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Liontamer's Lair > Video Game Jungle > Mixed shooter stuff |
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Facilitypro 
 (1/21/02 10:41 pm) Reply |
Mixed shooter stuff I started Strikers 1945 today. I was unimpressed. I played long enough to try all the different planes. I dunno. There's not a whole lot to say about it yet. It doesn't even compare to Mars Matrix. I got Bangai-O for Dreamcast new for under 30 bucks on eBay. I was pleased to find it. I wasn't hot to get it or anything, but I sure as hell wasn't going to pass it up, considering it's hard to find. (It's in CA, so I won't be playing it for awhile.) I have some bad feeling about it though. Like it'll be the japanese version or something. I had my Dad open it and check it out, and he said it looked like a rewrap, but everythings in pristine condition. Other than that, he couldn't tell me anything useful. (Asking my Dad describe a game is like trying to ask a blind man to describe a sunset.) Mars Matrix is still on the top of my "Urge to play it" list. |
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CRAWLand1000
 (1/22/02 2:32 pm) Reply |
I LOVE FO!
From what I've played of it, S1945II doesn't seem very special. One way it's different from Mars Matrix is that there are [i]big[/i] differences between the difficulty levels in that game. I'll withhold final judgement until I can get decent at it, at some of the higher levels. When I do decide to work on it, I'll probably play with the screen flipped, since I'm sure it's better that way.
If Bangai-O does happen to be a Japanese game, I could always make a copy of my boot disc for you. But why would you worry about such a thing?? At the other board, F.J. said, [quote] I *do* think fond memories contribute to lasting interest. (Side note: I also think a linear gameplay model contributes to fond memories, especially if it has just the right challenge and control. You will repeat an area many times, but if you like it and it does its thing for you just right you will remember it well. And you will replay it later happily [/quote] This may be why I haven't replayed Bangai-O much. Few of the areas really stuck out the first time, and so when I replay them, I get no fond memories of when I played them the first time. Crawl and 1000 |
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Facilitypro
Moderator (1/24/02 6:34 pm) Reply |
Bangai-O Pfft. A week after I buy Bangai-O, EBgames.com starts selling it for 19.99. |
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CRAWLand1000
(1/25/02 12:01 pm) Reply |
I LOVE FO! I wasn't looking at prices online, but around here in stores, Bangai-O's price dropped to $20.00 a while ago... I paid more than that for it, too. Considering that copies are still available for cheap, maybe more copies were pressed than I thought. Crawl and 1000 |
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Facilitypro
Moderator (7/9/02 3:55 pm) Reply |
Cooter Shooter I picked up a few shooters recently. I won my bid for (and received) Thunder Force V, which I will start after I finish FF Tactics. I also got Working Design's Silpheed for PS2. I haven't heard much about it, and screenshots seem to be hard to decipher. It looks like a typical shooter, though, except the view might be a little more behing the ship than strictly overhead. I have bids in for Gigawing 1 and 2, if for nothing else to have something to compare to Mars Matrix. Speaking of Mars Matrix, I've been playing again. I managed to break 500 billion on 6A. I've also been playing Elite Mode (non score attack). I made it to stage 6. I think I have it set to 7 or 9 ships, with no continues (since the game only registers your score on the first credit, so there's no point to continuing if I'm purely going for score). The final boss is still a bitch for me. I haven't beaten it without dying yet. |
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CRAWLand1000
(7/9/02 4:26 pm) Reply |
