Aleste GG impressions

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:50 am

I was playing this on my Game Gear today. I really enjoy it so far. The graphics are great for Game Gear. There is some slowdown in the game, but I found it to be minor and more helpful than hurtful. Most of the stages are shorter than usual for a Compile game, which is actually a good thing IMO. Two of the stages actually have Galaga style bonus rounds. The enemies are classic compile with the splitting enemies and hordes of enemies that circle around in nifty patterns. The weapons are extremely cool, especially the homing ring weapon. There is a very nifty special mode that makes the enemies spit up bullets when they are destroyed.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:59 am

I assume this game must be hard to come by.

Here is a review of it for those who don't already know about it:
http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/rev ... index.html

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 2:06 am

professor ganson wrote:I assume this game must be hard to come by.

Here is a review of it for those who don't already know about it:
http://www.classicgaming.com/shmups/rev ... index.html

I actually found it on ebay at 27 dollars, including shipping. My parents let me have it for Easter. It's cart and plastic case only, but it's legit.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 2:19 am

So I have to ask: IYO is it worth hunting down a Game Gear for? The system seems to come pretty cheap these days.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 2:21 am

Another question: I assume there is no region coding to worry about?

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 2:48 am

That's a really tough question. There aren't many shmups on the sytem, but both GG Aleste games are extremely good. The problem is, they aren't easy to come by (though UK sellers sell the second GG Aleste under the name of Power Strike 2 for cheap), though Power Strike 2/GG Aleste 2 is much easier to find than the first one. There are other good games on the system like the Shinobis, Revenge of Drancon/Wonder Boy, Streets of Rage 2, some Disney games, some Sonics, Sonic Drift 2, and Puyo Puyo Tsu, but there aren't as many good games as there are on GBA (especially if you include GB/GBC games) and the system isn't as portable as the GBA or GBC. Some of the games are simply toned down ports of Genesis games too, though some of these are very good in their own right. The battery life isn't the best either.

Most games on Game Gear don't have region lockout. However, the system does detect region settings, but, it most cases it switchs to an alternate version for certain games like with some early Genesis games. Example: Puyo Puyo for Game Gear plays in English with a title screen that says "Puzlow Kids" on a US Game Gear.

oh yeah, there is an adapter for Game Gear that allows it to play Master System games, but I'm not sure if it works with all Game Gears or how well Power Strike II SMS (which is different from the GG one) works on it.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 3:45 am

It's a crap shoot. In Japan, I've seen GG Aleste (complete) go for 6500 yen one day, and 12000 the next. Might've been a fluke, but it doesn't show up enough to really get a good feel of the price. The second one is much easier to find, but still quite hard. I'd expect to pay $40-$50 for the 2nd one complete.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 4:00 am

GaijinPunch wrote:It's a crap shoot. In Japan, I've seen GG Aleste (complete) go for 6500 yen one day, and 12000 the next. Might've been a fluke, but it doesn't show up enough to really get a good feel of the price. The second one is much easier to find, but still quite hard. I'd expect to pay $40-$50 for the 2nd one complete.

Yeah, I just got lucky with the first one. It was incomplete too. It probably would have gone higher than $24.99 (without shipping) if it wasn't buy it now. Still, for me, playing the game is much more important than some cool looking box and manual, though those are cool too. For the UK Power Strike 2 GG, the manual might be nice, but it's not necessary for me to enjoy the game. The incomplete Power Strike 2 GG sells for cheap from UK sellers, BTW. I have seen it as cheap as about $10-12 dollars US. There's the shipping thing, though.

The only other shmups on the Game Gear are Fantasy Zone (I liked what I tried of it, though it could have used smaller sprites for more screen space), Halley Wars, Arial Assault, and Super Space Invaders. From what I tried on emu, Super Space Invaders is a good port of the arcade version. Arial Assault is actually different from the SMS version. Halley Wars seemed good from what I played, but it's no Aleste GG.

zinger · Post by **zinger** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 12:42 pm

I love the GG Aleste games, especially part two. Wether these are must haves or not (if you DON'T own a GG yet), depends on your taste in music, IMO, because that is really the best thing about GGA2.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:12 pm

So, where did you find this BrianC? Congrats on getting a copy!

This game is absolutely the best handheld shmup ever, IMO. It's worth whatever price you have to pay for it.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 7:10 pm

dave4shmups wrote:So, where did you find this BrianC? Congrats on getting a copy!

This game is absolutely the best handheld shmup ever, IMO. It's worth whatever price you have to pay for it.

I found it on ebay. It just happened to be buy it now. The pics looked legit and the seller had high feedback, so I went for it. GG Aleste is one of the best portable shmups, but I like what I played of GG Aleste 2/Power Strike 2 better. GG Aleste 2 has speed settings! Also, I like Nemesis, Gradius Galaxies, Iridion II, and Project S-11 for my GB, GBC, and GBA quite a bit. One thing that ticks me off is that there is no new Aleste or Zanac for GBA, DS, or PSP, but there is an Aleste for mobile phones. Gamestop gave it low ratings, but IGN liked it. It's a port of the original Aleste.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:59 am

Thanks to BrianC I got hope again on finding part one someday and did a search on ebay... guess what I found

.

An auction for an GG Aleste (cart and protective box only) with only a few hours to go and still going low. Since i wouldn't be at home for the end of the auction and suspected there would be some last minute snipers I actually I put in a very high bid (well for a cart only copy) to make sure I'd get it GPB for it.
When I came home and checked ebay to my surprise i'd won it for 13.20 (including UK-->Netherlands shipping)

.
So it should be on it's way today or tommorow and I will finally have it some next week.

Morale of the story: just check all different branches of ebay and try different
search parameters and you might (like Brian and me get lucky)...

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:15 am

Takes a lot of time to find deals on Ebay. As Laydock stated, low priced BIN items and items not located in a specific/correct branch are very good sources to find deals but checking constantly and through every avenue takes a lot of time that may not be worth it to some people. Mispelled titles happen to be another source of good deals on Ebay but stumbling upon them is pretty much all luck.