Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[Sima Tuna]

My introduction to Metal Slug was through the ps2 anthology collection. Not only does it have input lag, but it has added loading screens on every transition. Just get the ACA releases. They feel appropriately snappy. Slowdown has always been a bit of an issue in every MS game. I'm pretty sure even the first game has moments of slowdown, and slowdown in a Metal Slug game is usually code for "lag frames can eat your inputs." So something to keep in mind. That's different from input lag, since the input eating only occurs when the game is really chugging. It also varies by game, level and screen, as far as where the slowdown might be an issue.

I can't remember which Metal Slug game famously had the "for every lag frame, the game generates an additional lag frame" problem. I think it was MS2.

Metal Slug 1 and X are absolute goddamn masterpieces, FYI. I don't like Metal Slug 3 because over half the game is the last level. Metal Slug 4 is breddy gudd. Metal Slug 2 would be my favorite if not for the lag frames problem. Metal Slug 5 is aight. Metal Slug 6 and XX are bad.

[Licorice]

Good to know it's a known issue. I guess last time I was playing the Metal Slugs, I wasn't taking them seriously, and I wasn't so sensitive to this sort of thing as I am now.

Is there any reason to play ACA releases over using open source emulation? Actually, am I mistaken in thinking ACA releases are emulation? They're not ports right? Do they have CRT shader and run ahead support? I generally consider it unethical to use closed source software when open source alternatives exist, but ofc. if the offering is better exceptions can be made.

[Sumez]

The primary reason probably is that it's legal.

They are emulated of course, but I'm not sure that keeps them from qualifying as a "port". Emulation is the ideal way to port an arcade game. There's a very simple scanline filter, but I think it also forces some really ugly smoothing. I'm not really usre why you'd want either though.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Saturn Metal Slug (with the official 1MB cart) slows down a bit more than the NG game and, though nothing major, some animation frames were cut. And has the NGCD presentation for some silly reason. Other than that, it's a fine port with tolerable CD loading and the extra mode from the NGCD, and an improved digital museum as well. The PS1 port is the one to avoid.

[copy-paster]

I picked emulation solely for unlimited use of savestates, and overclock mode. The way ACA handles save state and how you exploit them is pretty jank it feels so alien to me. IIRC BIL mentioned in some of the Slugs, if you're going for Hi-score mode the game will enforce CUM label and stretched the resolution for whatever reason and autofire is disabled.

MS1/X still chugs badly and sometimes ate my inputs, 2 is way way worse but thank god for emulation they're a non issue and I've recently nomissed X (and 2 last year) with max overclock mode. Thankfully slowdown is almost non existent in 4/5.

[BIL]

Yeah, Hi Score mode in ACA MS4+MS5 does indeed force Buckets O' Cum. 3; I could just about accept cropped res, even though it's annoying (while MS1/X/3 use it natively, MS4+5 are designed for overscan). But I absolutely will not play Bukkake Slug! Or indeed Bukakke SamSho!

Lately though, I don't care as much about recording ACA runs in Hi Score mode. Some early entries, like Rygar, don't have HS mode at all. Plus, I don't know how feasible splicing together savestated ACA runs would even be. While it's not quite M2's Anti-VixyNyan™ mechanism ("READY...?"), the ACA menu has a bright, chirpy sound effect and split-second delay. I imagine it'd be trivial to spot in even a casual watch, whether our hypothetical cheating shitbird was splicing or pause-buffering.

I just like a bit of extra proof when slapping down the occasional "CHEATZ LMAO" noob. But 90% of people who ask me if I'm TASing do so very respectfully anyway. I barely know what that shit is tbh. Back in my day, you cheated by busting into the pizza joint in a ski mask to rob the other guy in the middle of his 1CC, praying to Jesus he didn't recognise your voice and grass you to VIDEO BABYLONS. More civilised times!

