Bad games that you just had to beat

[louisg]

Does anyone here have any favorite bad games, or bad games that you just had to beat? I'm thinking of almost-inarguably sub-par games like Arrow Flash or Sol Deace.

[Herr Schatten]

Inarguably? Arrow Flash and Sol-Deace are fairly mediocre, but by no means bad. If you think those are terrible, I don't think you've been exposed to really bad games yet. I recommend playing some XDR or Deep Blue to put things into perspective.

[louisg]

Inarguably? Arrow Flash and Sol-Deace are fairly mediocre, but by no means bad. If you think those are terrible, I don't think you've been exposed to really bad games yet. I recommend playing some XDR or Deep Blue to put things into perspective.

Mediocre is what I'm after. I don't think anyone has the willpower to beat, say, God Panic =)

[Ghegs]

PCE's Legion. It's really horrible. I was determined to 1CC it just to prove it can even be done. And I got pretty far actually, I was able to make it to the last stage without dying. But there the game just becomes so utterly unfair I was unable to get past it even when I tried playing it on an emulator with savestates. There's this laser travelling horizontally across the screen that kills you even with the shield power-up, walls closing down, enemies that are invulnerable until after they shoot at you...the only way I could "beat" it was by losing my last life, waiting until the countdown hits 1 before continuing (the level keeps going forward while it counts down) so you pass a good portion of the level and getting to the final boss that way.

As for actually mediocre games that I actually beat...I think most people count Hector '87 and definitely Silpheed: The Lost Planet as mediocre. The former I like enough and the latter was one of the first shmups I played, so when I got a bit better at the genre I wanted to kick the game's ass.

[Ruldra]

[ZOM]

Leave Sol Feace alone, the game's awesome.

I think CURSE on Sega's Mega Drive is one of those games for me; I'm trying to 1CC it - emulated - on my nintendo DS - lite - with the crappy D-pad. Arrrgh.

@Ghegs
I feel you man, I gave up on it after stage 4 IIRC. Haven't touched that crappy game in years.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

Even bad/mediocre shmups have their good points, or the potential to be even better.

Arrow Flash can be made challenging just by setting the arrow flash option from Stock to Charge. Turn rapid fire off for even more challenge. Then the boss fights actually mean business, they can't just be immediately arrow flashed to their elimination.

Sol Deace/Sol Feace, I actually find that battleship stage 4 to be challenging enough that I only pass it once every 10 plays or so.

Another shmup that falls into this same category is Whip Rush. Graphics, not so good overall. Music, varies but nothing qualifies as awesome. Challenge, starts out very easy at the beginning and then gets progressively difficult the last few stages.

The challenge for all these shmups is when trying to play them perfectly, as in try to hit everything, try to no-miss, try to 1cc.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

That crummy flash shooter that was linked just recently in this forum. I just had to tortue myself and complete the damn thing.
May the person who posted the link suffer the same torment as i did by chopping off his willy and hitting himself in the face repeatedly with it!

That is the first and last flash shooter ill ever play

[Damocles]

I don't think anyone has the willpower to beat, say, God Panic =)

I completed both loops. It helped that it was the first and only time I played the game.

[Enhasa]

Sol Deace is really basic but still solid, which makes it one of the better Genesis shmups to be honest. Lay off!

About the topic though:
Uhhh, I don't feel like I have to "beat" anything I don't like, that's just silly.

[Kollision]

That's why I like them all.
Be it Deep Blue, XDR, Divine Sealing, etc. Damn, even Sol Divide if I'm in a good mood.

[Kyper]

Silver Surfer on the NES. I wouldn't exactly call it bad but I guess it is... The awesome music kept me going!

[Enhasa]

http://www.super-play.co.uk/index.php?superplay=2791

Surprisingly entertaining commentary. The best part is this guy really does think Silver Surfer is a good game. And yes, he really did try to submit this "speedrun" to SDA.

