I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

[Bassa-Bassa]

But flying Kung Fu…







How can you have martial arts media — movies or video games — without a little suspension of gravity and a little more suspension of disbelief?

I really meant nullify:

[Fingolfin]

I really meant nullify:

Yes. That is different!

Was really referring to the Saigo no Nindou part of your previous post.

Surprise Attack looks cool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Ag9Y2dZFY
I like the sfx and tunes are okay but the levels look good and the powerups look awesome!

Not that Aca’s been doin’ IREM at all anymore but would be great to get Gunforce and Gunforce II…and Mr. Heli and Cosmic Cop and Air Duel and Fire Barrel and…

[Bassa-Bassa]

Saigo no Nindou invented everything, man.



Ceiling walk was totally dispensable, though, I'll always say.

[BIL]

Saigo no Nindou invented everything, man.

Kage no Densetsu's Wuxia combat and bullet-cancelling katana plus long-range sidearm, with post-Contra extreme firepower, plus an unmistakable steal/borrow of Gradius's Options, imo.

Ceiling walk was totally dispensable, though, I'll always say.

I disagree - the ceiling run adds a lot of tactical richness to stage 4-1. You can use it to outplay the vicious enemy presence with a remarkable smoothness, where you'd otherwise be stuck playing Spartan X With Guns.



You could remove the ceiling run, and force the player to play extra-cautiously, but I wouldn't call it at all necessary or productive. It's also an incredibly efficient mechanic; no awkward special inputs/animations to jam up the works. Just jump into the ceiling, or jump down from it. Hell, now I write this down... you literally can just not use it. Dunno why, but just don't jump too high, and you'll never see it. You might want to, if/when the game spawns a perfectly-timed Katana+Kusarigama pincer, though.

Stage 4-2, meanwhile simply wouldn't work without ceiling combat. It's integral to making it across the long pits, and again, just a handy and lightweight tool overall. I guess if you hate the stage's concept of [spikey ground] + [stabby ceiling] x [rampaging samurai], that's one thing, but the mechanic is undeniably integral to it. And that's the first and only time in an already brief game that it's demanded of you.

It only appears again once more, in Stage 7. The game's nadir, imo, even before getting to the kusoge anomaly of the Ninja Pit. The gas traps demand too much hard memo, stifling the game's strongest trait of controlled volatility. But even then, once you know where all the traps are, and how to deal with the midboss's weird hitboxes, you can use the ceilings to escape would-be pincers with an exceptionally ninja-like grace. (even with the basic layout memorised to oblivion, there's still plenty of randomness to contend with)

And really, in a game that's mostly about open-air combat with screen-high Wuxia leaps, if you're gonna have a handful of stages with hard, low ceilings, it's a pretty clever way to keep things stylish. I dunno, I thought they were on fine form here.

[Sima Tuna]

Wuxia makes every game better.

What's the consensus on the new ACA game? I haven't bought one of these in ages, but I'm sorely tempted to try this one.

[BEAMLORD]

Man, Saigo's so fine. Saigo's so fine it blows my mind.

Took me a long time to get used to the super jump, and to get comfortable with the ceiling walk. It used to feel that stage 4 was truly impossibirru, 4.2 in particular. Seemed always to get stuck above a pit with an advancing Ryuichi closing me down fast.

However, one thing I love about Saigo is that despite the multitude and volatility of its spawns and each enemies' tailored attack, they are highly bait-able and manipulable. When you've learnt their behaviour and can tease out a kusarigama attack or Ryuichi slash, escaping to the ceiling for some (very brief) respite becomes almost second nature. Oh, what a feeling!

Hell, when I'm white-knuckleing through stage 6's cursed wasteland, I almost miss the sanctuary of a hard ceiling underfoot.

[AGermanArtist]

Surprise Attack features jumping, shooting and jumping and shooting. Fucking suck on that Rolling Thunder.

[BIL]

It used to feel that stage 4 was truly impossibirru, 4.2 in particular. Seemed always to get stuck above a pit with an advancing Ryuichi closing me down fast.