Bigger issue is ACA NeoGeo's outdated autofire. I don't find autofire mandatory for Slugs, the way I do for certain STGs, but if you're expecting it, you'll want some external method. MS3's is piss-weak for the godawful vertical STG bit. You can see in my current 1LC where I just stop firing, during non-shooting waves, because it's a total jerkoff. 3; EDIT: Wait... that was in Hi Score mode, which disables autofire entirely! There's no escaping this Interstellar JO Fest!

Other than that unfortunate relic, it's standard-issue ACA. Dead-on accurate emulation with minimal accoutrements. MS1/X/3 are obsessively identical to the MVS carts, checked myself (see also Shock Troopers, NAM-1975, and Magician Lord). MS1 will drop inputs during the st5 boss's pincer rockets, exactly like the MVS cart; make sure to confirm your pivots, or risk fatal rocket backshot! Even the occasional audio glitching during the stage 1 score tally is present. This re: the PS4 releases, I've never tried Switch/XB1/Windows etc.

There is one benign (arguably benevolent) inaccuracy, common to all ACA NeoGeo titles; the sprite dropout, eg when blowing up the houses early in MS1, is far less severe than on real MVS/AES. As Jeneki has noted, ACA Blazing Star is effectively a different game; it won't flicker anywhere as harshly with a million bouncing BONARs onscreen.

Something I found interesting in ACA Slugs is, the Terminator 2-style white frames during shotgun blasts and certain massive explosions are all present and correct. Hamster often edit those out of ACA releases - see Salamander's st2 Seizurebot™, now merely Dimmerbot™, or Saigo no Nindou's ending sequence, a blistering 30hz flashbang so intense, it'll turn epileptics into skeletons IRL. They're missing from the Wii's Metal Slug Anthology, too.

FLASH FLASH FLASH ♫ (｀w´メ)

Spoiler

SLEEP TIGHT PUPPER (｀w´メ)

Spoiler

As for ACA itself, to me, the closed platform is very much a selling point. My ideal hasn't changed since the PS1/SS days, when "arcade perfect" first became broadly feasible. Translate PCBs 1) accurately, 2) with minimal added latency, to 3) a similarly closed platform. No cheats, no altered speeds, no splicing - great! Job done! Thanks bros! "TASed?" No lmao! ty for asking though!

An ideal seemingly everyone else besides M2 finds impossible to nail consistently, if at all. And M2's niche is a radically different one. They're busting their asses on super-deluxe boutique releases for the holiest of holies; you can't expect them to cover Trigon and Omega Fighter Special and the million other plucky contenders on ACA. 3; I often think, for an era with only two stalwarts, it worked out remarkably well, that way.

If the closed source is instead a drawback, and assuming the game isn't broken in MAME (Task Force Harrier, Kangaroo, Zero Team, etc), or if you prefer Arrange content, then ACA's utility is ofc much reduced. In that case, you should still avoid the PS4's "Metal Slug Anthology" like the god damn plague - as Tuna noted, it had godawful input lag on PS2, and then they emulated it on PS4, for what can only be termed non-euclidian input latency. You will swear actual Creatures From Outer Space are fucking with your brain, and/or controller!

Contra: Shattered Soldier director/producer Nobuya Nakazato and Shinobi (PS2) director Toru Shimizu Cross-Talk Interview

I remember wanting this one to be translated, alongside G-Darius interviews on the patreon archive since it was out half a decade ago ( but I'm too poor for commissions ), but here we are now. Really good read although it's a bit short.

EDIT: This is my 1666th post now, on page 444.

Loved this. I remember that brief renaissance like yesterday... Contra, Shinobi, Ninja Gaiden, and Gradius all getting high-profile and utterly balls-hardcore revivals around the same time. Kinda bittersweet to think, those proud names were all younger at the time, than the two decades that've passed since.

This is why I don't get worked up about muh SHUMPS REVIVAL/SURVIVAL, or anything. World keeps on revolving.

[Licorice]

Those were pretty informative answers from all. Thanks everyone.

