Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[Jonny2x4]

Also you guys didn't witness the thermonuclear scrub rage first-hand. [The Creation Of The Super Task Force] That is NOT a guy you assign 1CC requirements to! Not unless you want an innocent cartridge to get beaten with a steel chair. (also it worked! dunno if he ever made it, but we got along okay after that! until he randomly shat all over us three years later on HG101 )

Looks like the guy just couldn't handle the banter. Incidentally I knew someone who was just like him on that other forum who would occasionally throw shades at me, but more often than not I would just let it slide it (unless he would write something really stupid that needed to be call out on). He was a bit of a bedwetter to say the least.

[BIL]

Might've been the same guy. Edmans is an odd chap with many illustrious internet dance battles to his name.

If I seem to treat him callously, it's because of this. Hope he's doing well. His gaming posts were generally pretty good as long as he stayed off the hard stuff.

Ignoring the wacky antics, the kerfuffle that created this thread is bigger than any one of us, and a picture perfect example of why attempting to melt mask ROMs with your psychic hatred waves isn't a great idea. This isn't Dragon Ball. It's not even Scanners. Your flesh and blood will vaporize before that metal motherfucker so much as flinches. Human beings need technique and insight to beat machines!

[FinalBaton]

Holy fuck... that Edmond character... I am speechless

[kitten]

Some Kirby games are like that, some aren't. Newer games usually aren't like that. Maybe that's why the Kirby's Dream Land games were named that...

was about to burst into a kirby rant before looking to see if i'd already done one. of course i have.

viewtopic.php?p=1248358#p1248358

i go into it there, but one of my biggest pet peeves is how *incredibly rarely* that people distinguish the directors behind each kirby game, which is really important considering KDL1 is sakurai while KDL2&3 are shimomura.. which one it is can make a tremendous difference in design, and they each kind of have their own ethos. imho, shimomura's games range from fucking dreadful (KDL3) to just plain pointless (K64). sakurai's games are all really clear improvement over the last in terms of sheer mechanics (though i still hold adventure over super star for its delightful aesthetic). kumazaki's games are also largely improvements over the previous games and robobot is a genuinely superb title probably orbiting my top 25 games of all time, but star allies is quite a disappointment and feels very much unfinished and muddled by the multiplayer. then there's the flagship games, which i think are much better left forgotten (squeak squad and amazing mirror).

there was a huge span of time between kirby: super star and kumazaki's debut as director where there wasn't a single good kirby platformer and i'd lost faith in the series - there was probably no darker point for kirby than the cartoon & flagship working on the games. as of right now, i'm really hoping kumazaki gets another crack at making a switch title, but this time for a single player. i really loathe the trend of 4-player co-op in games - 2 is workable (i like to interpret KSS as my favorite two-player beat 'em up in some contexts), 4 is frequently a design nightmare, particularly with certain genres.

i really, really strongly recommend robobot if you like other kirby games, by the way! excellent sense of momentum and pacing with tons of delightfully intricate abilities to take advantage of. and, of course, one of the strongest presentations out of any kirby game, to date. it's not challenging, as you might expect, but the variety and performance ceiling on the abilities means you can easily make it very engaging.

kumazaki is also heavily invested in kirby as a kind of general phenomenon and has also helped with stuff like the kirby cafe and making kirby have a bigger presence, in general. my house is decked out with the pink puff at this point, from a tissue box cover to a wind chime to all sorts of cute plushies and figures. he's very active on his instagram, which i advise checking out - it's astonishingly clear how much he adores his position, and he even actively examines and likes fan works.

[Squire Grooktook]

to just plain pointless (K64)

It may be slow and clunky, but it's probably my favorite game in the series in terms of presentation and atmosphere (particularly in regard to the darker elements of the franchise aesthetic).

I get that you're generally not the person to care about that compared to lethargic gameplay - and I'll seldom replay a game on those basis myself, busy busy - but I do have an enormous soft spot for it and can't help but wince to see it called pointless.

Anyway Robobot's been very much on my radar recently. Seems to meld most of the things I like about the franchise quite nicely. Might give it an eShop download when I have some freetime.