That place is an utter nightmare at first - I always recall the feeling of bleak russian roulette, embarking on that perilous long crossing. As you say though, with the enemies reckoned, it's downright homey in there. Very tasteful bamboo furnishings. IREM constrain your jump for a harrowing stretch, but that just makes it easier to shred the buggers as they rush in to capitalise.

NINJA COMMANDO.MP3 (｀w´メ)

Spoiler

Well chaps, my trusty PS4 has been cold as teh grave since last Christmas, when I set out to make my Iron Pipe and Spiked Bat the strongest in all Soulsville. But Hyperunknown Konami is always a special occasion, so I will hook the bastard reet up to get my Surprise Attack / Samantha Fox Pub Quiz Boobs Extravaganza on. Way overdue to catch up on the last few months tbh.

EDIT

What's the consensus on the new ACA game? I haven't bought one of these in ages, but I'm sorely tempted to try this one.

Tuna-kun based on two stages it's a yes from me, recommend immediate advance to target Holy fuck this is rad. It is indeed Konami's Rolling Thunder, handling just like the considerably smoothed-out RT2. But what I wasn't expecting is the clever use of the zero-gravity setting. It's no gimmick - you can tell the level designers were having a blast devising fiendishly unorthodox setups for the player to unravel. Snipers and slashers alike can walk or lie prone on not just ceilings, but walls as well, creating an almost visual puzzle effect that feels like a natural progression of RT and Shinobi's cerebrality. While IREM's brilliant Metal Storm leans more towards platforming, that's exactly the game I was recalling while picking my way through the trickily-layered second stage.

Truly Rolling Thunder... In SPAAACE~ Contributes an admirably offbeat riff via INVINCIBLE FLYING BODY RAM powerup, which feels like a more player-directed take on Shinobi's bombs. It's startlingly aggressive and liberating for this style of game; only lasts a few seconds, encourages the player to GOGOGOGO tearing straight through impasses. Manual says there's two per area, sounds generous - interested to see how this plays out later on.

Also omfg teh GRAFX Super handsome game. Love the cocky grins on player and enemies alike, turned to murderfaced grimaces when bustin a cap. Player character JOHN RYAN (codename RED THUNDERBOLT ) is one brash-lookin' dude, the kind of protagonist it's fun just watching stride along. The gritty detail, coarse/chrome shade, and swaggering personality are strikingly Nazca-esque; this could easily pass for a contemporary IREM title, ala Undercover Cops / Geostorm. The stage intros are straight outta Kaitei Daisensou, too! Attract intro cracked me up, that one's going in the Attract Modo thread. YOU AND WHOSE ARMY, PUNK?! Feels like Die Hard via Hokuto no Ken, terrorist occupiers BLACK DAWN a bunch of rude and preposterously buff long-haired dudes.

I always thought the flyer was brilliant in its own way, but it's almost a reverse Rolling Thunder scenario. (RT's ALBATROSS looking decidedly ready to put two in GIMDO's fuckin head, on paper, smouldering with righteous fury at his perving LEILA ryona show while maintaining a stately John Steed reserve in-game!)

The Road Warrior IN SPACE~ (■｀w´■)

Loved the st1 BigCore MkIII cameo <333 God, I'm glad games like this have finally found a safe pair of hands in Hamster.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Saigo no Nindou invented everything, man.

Kage no Densetsu's Wuxia combat and bullet-cancelling katana plus long-range sidearm, with post-Contra extreme firepower, plus an unmistakable steal/borrow of Gradius's Options, imo.

Sure, lol, hard to disagree there. Irem's game does it all so well in one only package that I allowed myself the hyperbole with no remorse. A friend of mine always brings up Tora e no Michi/Tiger Road as well when discussing its likely references and I can certainly agree too. Not just because it's the Wuxia-est game you can probably think of, but the way you're constantly besieged from everywhere and the mix of outdoor/indoor/vertical stages and the different approaches it implies are suspiciously similar.

I disagree - the ceiling run adds a lot of tactical richness to stage 4-1. You can use it to outplay the vicious enemy presence with a remarkable smoothness, where you'd otherwise be stuck playing Spartan X With Guns.

But you can get that with just two normal tiers instead of such a counternatural mechanics, at least for stage 4-1. The game's already demanding enough (unlike say, Strider Hiryu).

