Jonny2x4 wrote:
It's generally assumed online that Super Contra never got a Euro release because the first game was released as Gryzor over there, but from my understanding they simply got the same version that was distributed in the U.S. (it certainly got covered by UK publications such as Your Sinclair and Amiga Power that reviewed arcade games as side-content).
I remember that I was perplexed by reading the disclaimer for the U.S. market. Maybe I also played
Gryzor (i.e. the EU version), as I have this faint memory that it took me a while to connect the two games as one of the sequel of the other. At least for Italy, US imports, some JAP imports (and, well, bootlegs) were easy to find and buy, for arcade operators.
Yes. The 2-Player export version is labeled the World version, while the 4-player is labeled U.S. However, looking at the flyer on Flyer Fever, it seems the U.S. actually got both, the 2-player and the 4-player version of Crime Fighters. It's possible it might had been distributed the same way in Europe too.
https://www.flyerfever.com/post/9705468 ... e-fighters
The 2-player versions of Crime Fighters are certainly easier (they even added a back kick button), but the export version still lacks the risque humor from the Japanese version like the "Are you covered" billboard on the first level and the gay gimp enemies that attack by humping and licking you.
OK, I am wondering which version I played, as I clearly remember playing the version with the gay gimp enemies, but I do not remember if I did so in the arcade (they were not censored in
Vendetta/Crime fighters 2, were they?), or via MAME at a later time (say, I don't remember what button configuration I was using).
Re: Konami hitboxes. I am going through their old titles and I am definitely thinking that their various arcade teams had...interesting ideas about balance, hit-boxes and game design. How about a dedicated thread on this?
For instance:
TMNT2 arcade edition is a quarter muncher, but of a certain kind. I spent some time with it in the last two days. It plays like a faster version of the first game (another notorious quarter muncher): a safe way to handle *enemies in general* is to progress very slowly, let 1-2 enemies appear, and use a hit, hit, hit sequence to kill off most of them. If you can avoid crowd control altogether, it is rather easier, even if still not easy at all. Among other things, goons will get smarter over time and try to attack you in such a way that you are forced to scroll right, thereby getting one kazillion new enemies to spawn.
And then there are the bosses and the "surfing/skating" sections. For the skating sections, I believe that one attack (hit+jump, low jump attack counting for three hits/single kill) may be exploited to just handle all enemies. I remember something like that working for the second half of the third stage. For the bosses...I am figuring them out, but some exploits are more or less of the "one attack works and must be repeated ad nauseam, the rest is instant death". I'd add that if you move to one side for, like, more than 1/6th of the screen, the character dashes and a few million enemies appear. Nice design choice, folks.
Honestly, I had a moment of epiphany and wondered: what the programmers were thinking? I think that we could come up with the same conclusion with quite a few of their titles...
Chomsky, Buckminster Fuller, Yunus and Glass would have played Battle Garegga, for sure.
