Musha, Serei Senshi Spriggan and Robo Aleste?

[MrOldSchoolCool]

I know that Compile shooters are generally considered to be too easy by people on this board, but I've always found Compile games to be fun to play. How would you all compare this lot of 3 games?

[Xyga]

MUSHA is badass but too easy indeed.
Spriggan is really boring.
The best thing I can say about Robo is 'meh', they did something bad to the gameplay and balance.

Super Aleste is superior to all three.

[EmperorIng]

I haven't played Robo Aleste too much but it has a lot of long stretches where not much is happening (e.g. the train stage, entirety of)

Spriggan has extra difficulty modes that ramp up the excitement a bit, which is a welcome addition because normal is kind of a snooze fest (it is also the lowest difficulty setting in the game). The weapons are unbalanced (clear winners and many losers) but again the difficulty helps with not relying totally on the "kill everything always" combo. The caravan modes (usually something I am not in to) are also enjoyable.

I haven't played enough of MUSHA but every time I play it on normal I make it to the last stage with minimal effort. I enjoy it for being a decent shooter that's a little over-long. Lasers, like in all compile games, are overpowered.

Of the three, I'd personally say: Spriggan > MUSHA > Robo Aleste

Super Aleste would probably go between MUSHA and Spriggan but I haven't beaten it (second level too boring lol).

[jepjepjep]

I haven't spent much time with the others but Spriggan I really enjoyed Spriggan.

Some of the compile shmup guys went on to make Mahou Daisakusen at Raizing. The first Mahou game feels a lot like those shooters but w arcade difficulty. Sweet game.

[MintyTheCat]

They are all worth a play I would say. musha and Spriggan look similar but have very different weapon systems. Spriggan takes a lot of time to work out the weapon combinations with musha being more straight forward.

denin is not bad but not as much fun as musha. denin has more of a story going on throughout the game and feels more like a traditional "war film" as you may have seen such as ran from Japan in the 1980s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ran_(film)

It also blatantly mixes up Japanese military history and melds it with an alternate history that's a little amusing at times.

Super Aleste is more a traditional space shmup and is like GunHed and is a very good shmup indeed with hardly any real slow down.

I would recommend that you play them all but avoid Spriggan 2 and although Spriggan Powered on the SFC looks 'ok' it is nothing special I feel as a shmup.

Cheers,

Minty.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I prefer Compile shmups playable with only two buttons, so I liked Seirei Senshi Spriggan better than Musha/Robo Aleste. Also, its Caravan modes are prety unique, in a good way.
(Two "suicide bullets" modes of Super Aleste are not all that easy, but you didn't ask about that and it's a more-than-two-buttons shmup as well.)
Gunhed's harder difficulties are accessible via code (look up the strategy section on here).

[To Far Away Times]

MUSHA is easy (by shmup standards) but excellent. One of my favorite Genesis games.

Spriggan is my pick for the best game on the Turbografx. Really wonderful game, I played through this enough time to be able to 1 life clear it. I still like MUSHA just a bit more though.

Robo Aleste never clicked with me. I tried several times and got bored. I'd pass on this one.

[Kollision]

I must be the only one who prefers Robo Aleste over MUSHA.

[Squire Grooktook]

MUSHA is badass but too easy indeed.
Spriggan is really boring.
The best thing I can say about Robo is 'meh', they did something bad to the gameplay and balance.

Super Aleste is superior to all three.

I agree with Super Aleste being superior. But from what I've played, Spriggan is really quite nice on the harder difficulties.

Super Aleste would probably go between MUSHA and Spriggan but I haven't beaten it (second level too boring lol).

Remember to play it on the hardest difficulty setting. It becomes a completely different game, and the most intense and tight thing Compile ever created. It goes from being the worst on default to the best on hardest settings.

[Obiwanshinobi]

From what I remember, Robo Aleste lags more than most Compile shmups (so does Power Strike II SMS, but this one can be forgiven). I've only played these emulated, mind.

[KAI]

Milestone was funded by member of Compile. Just saiyan.

[pegboy]

Super Aleste/Space Megaforce on Wild difficulty is pretty fucking awesome. On normal the game is pretty much a joke difficulty wise (still fun) but on the hardest setting it becomes an entirely different game. It's certainly one of the best console exclusive shumups ever made IMO.

[Despatche]

dennin aleste is one of the few compile games that actually makes shooting things fun.

[M.Knight]

Milestone was funded by member of Compile. Just saiyan.

As much as I love Milestone games, I thought Compile shmups were, well, sorely lacking in terms of pacing and fun even though you can see where some of the Milestone mechanics came from. I guess the constraints of the arcade did a big favor to Milestone games.
Out of the three games mentioned in the OP, I tried MUSHA for instance and thought it was goddamn boring and each stage dragged on forever. Wasn't too fond of Super Aleste either but I haven't put that much time in it, as even the "short" mode feels really long and AFAIK there's checkpoints in the game as if it wasn't long enough already.
On the other hand, I am quite fond of Zanac Neo which is still long but really fun, engaging and varied, not to mention the cool k.h.d.n. soundtrack.

[Tatsuya79]

Love Spriggan. So colourful, great music, great stages, great weapons, smells like Pc-Engine which is awesome.

