What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Ninja Assault with a joypad, but what could I do?
Most imaginative presentation in on-rails shooter since Rez (though coin-op version seems to predate it). I suspect it influenced Viewtiful Joe and Ōkami.
In 2000 real-time cel shading wasn't in vogue yet and I don't recall seeing such phony sumi-e in a 3D game before. Rakugaki Showtime had cel shaded (pre-baked) arenas, but these looked "modern".

Playing it on my original GBA is the worst though, since the GBA screen is even darker than the damn GBC one... going to end up just loading the ROM on my PSP.

You'll need a good d-pad to get the most out of it.
I couldn't recommend slightly enhanced GBA SP enough (might post a picture). Just a peripheral, no serious modding required.

[null1024]

Pokemon Y [3DS].

Beat the Elite Four with 30 hours on the game clock.
That was the absolute easiest Elite Four and Champion ever, mostly sweeped everything with my Gardevoir or my Lucario, occasionally using my Blastoise.

[Ruldra]

There you go, Cadillacs & Dinousaurs 1cc. Pretty sloppy run, died at Morgue and at the Slisaurs. Died again at the final boss when I was about to deliver the final hit.

I won't say this was an easy 1cc. The game is easier compared to other Capcom beat-em-ups but by no means it's the cakewalk it was implied earlier. If you're not careful you'll end up dead pretty quickly.

Back to Tower of Doom now.

EDIT: I'm watching that hardest no death playthrough on youtube. I can't believe you can bring the barbecue to the final boss fight. I thought you needed another player to do that. I feel stupid now

[Kaiser]

Congrats on the 1cc, I plan to do it myself, so you are saying it's easier than armored warriors? Hopefully it is, can't count how many nerves I broke on AW, I can make it as far as ST5 boss in C&D so far. I always get owned in specific spots full of enemies. and I do use Mustapha.

[Ruldra]

Anything is easier than Armored Warriors lol.

I'd say C&D is a good game for someone who wants to get into the genre. It's not that hard but not too easy either.

[Leandro]

EDIT: I'm watching that hardest no death playthrough on youtube. I can't believe you can bring the barbecue to the final boss fight. I thought you needed another player to do that. I feel stupid now

I mentioned the carry the barrel to final boss in the beat'em up thread... Congrats on the 1cc

Never bothered with Tower Doom, but I know a woman who could 1cc it with the Fighter

[Acid King]

Sengoku 3. I'm finally getting a handle on the combo mechanics and I'm really digging it. Definitely going to have to pick up the MVS cart.

[Hagane]

I'd say The Punisher and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs are the easiest Capcom beat'em ups to get into.

[Ruldra]

If we're talking easiest, then I'll point you toward King of Dragons. Ridiculously easy to clear with the wizard.

[jepjepjep]

How do you think Knights of the Round compares? I've been playing it recently and it seems pretty unforgiving.

[KAI]

Playing Beatmania IIDX DJ TROOPERS [PS2]

[Jeneki]

Finally got around to installing Heroes of Might and Magic V. Every time I install one of these, I kiss two months of my life goodbye, haha. The first storyarc seems really uninteresting though, like an oversimplified tutorial that lasts waaaaaay too long. Hopefully soon I'll get some fun multi city/race maps to conqueror bit by bit.

[Ruldra]

How do you think Knights of the Round compares? I've been playing it recently and it seems pretty unforgiving.

I don't have much experience with that one but yeah, it's pretty tough. Wouldn't recommend it to a beginner.

I think the game is all about blocking and then attacking during the brief invulnerability period, but the blocking move for some reason is kinda difficult to do consistently.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I tried getting back into Shadow over Mystara on the XBLA port. I still can't stand it - combat feels way too stiff and clunky and simply isn't fun. I'd way, way rather play Battle Circuit, C&D, AvP... ugh, any other beat 'em up. Sorry, D&D in beat 'em up form sounds awesome but I just don't find Tower of Doom or Shadow over Mystara enjoyable. Deleted it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Oh my goodness, Kabam (of the casual games) is horrible. I loaded up five of their casual games, and they're all identical except for some very minor presentation and interaction things. But they're all heavily based around watching progress bars, and trying to get you to either a.) sucker friends into playing the game, or b.) paying real money for loads of worthless trinkets, and c.) spend as much time as possible waiting for progress bars to finish (some of the gimmes are obviously staggered so that you would have to be on 24/7 to even have a chance to get them all - none are on a convenient timer, if timers can even be excused to start with, which they can't). I saw one shop item that was $49.99! It is really hard to see how you can spend so much time and art on what is essentially the same concept over and over. Even more ridiculous is that somehow this makes sense to people. It's like Cookie Clicker but without the math.

MUST RESIST OCD PROGRESS-BAR WATCHING TEMPTATION.

[BrianC]

Pokemon Y [3DS].