[kitten]

i don't really get a whole lot out of the presentation (the very first level feels like shimomura saw the checkered pattern as a default asset for 3d objects and then just... decided it would look good as both level and background elements???), but i feel it's in almost all manners the least bad of that trilogy of games. i like adeline & ribbon, i like some of the simple 3d models and bright colors, i like that it's shorter than DL3. it feels like it didn't really need to exist as a game, though - it communicates almost nothing interesting through its mechanics and is actively boring throughout.

that's the gist of what i mean by calling it pointless, is that it's almost totally useless as (or even actively inhibited by being) a game. kumazaki and sakurai both want to make video games, shimomura felt like he would have much rather been doing storybooks or something. i really wish i knew what he went to do after he quit working with HAL, i'd like to know if he found a profession that better suited him. would have probably enjoyed k64 as a 30 minute OVA, though! emotionless bleeding eyeball is a cool villain and i enjoy cutesy characters confronting horror.

[Blinge]

sakurai's games are all really clear improvement over the last in terms of sheer mechanics

Haha, if only he'd kept that up in a certain other series of his.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

finally cleared up the "very hard" difficulty of bleed on arcade mode!

Meant to reply to this sooner, but it's cool to see a mention of Bleed in here! Despite its ugliness (personally I absolutely cannot stand its aesthetic lol) it's an incredibly solid action game that probably doesn't get the recognition it deserves, probably in part because the game doesn't do a good job of communicating that its arcade mode is how it's "supposed" to be played. I really love the concept of the final unlockable weapon White that you mention, though I also felt like most of the other weapons felt unfortunately superfluous, and the final stage is genuinely very cool too.

Have you given the sequel much time yet? In a few specific regards I do like the first game better (2 is structured like a Hard Corps-style boss rush game) but the sequel improves on a lot, and actually addresses your complaint of health not regenerating between arcade mode stages (although it still doesn't automatically recover, you have to pick up hidden items at the start of each level). If you especially enjoyed Bleed, the sequel is a total must-play.

-

I also want to recommend Cometstriker, a game that hit Steam a few months ago.

Spoiler

(Apologies for the shitty gif watermark, and also for just stealing a promotional gif lol. My ailing (at the time, now dead) PC meant I couldn't record footage like I intended to back when I was digging into the game.) It's a legit great action game with great stage designs and a lot of badass boss fights; I like it even more than Bleed 2, which is saying a lot. Not really a platformer - it's more a quasi-STG like with very vague, Furi-esque bullet hell influences - but I think it falls under the purview of this thread in the same way something like Granada can. I strongly recommend you look into it.

[M.Knight]

I don't have a strong opinion on which quests are harder than others besides that the orb ones are the hardest.

When all is said and done, apart from the Orbs mission, there's not that big of a difference between the other three difficulty-wise, though.

Yeah, that's for sure! The other three mission types are in the same ballpark in terms of difficulty. The fact that you can't stock up on life-saving items as much in the orb missions really limits your options and can make mistakes a lot more costly.

[Sumez]

I have no idea about the different developers of Kirby games, and in my mind they are just a huge blend of mostly fun but ultimately pointless games ever since they introduced that stupid copy ability.

I've always had an interest in them though. What's your thought on the Wii game? I thought that one looked interesting, but never took the time to plug it in.

I also tried the Star Allies demo, which I commented on shortly, and found it surprisingly fun to play. It just sucks that it takes steps to become even easier than prior Kirby games, not being content with allowing you to abuse copy abilities, but adding in three more of them, for ultimate mashing chaos and zero relevant inputs.

[kitten]

Have you given the sequel much time yet?

i've yet to play it! waiting to detox the first game out of my system a bit and get myself prepared for it. i'm pretty certain i'll enjoy it a lot, so i'm in no rush to clear it out of the backlog. i've been juggling a yuri visual novel and playing minecraft for literal 24+ hour sessions lately (a friend started a new server and something about minecraft like no other video game manages to grab the reins of my neuroses and make me completely lose track of everything - a game i avoid playing because it hits my life like a drug, especially when so depressed), so i'm about as not-shmups-forum in my play as you can possibly get, as of late.

god pls deliver me from minecraft.