Musha is really great too, but perhaps feels a bit long at times.

Robo Aleste was a chore to play. Nothing happens, until you reach the end if you're still awake.
I love Compile but sometimes they just mess up.

[Despatche]

Milestone was funded by member of Compile. Just saiyan.

As much as I love Milestone games, I thought Compile shmups were, well, sorely lacking in terms of pacing and fun even though you can see where some of the Milestone mechanics came from. I guess the constraints of the arcade did a big favor to Milestone games.
Out of the three games mentioned in the OP, I tried MUSHA for instance and thought it was goddamn boring and each stage dragged on forever. Wasn't too fond of Super Aleste either but I haven't put that much time in it, as even the "short" mode feels really long and AFAIK there's checkpoints in the game as if it wasn't long enough already.
On the other hand, I am quite fond of Zanac Neo which is still long but really fun, engaging and varied, not to mention the cool k.h.d.n. soundtrack.

you are a gentleman and a scholar

see like, the above post. everyone's supposed to hate dennin aleste so they say "this game sucks, <compile syndrome>", even though dennin is one of the few games that doesn't do that, and then they go and praise musha, a game that does exactly that. things like this are so infuriating and are what has made me lose all faith in personal opinion

zanac neo is where all the milestone people came from. i doubt many of them worked on earlier games

[Kollision]

my final 2 cents about Compile is that from all shooters I tried from them my favorite is still good old NES Zanac.
this game is a thing of 8-bit beauty

[Xyga]

We don't necessarily need objectivity, I have an idea that with Compile it's a matter of taste, for instance I love MUSHA and I can't stand Zanac Neo.
Go figure !

Well, play them all you know. It's worth the time.

[Tatsuya79]

I love Zanac Neo though, hope that won't give AIDS to Despatche or something.

[Strider77]

It will.

[gameoverDude]

Spriggan is probably one of Compile's better ones. However, one thing that makes it too easy on normal is the way it handles bombing. If you have any weapon orbs, you can bomb. This is offset somewhat by losing weapon power, though.

Playing on Hard or higher is how it's truly meant to be. You'll probably think twice about giving up that item to use as a bomb.

[louisg]

I like Spriggan the most of those 3, but I actually think some of Compile's other efforts are better. I really like Power Strike 2 on the Master System, and think it may be their best game in terms of balance, pacing, and challenge. When it comes to MUSHA, I start out liking it, but it just seems to drag due to the very long stages and general easiness. I'd recommend Super Aleste though: Great stages, lots of creativity, interesting enemies, awesome powerups, and it's a good challenge too on the higher settings.

Both GG Aleste games are also quite good too, though I'm currently playing GG Aleste 1 and it's not all that difficult, even on Special Mode. It *is* highly entertaining though, and you can't just cruise through it without thinking.

[OmegaFlareX]

Don't forget Gunhed/Blazing Lazers. People tend to lump it in with the soldier games, but I think it's better than the first two.

[louisg]

Don't forget Gunhed/Blazing Lazers. People tend to lump it in with the soldier games, but I think it's better than the first two.

That one's cool, but somehow it didn't click with me much.

What about the games like the original Aleste/Power Strike or Zanac? Don't those have procedurally generated levels or something? They're definitely busy as hell. Kinda interesting from a design perspective if nothing els.e

[TransatlanticFoe]

Level design is static in Power Strike/Aleste and a few waves of enemies are fixed, but most waves and types depend on which weapon you have and how long you've stayed alive for.

[MintyTheCat]

Don't forget Gunhed/Blazing Lazers. People tend to lump it in with the soldier games, but I think it's better than the first two.

That one's cool, but somehow it didn't click with me much.

What about the games like the original Aleste/Power Strike or Zanac? Don't those have procedurally generated levels or something? They're definitely busy as hell. Kinda interesting from a design perspective if nothing els.e

With Zanac from memory the levels are statically generated but the enemies are not. I forget how they did that but one method is to sample how the user presses buttons and use that to seed the enemy patterns some how. Again, I do not know how they did this but it does feel a bit different each time you play it to me.

What I like about Compile is that they were not shy to try things.

GunHed is good but has fairly long stages and many levels in the game - it is seven or ten?

Super Aleste is really good.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Zanac has got rank (neatly eplained via backstory) anticipating that of Batle Garegga. Suiciding is viable tactics etc. It's particulary apparent in Zanac Special Version (part of Zanac X Zanac compilation), where the screen gets busier than ever before, but you're given more firepower to compensate.

[evil_ash_xero]

MUSHA is a great game, but the first stage is a bit too long (and looks the same). But it's a classic.

Spriggan is great, as well. I would almost say it's better than MUSHA. A lot of people say it's the best shmup on the PC CD, so that's saying a lot.

Robo...I never could get into this. It's a weird one.

Compile had some problems, that I didn't like. And that was that some of the stages were too long, and too repetitive.
I don't think Spriggan suffers from that at all. MUSHA, some. I don't think Robo does either.

In terms of difficulty, they are easier than a lot of the shmups that people like on here. I have 1CC'd Spriggan and MUSHA, and I don't 1CC a lot of games.
I find that a lot of PC Engine shmups are easier, on average, than what we're used to.

[GSK]

G.rev's Strania is the modern successor to these games, I feel.