ITS MAHVEL BAYBEEE
Really digging
ACA Marvel Land, having previously dabbled in the very nice MD port. The SMB3 influences are everywhere, aaand it's kinda nice tbh. That's a good game to observe. Relaxing, solidly-built platformer with just the right frission of
Hard Scrolling Violence And Tactics via its very nice, very un-Mario screen-lashing whip. Even the endstage rock/paper/scissors aren't too bad, some decent satisfaction in parrying that shitty bird and seeing him squawk.
velo wrote:I've been putting some time into Legend of Kage without quite working out how it's meant to be played. Sword kills yield more points than shuriken, ok. Grinding ninjas for points sounds like a good plan on paper, but I take it rank is shooting up meanwhile because it gets me killed before long. Jumping into the trees never seems like a good idea, but there's a persistent risk of grabbing ahold of one accidentally. Random shurikens get through the holes in my sword mashing. I don't usually know I'm gonna die til I'm dead already.
Yeah, scoring is very much in the spirit of early titan Spartan X, where punches net more than longer-ranged kicks. An early buzz/graze mechanic, kinda! Punches get more XP in FC Double Dragon, now I think back.
I love both the AC version and its very impressive FC port, in concept - super lean, mean, yet varied AC gauntlets both - though I never stay with either for as long as I might, had they [jump] buttons and liberated aiming. [up=jump] is hard for me to accept even in relatively harmless cases, like the even more influential Green Beret. Here, it genuinely spoils a good chunk of game design, namely ground-to-air shooting. And as you've noticed, trees must be treated as terrain hazards, rather like GB and Castlevania's ladders and staircases - if you're going to need a jump/subweapon, don't be near them.
All this established, I counsel reserved, ground-based play
not just for the sake of avoiding control snafus, but because it's genuinely effective and imo quite fun. Don't mash the sword! You will indeed fall afoul of the deliberate cooldown. Better to learn its circular arc and timing, as well as the collision boundaries on enemy shuriken. I think of it more as a burst shield; this goes for close-quarters slashing, as well. Even if an enemy parries and hops away from your would-be killing strike, you'll be safe from their own blade. The balance of deadly 1HKO tension to reliable defense and counter-attack is superb, imo, the mechanic I always leave the most impressed by.
As for shuriken, I reserve them for enemies 1) on the ground and 2) outside sword range. Chasing/charging at an enemy cut down on your defensive reaction window, just shoot the bastards. As for jumping/tree-climbing... I don't recommend either, frankly. False sense of security, in my experience, and a needless complication in a very fast-paced 1HKO scenario. Crouching, otoh, can save your ass versus Monks. And leave you a sitting duck VS ninja, so don't get too comfy down there!
It's a weird game, like a single screen platformer plus scrolling. Like, why have a kill-quota counter on stage 2 but not for the monks in stage 1? I'm down for the count at the break of fall. I'd like to make it through winter before I stick a fork in it for the time being.
I consider that part of its ancient charm; "sidescrolling action" wasn't quite the established form it'd be in a couple years, so instead you get a Donkey Kong-esque assortment of stage types, based around common mechanics. There's the open forest skirmish with an army of ninja... the watery infiltration scene... scaling the outer wall... and then finally storming the keep, before escaping with HIME-CHAN for a final one-on-one duel with the enemy's #1 killer.
Pretty filmic, all-told, yet super tightly-paced; always a great combo in AC gaming. I distinctly remember being a little kid playing the NES cart, and finding the shift from sidescrolling to vertical climbing pretty novel. I shouldn't have, in hindsight, as I'd already played Contra, which features a flat-out alternate gametype in addition to its own vertical-exclusive stage. I suppose it was the still very novel lunar jumping that made Kage's equivalent stand out.
I want to say I've hit Winter in the AC and FC versions both, but it's been a while. I can't recall how/if it loops, even. I'll revisit a bit, it's a game exceptionally well-suited for that.
Such a badass IGA NINJA aesthetic, in-game and out. Something IREM's Contra-hybridising tribute really picked up and ran with, in its own blood-soaked necro-feudal nightscape. Taito's game is more Kurosawa-esque, fairytale esque (a densetsu, you might say!).
(16bit ver is Ryu being chased through the titular abandoned mine by a roving gang of polka musicians and a horde of giant mosquitos)
I forgot my usual followup Ear Bleach post, so here it is - pls dun sue meh 
for use after SNES Basilisk Mine Field exposure
Does at least feature some killer official arts from lead designer Masato Kato aka RUNMARU, iirc. So rad. (click 4 full rez)
I can still recall particularly bad covers of favourite songs long after forgetting the clowns responsible. Joy Division's beloved pop dirge 
), that band's characteristically aggressive drumming - Stephen Morris audibly getting out in front of his bandmates' guitars, not merely keeping time for them - instantly leapt out at me, as a young college noob who'd grown up knowing perishingly little of popular music, outside of the blandest Hootie FM guff. It's not at all dissimilar to NG1's insistent backbeats... eg 
Also a true connoisseur's pick, with NGIII's classy 
), and Babby's First MIDI soundtracks.
) when he collaborated with the genre's ultimate sidemen MC Rope and Professor Chair.
(while Hacienda-loving Barney couldn't wait to get shot of his 
)
Musta been so rad at the time, for hard-bitten observers; I was a bit too young to really appreciate its channeling of the zeitgeist (shared by its close contemporary and NG-alke GUN-DEC). Which in NGIII's case, is dovetailed into some pretty nice cosmic horror via the BATTLESHIP FROM SOME OTHER DIMENSION, now I think about it.
I'd go with Shatterhand if forced to pick, but I'm more endeared to Solbrain.
An early episode in what would become Natsume's consistent record of censored BOOBS N' DEATH. 
A legacy of injustice, only now driven back via their Tengo Project!