Beat the Elite Four with 30 hours on the game clock.
That was the absolute easiest Elite Four and Champion ever, mostly sweeped everything with my Gardevoir or my Lucario, occasionally using my Blastoise.

No second part like with g\s\e? I plan to pick up the game soon and it sounds like great fun, though.

I have been playing Mega Man ZX and just beat it on normal with Aile. I like it quite a bit, but the metroidvania-ish elements aren't as different as I thought they would be. MMX and MMZ games already had plenty of hidden areas and searching for them in ZX feels no different. The map is confusing and levels felt like they would still work without being connected to a map. They didn't seem to be any more or less linear than levels in the MMX and MMZ series. That said, the game is great fun and I like how the biometals are based on characters from past games. They are also a lot of fun to use, especially Hx with the air dash.

I have also been playing a lot of Animal Crossing New Leaf. I like the stuff you can do in that game and trying to catch bugs and fish is great fun. I like how it has online play. I like Kapp'n sings about wanting to be a sumo rassler.

[broken harbour]

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge was released a decade ago this week... wow time flies...

Been replaying it for the first time since it was first released (I bought my copy on release day.) and it totally still holds up. Some of the cutscenes show their age, but that's it. Game is a total forgotten modern-classic!

[Hagane]

I tried getting back into Shadow over Mystara on the XBLA port. I still can't stand it - combat feels way too stiff and clunky and simply isn't fun. I'd way, way rather play Battle Circuit, C&D, AvP... ugh, any other beat 'em up. Sorry, D&D in beat 'em up form sounds awesome but I just don't find Tower of Doom or Shadow over Mystara enjoyable. Deleted it.

You just didn't get how the combat works I guess. It's probably the most advanced combat in a Capcom game. I'd recommend watching some videos before writing it off.

[Ed Oscuro]

Fuckin' damnit, why is it so difficult to quit these fucking things?

Anyway, I logged on to click a couple progress bars in that game, found somebody had already raided me and taken away something that let me make progress...well fuck you too, how the hell am I gonna defend shit after a day? Worst 4X (it isn't really) ever. Applies to all five games because they're all equal.

Not a ragequit so much as a crystallized moment of "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE." Bullet dodged! I feel pretty good now. These video games, man, they're evil.

Kabam's contact form sucks shit through a straw and one won't even let you complete on Chrome, but the alternate "contact us" provided works. Have fun with your pretty chat client, losers! I'm outta here *hits "Submit" on 'delete my account'*

The only reason I'm bothering to delete the account is I don't want to give any other disreputable assholes the satisfaction of looting shit from my stuff, even once. It's a day of my life I'm not getting back, that's for sure. But no more.

[Ruldra]

The only reason I'm bothering to delete the account is I don't want to give any other disreputable assholes the satisfaction of looting shit from my stuff, even once. It's a day of my life I'm not getting back, that's for sure. But no more.

You could've done like me. I have a big, unguarded city full of resources in the Hobbit game, but they're all protected inside the vault. People send spies, see that I'm filthy rich, send lots of troops to pillage me and come out with nothing. My city is essentially a big trollface in the map.

And yeah, fuck those progress bar games. Played it for a few days before realizing what a waste of time it was.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yeah, I made a fair amount of progress, but I'm not sure that is foolproof...I didn't want to take the chance. (It's funny - I didn't play the Hobbit but your description could apply to literally all of the five games I did try out). I noticed some "abandoned" places on the map in what was apparently a new server already (and lots of chatter in the chat box about Kabam fucking up servers with errors - why am I surprised?), although I am sure that they delete any resources if it gets that far. Eventually they will just delete your stuff 'cuz they ain't running a charity here. Also reading the chat for a bit made me realize these aren't people I want to ego-stroke in any way.

Random person comment #1: "I once spent $60 on a game I only got 4 days of play time out of [Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is I think what was mentioned], so I'm okay with paying for this"
Me: You spent $60 for an Xbox game? I spent $10 for a 360...console
Random person comment #2: "Diamonds are more expensive in real life"
My comment which I didn't bother to type: "Diamonds are also worth something in real life, you goof"

I can't believe they let somebody raid you (in only one of the games) after barely a day and a half of the account being active. I had to run five at the same time to feel at all engaged
But I also can't believe they have at least five games running that are all literally identical in all their major features. The oldest one is just a bit more graphically primitive than the others and might not present some of the information as nicely as The Godfather or that Atlantis shit, but they're really still exactly the same.

Also that reminds me: What's up with these games and those stupid grids? Some give you the illusion of freedom by letting you move buildings around so as not to use up your tiny parcel of land too quickly - but as it turns out you're supposed to run out of space fast, so you have a big incentive to spend Real Money to get a reasonably-sized parcel not too far down the road. The ones I saw with upgradeable grids upped the game from what I've seen previously, with buildings all of different sizes so that you could never hope to make great use of the space.