I also want to recommend Cometstriker, a game that hit Steam a few months ago.

this looks cool!

man, where does it take place, though? neo-st. louis? i feel i hardly ever see arches like that in games. the play reminds me a lot of hero core by daniel remar, which i quite enjoyed. this looks like one sadly unlikely to hit consoles (where shit garbage like xeodrifter and mutant mudds get numerous platform releases and physical copies across several platforms), but i haaaaate playing stuff on pc so damn much, especially action focused. i should bite the bullet and get it, but my backlog is truly massive at this point and i'm afraid to buy a pc game. pls keep me updated if this gets a physical or console release or remind me in a year that it exists

I've always had an interest in them though. What's your thought on the Wii game? I thought that one looked interesting, but never took the time to plug it in.

the wii game is much like star allies, but i'd argue maybe a tiny bit better? it's kumazaki's first game as director and suffers from serious pacing issues - some levels drag & drag and his gimmick-of-the-day for this one really clogs things up even further. in RTDL, the particular gimmick is "super abilities," which are ultra powerful abilities that involve some rudimentary puzzle solving and watching a really long canned animation numerous times. they're not quite as bad as they sound, but they're really not conducive to the pacing a kirby game requires to mitigate the low difficulty. bosses are more challenging/engaging than star allies, though, and it feels like it was probably originally designed for just one partner rather than the full 4 players.

triple deluxe is really good, but a bit more of the same. hypernova functions very similarly to super abilities and the levels still feel a little too long - some boss fights are also serious drags and there's one in particular that has a lifebar far too massive for the amount of time he spends unable to be hit. robobot is finally where he got things right, as it has a rollicking pace and way better implemented, snappy puzzles much like kirby's adventure. the robot armor gimmick also accentuates the pacing rather than halting it, acting much like a variety of extremely cool ride armors (ala rockman x). it's also got an absolutely delightful soundtrack and some of the best visual theme work the series has ever seen. fantastic game.

I also tried the Star Allies demo, which I commented on shortly, and found it surprisingly fun to play. It just sucks that it takes steps to become even easier than prior Kirby games, not being content with allowing you to abuse copy abilities, but adding in three more of them, for ultimate mashing chaos and zero relevant inputs.

it feels really abundantly clear to me that the 4-player gimmick was really pushed by nintendo on this one, as it does not benefit the game in almost any way and actively sabotages it. had to be some sort of command from higher up to help push the switch's features as a multiplayer console, and i feel it was similarly rushed out the door before being finished due to a variety of factors. although the levels are kiiiind-of quick (definitely steps backwards from robobot), the story pacing makes no sense whatsoever and feels like things just... rapidly happening until it just decides to end. assets are also recycled like crazy and they've been supporting it post-release with pandering dlc (play as guest characters like adeline & ribbon or rick, kine, and coo) that adds extremely little to the game, as you can only play as these characters in one extremely repetitive mode or as a second player in the story mode.

the dlc feels like an apology for an incomplete game and star allies sapped a lot of enthusiasm i had for the series continuing on some sort of stellar ascent into purely joyous scrolling fun.

- - - - - - - - - -

edit: after super mario 3d world, a link between worlds, and robobot - all games i genuinely consider both excellent and stark departures from years of samey trash from nintendo - i had my hopes SO high for the switch.

aaaaand then breath of the wild, star allies, and mario odyssey.

ubisoft-inspired open world, incomplete multiplayer pandering, and another god damn "true" 3d mario. siiiiiiiigh. siiiiiiiiiiigh. fuckin' sigh.

[Sumez]

If you can't enjoy Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey, I think you are giving Nintendo a harder time than they deserve. They have been producing almost exclusively quality software since they put out the Wii U.

Odyssey is by all means not what I want from a Mario game. I mean, it's pretty much Sunshine 2 in every way possible. But I'd be crazy to not have a ton of fun with it. I got it a little over a week ago and have been unable to put it down. I just need that next moon. All the time.
It's not even as super easy as people have made it out to be. I mean, it's a modern Mario game, so it's obviously really easy, and there's essentially no consequence of "dying".
But it's no worse than Galaxy, and even has a lot of challenge stages that are much more demanding than anything Galaxy ever throws at you. And Galaxy is pretty much the ideal 3D Mario game IMO. 3D World was great, but to me that one felt more like a part of the samey assembly line of mass produced "New Mario" games. It also has a few control issues, while Odyssey is pretty much the golden bible for how to pull off well designed responsive inputs in a 3D game.
Breath of the Wild is not really much of a Zelda game, and could have carried any other (preferably a completely new) franchise well. But after the lackluster Skyward Sword which really made me lose all interest in large scale 3D Zeldas, it's was absolutely a (wild) breath of fresh air. It took Nintendo to show all those American and European developers how to do an open world right.

