with the score



It was a nice run, though I really wanted to get the 6 flags on the chopper. Oh well...

Honestly, how the hell do you kill those shrimp aliens (spawned by the huge alien at the start of stage , starting at loop 5, fast enough?
I mean, up until that point, I rarely lost a life there, but then they take so many hits to kill that I must have lost about 5~6 lives just on that part on loop 5 (and eventually getting the game over on the same part on loop 6).

And BIL was right, I've never seen the 1st stage so crowded like from loop 5 onwards.

I think I'll stop playing this for now, since I do want to clear the other games in the series too. I think I'll start with Super Contra for the Famicom. And there's also Ninja Gaiden.

Speaking of Ninja Gaiden, on the Stage 5 boss (the lightning guy), is it actually possible to consistently dodge those lightning balls?
Because I can rarely dodge them and always end up dying trying to do so. Or do you just sash way at him hoping that he dies before you?
Oh, and please don't post the actual strategy, if you have one. I wanted to try to beat him on my own, but I'm having serious doubts on whether it can actually be beaten without taking damage, and just wanted some confirmation without having to spoil it by watching someone else's run.

Also, thanks to BIL for refering this post to me. I hope to have a lot more to post in the future.

[BIL]

Honestly, how the hell do you kill those shrimp aliens (spawned by the huge alien at the start of stage , starting at loop 5, fast enough?
I mean, up until that point, I rarely lost a life there, but then they take so many hits to kill that I must have lost about 5~6 lives just on that part on loop 5 (and eventually getting the game over on the same part on loop 6).

I get the Barrier (lower capsule at the stage start - I allow it some ways onscreen before opening it, for max efficiency), then rush to the wall and barrage Java with pointblank jumping Spread + Rapid. It's been many months since my last six-loop adventure, but I seem to recall him dying either before the Barrier exhausted, or just after - when he goes, his Bundle buddies die too, so I don't worry too much if any are roaming.

If you die, or if you get there without Spread+R, you're gonna have a substantially trickier time. One of those tough late-loop recovery points... you need to carefully manage the Bundles' orbiting behaviour while landing what hits you can on Java. I seem to recall dodging them more than shooting, on occasions I've fought them underpowered. Keeping S+R makes life much simpler at high loops, as you'd expect! Damn, I'm inspired to get back into the fray myself.

Incidentally, speaking of Java - if you don't mind dying, let his Contra III Hard mode version live a bit for BUNDLEMANIA. Who says the SFC can't shovel sprites? Gomera and his facehuggers will go nuts similarly, if not shut down with extreme prejudice.

NG1 st5 boss: you can technically dodge his projectiles... however, there's absolutely no benefit to doing so, particularly as the game refills your lifebar for that fight. A quickie game designer fix, or as I jokingly think of it, an enraged adrenaline rush to Ryu - highly sophisticated narrative/gameplay synergy. ;3

[Ghegs]

So having been disappointed by the Famicom's playable but bastardised beyond recognition Majou Densetsu II

FC Majou Densetsu 2 is terrible. I don't know why I bought that game on a bad trip or whatever. It must have looked good to me at some point.

Weirdos. I found FC Majou Densetsu II to be great fun, I even had someone slap the translation into a real cart for me.

Certainly far better than Getsu Fuuma Den.

[Sumez]

Getsu is at least fun to play

[BIL]

I think FC MDII plays okay - handling is solid, and the dungeons require some satisfying lateral thought. My biggest issues with it are aesthetic, really. Graphics lack the MSX version's low-tech charm ; despite the smooth scrolling and upped detail, settings feel sterile and the Playmobil-esque characters are bland. And the total absence of item and inventory graphics not only looks chintzy, it makes non-translated play near-impossible. Can't complain with it being JP-only, ofc, but the MSX original is fully illustrated.

The music turned out okay, at least. I had the sub-dungeon theme in my head for ages, after the week or so I spent with it. What I really wanted was the MSX game with minimal enhancements, as in Compile's beautiful Dragon Slayer IV port.

To clarify my linked post slightly, MDII certainly is more fundamentally solid than the often rickety Getsu Fuuma Den... it's on aesthetics that GFD leaves it standing. :3 (MDII's title attract demo with its fluttering bats and vivid logo is so much more appealing than anything in the game itself!)