I think I'm just going to do what copypaster did and pump up the emulated CPU clock just enough to avoid input eating, which I suppose makes things easier, but in a good way, and harder in another, different, but also good way too (less slow down).

Ah the luxuries of gaming in the 2020s. That said, I do realize that not playing against a "canonical" or "official" benchmark of some kind might not be to everyone's tastes.

[BIL]

Oh! One thing about input drops. Personally, I only really notice them in MS1, at its most judderingly choppy straits. EG the st5 boss pincer; as mentioned, it's dreadfully easy to tap [turn] while fending off rockets, only to experience withering horror as your avatar ignores the rocket screaming towards his back, merrily machinegunning thin air. You wanna hold [turn] juust a frame or two longer than usual, until the code catches up.

MSX-onward were distinct improvements here, and MS3/4/5 also have less slowdown in general (albeit while cutting back on MS1/X's gloriously destructible stage-sets, and crazier onscreen enemy counts). I'm sure drops may technically still occur, but I can't think of a red alert area in any of those games, unlike MS1's handful that are etched into my brain.

However! MSX did introduce a small, but potentially lethal control snafu: your turn-around animation can snuff out coinciding [attack] inputs, resulting in the ol' Dead Man's Click. Happily, it's trivial to work around; just give an extra security tap or two until the shot/grenade is safely out. Slug, by design, is very forgiving WRT shot placements; it's not like icily technical Rolling Thunder, where over-committing will get you bummed from all sides. This will occur on MVS/AES, ACA, and MAME alike, even overclocked; it's just a quirk of the engine. MS3 ironed it out, and MS4/5 pretty much CTRL+V that game's handling model, other than 5's short-lived and rarely-useful addition of sliding.

By total coincidence - its all related innit - was revisiting FC Double Dragon II the other night for quality beltscroll funnins. While it's a dear, dear favourite of mine (the most evilly vicious Two Enemies Onscreen Max ever; Hard difficulty nukes the weenie NES "Supreme Master" from orbit), it suffers from something similar. Pivot and attack too sharply, and the code won't have caught up; resulting in you not booting your target square in the nuts, but punching the thin air behind you, as he tears into your exposed back. Oof! You adjust to it eventually. Or die!

Was deeply moved beyond all consolation when I finally played the AC original, and found that no matter how frame-instantly I turned n' burned, the code would never, ever lag behind. Laser-accurate nutsack kicks all day. (｀w´メ) Observers might not even realise you're turning at all, though make no mistake, only the fiendish last boss enjoys the superhuman privilege of Yami no SouSetsu-Ryuu: Advancing Nutsack Stun Kick!

Their hillbilly cartwheels won't escape my shoe! (■｀W´■)

Spoiler

Now I write this down... it's a damn good thing, given how wickedly razor-thin the margins of victory and death are in that one. It'd play disastrously with the FC's lag, tiny as it may be.

Turnaround animations are a bad scene in general tbh. Looks neat, but at what cost Absolute priority to the input or bust m8.

[Udderdude]

Slave Zero X is also now out. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903 ... ve_Zero_X/

[BIL]

Neato :O Single-plane slasher/brawler with CYBER BOOSTIN and big fookin sprites? Getting Mad Stalker: FULL METAL FORCE vibes from that! Sorry I mean FULL METAL FORTH

[samspot]

NG1 is my favorite NES game and I absolutely love it. But I do think the act 6 checkpoint is badly designed and suspect it was to pad out playtime. It would feel better if all the stages did the same thing.

However, that checkpoint has its own magic. The first time through the final act is absolutely brutal. By the time you are sent back you probably feel like you will never make it to the boss again. By forcing you to replay the whole act you get this great sense of progression, but only if you aren’t too demoralized to continue. But if you live the struggle then you’ll enjoy this process in the end.

I have beat NG1 legitimately before. But I still have a lot of trouble with the 2nd boss in the rush. These days I usually play to him and then just turn it off. It turns out you don’t have to beat a game to have a great time with it.