[Xonatron]

Thundercade (NES):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7qfIyc5PDs

I hated it but had to beat it. This philosophy ruled my youth gaming experiences. I had a list of beat game, lost forever now, and it was at least 70 NES games alone, 75% of which were tortuous. I still remember the pains of not beating Zelda 2 and Phantasy Star II (Genesis), but getting the the final boss of both... they were both great games.

I'm not sure how to vote, yet!

[Dragoforce]

I love Strike Force Hydra.

Anyways, I think it's good to play crappy games now and then. Without them you have nothing to compare good games to and you end up not appreciating them enough I think.

[Jon]

I don't think anyone has the willpower to beat, say, God Panic =)

I completed both loops. It helped that it was the first and only time I played the game.

I only made it through the first loop before turning it off.

[louisg]

I don't think anyone has the willpower to beat, say, God Panic =)

I completed both loops. It helped that it was the first and only time I played the game.

I only made it through the first loop before turning it off.

Haha I turned it off after about a half level

Wow, there's quite a few Sol Deace defenders here.. maybe I'll have to give that another go

[FRO]

Meh - Sol-Deace/Feace is okay, but very mediocre, and the first level has some really unfair spots where hits are hard to avoid that make it frustrating right away. I don't think I've ever got past the 3rd or 4th stage and I usually give up.

Inarguably? Arrow Flash and Sol-Deace are fairly mediocre, but by no means bad. If you think those are terrible, I don't think you've been exposed to really bad games yet. I recommend playing some XDR or Deep Blue to put things into perspective.

Mediocre is what I'm after. I don't think anyone has the willpower to beat, say, God Panic =)

Well, I plowed my way through Earth Defense/The Earth Defend, despite the game sucking beyond the telling of it. So I guess I have the stamina for something like that

Never played God Panic, though, so perhaps I'm speaking out of turn...

[Kollision]

Meh - Sol-Deace/Feace is okay, but very mediocre, and the first level has some really unfair spots where hits are hard to avoid that make it frustrating right away. I don't think I've ever got past the 3rd or 4th stage and I usually give up.

So you're saying Sol-Deace is mediocre because the first level has some really unfair spots where hits are hard to avoid and you never got past the 3rd or 4th stage and usually give up?

That's not enough to call a game mediocre...

[gameoverDude]

Arrow Flash is merely ho-hum. I'd rank Sol-Deace way above it, especially as the Sega-CD or X68000 version. SD is actually very good. It does start kicking your ass in the 2nd half of the game.

Sol Divide isn't really much of a shooter IMO. You're better off meleeing the regular enemies into submission than shooting them. NES Twin Eagle is boring - but TE is a game that probably shouldn't have been attempted on this system. It's just a bit too intense for the NES to do any justice to. I would've liked seeing a PCE SCD version with nearly arcade perfect graphics, exact BGM (the WARNING area BGM in the NES one is a bad rendition), and better sound.

[Andi]

Thundercade (NES):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7qfIyc5PDs

I hated it but had to beat it.

Thundercade on the NES seems really cool. It's like, "Oh, a motorcycle shmup. How novel!" But then all your guns are weak as hell and your hit box is huge and everything flickers and the power-ups are all hidden.

[Xonatron]

Thundercade (NES):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7qfIyc5PDs

I hated it but had to beat it.

Thundercade on the NES seems really cool. It's like, "Oh, a motorcycle shmup. How novel!" But then all your guns are weak as hell and your hit box is huge and everything flickers and the power-ups are all hidden.

The arcade is better. Jason (my brother and co-developer) has beat both. The problem with hidden powerups is that some buildings cannot be destroyed, and some just take a really REALLY long time when you are not powered up (aka when you need to destroy them to get the powerups inside of them)! It's hard to believe we "suffer" through these shmups for some innate desire to master them (and not let them be our masters)! That's why I cannot decide on what to vote here! I simply do not understand it!

All in all Thundercade has potential, as so many shmups do.

By the way, did you play it?