[__SKYe]

NG1 st5 boss: you can technically dodge his projectiles... however, there's absolutely no benefit to doing so, particularly as the game refills your lifebar for that fight. A quickie game designer fix, or as I jokingly think of it, an enraged adrenaline rush to Ryu - highly sophisticated narrative/gameplay synergy. ;3

Yeah, I gave up trying to do so. If you simply slash away at him, you'll eventually kill him long before he kills you.

I was just playing this, and finally reached the first boss of Act 6, left him with 1 life bar and lost.
Then I get thrown back to stage 6-1.
I just had to stop there. This game is fucking nuts.

I'll get back to it eventually, but for now, I need a break.

[BIL]

Definitely take your time with NG1 - it's very easy to burn yourself out with its willfully cruel Boss Rush Knockback. I think the healthiest approach (I've seen some meltdowns... ) is to master Act VI, or at least get comfier with it, before making a serious run at taking down the endboss trio. Struggling to the end only to die and get knocked back will become painful especially quick.

Also, getting sent back isn't all bad. Not only will any bosses you killed stay dead, but you'll be able to keep your subweapon and ammo for the rematch (normally you lose them after beating the first of the trio).

The tradeoff is you won't get the free energy refill upon returning to the boss chamber, though you'll still get the ones for killing each boss. If you're at death's door when you reach the final stretch of 6-3, it might make sense to suicide and respawn with a fresh lifebar.

As for me, after clearing FC Contra's six loops this evening, I decided to give recording Loop 7 a go and got a no-miss ; will have it uploaded to Youtube in the next 12 hours or so. Normally I prefer to record complete runs, but eh... then I'd want to go for a no-miss demo, and I don't have the dedication for 90 minutes of that ATM. This is for reasearch purposes, basically. I died a lot messing about in Loops 5 and 6, as my life stock shows.

I actually picked up a few new tricks this time around. Rather than taking the upper route to avoid stage 7's proximity claws, it's possible to book straight through the lower route with Barrier (the one you get for solving that little "puzzle" with the minecart earlier). Pretty easy - nailed it first try, and was comfy enough to risk it in the replay. Just haul ass to the right, and you'll make it with time to spare. I like to land on the waiting minecart right before the route split for a little speed boost. (I always did this anyway, feels cool)

Kinda funny, such a perfect game sneaking in a block pushing puzzle and a minecart section without missing a beat!

The hyper-armoured high loop facehuggers became a real problem, I was getting nervous there. Pretty brutal tapping needed to destroy the hatcheries, interspersed with careful maneuvering around the huggers' erratic routes. Speaking of erratic hyper-armoured aliens... was messing around with high loop Java+peashooter, and found it best to retreat to the leftmost ledge while attacking. The Barrier and S+R method I mentioned definitely works; jumpshot pointblanking will annihilate him with time to spare. As mentioned I always let the Barrier capsule get to the scene before collecting it.

Also learned a neat way to wipe out both of st5's scuba mortars while clearing the columns without breaking stride, by timing the Bomb pickup correctly and sending Spread ahead to take out the waiting sniper. Didn't nail the 2x scuba kill this time unfortunately, but I dunno why I didn't start pre-emptively speedkilling the sniper earlier. Usually I battle him from the column while the scuba's mortars are raining down, haha.

What a superb game. I have to say Loop 4 would've made a great selectable Hard mode ; the more resilient enemies by Loop 6/7 kinda slow the pace. Stage 5 at upper loop is a near-masterpiece run/gun ; an encroaching triple threat of gunwielding zako, heavy cannons and raining grenades battled on sharply uneven terrain, with a nice precision pit crossing interlude. And far from a mere graphical flourish, those blizzards add just the right accent of visual chaos. The killer zambonis are a bit daft, but pretty inoffensively smashed with S+R... much better is the second's deceptively lethal zako+cannon aftermath. Damn near got shot in the face for indulging in a bit of rest, this run. Yeowch, that woulda been heartbreaking! Stages 6/7's enemy+terrain arrangements are very nearly as great - and although they're not as purely run/gun, this is how to do environmental hazards without lowering the pace. Absolute knife-edge danger. (when I'm showing off, I like to leap onto and over that first st7 spikewall as it rises, but I chickened out this replay - about 25% of the time I miss the foothold for a hideous nipple-catching death ).