PS: If you haven’t tried it, the NG randomizer is quite fun. You feel amazing dodging and dispatching birds and green ninjas you didn’t even know were coming.

[BIL]

The knockback is pure abyssal Marmite, for sure. Says a lot that it was a bug adopted and refined. (NG2+3 sending you back just one stage, and retaining your subweapon between bosses, but removing the lifebar refills) Mere headcanon, but with NG1 being so closely modeled on Castlevania, it wouldn't surprise me if they'd originally planned a similarly trivial checkpoint for their own multi-phase endboss extravaganza.

I'm a fan of it, and the ideal of forcing players to really grapple with a nails-hard endgame, rather than coasting over the line. It promotes and rewards the close engagement typically reserved for 1CC conquests; I like to think this might rouse a few latent Hard Gamer souls. I loved but never truly appreciated NG until watching Ruldra, a veteran arcade clearer, put it through its paces.

(ala Onimusha's juggles and SFII's cancels forging entire new genres, it's also just innately heartwarming when a bug does so well for itself "Computer says no?" more like Computer Says JYEAAAA BOYEEEE "Hey, that's pretty good!")

But "force" is the operative word there. It's undeniably heavy-handed, just as easily prompting ill-fated wallheadbutts, and the dreaded Mad. A certain outbreak of which created this very thread, rumoured to be haunted. The rumours are accurate. >_> "Hard gaming" is a distinctly elective pursuit... I'm typically* gonna side with the skate or die camp, simply due to my hobbyist preferences, but NG2+3 had the right idea, leavening it a bit.

"Know that the way of the shinobi is terribly harsh!" - Ryu Hayabusa (as quoted by Tomonobu "ImageFight > R-Type" Itagaki)

(*atypical: Metal Slug 3's Xbox port, which infamously disables continues on Final Mission, IE over 50% of the game. faaack m8! an onerous marathon even for vets with the luxury of credit-feeding. demanding a blind 1CC oversteps the line from demanding to outright punitive)

Also, welcome aboard! As is the privilege of all braves who've scaled the wall and overcome the Great Birb Shitstorm of 1988, slaying Jackie "King of Devils" Oh and his BFF Jigoku no Jumbo Shrimp, please nominate an avatar for the front page's ROSTER OF CHAMPEENS. If you prefer, one may be assigned - but be aware, this thread's current steward is a big fan of Gynoug and Cho Aniki! Now, join our aeons-long wait for absent liege Edmond The Mad; japed by irreverent sorts as Late Lord Waldorf, or The King Who Was Walled, though their subsequent wary glances rather wilt such barbs.

[jehu]

Slave Zero X is also now out. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903 ... ve_Zero_X/

Dying for impressions on this game from someone who’s a diehard of these side-scrolling character action games. Gaming press seems to think it’s too demanding and unforgiving - always enough to get my hackles up, but not enough to discount the possibility entirely that it isn’t all that well designed. Does seem to have some of the ingredients of a killer game, though - a mix between PSX Strider and Metal Gear Revengeance.

I’m not ‘allowed’ to play anything until I clear the STG I’m working on, but - if I do get to it before anyone else shares thoughts - I’ll share what I think here.

[BulletMagnet]

Former(?) forum member Mischief Maker posted a five-star review on the game's GOG page.

[Vanguard]

Haven't been posting here lately, but I did recently pick up a platformer I thought some of you might enjoy. It's called 30XX and it's a roguelite with gameplay lifted from Megaman X and Megaman Zero.



It does a great job of capturing the Rockman X look and feel. It has both local and online co-op. Every Super Nintendo kid wished X and Zero could team up in two player mode, and now their legally distinct likenesses finally can. 30XX uses randomized levels, and it makes them by assembling "chunks" of levels created by a level designer. The chunks are fairly big for a roguelite and it feels more like the game is reaching into a bag of handmade encounters and lining them up one after rather than assembling an original level out of basic building blocks. I think I like it better this way. You can optionally include community-made chunks in your levels, and you can choose to only allow chunks verified by the game developers as sufficiently good quality. I think that's a great idea!