I think you need to approach these games with the same mindset that you do Minecraft

[kitten]

If you can't enjoy Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey, I think you are giving Nintendo a harder time than they deserve. They have been producing almost exclusively quality software since they put out the Wii U.

very hard disagree, i really do not like odyssey. and i gave it much more than a shot, i did everything there was to do in it. all moons. all of them. i had a lot of thoughts written up for a full review and ultimately discarded them. even the filler content in the game stretches itself often more than twice over - things like having to do each race at least twice, the bunnies, the literal fucking dozens of moons that are just "ground pound/toss your hat here." god. fuck. jesus. i was having fun toward the beginning but the game stretches itself so incredibly thin and over such vast expanses of nothing at all.

what was kind of nice became miserable and joyless as the game's sinister manipulation of how much a person is excited by getting a *thing* so long as it's accompanied by a special sound and animation ramped into truly ridiculous overdrive. it controls very well and there's joy to the movement (i think the triple jump is pointless), but not nearly enough to sustain it for the length of the game, much less collecting everything in it. it never gets as challenging or interesting as 3d land does in its second half, either - you're never once in the entire game expected to do so much as a single hat toss + bounce and that feels obscene, to me. reminds me a lot of DK94, where there was this interesting moveset the game never asked you to do and likewise never even gave you an adequate reason to even bother expressing it.

i did screw around with the game a bit, too. i did the "poison room without the frog power" challenge all the way to the second moon and back. if you're to posit there's something wrong with people who can't enjoy the game, i'm going to posit the opposite. i feel like nintendo has figured out the most base switches they can flip in a person's head to convince them they're being entertained and removed great substance in favor of pulling those ad nauseum.

I think you need to approach these games with the same mindset that you do Minecraft

the thing that engages me about minecraft is that it is full-on player agency and item utility at all times. everything you collect does something and grants you power in the world. pick up the world and put it in your pocket - even the menial activity of shoveling sand up out of the ground allows you to move and place the sand, bake into glass for a window for your house, craft into sandstone to create a pillar, use the glass to make potion bottles, etc. the world is genuinely your oyster - everything is collectible and has some manner of purpose that you're more than free to exercise, you're heavily encouraged.

comparatively, i can explore for hours in breath of the wild and find... a bunch of food and maybe a couple kodama. i can make... more food or have a marginally expanded inventory. i could not bring myself to care about so much of it. the repetitive routines that minecraft drags you into are all eternally rewarding in some way so long as you enjoy building and personalization, but the ones in breath of the wild are much more limiting and with extremely diminishing returns. i constantly found myself doing things i didn't want in BotW because the game asked they be done (the amount of times i farmed arrows in the same area after a blood moon just be able to shoot stuff...) versus in minecraft where i am almost always doing what i want, even if what i want is some kind of full-on submission to what may very much be undiagnosed autism.

i wrote a full review of botw right after it came out, if you're curious about more thoughts. the last two paragraphs are the important ones if i'm tl;dr'ing as i tend to do. odyssey is kind of in line with the thread, but i feel BOTW isn't and we should probably cut this off.

[Sumez]

I never said there's something wrong with you for not liking Odyssey, I said you're expecting something from Nintendo that I don't feel makes any sense considering the ridiculously high quality stuff they put out, with a love for video games as an entertainment medium that I don't see any other AAA developers even approaching.
I would have preferred a new game focused entirely on gameplay bits, like Galaxy was, but with Odyssey's entire concept in mind, I can't imagine it pulled off any better.

[BrianC]

Personally, I feel like Odyssey plays more like Wario Land 2-4 than Sunshine, with only being set back when dying and the experimental gameplay where it's required to transform to progress (though it works differently in SM Odyssey than the Wario games).

[kitten]

i think i was remembering a quote -

But if you have any love for video games at all, it's absolutely impossible not to enjoy this incredible creative and colorful journey.

- from another thread you posted in. the direct implication here is that i do not 'have any love for video games at all,' which i find... disagreeable, to say the least

[BrianC]

I don't share Sumez's sentiments about Odyssey either, though I personally enjoyed the game. I also don't agree with him on 3D World, which felt more fresh to me than the New Super Mario Bros games (though I also enjoyed those quite a bit).