[__SKYe]

Definitely take your time with NG1 - it's very easy to burn yourself out with its willfully cruel Boss Rush Knockback. I think the healthiest approach (I've seen some meltdowns... ) is to master Act VI, or at least get comfier with it, before making a serious run at taking down the endboss trio. Struggling to the end only to die and get knocked back will become painful especially quick.

Yeah, this game definitely needs to be handled in bite sized chunks, otherwise you go nuts.
On the other hand, I now can reach Act 6 pretty easily now, and also beat all bosses until that point on the 1st try.
And I also got a somewhat decent route for most of Act 6, except for a few spots were it is still shaky.
The bigger problem here is that pretty much any mistake, will result in you falling into a pit, and in turn, instant death.

So yeah, rest is very much the right idea, also because the more you die, the more tired (and pissed off) you become, which in turn makes you play worse, and so on. And in a game like this, where you need almost pixel perfect jumps/landings/slashing yeah, you definitely need a clear head.

As for me, after clearing FC Contra's six loops this evening, I decided to give recording Loop 7 a go and got a no-miss ; will have it uploaded to Youtube in the next 12 hours or so. Normally I prefer to record complete runs, but eh... then I'd want to go for a no-miss demo, and I don't have the dedication for 90 minutes of that ATM. This is for reasearch purposes, basically. I died a lot messing about in Loops 5 and 6, as my life stock shows.

Haha, I didn't even reach loop 7, and you no missed it after not playing it for months.
Will definitely watch that recording.

I actually picked up a few new tricks this time around. Rather than taking the upper route to avoid stage 7's proximity claws, it's possible to book straight through the lower route with Barrier (the one you get for solving that little "puzzle" with the minecart earlier). Pretty easy - nailed it first try, and was comfy enough to risk it in the replay. Just haul ass to the right, and you'll make it with time to spare. I like to land on the waiting minecart right before the route split for a little speed boost. (I always did this anyway, feels cool).

That's really cool.
I tried the bottom route a few times, after you told me that you just need to wait for the claws to pause, and indeed it is pretty simple.
But it is gets dangerous in the late loops, because on the last claws, enemies will spawn behind you, so you need to keep them at bay while still counting the number of stabs from the claws to move forward.
Even now, my first option is to always go for the upper route, unless I fail to do so.
But your new strategy is pretty neat, since you can avoid any danger in the bottom route.
The main problem with going for the upper route, for me, is that you depend on that last cart to reach the platform (just before the sniper guy), so you have to hold off on shooting, lest you destroy the cart. But sometimes zako will spawn in front of you (and shoot at you), so you need to be extra careful there.

Speaking of erratic hyper-armoured aliens... was messing around with high loop Java+peashooter, and found it best to retreat to the leftmost ledge while attacking. The Barrier and S+R method I mentioned definitely works; jumpshot pointblanking will annihilate him with time to spare. As mentioned I always let the Barrier capsule get to the scene before collecting it.

I actually never thought of that. I usually just hug the wall in front of Java, and blast away at him, only moving away to shoot the shrimps. I might just start doing that, as it should be less risky.
But yeah, picking up the barrier seems to be the top choice at later loops.
Have you tested the barrier with the default weapon or the machine gun? Because most of the time I reach the last stage I don't have the spread gun, and I was wondering if you can kill Java in time without the spread gun.

What a superb game. I have to say Loop 4 would've made a great selectable Hard mode ; the more resilient enemies by Loop 6/7 kinda slow the pace. Stage 5 at upper loop is a near-masterpiece run/gun ;

Absolutely agree there. It's a pretty different game on the later loops.
And all those zakos definitely make a difference, especially on places where, in earlier loops, you wouldn't give them much thought.
Stage 3 comes to mind, where they spawn almost on top of you, simply because many of the platforms are on the edges of the screen.
Also the end of Satge 7 (just before the boss ), where those 4 consecutive cannon dudes will keep you pinned down, while hordes of zakos spawn behind you. Definitely one of the most dangerous spots on that level.