The game has RPG-like elements where you build up your character throughout a run by collecting upgrade items. Items are awarded for beating bosses and midbosses, completing optional challenges, finding hidden areas, and more. Usually you are given a choice between three upgrades, giving you some degree of control over your build. Sometimes you get lucky and your items almost win the game for you, sometimes you can't get any damage boosts and boss fights drag on like you're playing Megaman & Bass. Usually it works out fine and the items give some extra variety between playthroughs. Nina, the Megaman X analogue character, can get different shot types, such as a three way spread or an automatic shot that fires very rapidly, and she can combine her weapons together. If you get lucky you can make some obscene combos. Ace, the Zero-like character, can switch his beam saber out for any of eight other weapons, but can't combine or dual wield them.

30XX has an interesting difficulty system that lets you adjust all kinds of things, like reducing the health you gain from healing items, adding a time limit that damages you at zero, or making spikes instant kill you. You get permanent rewards like higher starting health or special weapon energy for completing progressively harder difficulties. It's a great way to allow the player to tailor their experience to their own preference and a reason to keep coming back to try one more run on a higher difficulty, though I don't love that there are permanent health upgrades. You get pretty close to the cap pretty quickly, at least. Per roguelite standards, it's a single life game, if you die you try again from the start. It also has an optional "Mega mode" without permanent death which I have never tried.

It's a randomized arcade Rockman X with co-op and unnecessary but entertaining RPG elements and it does a really good job at being that specific thing.

[Herr Schatten]

I’ve recently acquired a jp cart of Shadow Dancer MD, and I’ve finally found some time to sit down with it. Splendid game, if a little too generous with the extends. Feels much like a legit sequel to arcade Shinobi and Shadow Dancer.

Has anyone ever bothered to make a chart of all the branches of the franchise and how they are connected?
I’d group them roughly into two trilogies and one pair. Each of these groups does play very differently from the other two.

1. Shinobi - Shadow Dancer - Shadow Dancer MD
2. Super Shinobi - Super Shinobi II - Shin Shinobi Den
3. GG Shinobi - GG Shinobi II

On a sidenote, I was delighted when the credits roll informed me that the graphics were done by none other than Phenix Rie aka Rieko Kodama. The game's visuals are a lot less flashy than those of its sibling Super Shinobi, but expertly rendered and atmospheric as hell despite their relative genericness.

[BIL]

Haven't been posting here lately, but I did recently pick up a platformer I thought some of you might enjoy. It's called 30XX and it's a roguelite with gameplay lifted from Megaman X and Megaman Zero.

Great post as always! I've got a whole raft of your PC recs bookmarked at this point (edit: and I see it has a NSW release, interesting). Marked for index! Which is still a thing being worked on, I swear. ;3 Currently trying to cram in dates and platforms without breaking lines, or resorting to tiny font.

1. Shinobi - Shadow Dancer - Shadow Dancer MD
2. Super Shinobi - Super Shinobi II - Shin Shinobi Den
3. GG Shinobi - GG Shinobi II

My thoughts precisely (well, re: the first two; I've yet to play the GGs, to my regret - savin' em for later ).

The console trilo's overseas naming is kinda unfortunate in this regard. "The Revenge of Shinobi" implies a sequel to the AC game, obscuring Shadow Dancer. "Shinobi III" compounds the error. And then "Shinobi Legions / X" comes outta nowhere, when in Japan, it's clearly a Gradius III-esque hyperbole. (~From SUPER to TRUE LEGEND~ )

Much more of a Gradius/Salamander situation, as you say. Same protagonist, different series.