Hell, now I write this down... you literally can just not use it. Dunno why, but just don't jump too high, and you'll never see it.

Never worked with me and I don't really think the game wants you to do that. Really hard to learn exactly when you need to stop pressing jump, so I just abided. But still, never liked the concept. Not a huge drawback anyway.

[BIL]

Saigo no Nindou invented everything, man.

Kage no Densetsu's Wuxia combat and bullet-cancelling katana plus long-range sidearm, with post-Contra extreme firepower, plus an unmistakable steal/borrow of Gradius's Options, imo.

Sure, lol, hard to disagree there. Irem's game does it all so well in one only package that I allowed myself the hyperbole with no remorse.

Indeed, ala Shinobi to Rolling Thunder, it epitomises the distinction between fiery inspiration and mere iteration. I love both games, but if by some bizarre twist Saigo had been marketed as Kage II, it'd be regarded as one of the most transcendent sequels ever made. (I'm very fond of Kage's actual sequel, the FC's Fudoh Myouou Den, too; but it's very much "Kage The Console ARPG," as opposed to proper evolution. Rad player character + main weapon design )

EDIT: ah man, I just remembered which game Surprise Attack's character designs were reminding me of! Konami's own Crime Fighters, and its leering, gurning, CRIMING rogues' gallery. (warning, may contain bad fake scanlines! I just like that crummy ol' magazine screenshot look; gives character, y'know? )

Now I revisit that post, I recall that the eminent SHUZILOW_HA worked on Crime Fighters. I wonder if he featured on Surprise Attack, too? Wouldn't surprise me. The man is as genius with cutesy Twinbee as he is on the murderfaced mean streets of HUNGER CITY

[Skyknight]

Interesting detail I found at Time Extension: Surprise Attack’s engine was originally going to be for a Batman game, except Konami couldn’t get the license from Detective Comics in time. So, original IP, although you can still see how the quiz woman resembles Kim Basinger.

I’m not sure how ceiling walking ties into the Batman mythos, though.

[BIL]

Interesting detail I found at Time Extension: Surprise Attack’s engine was originally going to be for a Batman game, except Konami couldn’t get the license from Detective Comics in time. So, original IP, although you can still see how the quiz woman resembles Kim Basinger.

I’m not sure how ceiling walking ties into the Batman mythos, though.

Interesting... perhaps this would've been the gun-craziest Batman next to Sunsoft's FC Dynamite? (their GB original loves its blasting too ofc, to the point of having STG alt stages just like Dynamite's) Curious how they didn't go with a Shinobi-styled melee attack, given all the cues from that game elsewhere, and Bats' affinity for bopping the crims. I wonder if that was on the cards at some point.

With how devastating the Jetpack/POW is - scorching everything in front, above, and below - I could almost see it being a friggin Batwing cameo.

Obviously way, wayyy more recent, but the ceiling walk brings to mind the gravity inversion boots from Year Zero. Pretty memorable panel of him testing them out by holding a stack of Olympic plates Alfred's gradually adding to. Always thought it'd be terribly unfortunate if the boots gave out and he went face-first into them.

The bonus rounds are such a bizarre feature. Putting Kim Basinger on cabs during the height of 89's Batmania definitely explains things; even Sunsoft's wildly divergent FC classic made sure to give her pride of place in the Attract. I'm playing the JP ver and don't read the language, so I've just been failing through 'em. Somehow less interruptive than Sunset Riders', where you can't even fail out ala Shinobi; the targets will just keep popping up while you sit there. 3; Moral of the story: Bonus Round Y/N DIP toggle pls

I noticed an unfortunate control ding: firing from crouch, then standing and walking forward will disable your jump inputs for a splt-second. Lead to a "WTF? Dammit!" death in the rather intense inverted spacewalk. If you need a jump immediately after a crouching shot, hold [down/forward], then jump out of the crouch-walk. You won't have the momentum of a running jump, but it beats getting kneecapped.

It's hardly a gamekiller, but it's the kind of thing that makes Shinobi the unrivalled king of this sector, imo. No glitches or weirdness I can recall, and an ultra-smooth OTG shot.