[BIL]

Replay's up. ^__^

A game that's truly in my bones at this point... I actually only moved onto properly playing Contra III because it was getting ridiculous, trying to find a mythical Famicom loop that'd truly kick my ass (Contra III's Hard mode took care of that!). At the same time, I'm always noticing new things about the FC game, and beyond that, never growing less fond of it. It's got a rare balance of consistent chaotic threat and simple recreational blasting, helped by an agelessly vivid audiovisual front. Such an inviting game to fire up at the end of the day for a few loops.

Have you tested the barrier with the default weapon or the machine gun? Because most of the time I reach the last stage I don't have the spread gun, and I was wondering if you can kill Java in time without the spread gun.

On Java and in general, I think you might be better off with the peashooter than the MG. Provided you're okay with tapping the button, the former is faster and stronger, even without R's speed upgrade. I know P+R handles the Java Barrier speedkill fine on Loop 1... not sure how it'd do on upper loops tbh. I imagine you'd need to do a big chunk of damage during Barrier, then back off to finish him.

Maybe the MG's autofire might make dodging the shrimp easier? Of course if you're playing with autofire controls, this'll be a moot point.

Something I keep meaning to try out is fighting the st5 Zambonis with the MG (both with and without R). I have a sneaking suspicion it may be a deathtrap. Then again, I'm used to clobbering 'em with S+R, whose enormous damage output causes them to rush you quick - so the time limit may be a lot more generous than I assume.

Also the end of Satge 7 (just before the boss ), where those 4 consecutive cannon dudes will keep you pinned down, while hordes of zakos spawn behind you. Definitely one of the most dangerous spots on that level.

That final stretch of st7 is one of the game's biggest unheralded killers at higher loops, for exactly the reason you mention - if you stop advancing, the risk of being trapped by the zako+cannon tag team instantly skyrockets. It's far better to sweep through decisively, especially when jumping up to the boss's runway.

You've got to resist the temptation to abuse the game's generously low-profile prone shooting, too. There's a beautiful bit in the "James and Mike Play" Contra episode where Mike gets down to avoid a st6 cannon shot, and is promptly trampled by a horde of zako. "I couldn't do anything!" Yeah! You shoulda jumped the bullet, downshot the horde, and landed to finish off the cannon instead of sacrificing all that mobility for the illusion of ground-hugging safety!

[__SKYe]

I watched your replay, and it was really good. There were some tense moments at the last boss, but other than that, it was really smooth.

I really need to make more use of the invincibiity powerup. As of now, the only time I use it, is in Stage 6 (Energy Zone) to pretty much bypass the entire 2nd part of the stage.
The way you use the invincibility on stages 7 & 8 is damn awesome. Java was reduced to rubble in the blink of an eye.
I also need to start using the upper path on stage 6, right at the start of the stage (like you do), where there are many cannons and zako, because at the later loops, the bottom path becomes flooded with zako.

Of course if you're playing with autofire controls, this'll be a moot point.

Nah, I never use autofire unless it is part of the game. And I'm pretty used to tapping the fire button anyway.

Something I keep meaning to try out is fighting the st5 Zambonis with the MG (both with and without R). I have a sneaking suspicion it may be a deathtrap. Then again, I'm used to clobbering 'em with S+R, whose enormous damage output causes them to rush you quick - so the time limit may be a lot more generous than I assume.

It's possible to kill it in time, with any weapon.
If you don't have the spread shot, then the tank takes longer to move towards you.
I know this, because the vast majority of time, by the time I reach the tanks I either have the machinegun or the peashooter.
With the peashooter, you do need to have a pretty fast button mashing speed, otherwise you won't make it in time.

EDIT:

I've been playing Super Contra, and just recently managed to reach Stage 7 without continuing (and Stage 8 after continuing).
I gotta say, I'm really enjoying this game.
The coolest part for me, is that some stages look like 're-imagines' of stages from FC Contra.
For example, stage 4 looks like what FC Contra's stage 4 (Base2) would have been, if it was a regular platforming stage, instead of a 3rd person one.
Stage 5 is like a different take on FC Contra's stage 3 (Waterfall), and so on.
I also enjoy the overhead stages more than the behind-the-shoulder 3rd person ones.
Oh, and there's also a midboss (the spider thing on stage 3) and multiple boss phases (the boss alien on stage 6).