[Sumez]

i think i was remembering a quote -

But if you have any love for video games at all, it's absolutely impossible not to enjoy this incredible creative and colorful journey.

- from another thread you posted in. the direct implication here is that i do not 'have any love for video games at all,' which i find... disagreeable, to say the least

Come on, that quote was not in anyway intended as aggressive jab at anyone who for some reason don't enjoy the game. It was obviously a personal appreciation for the game, that I absolutely find impossible not to enjoy. Sorry.
I'm sure you have your reasons for not liking the game (although I find it strange that you want for all the moons anyway ), I just don't get it.

[Obiwanshinobi]

People do no-fun things for a variety of reasons, such as curiosity about them, or a compulsion to do them. Here's an example of someone retrospecting on such a sort of activity.

[Sumez]

Oh sure, I myself am close to finishing Radiant Historia even though the game is absolutely awful. There is absolutely no way I'm going to do any potential post-game stuff, though. Or all of the sidequests. If I didn't like Mario Odyssey I'd have quit it after Bowser.

[kitten]

i could probably write a book on my self-flagellation by means of games i am displeased with

there's something about gaming as a hobby, in particular, that necessitates playing more/the right way to be able to comment on a game, and my desire to be prepared on almost all genre fronts for such a thing causes me to experience a lot of trash. so many times i'm told i should have played more or gotten better or etc.; rarely does it change things, anymore. i feel with older games there is a very high capacity for a player to be approaching the game wrong (see: me and ninja gaiden) and i often discover a gem in the drive, but i tend not to with newer stuff despite being told to play it more. this is in particular with modern gaming and doubly so with modern takes on classic genres or series, which i have a pretty strong dislike and disappointment for. i feel like i liked *things* about breath of the wild, for example (i begrudgingly rate it 3/4 stars despite my conflicted feelings), but my disappointment with the majority of its content was pretty strong.

i really desperately want the classic action game to come back and can't let it go, too. i try most things that resemble it and hope every time that the art form has returned to the world, and nearly every time i'm disappointed. the occasional exception like furi (or even bleed) fuels my desperate hope.

i don't dislike all modern gaming, by the way, just... most of it. lots of good narrative-focused stuff or games toying with the idea of being non-games that i find appealing.

[Obscura]

Oh sure, I myself am close to finishing Radiant Historia even though the game is absolutely awful. There is absolutely no way I'm going to do any potential post-game stuff, though. Or all of the sidequests. If I didn't like Mario Odyssey I'd have quit it after Bowser.

Meanwhile, I hated Ys VIII, but I did every sidequest I could in order to get the true ending and TLB.

(I didn't hate myself enough to go back for the post-game dungeon, though.)

[Jonny2x4]

Might've been the same guy. Edmans is an odd chap with many illustrious internet dance battles to his name.

It wasn't him specifically. It's someone who never posted here (unless he goes by another username). He ended up ragequitting the other place over someone's political opinion. His username incidentally sounds a bit like bedwetter.

[Randorama]

Kitten (from a while ago): I heard Bogost at a conference, and read some of his works to check if he...well, if he was for real. At some point he was talking about the important message behind Rainbow Islands...a game by Taito, produced in 1986, in which two little dragons shoot bubbles. And so on.

In the last 10-15 years there has a proliferation of people who invent academic careers in media/communication/etc. studies by writing drivel on videogames. I had other cases in which I had to meet these people for work reasons, and I felt deeply sorry for the lengths they had to go to, to put bread on the table (...but better than shoveling dung, I guess).

Speaking of which: am I getting old, or Rainbow Islands has a funny difficulty curve? I feel like the game suddenly becomes over-clocked, from the 6th island onwards, and the previous islands are more or less easy.

EDIT: general opinions on the Pang (arcade) series, if I may ask?

[Sumez]

Pang is great. It has a really cool risk vs reward scoring system.

Rainbow Islands' difficulty curve will feel weird at first, because the onslaught of fast enemies goes nuts on island #6, but it's really just a question of getting used to their patterns and trying to stay above them whenever you can. It's not as insane a ramp up as it feels like at first.

As someone who has put countless hours into the game though, I can tell you the difficulty curve is quite perfect. Aside maybe from island #8 being notably easier than #7. What I appreciate most about the game though, is how different the identity of each island feels.
I consider all of the first four islands super easy, but there's a great learning system going on here.

