Turrican wrote:Terra Cresta has an interesting sound difference between the USA release and the Japanese one (which, accordingly to copyright, came out a year later). I personally prefer much more the american sound.
I wonder if this audio change is related in any way to the two known boards of the original arcade.
According to Gamefaqs, the US version of Terra Cresta came out in 1990, a few years after the JP one. I'm guessing the date in game actually refers to the arcade game.
I found out about another FC shmup, Taiyou no Yuusha Firebird. This is a strange one. Some parts are timed, some parts allow you to change vehicles or weapons by bringing up a status screen, and it has an action game style life meter. Stages seem to be split into parts too. It's most definitely a shmup, though.
Lists like this should be forwarded to the heads microsoft, nintindo et. al for their virtual consoles/virtual arcade thingys. Then later on I can reap the reward!
Randorama wrote:ban CMoon for being a closet Jerry Falwell cockmonster/Ann Coulter fan, Nijska a bronie (ack! The horror!), and Ed Oscuro being unable to post 100-word arguments without writing 3-pages posts.
Eugenics: you know it's right!
I was in Lake Tahoe to see the wildfire; meanwhile I missed all the action here. Glad to see Zanac on top-- easily my favorite NES shmup.
And it sounds like Recca is something to look forward to. Too bad it never came out here.
So why is Zanac Neo a sad excuse for an update, Rob? I love its look and sound. Too easy? I can see that, though it's not an issue for me with my limited skills and time.
i can't rember the name but, a few year ago on a nes full set roms, i've found a funny shmup,
where a peguin (if i remenber well) is the pilot of a plane.
there was an horizontal shmup...
i can't say it more. i'll try to find it again but it take a lot of time, thing that i didn't have.
professor ganson wrote:
So why is Zanac Neo a sad excuse for an update, Rob? I love its look and sound. Too easy? I can see that, though it's not an issue for me with my limited skills and time.
The action never picks up the way it does in the original, never becomes chaotic. Both give out lots of extra lives, but this is too clear in Neo. I can remember having something like 20+ lives without much effort.
where a peguin (if i remenber well) is the pilot of a plane.
Rob, you did something like this for the SNES. Were there others I missed/forget? If you're taking requests, I'd love to see a similar list for the Mega Drive or PCE, though the latter has an unruly catalogue.
professor ganson wrote:Rob, you did something like this for the SNES. Were there others I missed/forget? If you're taking requests, I'd love to see a similar list for the Mega Drive or PCE, though the latter has an unruly catalogue.
Those are the only two. I won't do any more soon, though. I usually just play a few games a month and here it was 40+. Major, frightening overkill. Maybe next January or February. PCE is most likely, but probably not the CD games. Maybe I'll try to make video reviews? I don't know.
Wow. Growing up with games like Life Force, Abadox, and my favorite, The Guardian Legend -- no wonder I like shmups.
My favorite part about TGL is that if you're good enough to beat the game without dying or reloading, you can come dangerously close to a counter stop. And anyone who has ever counter-stopped TGL knows that it's also a game-stop. A very impressive game crash indeed.
Also, it did a lifebar well (considering the large hitbox). Especially during the blue Optomon fight, where seaweed drained you down to a 1-hit kill, and the bullets deal weak damage.
The only disappointment is that powerups are released in an easily predictable pattern, which means you can take as much damage as you want when an energy tank is up next on the list. Also the Fireball and Cutter/Saber Lasers are more powerful than any other special weapon, making the other 8 weapons largely useless.
I'm coming back around for my second pass at FC STGs, having gotten most of my fill a couple years back. Will be checking over threads like this! I must check out them NES cart exclusives in particular.
But for now I will just say I am a bit sated... this is an actual photograph of the woody I got playing Recca the other afternoon
I've done something similar for the 16-bit stuff, it's in German, though, and thus not particularly useful here. I did clear every game unlike Rob at the very least.
Obviously such lists are always going to be controversial, but I really get the impression that our dear Rob didn't give Silver Surfer a fair chance. I'm not nearly as acquainted with the NES as I am with 16-bit consoles (only cleared a little over two dozen games), but I can say with certainty that Silver Surfer is among the better games on the system. No crippling slowdowns, no unsettling flicker, fair checkpoints, a semi-memorization heavy level design, great tracks, some surprisingly gruesome environment/monster sprites (as well as a few childish ones, admittedly), that's not exactly terrible.
My personal favourites so far are Gyruss, Gradius and Sqoon. I think that the system is at its best when it presents straightforward, action-packed games that are not plagued by technical difficulties and that get harder as loops go on. Sqoon unfortunately never gets more difficult, I was able to immediately clear 3 loops once I figured the game out, but it's considerably tougher from the get-go. I'm usually not enthusiastic about fuel in my shmups, but it's handled perfectly here as to prevent you from hugging the left side of the screen. Gotta freeze those crabs or horrifically drown!
Turrican wrote:
Fantasy Zone
Gun Nac [NA/JP] - Stage 2 censored/graphics change on NA version.
The JP Sunsoft and US Tengen version of FZ are different ports. I personally like Sunsoft version much better. Most of the bigger enemies don't seem to launch smaller enemies in the Tengen version and the scrolling is choppy in that version. The Sunsoft verison plays closer to the arcade version and the enemy behavior is closer to the arcade.
Most of Gun Nac's altered Stage 2 enemies seem to be related to anything that can be remotely linked to smoking (matches, lighters, matchboxes, etc).