On a sidenote, I was delighted when the credits roll informed me that the graphics were done by none other than Phenix Rie aka Rieko Kodama. The game's visuals are a lot less flashy than those of its sibling Super Shinobi, but expertly rendered and atmospheric as hell despite their relative genericness.

Always thought the first and final bosses were killer horror riffs on feudal standards. More towards the gunmetal end of the spectrum, the strafing gunship with fully articulated pilots from Rounds 2 and 3 is absolutely the kind of thing I'd pine over in magazine screenshots BITD. And now too!

[Steven]

How much work am I looking at for a 1CC or no miss in any given Contra game, and which are the hardest and easiest? I have the Contra collection thingy they put out a while ago but never really played it due to lack of time and much greater interest in a different Konami IP that I discovered at the same time (Dracula. Yeah, I was a Mac/PC/Sega kid growing up, so I missed all of the pre-Genesis stuff). I also know that arcade Contra has some weirdness on that collection but not on ACA, although I don't know what the weirdness is.

[Vanguard]

How much work am I looking at for a 1CC or no miss in any given Contra game, and which are the hardest and easiest? I have the Contra collection thingy they put out a while ago but never really played it due to lack of time and much greater interest in a different Konami IP that I discovered at the same time (Dracula. Yeah, I was a Mac/PC/Sega kid growing up, so I missed all of the pre-Genesis stuff). I also know that arcade Contra has some weirdness on that collection but not on ACA, although I don't know what the weirdness is.

A 1CC generally doesn't take a ton of work, a no miss can be tough depending on the game. NES Contra 1 is one of the best and one of the easier ones. Of the Contras I'm familiar with the hardest are the arcade games, which aren't as good as the console Contras, and Contra 3 on hard mode. I don't know about the ports, but the arcade games themselves have aiming weirdness. The console Contras have instant 8 directional aiming. In the arcade Contras if you're facing right and try to aim up, your character will sloowwly raise his gun, which allows you to fire at any angle, but the delay is absolutely not worth it. It feels especially bad because their console counterparts control flawlessly.

[BIL]

How much work am I looking at for a 1CC or no miss in any given Contra game, and which are the hardest and easiest? I have the Contra collection thingy they put out a while ago but never really played it due to lack of time and much greater interest in a different Konami IP that I discovered at the same time (Dracula. Yeah, I was a Mac/PC/Sega kid growing up, so I missed all of the pre-Genesis stuff). I also know that arcade Contra has some weirdness on that collection but not on ACA, although I don't know what the weirdness is.

As Vanguard says, Contra 1CCs are relatively easy - generous firepower and mobility are series trademarks - but 1LCs can be exponentially trickier. Same as most 1HKO action games, really; but more pronounced here, between the dominating firepower and lack of checkpoints.

Again concurring with VAN, FC Contra is one of the easiest, and one of the best. Beyond the simple joy of its Spreadgun - an immortally gratifying all-range shredder - the stage topography is exceptionally well-tailored to its runner zako RNG. Even on your millionth time through, you'll have to be vigilant of sudden jumpers and shooters. This simmering tension is something none of the Konami-made console sequels, or even the shorter arcade original, ever really recaptured. (that might apply to the various outsourced games over the years too, but I've not played 'em)

Hardest 1CC, again limiting to the Konami games, is probably Contra Spirits. It's a fairly technical "event rush," predating the style Treasure and Konami espoused in the following years. Quite a bit of brute memo, and plenty of frisky RNG on top of that. It's a great game too; the joie de vivre of its setpieces still impresses. Bookended by a couple of brief but furied run/gun sequences, the latter a brief return to the FC's classic Deadly Jungle Gym; lots of unruly terrain for runners to go nuts on. Its direct sequels Hard Corps and Shin Contra are similar from a design standpoint, but generally simpler to keep under control, once you know the basic layouts and patterns. RNG is a rare run-killing hazard there, more of a constant in Spirits.