The first island has you getting used to the controls, and you really shouldn't die here. But there are so few enemies that if you want all the diamonds you are going to pay attention to almost every single kill. My pattern for picking them up in order lets me get all the way up to dark blue on the first round, so I have that sorted out - but at least it gives me something to do here.

On #2 (combat) the enemies start shooting at you, and on #3 (monster) you get way more aggressive ones, including flying ones firing homing shots.

#4 (toy) is usually the first stopping point for a lot of people I see trying to get into the game, as this is the point where the game figures you need to master using rainbows as platforms in order to progress. The diagonal-bouncing clown dolls can also be really dangerous if you aren't careful. It's not uncommon for me to lose my first life here.

#5 (arkanoid) is where the game ramps up IMO, notably the third round. The stages are super short, but you have extremely limited time, so you need to be on the move constantly, another skill that is essential to this game. And of course you need to pick up all colors of diamonds while you are doing so. It's unfortunately very common that I lose a life on aforementioned third round, despite feeling that I have mastered it. Tons of flying enemies, pretty much no platforms to stand on. Only a few seconds before the water starts increasing. This super simple stage is a Rainbow Islands Master Class >:)

#6 (robot) is actually not particularly hard IMO, but it's definitely where I often start dropping lives from my accumulated (and ususally maxed) stock of 1UPs. Enemies will home at you from all directions, nuts will drop from platforms above, and wrenches will move around super fast like the clowns from two islands ago. Like I said, at this point, being familiar with the patterns of the enemies is everything. You need to be able to expect where they are going at all times, and if you don't have upgraded rainbows you are in for a hard time (I'd say collecting the correct order on the first three islands is essential here).

#7 (dragon) slows things down a bit, but the stages are really long, and the level design here actively forces you into specific traps, requiring you to constantly deal with dangerous enemies above you. The biggest threat here is that you need to maintain your upwards speed while still dealing with the ghosts.

#8 (fairyland story) is a little easier I think, but still has a lot of dangerous enemies. It introduces a bunch of completely new patterns, such as the bomb throwers, jumping caterpillars, and ghosts that home directly at you without stopping.

#9 (darius) is the true final boss! The Darius stage has everything firing at you constantly, homing missiles, aggressive planes, and those damn jumping turrets. Worst thing here is those orbs that fly around shooting in eight directions. Goot luck, pilot!

#10 (bubble bobble) is actually comparatively easy, but I think it's fitting for a victory lap. You of course have crazy dangerous and fast foes like the Hidegons and Monstas, while space invaders will fire at you from above. But the complete change in level design makes it super interesting. It's easy to master, but you will die a lot your first few times here.

[Marc]

Goddamn, really interesting write up there.
Myself I adore the game but suck horribly at it from Dracula onward. Furthest I ever made was the Arkanoid level, or the toy one - I forget the order. Another game I'd love to re-visit, alongside Ninja Spirit.

I keep hovering over Sly Spy on Switch, even though it's pretty average from what I remember. Something inside me can't resist picking up all these coin-op ports. They need to get some Irem love in that AA series.

[Sumez]

Added names (as I recall them) for the islands to my writeup to make it more clear

[BIL]

^ knew you'd deliver on Rainbow Islands

[Sumez]

You can't make a post with the title in it without me going on for ten pages. Hope to get some more people into it some time. I'm really torn between it, Daimakaimura, and TGM2 for the best arcade game ever.

[FinalBaton]

Briefly played Makaimura on my Capcom Generations 2 ps1 disc, for the first time. Here's a couple observations :

-Playing that game without an arcade stick feels weird! I've never played any home port of this game on console, only ever played the coin-up. So controlling Arthur with a controller here felt totally alien. I'll have to reprogram my brain to play this using a controller. going in I totally hit a wall, I was playing so clunky and un-responsive. I'd frequently crouch by mistake too. Maybe I should get a ps1/ps2 arcade stick!

-Seeing the game on a Trinitron crt felt equally weird. It totally changed the look of the game big time. Even though what I saw were the same graphics. Again I'm used to seeing this on a slot shadow mask arcade monitor. The phosphor structure was as much part of the "graphics" in my brain, as the actual graphics themselves. This is one case where I wish I had a lil' shadow mask crt around.