Gunsmoke
Gyruss
Jackal
These were FDS games in Japan and have differences related to it. Gyruss has better music for the FDS version, but Gun.Smoke and Jackal were more limited than their cartridge counterparts. NES Gun.Smoke has more music tracks and Jackal has a map screen and larger levels.
BrianC wrote:These were FDS games in Japan and have differences related to it. Gyruss has better music for the FDS version, but Gun.Smoke and Jackal were more limited than their cartridge counterparts. NES Gun.Smoke has more music tracks and Jackal has a map screen and larger levels.
Final Commando and Jackal can practically be considered to be two separate games (see here).
Speaking of differences: how does NES Zanac alter from the FDS version? I've only played the former, but upon skimming through a replay of the latter I couldn't find significant distinctions between the two. Is it just the scoring?
I'd say it's time to re-assess and re-evaluate all the NES/FC/FDS Shmups, Rob's countdown is awesome but too many titles were overlooked back then
Thanks for the feedback. I'm the guy who made that list. I'm just a long-time NES fan who loves shmups and was disappointed by the outdated and lacking lists. I know no list is going to satisfy everybody, but I've tried to be as thorough as possible. That's one of the reasons I divided the shmups (vertical scrolling, horizontal scrolling, hybrid scrolling, shmup elements, free-roam/collect'em up, fixed-screen/arcade, and 3D shoot 'em up. That way people who only consider shmups to be vertical/horizontal/or Salamander-style shooters can only see those. But this whole guide covers everything in the shoot 'em up realm. I also include what I consider to be noteworthy hacks, and regional differences. As I've said the guide has been a work-in-progress since December 2014.
@ Perikles - Thanks for that info! I didn't know about the Jackal/Final Commando differences. Also, about Zanac and Zanac [AI] FDS, I couldn't find any major differences either, other than the continue feature on the menu (which is accessible instead by button combination on the FDS version).
@ BrianC - Thanks, I completely forgot about Fantasy Zone on FC, for some reason I was thinking only Fantasy Zone 2 was released on FC, dumb mistake
In regards to other differences - I know Gyruss has the expansion audio, but that's expected of many FDS releases since it has different hardware. I might make mention of the expansion audio releases in the guide as there are a few. Overall I try to keep the guide somewhat focused and consider differences in gameplay or content. Things could get cluttered quickly. It's cool to know though!
Also, it's awesome to see the Sqoon love here. From all the NES/FC/FDS shmups I've played, there's something about Sqoon that just pulls me in, it's so good. Lots of charm, originality, and great gameplay. Cheers!
Excavating this thread one more time in order to extol the obscure Baltron. While not quite on the same echelon as Sqoon or Zanac, it's admirably close. The developers had a keen understanding of the Famicom's strengths and crafted a minimalistic yet endearing title which is not only robust on a fundamental level, but also gets a lot of the details right. On first glance it might look like a drab Defender adaptation, despite those conspicuous influences it moreso plays akin to a terrain-laden Sqoon. The scrolling speed is dependent on the position of the ship (the closer to the left screen you are, the slower the screen rolls), a trait that is carefully interwoven with the stage structure. Unremittingly hugging the right side will see you killed in a matter of seconds during the claustrophobic cave sections, yet chary demeanour will drain your fuel and also allows enemies to unceremoniously crash into you from behind - you do see whenever foes are coming closer on account of the radar, gauging the kairos to move out of the way whilst being shot at in later stages/loops is not quite trivial at a decent speed, much less at a gentle pace, however.
Collecting fuel is somewhat confusing at first - you have to pick up a blue canister emitted by scaffold-looking structures which are placed in front of most of the caves. Since the canisters are destructible you probably mistake them for something harmful at first. There're also a few koala bears scattered throughout the caves that act as extends which are likewise destructible (their location changes from one loop to the next, too!). This adds a decorous amount of dexterity and judgement to the game as holding your fire can easily lead to a death, alas, not getting fuel for a lengthy amount of time is also a death sentence. Earning extra lives becomes increasingly more risky since they position the little fellas in remote places, forcing you to precisely move towards them or even do a risky turn-around without much space to do so.
Since the game is extremely short (a loop can be beaten in less than ten minutes), it's great to see that higher loops increase the bellicosity of enemies rather nicely. Succinct it may be, the enemy variety is certainly nothing to scoff at in this game, there are several different types of enemy airships, ground turrets whose bullet speed becomes shockingly fast, floating paddlewheels that deflect your own shots back at you, small rocks that split into even smaller rocks that split into suicide bullets, it's splendid. Only a tiny bit of memorization is required to obviate the dangers of tight corridors, quick thinking and economic movement is much more important in the long run. You can also sacrifice up to a quarter of your fuel in order to immediately take out all enemies on-screen, you'll have to wait until your fuel is full if you want to do that again, though. Turning around and using warps is fairly useless, might come in handy a few times, nonetheless.
The music is rather unremarkable but you're probably so busy you won't notice - it didn't bother me, at least. I will say that there were a couple of instances where a bit of flicker obscured a bullet, exasperating me a bit, it's not excessive, fortunately. The game runs at a constant, smooth pace, irregardless of the amount of enemies, I never experienced any slowdown whatsoever. If you like your Famicom/NES shooters to be spectacular within the boundaries of the system (think Crisis Force, or Gradius II, even), the spartan aesthetics and elemental gameplay might not intrigue you enough to enjoy it to its fullest, but I am definitely going to wholeheartedly recommend it to friends of unadorned, elegant 8-bit shooting action.
I must check out them NES cart exclusives in particular.
Get outta my face you fuckin' lousy fish! 