I can't believe I missed the obvious hostages/bombs and shot upgrade parallels with Shinobi, and it even has the No Ninjutsu bonus! The stages feel properly designed around it, too; seems infernally tempting-yet-plausible to go without. I like it way too much to even try right now, though! The Jetpack is a great riff on bombing; it's not an enemy eraser, rather an incredibly strong aerial POW mode that demands creatively aggressive use to reach its full body-stacking potential. I love the risky cooldown period; the shield lasts quite a bit longer than the Jetpack itself, encouraging you to imperiously body-tackle chumps right to the last frame, at risk of ending up somewhere you don't want to be.

The aesthetic continuity of the zero-G setting is so charming, between the environments - often quite stunning, like the whirring gravity chamber sending the moon and stars tumbling, and the fire-lit, ominously juddering engineering sector - and all the little details on player and enemy equipment, like your back-mounted booster firing during jumps, and the stabilising blades and motors on projectiles. Killer OST, too, smoothly funky befitting Rolling Thunder itself. I see Hidenori Maezawa and Miki Higashino both featured, and the lord of Dracula himself Akamatsu-san, as well! They definitely had their A-list on this project.

ala Sunsoft's Raf World, famously a Terminator game that never was, I'd never have guessed this was anything but an original production. Maybe it was gonna be Batman In Space~.

[cfx]

On the tangential subject of action/shooting games with gravity control, anyone play the Gameboy Color game Wendy Every Witch Way? I guess it was based on some license but it doesn't suck as was usual back then for licensed games. Was made by Wayforward.

[BIL]

Cheers @ mycophobia! Suddenly I realise the genius of Secret Attack's bombing system. Two chances per stage, up to you whether you use the earlier or the later (or, indeed, neither). Such a cool design riff, and with stormingly cathartic implementation, too.

So I'm catching up with the last couple months' releases, and I put on Master of Weapon, and am pleasantly reminded of it being Tokio On Horse Steroids; or rather, Tokio Post-KYUUKYOKU Taito being Toaplan's overseas publisher, and KT raking in profits, they were surely taking notes! PostApocalyptic BigCat Shooting! Same charmingly panoramic vistas, many of the same enemy types and formations, now with massively beefed-up destruction and glorious screen-raking spreadshot. The stylistic markers are everywhere; I especially enjoy the return of those rushing cloudbanks that delineate the high- and low-altitude stages.

Unfortunately, the aggressively strobe-flashing bullets also return; a perpetual burden in the earlier game. FAAACK M8! Why'd they have to keep those, too?! And here is when I remembered the "bullet flickering y/n" toggle in Preference Options, which I'd assumed was for sprite flicker, and said "SHEEEIT"



Sure enough, it actually disables the bullet strobing. Now, I can enjoy my hyperdestructive Film School Shump without irritation (it notes whether you've enabled the option in HS/Caravan, haha; I should check to see whether the Masters of Master are using it or toughing it out with the PCB default)

Echoing jehu, I actually really like MoW. Pace reminds me a bit of DECO's Darwin 4078; it's a late 80s Xeviousesque with no chill whatsoever. And a similarly creepy aesthetic, even. HIGHWAY CRABS, brr! And some of the things they carried over from Tokio are just fookin class m8 Like those surface-to-air missiles that ascend to your altitude before exploding forward. Awesome sense of scale. Goofy AF BGM but not exactly offensive. I still wonder where TF they got those creepy "alien biohorror lurking in ancient statues" boss designs from, they're rad. Homie got a giant dick comin out of his forehead, now that's what you call TEH GODHEAD

I immediately checked to see if the similarly-strobey TOKIO had updated with a toggle, and no, it hasn't. 3; C'est la Ham-chans. Can one of our invaluable JP-literate friends please harass them on the twatbird? I write them occasionally about fixing ACA NeoGeo's crummy autofire, but as a filthy gaijin they don't seem interested, I always tell em no hard feelings. :3



What a time to be alive The holiest of holies and the scrappy outsiders all in fine form. Hishouzame gets a perfect translation, MoW gets a better than perfect.

[ExitPlanetDust]

Damn I miss the PS4’s dashboard. BIL, you wanna play som Beat em’ Up Bundle before my sub runs out in a few weeks?