In my opinion, this is a pretty nice follow up to FC Contra.

[atheistgod1999]

I just did an attempt of Super Star Wars on Jedi (on my BVM-20F1U in RGB ), and got up to level 4 (after the laser blockades and at the part where the thing is spitting orbs at you). I honestly believe that it's harder than Ninja Gaiden.

[BIL]

It's possible to kill it in time, with any weapon.
If you don't have the spread shot, then the tank takes longer to move towards you.
I know this, because the vast majority of time, by the time I reach the tanks I either have the machinegun or the peashooter.
With the peashooter, you do need to have a pretty fast button mashing speed, otherwise you won't make it in time.

Thanks for the confirmation!

[Sumez]

I just did an attempt of Super Star Wars on Jedi (on my BVM-20F1U in RGB ), and got up to level 4 (after the laser blockades and at the part where the thing is spitting orbs at you). I honestly believe that it's harder than Ninja Gaiden.

It's been years, but I do recall the first Super Star Wars game being quite a bit easier than its sequels, even if it does share the same bullshit design - I can imagine it being a pain to play on Jedi difficulty, and it's not difficult for me to believe that it's harder than Ninja Gaiden.

The game in the series I recall the best is Super Empire Strikes Back, which I did put a few minutes of "serious" effort into. My immediate reaction would be that that game is possibly the hardest game I have ever played - it is absolutely ridiculous.
It is not a well designed challenging difficulty like in Ninja Gaiden, though, it is just a constant random onslaught of things you have almost no ways of dealing with. I can imagine there are probably well functioning semi-consistent strategies that evolve abusing certain moves or in other ways cheesing the system, and just tanking a lot of damage and surviving by rushing to the health refills - but when you have no idea how to go about the game, I would say yeah it's definitely much harder than Ninja Gaiden. But also a much, much shittier game, and almost impossible to compare directly.

If you're interested in this vein of western 16-bit action games though, I'd rather recommend Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures on the SNES by Factor5. It's a much better game with a very similar look to the Super Star Wars games.

[Sumez]

Behold the absolute best shoot'em up stage in a platform game ever conceived: https://youtu.be/kRwo7xvbAD0?t=26m

[Shoryukev]

I just did an attempt of Super Star Wars on Jedi (on my BVM-20F1U in RGB ), and got up to level 4 (after the laser blockades and at the part where the thing is spitting orbs at you). I honestly believe that it's harder than Ninja Gaiden.

It's been years, but I do recall the first Super Star Wars game being quite a bit easier than its sequels, even if it does share the same bullshit design - I can imagine it being a pain to play on Jedi difficulty, and it's not difficult for me to believe that it's harder than Ninja Gaiden.

The game in the series I recall the best is Super Empire Strikes Back, which I did put a few minutes of "serious" effort into. My immediate reaction would be that that game is possibly the hardest game I have ever played - it is absolutely ridiculous.
It is not a well designed challenging difficulty like in Ninja Gaiden, though, it is just a constant random onslaught of things you have almost no ways of dealing with. I can imagine there are probably well functioning semi-consistent strategies that evolve abusing certain moves or in other ways cheesing the system, and just tanking a lot of damage and surviving by rushing to the health refills - but when you have no idea how to go about the game, I would say yeah it's definitely much harder than Ninja Gaiden. But also a much, much shittier game, and almost impossible to compare directly.

If you're interested in this vein of western 16-bit action games though, I'd rather recommend Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures on the SNES by Factor5. It's a much better game with a very similar look to the Super Star Wars games.

I play the trilogy every once in awhile on my SNES, and I'd say your synopsis is pretty fair. They are very difficult, frustrating games.....but not in a good way. It's not challenging, it's just cheap. I am however a pretty big SW-nerd and did play them a bit as a kid, so I still pull them out of the vault here and there.....I do the same thing with the first TMNT game on NES. I will definitely check out your suggestion on the Jones game!