[BrianC]

I watched the video of Thundercade and it looked like one of those cheap Micronics ports (Raiden Trad SNES, Super Pitfall NES, Tiger Heli NES). I looked it up, and sure enough, it's Micronics.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

Meh - Sol-Deace/Feace is okay, but very mediocre, and the first level has some really unfair spots where hits are hard to avoid that make it frustrating right away. I don't think I've ever got past the 3rd or 4th stage and I usually give up.

So you're saying Sol-Deace is mediocre because the first level has some really unfair spots where hits are hard to avoid and you never got past the 3rd or 4th stage and usually give up?

That's not enough to call a game mediocre...

Except that it is. Mediocre does not mean it sucks nor does it mean it is an excellent title and it's perfect for describing Sol-Deace/Sol-Feace.

If the player isn't enjoying the game because of cheap hits, insufficient firepower, and IMHO the biggest game flaw being that the ship speed is chosen at the start of the game and that's the speed for the entire game, then that brings the enjoyment factor down significantly. For Sol-Feace/Sol-Deace--Stage 4 is about as far as I get because the battleship is hard enough and then fighting the last part of it with up to four laser turrets, I think that's a bit too much for how non-powerful the ships firepower usually is. I have a lot more patience for Gaiares than I do Sol-Deace/Sol Feace, even despite not ever getting past Gaiares stage 6 and often times not even getting past stage 5.

Another Wolfteam game that suffers the same way is Granada. Truth be told, Granada is an *excellent* game for the first five stages (despite fairly basic enemy graphics overall). Unfortunately, after that the enemy mobility and firepower is just too overwhelming vs. the little tank with the rapid fire shot and cannon, and that's even if the super cannon was obtained in stage 2. Six lives, Easy difficulty, and I still can't 1cc Granada. So then when I've finally finished the last few stages by credit feeding, I'm glad the game is done and over with and I usually don't play Granada again for months at a time.

[ColonelFatso]

Delta-V. Perhaps not strictly a shmup but very close (it's something like Afterburner but in the cyberpunk future on the Internets with a ridiculous story). Loved it as a child, came back to it recently and immediately wondered what the hell I'd been thinking at age 5. Beat it anyway for nostalgia's sake.

[Enhasa]

WTF, Sol Deace is solid, but Granada is fucking awesome. Going in my top 10 next year's vote, no shit. Hate to pull a shoe, but if you can't 1cc with six lives on easy, lurn2play.

There is hardly a scoring system that is more awesome than strafing in the opposite direction and using the recoil of your cannon (!) to propel yourself backwards at super speeds for time bonus.

[Skykid]

Crows: The Battle Action. Cos I paid so much for it.

[Xonatron]

I watched the video of Thundercade and it looked like one of those cheap Micronics ports (Raiden Trad SNES, Super Pitfall NES, Tiger Heli NES). I looked it up, and sure enough, it's Micronics.

Wow, I didn't know that. Very interesting! Thanks!

[Kiken]

Arrow Flash is merely ho-hum. I'd rank Sol-Deace way above it, especially as the Sega-CD or X68000 version. SD is actually very good. It does start kicking your ass in the 2nd half of the game.

What you mean is, it becomes ridiculously cheap at the stage 6 boss (who is total bullshit). Stage 7 hardly puts up a fight (and it throws 4 bosses at you) in comparison.

Another shmup that falls into this same category is Whip Rush. Graphics, not so good overall. Music, varies but nothing qualifies as awesome. Challenge, starts out very easy at the beginning and then gets progressively difficult the last few stages.

Stage 1's theme is awesome.

[Xonatron]

Another shmup that falls into this same category is Whip Rush. Graphics, not so good overall. Music, varies but nothing qualifies as awesome. Challenge, starts out very easy at the beginning and then gets progressively difficult the last few stages.

Stage 1's theme is awesome.[/quote]

I beat Whip Rush, too. I loved the music in that game. I owned this game as a child, it wasn't just a borrow, so I played it all the time. The intro (for its time) was great. I hated the far too many speed choices, but other than that, I loved the game overall. I'm not sure I would put it in this category, but going back and playing it on an emulator years ago I do remember getting very frustrated with it!