[BIL]

Damn I miss the PS4’s dashboard. BIL, you wanna play som Beat em’ Up Bundle before my sub runs out in a few weeks?

Cheers for the offer bud! Unfortunately the internet at here at Crackpipe Avenue on the corner of Tinkletowne Crescent and RumpyPumpy BLVD (an IRL Final Fight stage) can just barely download me soaps. I only got a PS4 due to moving here for work and wanting something to do.

Yeah, I was shocked to see the PS5 dash doesn't have folders It doesn't bother me much, since it's basically a FromSoft & Friends adaptor, but criminy it'd get awkward if I had a million ACA/ShotTriggers etc games on it.

[AGermanArtist]

We've got Game Lists

[BIL]

We've got Game Lists

Oh right! Will look into that if Hamster and/or M2 get onboard.

[AGermanArtist]

Like folders with fewer customisation options

https://www.playstation.com/en-ie/suppo ... -gamelist/

Maxes out at 100 per folder. I'm onto a second ACA folder.

[ExitPlanetDust]

Damn I miss the PS4’s dashboard. BIL, you wanna play som Beat em’ Up Bundle before my sub runs out in a few weeks?

Unfortunately the internet at here at Crackpipe Avenue on the corner of Tinkletowne Crescent and RumpyPumpy BLVD (an IRL Final Fight stage) can just barely download me soaps.

[BIL]

It's not all bad, UK soaps are bussin edit: oho! ta AGA, I can work with that. I only have five folders on PS4 as it is, formerly six before I moved all my Souls/DMC/RE etc stuff over to PS5.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Interesting detail I found at Time Extension: Surprise Attack’s engine was originally going to be for a Batman game, except Konami couldn’t get the license from Detective Comics in time. So, original IP, although you can still see how the quiz woman resembles Kim Basinger.

I’m not sure how ceiling walking ties into the Batman mythos, though.

Interesting... perhaps this would've been the gun-craziest Batman next to Sunsoft's FC Dynamite? (their GB original loves its blasting too ofc, to the point of having STG alt stages just like Dynamite's) Curious how they didn't go with a Shinobi-styled melee attack, given all the cues from that game elsewhere, and Bats' affinity for bopping the crims. I wonder if that was on the cards at some point.

With how devastating the Jetpack/POW is - scorching everything in front, above, and below - I could almost see it being a friggin Batwing cameo.

Obviously way, wayyy more recent, but the ceiling walk brings to mind the gravity inversion boots from Year Zero. Pretty memorable panel of him testing them out by holding a stack of Olympic plates Alfred's gradually adding to. Always thought it'd be terribly unfortunate if the boots gave out and he went face-first into them.

The bonus rounds are such a bizarre feature. Putting Kim Basinger on cabs during the height of 89's Batmania definitely explains things; even Sunsoft's wildly divergent FC classic made sure to give her pride of place in the Attract. I'm playing the JP ver and don't read the language, so I've just been failing through 'em. Somehow less interruptive than Sunset Riders', where you can't even fail out ala Shinobi; the targets will just keep popping up while you sit there. 3; Moral of the story: Bonus Round Y/N DIP toggle pls

I noticed an unfortunate control ding: firing from crouch, then standing and walking forward will disable your jump inputs for a splt-second. Lead to a "WTF? Dammit!" death in the rather intense inverted spacewalk. If you need a jump immediately after a crouching shot, hold [down/forward], then jump out of the crouch-walk. You won't have the momentum of a running jump, but it beats getting kneecapped.

It's hardly a gamekiller, but it's the kind of thing that makes Shinobi the unrivalled king of this sector, imo. No glitches or weirdness I can recall, and an ultra-smooth OTG shot.

I can't believe I missed the obvious hostages/bombs and shot upgrade parallels with Shinobi, and it even has the No Ninjutsu bonus! The stages feel properly designed around it, too; seems infernally tempting-yet-plausible to go without. I like it way too much to even try right now, though! The Jetpack is a great riff on bombing; it's not an enemy eraser, rather an incredibly strong aerial POW mode that demands creatively aggressive use to reach its full body-stacking potential. I love the risky cooldown period; the shield lasts quite a bit longer than the Jetpack itself, encouraging you to imperiously body-tackle chumps right to the last frame, at risk of ending up somewhere you don't want to be.