TMNT on NES haunted my childhood and needs to be defeated in order for my soul to be in peace when I die LOL. I put so many hours into that punishing turd as a kid, because I loved the turtles and thought I would eventually master it like I did with other games........but I never did. These days I've come close to beating it a few times, but I usually get frustrated and give up on the section of the game that has you searching for the Technodrome. For a game that was marketed for kids it is incredibly unforgiving. This weekend I might put some legitimate time into trying to put this one to rest.

You guys ever have a game beat you down so much as a kid that you feel this way? LOL

[Sumez]

I loved the TMNT game as a kid, and I still love it today. I never heard anyone talk about it as a "bad" game until AVGN covered it. It's definitely not a bad game!
I wish Konami had made more games in this style, as I'm not big on beat'em ups. Radical Rescue is cute but doesn't have lasting appeal.

[atheistgod1999]

I loved the TMNT game as a kid, and I still love it today. I never heard anyone talk about it as a "bad" game until AVGN covered it. It's definitely not a bad game!

The AVGN made me think Super Star Wars was a fantastic game.

I thought his complaints about video games were legit until I realized I was better than him at them. I eventually found out that the joke was he was nitpicking shit no one cares about (which actually makes the Irate Gamer better than him in a way). I plan on beating Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde one day

[BrianC]

I have always liked that TMNT game too, though it does get frustrating in spots. Interesting how it's a follow up to Getsu Fuuma Den (it was named Gekikame Ninja Den in Japan) and has some similarities in gameplay. As far as other non beat 'em up TMNTs (though I like the console beat 'em up TMNTs quite a bit), I like the first GB game and what I have played of the third one, but the second GB TMNT is very odd. It has a couple things going for it (like some digitized voice), but it is let down by an awkward slide move and very strange art style. I found Konami's TMNT LCD handhelds to be pretty fun, as well.

[Shoryukev]

The AVGN is actually pretty awful at video games. When you're familiar with the game he's reviewing you can tell there are times where he's really stretching the truth to make it funny. Some of his stuff I find to be very funny, but other times not so much.

I've never thought TMNT was a bad game, but it sure is hard. Something about it kept me coming back when I was a kid, even though it always whooped my sorry butt. I always thought the damn level disarming bombs was fun and never had too much trouble with it...but never got too far beyond that. There are much more treacherous parts of the game that get less attention. I haven't really given it the attention it deserves, but one day I'll beat it. When I said it haunted my childhood, that was mainly because of how difficult it is.

[soprano1]

The AVGN is actually pretty awful at video games. When you're familiar with the game he's reviewing you can tell there are times where he's really stretching the truth to make it funny. Some of his stuff I find to be very funny, but other times not so much.

I've never thought TMNT was a bad game, but it sure is hard. Something about it kept me coming back when I was a kid, even though it always whooped my sorry butt. I always thought the damn level disarming bombs was fun and never had too much trouble with it...but never got too far beyond that. There are much more treacherous parts of the game that get less attention. I haven't really given it the attention it deserves, but one day I'll beat it. When I said it haunted my childhood, that was mainly because of how difficult it is.

AVGN has been stale for some time now. His movie stuff, like Monster Madness, is much more interesting. I became a Godzilla/kaijuu fan thanks to his reviews of the movies.

[Sinful]

The AVGN is actually pretty awful at video games. When you're familiar with the game he's reviewing you can tell there are times where he's really stretching the truth to make it funny.

I always wondered how he managed to get the wrong bomb mixture in Castlevania 64? Played that several times (it's actually not as bad as everyone says. And definitely better then Legacy update), and in one playthrough I was actually trying to get the wrong bomb mixture on purpose to see how he done it and get inside the AVGNs head. But failed miserably, because I couldn't figure out how I would go about doing it. Yet the AVGN manages it every time somehow. Really surprises me by his skills to mess up in games sometimes.

I still like the old AVGN episodes. Don't like the new ones, but do love James and Mike Mondays when they don't play those dumb games like Who's Your Daddy and Goat Simulator. Though for J&M Mondays, I wish they play certain games more (like Robocop VS Terminator) and show more footage.

[atheistgod1999]

SSW's controls wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for that ~5-frame jumping animation between pressing B and actually jumping.