I LOVE FO! I have heard a bit about the Silpheed games. Most of it bad. And most of the people who like Silpheed 2 seem to like it in a "it's okay for a rainy day" kind of way. In my experience, Giga Wing 1 and 2 aren't nearly as good as Mars Matrix. I've already beaten both of them on one credit. Giga Wing 2 has more bullets than 1, but they move pretty slow, and the huge batches of bullets appear on the screen with the same period as the time it takes your shield to recharge, so you're not usually dodging, you're reflecting. The exception would be the final 3 bosses - but only having 3 decent bosses makes for a thin game. I'd like to get back into Mars Matrix =/ I'm stuck now, though, with Phantasy Star, which I have to keep playing until I beat it (the battery is dead, and I have to keep the system on round the clock). Mars Matrix can be very addicting for me, but I'm not (strickly speaking) in school right now, so game marathons shouldn't hurt me. Playing it with one credit sounds like a good thing to do. I think I got fairly good at the stages by playing Score Attack, but I had problems putting all the stages together in a single session. Playing shooters like that on one credit demands total concentration for at least a half hour, which is a skill that Nintendo games (which my background is in) generally don't demand. But it's something I could probably work on. And speaking of Mars Matrix, I think I should change the first sentence of my Mars Matrix review. I think it's technically true, but it's probably too easily misinterpreted. Crawl and 1000 |
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Crawl and 1OOO
(7/9/02 10:48 pm) Reply |
I LOVE FO! Well, I couldn't help but play this game tonight (I didn't turn off the master system, but I did unhook its RF switch) I'm a little out of practice with it. My options were set to give me 3 lives - so any scores I got would be with the default number of lives. But I might try it with the maximum lives. I mostly just tried getting back in practice with the score challenges, though. I think one of the most important skills in Mars Matrix is to be able to get a general impression of the screen - where large clumps of bullets are - one instant, while an abitrary time later instantly switch to looking right at your ship and know precisely where individual bullets are. I LOOOOOOVE Flying Omelette!!
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Facilitypro
Moderator (7/11/02 12:17 am) Reply |
MM Turns out I had lives set to 7, the max, and one credit. I figure if I can finish a mode with that, it's pretty good, since it's less lives overall than the default setting (3 lives and credits). I made it to the final boss with one ship left tonight. I promptly died. I also tried arcade mode, and made it to stage 4. Although arcade is harder due to the forced use of default settings (namely combo speed and GHB recharge), but I like it because it forces you not to rely so much on the mosquito. I've beaten a total of 3 of my scores on score attack so far. A couple more and I may revive our old Mars Matrix thread. 3B is still killing me. The more I play it (in a row), the worse I get. LOL. I've been playing stage 1B and 2A and B quite a bit. Haven't tried to beat 4B yet. I can probably best my 4A score. |
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Facilitypro
Moderator (7/15/02 4:12 pm) Reply |
TFV I'm a couple hours into ThunderForce V. My first impressions are that same as those for Einhander. I had some trouble telling what is lethal and what is just debris at first, or when a 3-D enemy is able to hit you. I guess a square pops up when it it able to attack you. I've made it to the stage 4 boss, but I haven't figured out how to dodge its sweeping laser attack. The weapon system is a bit tricky still. I much prefer R-Type's weapon system, in which there are about the same number of weapons, but you can only have one at a time. One complaint is that I often die from something I can't see. For example, I think that sometiems bullets coming straight at me get hidden by my laser fire. |
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Crawl and 1OOO
(7/15/02 5:00 pm) Reply |
I LOVE FO! I think Einhander is a little more confusing about things being in other planes. I guess I can think of some places where that happens in TFV. Like in stage 3, about 3/4 through the stage. And as for things you can't see... I can probably guess what you're talking about there, too. In R-Type, bullets are big, orange circles - easy to see. TFV is more like Contra - the bullets are small, white dots. I don't think I'd play that game without my glasses. I like TFV's weapon system, though, because I think the free range is really fun to use, once you get used to it. As for shooters, I'm working on Gaiares now. It seems pretty good. I just hope it's hard enough (so far I've made it to the boss of stage 6, and there are 8 stages [I think] total. The first 5 stages weren't ridiculously easy, and I'm not expecting the thing to be R-Type II-hard, but I think the difficulty still needs to pick up for it to be hard enough for me to really feel challenged. I may post more detailed thoughts on the game (and describe what it's actually like) later. I LOOOOOOVE Flying Omelette!!