The aesthetic continuity of the zero-G setting is so charming, between the environments - often quite stunning, like the whirring gravity chamber sending the moon and stars tumbling, and the fire-lit, ominously juddering engineering sector - and all the little details on player and enemy equipment, like your back-mounted booster firing during jumps, and the stabilising blades and motors on projectiles. Killer OST, too, smoothly funky befitting Rolling Thunder itself. I see Hidenori Maezawa and Miki Higashino both featured, and the lord of Dracula himself Akamatsu-san, as well! They definitely had their A-list on this project.

ala Sunsoft's Raf World, famously a Terminator game that never was, I'd never have guessed this was anything but an original production. Maybe it was gonna be Batman In Space~.

You might recall that it was Atari Games whom snagged the exclusive rights to the Batman arcade game back in 1992. I remember playing it at the "Regency Game Palace" arcade joint back in 1992-1993 -- even the joystick was endowed with the usual Atari fonts + the ever so present "Fuji" logo placed above the Atari branded namesake.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BIL]

You might recall that it was Atari Games whom snagged the exclusive rights to the Batman arcade game back in 1992. I remember playing it at the "Regency Game Palace" arcade joint back in 1992-1993 -- even the joystick was endowed with the usual Atari fonts + the ever so present "Fuji" logo placed above the Atari branded namesake.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Indeed PCEFX, that's exactly the game I was thinking of! I don't think I ever encountered it back in the day, we were all about Sunsoft's NES/FC one, which is well-regarded as a landmark of sidescroller walljumps nowadays. There was some interesting behind the scenes material posted about its development here.

I like how the IP holders specified Batman can't kill anyone, then Sunsoft not only have him huck Joker out a window to his doom... they force the player to walk Bats over to his beaten, fallen foe, beforehand. Something got lost in translation there, I think.

[BrianC]

The first game that comes to mind when anti-gravity is mentioned is Metal Storm (the anti-grav sections in Surprise Attack reminded me of it too). Incredible game, that one.

[cfx]

The first game that comes to mind when anti-gravity is mentioned is Metal Storm (the anti-grav sections in Surprise Attack reminded me of it too). Incredible game, that one.

Looking at a video of Metal Storm, the Wendy game I mentioned above looks like it was inspired by it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1nW1JJTJR4&t=90s

[BIL]

Yeah, Metal Storm is absolutely arcade-calibre. Killer stage design from start to finish, with near-flawless controls. The gravity mechanic is truly integral, with a super-finessed body ram powerup integrated. Can't dodge 'em, might wanna ram 'em. In a fine tactical dilemma, you'll have to choose carefully between that and the equally vital upgraded shot. While the first loop could pass for an easier arcade 1ALL, the second is straight-up 2ALL hardcore. You can tell the designers comprehensively understood the methodical process of assembling arcade clears - the password system is effectively a very early stage practice tool, retaining your score, life stock, and powerup, and even remaining in memory on a console reset.

It's also got some of the most stunning parallax of any 90s title, easily on par with MD sidescrollers, and super-crisp mechanical designs from Utata Kiyoshi (Strider Hiryu, Serei Densetsu Lickle, Cannon Dancer). The boss explosions being dead ringers for Saigo no Nindou's (if you know you know! ), and an entire armada of R-Type's legendary Huge Battleships ominously looming in the sixth boss's background... and hell, the fifth boss practically using R-Type powerups of its own, it's altogether wonderfully germane to the best of IREM's late 80s arcade goldmine.

Strong contender for top five FC sidescrolling action along with fellow arcade-calibre masterpiece Gimmick.

[velo]

What's the consensus on the new ACA game? I haven't bought one of these in ages, but I'm sorely tempted to try this one.

I forgot that Surprise Attack existed, or it would've been my #1 most-anticipated Konami game. Now having credit-fed through it (plus a couple of save states...) it's solid throughout and not too crazy on the difficulty until near the end. The final boss is going to take me some work though.

It is an unabashed Shinobi copy-paste... there's an indirect resemblance to Rolling Thunder and other Spy Actionvania-likes, but it's really a Shinobi fan game. Could have been titled Shinobi in Space just as easily as Ninja Cop could've been Shinobi Advance.