Hard mode is effectively its second loop and true end (the game will say as much if you clear Normal). A Hard 1LC is pretty intense, easily an arcade-calibre challenge. Don't play Hard first! It's blatantly designed for Normal clearers who've seen the game at least once, and even they'll get wrong-footed at first. Interestingly, the classic JAMMA warning is baked into the game's ROM... it would totally make sense that an arcade release was mooted at some point, and Hard is most definitely worthy of second loop status.

Arcade Super Contra is nails-hard, but also very short. The second loop (JP) / Very Hard (US; they play identically) is a wickedly tough 1LC, possibly tougher than Spirits' Hard NoMiss. Deadly setpieces topped off by biblical zako hordes, randomly-spawning gunmen liberally peppered in. The absolute body-shredding carnage of a mastered 1LC is its own reward, imo. The rocketing bodycount and floor-shaking explosions radiate late 80s blockbuster largesse. More dubiously, just like its arcade predecessor, the deliberately laggy aiming is an entire ornery beast unto itself.

TLDR: 1CC FC Contra for an easy yet rollickingly good intro. Try Spirits if you want a much tougher 1CC with a rugged second loop in Hard. Arcade Super is leaner and arguably even meaner, but you have to factor its punishing aim lag into that.

re: the arcade duo's aim lag - yeah, it's a poorly-aged design choice that will leave many cold. Mitigating it is a big part of their challenge; they really pushed the Aliens smartgun aesthetic, where your firepower is torrential, but requires herculean strength to direct. You can see in the original's attract mode, how the player manfully steers his Spread with triceps of steel, versus st4's opening miniboss... but it's a lot simpler to just bunnyhop it. (it disappears while you're airborne, or sticking to cardinal directions; workarounds that'll likely become part of muscle memory)

I love both games, but I'd nix the lag in a heartbeat. As indeed the underrated Hideyuki "Falco" Tsujimoto did, in his directorial followups Sunset Riders and Mystic Warriors. imo, both warrant mentioning in a series retrospective as much as Nobuya Nakazato's console quartet (Spirits/HardCops/Shin/Neo). The 1CCs of both are at a nice comfy spot, essentially combining the arcade Contras' run/gun simplicity with the console entries' flawless controls. Not cakewalks, actually MW can be infamously punishing at a few points, but very realistic clears if you're used to arcade gaming.

Despite Sunset having 1HKOs, and Mystic a lifebar, the latter is the tougher game. Japan versions recommended; Sunset's 2ALL kinda overstays its welcome, owing to the silly bonus rounds, but it's a nicer project than the US's endless looper. Mystic is a single tight loop in Japan; IIRC, the Rank will max out well before the end, and the Loop is (as with Super Contra and Sunset) simply a repeat of the first with the Rank perma-maxed. Works better as a one-and-done, imo.

re: Contra Anniversary Collection, its port of the arcade original is a rare miss for M2. It's got tons of slowdown, to the point you can bog down stage 1 by firing your weapon. Comparing it to the ACA release, it's almost like Metal Slug 2 vs X. Not that extreme - what is? - but definitely a bit shocking. M2 being M2, I'd wondered if the slowdown was actually PCB-accurate; but besides board footage suggesting otherwise, this version also has the broken 3D stage enemies of literally every emulation ever prior to Gotch's ACA release. So I'm guessing it's just a rare bungle.

(also, the collection's Super Contra is missing the intro voiceover- as great a war crime as anything the aliens did plays fine otherwise, but ACA will again remedy )

From what I've seen, the collection's console emulation is M2's usual A1 perfect; I could happily replace my JP carts with the PS4 version, if need be. I won't, but you know what I mean. ;3

[Sumez]

Fwiw I think Shin/Shattered Soldier is the only game that actually recognizes a 1LC right? With its S ranking, which also requires killing every enemy and boss part.
And even that game I believe have a very tiny bit of leeway across a full game. Or am I misremembering?

[Sima Tuna]

Contra is one of those nes games that often gets recommended to people looking for an NES clear. You can practice the game even on original hardware, thanks to the konami code.