The most hateful aspect, of course, was that all the upgrade times are staggered so that you're always waiting for something...just...minutes...away! And they all only let you do one thing of a type at a time. One research project and one building update at a time; that's it.

It's like somebody took all the most hateful anti-game mechanics possible and threw them into a pot and then sprinkled the whole thing with great heaps of MSG and nicotine.

Oh, what's this? I've got all these real games to play. Bye-bye for the second and final time, Kabam, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

You just didn't get how the combat works I guess. It's probably the most advanced combat in a Capcom game. I'd recommend watching some videos before writing it off.

I am sure that these exact words have been written about Kabam's games...it's a matter of having standards, isn't it? I am sure these are "real games" to people writing scripts and the professional player molesters, though.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

You just didn't get how the combat works I guess. It's probably the most advanced combat in a Capcom game. I'd recommend watching some videos before writing it off.

You would not believe how many 1CCs of the game I've watched trying to 'get' this game. Seeing most of the boss fights turn into large flaming oil or hammer spam abuse doesn't really help improve my opinion. Or that one trick I saw involving an elf abuse levitation + flaming arrows if I recall? Believe me, it's quite disheartening for me not to like this game. It really feels like the sort of game I want to like, but I just end up disliking it more and more when I try to play it, which is unfortunate since I really do like Capcom's other beat 'em ups.

[Hagane]

You don't really need to use Large Burning Oils. They are ways to easily bypass bosses, but you can beat them just fine in a "honest" way. What's the problem you have with the game, exactly? Are you stuck in a certain part? Some mechanics you can't get? You can't pull combos for your character? Give me more info and I'll try to help.

By the way, the best way to learn the game is to watch the Koreans at GGPO. There are several skilled players and most of them go for no item runs.

EDIT: just now Korean player daltong is tearing the game apart with the Fighter. If you have GGPO spectate him or I can give you the input later so you can see how crazy the game can get execution wise.

[Leandro]

all this talk about Shadow Over Mystara made me want to play it a little after years without touching it..



I warmed up with the Cleric to remember the basics, after 3 botched runs I switched to the Fighter and got the 1cc on my first try.
Hey Roo, once you "get" this game, there's no coming back, believe me I hope Hagane helps you.

[Hagane]

Speaking about the fighter: http://www.mediafire.com/download/284eg ... n/ddsom.fr

That's a GGPO replay of a Fighter run from that Korean player I mentioned before, daltong. He pulls some really crazy combos, and he uses LBOs exactly once against the frost salamander (and that boss is a pushover anyways). Critical Lightning Ring against the Synn too.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The pictures:

[spadgy]

^ All very cryptic. Sorry, I mean Crypt-ic!

Anyway, I meekly admit I've suddenly got into Skylanders Swap Force. There's goes all my hipster STG gamer kudos down the pan in one single post.

As a games journalist, I reluctantly had to play Swap Force to review. I'd always assumed Skylanders was another mediocre kids game, this time all the worse for being a way to suck money from parents. What I didn't realise was how great the game underneath it all is, how high quality the toys are, how relaxing it is compared to my normal diet of STGs, how easy it is to grow attached to the toys as you level them up in game, and how much game you get just using the toys that come with the starter pack.

The gameplay is all familiar (light hack 'n' slash, with lots of item collection and hidden object hunting), but very well implemented, and somehow I've switched from turning my nose up at the Skylanders phenomenon to being the kind of guy who bids for the bloody things on eBay.

Please forgive me (is liking Skylanders a ban-worthy offence?!).

[BareKnuckleRoo]

^

At the very least it's better than Pokémon's concept of glorified cockfighting. I'm not sure how that managed to take off as being kid appropriate.

[Ruldra]

Count me as another one who wanted very much to like Shadow over Mystara but just can't. All those tricks and combos are just overwhelming and somewhat feel like cheating to me. And if I try to play it the normal way I get massacred.

Because Warmachine keeps going back and forth the screen at a fast speed, I have trouble beating it with most classes. The only ways I found to do it was spamming magic with MagicUser (but then I won't have enough to kill Dark Warrior) or keep bouncing on top of it Chun-Li style with the Elf. And if I get past that, Dark Warrior/Harpy/Shadow Elf one after the other is a huge wall I never got through.

Tower of Doom plays more like a traditional beat-em-up and isn't as unforgiving, probably why I like it way more.

I warmed up with the Cleric to remember the basics, after 3 botched runs I switched to the Fighter and got the 1cc on my first try.

Funny how you can do it so easily, I see it as a huge accomplishment. Well done.

[spadgy]

^

At the very least it's better than Pokémon's concept of glorified cockfighting. I'm not sure how that managed to take off as being kid appropriate.

Yep - that's true. Instead it simply promotes the hassling of parents to buy expensive toys so as to open content already on disk!

(That's unfair, of course, as the bridge between the digital and physical it creates is superb, and the toys are very good quality).