Moral of the story: Bonus Round Y/N DIP toggle pls

International version does have such a dip, if you didn't notice. Hi Score Mode uses the International version, so probably no extremely funky Konami regional differences...? I haven't checked all that closely.

I can't believe I missed the obvious hostages/bombs and shot upgrade parallels with Shinobi, and it even has the No Ninjutsu bonus! The stages feel properly designed around it, too; seems infernally tempting-yet-plausible to go without. I like it way too much to even try right now, though! The Jetpack is a great riff on bombing; it's not an enemy eraser, rather an incredibly strong aerial POW mode that demands creatively aggressive use to reach its full body-stacking potential. I love the risky cooldown period; the shield lasts quite a bit longer than the Jetpack itself, encouraging you to imperiously body-tackle chumps right to the last frame, at risk of ending up somewhere you don't want to be.

Shinobi seems to have one specific tricky spot per level that's meant to be THE place to use magic. By implementing it as a pickup item, Surprise Attack streamlines that a little, maybe at a little cost to freedom, but how often do players successfully bomb on reaction in Shinobi anyway? Excepting boss fights. Also true to Shinobi, continues are forbidden in the final level, and continuing does not reset score. No lives counter on the score board as in Shinobi though, or a ones-digit of shame, so the player is on the honor system.

Dying on enemy contact instead of getting bumped takes some getting used to. I don't see why the player astronaut doesn't get a melee attack either. Some of the bad guys have space knives so it's clearly a thing in this universe.

[hamfighterx]

Maxes out at 100 per folder. I'm onto a second ACA folder.

Hehe, yeah, Arcade Archives is the main reason I started using Switch's mediocre folder implementation. It maxes out at I think 200 per folder, meaning I have three different folders now: Arcade Archives A-M, Arcade Archives N-Z, and ACA Neo Geo.

Damn shame that systems keep getting worse and worse with folder management. PS5 is a marked step down from PS4, and I even liked Vita's ease of use of the 10-game "bubbles", and the PS3/PSP XMB was pretty good. For Nintendo, 3DS and WiiU were perfect, and Switch is ehhhhhhhhh.

[Sima Tuna]

Maxes out at 100 per folder. I'm onto a second ACA folder.

Hehe, yeah, Arcade Archives is the main reason I started using Switch's mediocre folder implementation. It maxes out at I think 200 per folder, meaning I have three different folders now: Arcade Archives A-M, Arcade Archives N-Z, and ACA Neo Geo.

Damn shame that systems keep getting worse and worse with folder management. PS5 is a marked step down from PS4, and I even liked Vita's ease of use of the 10-game "bubbles", and the PS3/PSP XMB was pretty good. For Nintendo, 3DS and WiiU were perfect, and Switch is ehhhhhhhhh.

Yeah, the folders on switch pretty much exist for me to categorize all my arcade games. Including, but not limited to Arcade Archives. I need my separate folders for run and gun, shmups and beat em ups dammit!

[BIL]

Moral of the story: Bonus Round Y/N DIP toggle pls

International version does have such a dip, if you didn't notice. Hi Score Mode uses the International version, so probably no extremely funky Konami regional differences...? I haven't checked all that closely.

Oh damn, nice! Cheers, that's a nice pick-me-up for when I return.

Yeah, HS Mode using INT is a good sign the regions are otherwise interchangeable. Hamster are pretty diligent about that, especially with Konami releases, which almost always have multiple regions (Trigon, XEXEX, Mystic Warriors, etc). The one that comes to mind where you can't select - Shaolin's Road, which defaults to its INT version, Kicker - is indeed identical across regions.

Dying on enemy contact instead of getting bumped takes some getting used to. I don't see why the player astronaut doesn't get a melee attack either. Some of the bad guys have space knives so it's clearly a thing in this universe.

Yeah, I was a little disappointed by the lack of close combat - keeps the game nearer Rolling Thunder's snipey feel, in that regard. Combined with the contact damage, I could see it being a deliberate move away from Shinobi/Shadow Dancer's bump-fu.

Or maybe Akamatsu and co had only played Shinobi's PCE port.