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Facilitypro
Moderator (7/19/02 4:20 pm) Reply |
Shooters I haven't played any more TF V since I posted that. I did get Gigawing 2. You're right; it's no mars matrix. And yeah, it relies more on reflecting than dodging. The ships seem sluggish, too. It's not so bad, though. I want to play it tonight. I'm still waiting on Gigawing to arrive. I've beaten a total of 6 Mars Matrix scores in score attack (since I updated last). Nothing really impressive, I suppose. Broke 100 bill in 1B and 500 bil in 6A. I don't know when I'll update my scores. |
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CRAWLand1000
(7/19/02 4:48 pm) Reply |
I LOVE FO!
One thing I ~may~ try sometime with Giga Wing 2 is take a fan-of-the-game's advice and turn off the bombs in the option menu (I think you could set the bombs to zero, but still possibly collect bombs in the middle of the game - his advice was more extreme: set the controls so no button activates bombs). I'm not sure that'll do much good. And I don't like feeling I'm doing more to balance a game than the game designers.
But, anyway. I haven't played too much Gaiares lately. I was too busy working on a webpage feature for Yoshi's Island (one thing that annoys me about it is that it doesn't look right viewed at resolutions below 800 x 600 - my site stats tell me only an extremely small percentage of visitors use 640 x 480, so it's probably not much of a concern; it's just the principle that I don't like having browser-dependent pages) I think it'd be cool to do something like that for MDK 2 sometime. But I think I'll work on Gaiares more tonight. After that, I'll have to work on Phantasy Star. Bleh. I was sort of going back in my mind, working if I could call it good or not (certainly, from what I've seen, 'great' is out of the question), but that I'm not looking forward to getting back into it doesn't speak well for it. After that, I'll try to finish at least one review. I guess I'm just saying it'll be awhile before I score attack more in Mars Matrix. Crawl and 1000 |
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Facilitypro
Moderator (7/20/02 12:05 am) Reply |
Shooter Is Space Megaforce for SNES super rare or something? I saw a complete copy on eBay, so I bid 20 dollars or so. It went for over $150!! There's another one going right now, too. |
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Crawl and 1OOO
(7/20/02 8:40 am) Reply |
I LOVE FO! It might be rare. I got my copy, however, from a videorental store for $5 when they were liquidating their 16-bit stock. That's how I got a lot of my 16-bit shooters, actually. I LOOOOOOVE Flying Omelette!!
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Crawl and 1OOO
(7/20/02 10:36 pm) Reply |
I LOVE FO! As for my shooter stuff, I finished Gaiares this morning. Someone said the game is like a cross between Gradius and R-Type. Not too far off - it's like 1/3 Gradius, 1/3 R-Type, and I guess 1/3 all its own. This game's hook is its pod which, fittingly enough, is part Gradius option (it follows you around, and its firepower duplicates your own), part R-Type force (it's indestructable, and can absorb some enemy bullets), and part its own innovative thing (you can whip it at enemies [the reason why this isn't quite like R-Type's force is that it can't fly about independantly - after it flies out, it immediately boomeranges back. Also, you can't fire while its out] and if it hits one, it can absorb its weaponry). You can get a lot of different weapons, but for most of the game, I stuck with just a few of the simplier types (mostly, this big fat white laser beam called the Giga Beam). The TOZ can't connect to your ship like the force, but, because of some levels' designs, it can almost be more effective as a shield. For instance, there are a couple of places (the beginning of levels 1 and 3, for instance) where you can just hang out on the left side of the screen and shoot, with the TOZ in front. Enemies will only come from the right, and they'll only shoot at angles so shallow that they won't get past the TOZ. (If this sounds boring, it doesnt' feel so boring to play, because moments like this only come along every so often, and only last so long) Whereas in R-Type, enemies come from all sides of the screen, and even if your pods in front and enemies are in front, they can still be a danger to you if they fire at an angle and hit your top and bottom. We've talked before about calling R-Type a "memory shooter". I've said before that knowledge of R-Type's stages helps forming a strategy for that stage, but simply knowing (having memorized) things is not enough to get through a stage. There's a part in Gaiares' 3rd level - you've just just flew out of a corridor where the walls and floors jerk up unexpectedly. After I got through there, I flew forward - and a rock fell from the ceiling, faster than I could dodge, and it killed me. The