Recorded a fast n' loose
El Viento clear, to cap off my revisit. By total coincidence, this is the second MD sidescroller in as many weeks (after Crude Buster) that I've been drawn back to by a random mention in this thread, and both involve a deranged videogame NYC.
Too bad Combatribes never got an MD port, that'd be the perfect excuse to fire it up for a trilogy.
![Cool :cool:](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
Not that you need an excuse to dig your hulking avatar's knee into a fallen punk's spine, smashing his face into the sidewalk until he's ready for the post-apocalyptic Manhattan meat mart - but it would be all poetic, like!
CB and EV are also two semi-impulse pickups that I'm glad I went with BITD. Both have their rough edges, but they mightily compensate with 1) absolute dedication to oldschool 2D violence and 2) impressive creativity. Neither plays like any other brawler or sidescroller in my library. I've objectively better examples of both genres on hand, sure, but it's nice to enjoy a quality oddball now and then. Good for the ol' critical faculties / immune system.
I did a brief skim for shared staff between EV and Ex-Ranza, but turned up nothing. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some influence, though... Ranza fans will notice lots of little mechanical parallels, like st3's barrels vs Ranza's st2 boulders (optional tools that can take down heavies quicker, if you're willing to play around with the simple soccer-esque "bump to move" interface), and EV's st4 pipelines which serve as both obstructions and the means of clearing a path once the vulnerable point is shot (totally recalls Ranza's st2 turrets).
Also GENEROUSLY CHUNKY PIXELSPLOSMS
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/oCDinkr.png)
I glanced at the back cover while MIRIN the JP boxart and was amused to see that, far from trying to hide the chunky outrage, one is given pride of place in the center screenshot!
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
Ranza's are tastefully refined, but the same enthusiasm for screen-rocking pyro is unmistakable. When something major blows it really fucken goes!
(FUCK! I shoulda held my ground instead of jumping like a weenie! But those heavy turrets will slap the shit outta you if you're not careful, and this one had his beady eye on me!)
Besides the aforementioned sense of individuality in their stage designs (lots of "one time only" mechanics and enemies, often tailored to specific setpieces), their overall handling feels familiar to me, too. There's the similarly forgiving approach to collision damage, the charge-metered super weapons that demand surprisingly deft handling for maximum carnage, and the (maybe a little unfortunate in EV's case) willingness of bosses to spam the player with sometimes unavoidable but individually near-harmless projectile flurries. On that count, I'll always maintain EV would play more congruously if Annette were piloting some sort of agile mech, with the scenery adjusted appropriately - but I hate talk of what might've been, so whatever. I'd rather just fire up Ex-Ranza!
Also, as I hope the replay shows, 95% of the game you shouldn't actually be sponging damage. I like to play as if the massive lifebar is a half (sometimes a third) of the size. ;3
Ranza is undeniably (and expectedly) the more successful game, but whether EV had any shared authorship or not, it's something I'd recommend for fellow fans of GAU's masterpiece of technical destruction.