[BIL]

Fwiw I think Shin/Shattered Soldier is the only game that actually recognizes a 1LC right? With its S ranking, which also requires killing every enemy and boss part.
And even that game I believe have a very tiny bit of leeway across a full game. Or am I misremembering?

Nope, you're right - Shin lets you restart a mission you'd otherwise miss the S-Rank on, but it counts as a credit used. So by default, you have like two restarts for the whole game.

And indeed, it doesn't acknowledge a SHIN NOMISSU, ie no restarts used. I got one BITD, after feeling pressured by the DMC1 NG SB ALL bois who frequented ~Teh FAQs~ then. Was rewarded with only my haunted face staring back at me in the TV's reflection. No regrets.

[Udderdude]

Since this is basically the "talk about games" thread on here and I'm too lazy to make a new thread, this game is worth checking out if you like Space Harrier-like 3D action games. However it's still in development. It looks pretty cool. https://twitter.com/oyasumi_wkshop/stat ... 5275684030

[BIL]

Since this is basically the "talk about games" thread on here and I'm too lazy to make a new thread, this game is worth checking out if you like Space Harrier-like 3D action games. However it's still in development. It looks pretty cool. https://twitter.com/oyasumi_wkshop/stat ... 5275684030

Super Scalers are always welcome! As with Cabalesques and Gun Shooting, better here than orphaned away elsewhere.

And damn, that looks good. Nails the Afterburner SPEEDSHOCK of rugged pixel landscapes scaling at blistering pace, the horizon tilting wildly. At some point that aesthetic became timeless, imo. Much like beltscrolling, there's an innate immediacy and precision transcending the original purpose of simulated 3D space.

[Sumez]

Nope, you're right - Shin lets you restart a mission you'd otherwise miss the S-Rank on, but it counts as a credit used. So by default, you have like two restarts for the whole game.

And indeed, it doesn't acknowledge a SHIN NOMISSU, ie no restarts used.

Oh I wasn't aware that was possible. But I meant I can't remember if it's possible to get an overall S rank even if one stage was only A rank. I'm pretty sure I just S'ed all of them, but this is over 20 years ago no, sheesh I'm fucking old

[BIL]

Hm, that I can't recall, either. Getting up there in years myself. I do remember having to deliberately flunk a few missions to see the Bad End, the one where you don't go past Galuga, and the big bads PWN everyone with their laz0r. I had no idea it even existed until someone mentioned it, since I'd been practicing the initial four stages until I got consistent S ranks in each.

[Sima Tuna]

Since this is basically the "talk about games" thread on here and I'm too lazy to make a new thread, this game is worth checking out if you like Space Harrier-like 3D action games. However it's still in development. It looks pretty cool. https://twitter.com/oyasumi_wkshop/stat ... 5275684030

We do also have a rail shooters thread where you could (also) post it if you wanted.

viewtopic.php?t=51217

New rail shooters are definitely desired. Not nearly enough are made anymore. Hell, there weren't that many being made back when the genre was still alive.

[copy-paster]

Nope, you're right - Shin lets you restart a mission you'd otherwise miss the S-Rank on, but it counts as a credit used. So by default, you have like two restarts for the whole game.

And indeed, it doesn't acknowledge a SHIN NOMISSU, ie no restarts used.

Oh I wasn't aware that was possible. But I meant I can't remember if it's possible to get an overall S rank even if one stage was only A rank. I'm pretty sure I just S'ed all of them, but this is over 20 years ago no, sheesh I'm fucking old

You can't. Overall S Rank needs to be S on all stages, and if you wanna rack up credits count you need to play on a certain hours (just like how default player increase works) but needs to be done on 2 Player co-op mode.

The only feasible way to see whether a run is S-rank no restart is to see Battle Log and see it's scores, if the end score is over 100k or above it means the run is no restart.

[copy-paster]

edit post: moved onto next page