next time, I hung back until the rock fell, then moved forward - and another rock fell and killed me. At first I wondered if I had to memorize a path through those rocks. Nope: I just hung back on the left until a whole bunch fell. After you've memorized they're there, that's all there is to it - you don't need a strategy to process that handle that knowledge. But there are some other good parts. Some parts simply look cool. In the first stage, you fly in front of a large gas giant planet - you can see the star it orbits appearing against the planet's edge. Your ship is actually flying through the planet's rings, represented with lots of layers of parallax of rocks. Some stages have very psychadelic backgrounds, much like the final stage of R-Type III. The boss of stage 6 is pretty cool, from a game play perspective. She's a tall (as tall as the screen) knight with shield (which usually protects her). Occasionally, she lets down her guard to attack you, and her most dangerous attack is when she slashes with her sword and three large shots fly out. At first I thought I would have to dodge between the shots, but there's almost not enough (and probably sometimes really isn't enough) - I eventually got good enough at drawing the shots away so I could dodge around them altogether. The stage 7 boss was good, too - it's a wall boss that shoots lasers, but the interesting twist it has is a snake that quicky darts out, and then leaves a batch of bullets upon its return to the wall. Anyway, before I played this game, I was under the impression that it would be extremely difficult. It's not. I guess I shouldn't be surprised - many games have overrated difficulties. But even with expectations lowered for it to be easier than some claimed, it still wasn't all that tough. I probably finished it in about one dozen full games (ie, running completely out of continues - you're given 4 credits) (though I spread those dozen games over about a week, playing usually 2 games a day, and sometimes zero). I made mincemeat of the final boss with a certain weapon. And the final stage is pretty much only the final boss. The next to last stage was sort of lame, as it just rehashed all the previous bosses. And aside from just beating the game, I did fairly well with it - the last game I played, I made it to the boss of stage 7 (the next to last stage) in one life. I think a game like Ninja Gaiden was much harder than Gaiares. It was fun, though. And I'm not really done with it. About once per stage, you're given a choice of routes to take. So far, I've only taken the upper routes. I LOOOOOOVE Flying Omelette!!
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Facilitypro
Moderator (7/20/02 10:59 pm) Reply |
Gaiares Gaiares sounds pretty good. I've been following your posts at FO's board. I have no Genesis, though. I picked up Thunder Force V again tonight, and made it to stage 6. I like how on stage 5 you use the bigger ship with a lifebar. The game seems uninteresting for the first three stages. I like the stage 4 boss fight. It requires some good old fashoned pattern learning. If you don't have free range, it's tough to hit his back target. It only took me two credits to clear stage 5. 6 is pretty trippy. I like it. Reminds me of R-Type Delta's final stage. I also finished GigaWing 2 on one credit today (granted I maxed out ships and bombs). I used the ship that shoots out those green, short range bombs (Albatross?). Funny, because that's the ship I like the least, but I'm better with it than any other. Maybe because it's fast. |
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Crawl and 1OOO
(7/21/02 8:57 pm) Reply |
I LOVE FO! Yeah, Gaiares seems pretty good. I haven't had my Genesis for very long - I got it a couple of years ago for about $20. I have a decent collection for it, though. I haven't finished many games for it, however. I just finished Gaiares (of course) but could do a little more with it. I finished Castlevania: Bloodlines, but not with every character on every difficulty. I've finished Thunder Force 3 - and I did finish that on every difficulty. And that's about it for Genesis games (well, I also finished Steel Empire and MUSHA on Easy, but that hardly counts) My favorite ships in the Giga Wing games are the ones that have perfectly straight shots. They tend to be the fastest (even faster than the ship in GW2 piloted by the beared dude, imho) Now that you mention it, stages 1-3 in TFV aren't exactly loaded with creative twists and such. But they still have good pacing, imo (I never feel like I'm flying around with nothing to do). Stage 3 is more interesting to me that the other stages [The sequence I play the stages in is always 3-1-2, btw]. When you play (well, when I play) on the higher difficulty levels, I have to be pretty deliberate with my strategy to survive the initial onslaught of enemies (usually making heavy use of the free range) I LOOOOOOVE Flying Omelette!!
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Facilitypro
Moderator (7/23/02 9:54 am) Reply |
TFV Well, I've gotten the bad ending to TF V twice; there seems to be no way to kill the final boss without the overweapon. Last night, I made it to the final boss on one credit with about 5 ships left. His first form was no problem, but I lost free range on his second form, and it was downhill from there. I didn't bother continuing, because I wanted to preserve my score for the ranking. (That's one thing I don't like about TF V; if you continue, you lose your score, so it's hard to look at the ranking and gauge your progress on one credit.) |
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Crawl and 1OOO
(7/23/02 6:32 pm) Reply |
I LOVE FO! Well, it's good that it sounds like you're enjoying it (...?) Yeah, I don't think I have EVER beaten the final boss after continuing on it. I don't think it's possible, frankly. If it's not the lack of the overweapon, it's the lack of the free range (or the combined lack of both) BTW, doesn't even getting the bad ending unlock the time attack? I don't play that mode very often, but it does let you get to the final boss faster. I think the main reason it's harder than the normal mode (although there is one way it can be easier - you can finish time attack on Easy difficulty) is because you get no powerups during that mode. Therefore, it's not really good to go crazy with the overweapon, because if you lose a Craw, you won't be able to replace it. On that subject, I think while even getting the bad ending unlocks time attack, you have to get the good ending to play time attack with the armor that you get in stage 5. I'm not necessarily convinced the armor is better, though, because free range is often superior to even the armor's unlimited normal overweapon. I never really thought about losing the score before. I guess maybe that was for the $10,000 point contest, though I'm not really sure how recording subsequent credit scores could give anyone an unfair advantage. Mars Matrix, of course, only records scores from the first credit, but that makes sense because even though you lose your score, you keep all your experience, so if you always continued once halfway through the game, your second half score should always be much higher than your first half. I LOOOOOOVE Flying Omelette!!
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Facilitypro
Moderator (7/25/02 9:00 pm) Reply |
TF V Yeah, I'm enjoying it. For some reason, it took a few hours of play time for me to start enjoying the last three PSX shooters I've played (R Type Delta, Einhander, and TF V). Anyway, I finished TF V for real tonight. I made it to the final boss on one life, and I managed to kill it before it flew away. (Not before losting about 4 lives, though.) And yes, even getting the bad ending unlocks time attack, and the good ending lets you use the armor. |
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CRAWLand1000
(7/26/02 3:44 pm) Reply |
I LOVE FO! I didn't have too much trouble getting into those particular games, but I have had trouble getting into some others... Actually, some of the ones I had trouble getting into (like Thunder Force 4) I'm STILL not into. And others I've beaten without having gotten into them first. While I can accept that it might take me some time to get into a game or learn to like it, I sort of think that the statute of limitations for that kind of open-mindedness ends once I beat the game. Even though Thunder Force 3 is admittely on the easy side (not as easy as SMB2, imo, though) I still have some fondness for it.. especially since I easily got into it when I could not get into other games. Crawl and 1000 |
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- Liontamer's Lair - Video Game Jungle -
