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Incline Shoot'em up goodness (review and discuss)

Great Deceiver

Great Deceiver

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I like (classic) horizontal STGs a lot. Especially because levels weren't just static backdrops and navigation mattered in many of them (some few vertical shmups still had this, like the first Mahou, which is part of what makes it so great). The memorization aspect in a lot of them doesn't bother me as much as some, though.
 
Nutmeg

Nutmeg

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Vatnik Wumao
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Mahou Kingdom
Great Deceiver said:
Pretty much arcade perfect
Click to expand...
The real gem is the MD mode where you can jettison your wing upgrade as a bomb. Mixing gradius bar and bombs turns out to be *chef's kiss*. It has completely different levels, and only a 10 minute loop.

IIRC I managed to 2 loop it. The last stretch before the final boss is pure Toaplan fortress assault bliss.

Great Deceiver said:
Was it Toaplan themselves who did the port?
Click to expand...
It was MNM, one of Japan's most avant garde devs. We can thank their X68000 Star Wars for Sega not getting a patent on 3rd person 3D cameras. The other game by them you might know is the Western design collab Gage (an RPG).
 
Great Deceiver

Great Deceiver

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Licorice said:
Great Deceiver said:
Pretty much arcade perfect
Click to expand...
The real gem is the MD mode where you can jettison your wing upgrade as a bomb. Mixing gradius bar and bombs turns out to be *chef's kiss*. It has completely different levels, and only a 10 minute loop.
Click to expand...

That's pretty interesting, because the game is one of the only shmups I can think of where getting more powerful also means getting more vulnerable (due to the size of your ship increasing). I'll give it a try.

Also the arrange soundtrack was composed by Yuzo Koshiro!
 
Great Deceiver

Great Deceiver

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Great, hopefully the Saturn Cotton ports on PC will address the input latency issues of the Switch version.

Cotton Rock n Roll, which is an original game released this year for the Switch, is also getting a Western release as Cotton Fantasy. The game is pretty good.
 
Falksi

Falksi

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Just playing some Grind Stormer today. Fuckinghell, I am getting my arse absolutely handed to me on a platter here. The enemies are so resilient it takes a real switch in mindset from trying to dominate the screen to dodging and bombing. I really need to git gud here, it's showing me up.
 
Falksi

Falksi

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Great Deceiver said:
Amazing video by Shmup Junkie


I love Toaplan. This dude is making a documentary about them.
Click to expand...


Watched this earlier, and it's a great vid.

I really don't get the love for Grindstormer though. It's OK, but the constant stop-start nature of it's rug-pulling tricks combined with it's checkpoint setup make it a fucking right chore to learn. It's not particularly exciting either.

I also don't get the low rating with Hellfire. That games fucking rawks! The Megadrive version with the extra tweaks especially.
 
Great Deceiver

Great Deceiver

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Falksi said:
Just playing some Grind Stormer today. Fuckinghell, I am getting my arse absolutely handed to me on a platter here. The enemies are so resilient it takes a real switch in mindset from trying to dominate the screen to dodging and bombing. I really need to git gud here, it's showing me up.
Click to expand...
Have you tried the original Japanese version, V-V? It's got the Slap Fight/Gradius powerup system instead of bombs and works quite well. It might even be better balanced.

edit: oh, I just realized you must be referring the the MD version, which has the powerup system anyway. I only played the console version a couple of times, the downgrade from arcade is too brutal.

I've been spending some more time with the MD version of Slap Fight and every time I play it I like it more. The arrange version is a beast, very fun and tough (but not excessively), with a killer OST by none other than Yuzo Koshiro. This track, for example, is very obviously inspired by Gradius:
 
Falksi

Falksi

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Great Deceiver said:
Falksi said:
Just playing some Grind Stormer today. Fuckinghell, I am getting my arse absolutely handed to me on a platter here. The enemies are so resilient it takes a real switch in mindset from trying to dominate the screen to dodging and bombing. I really need to git gud here, it's showing me up.
Click to expand...
Have you tried the original Japanese version, V-V? It's got the Slap Fight/Gradius powerup system instead of bombs and works quite well. It might even be better balanced.

edit: oh, I just realized you must be referring the the MD version, which has the powerup system anyway. I only played the console version a couple of times, the downgrade from arcade is too brutal.

I've been spending some more time with the MD version of Slap Fight and every time I play it I like it more. The arrange version is a beast, very fun and tough (but not excessively), with a killer OST by none other than Yuzo Koshiro. This track, for example, is very obviously inspired by Gradius:
Click to expand...


Yeah, the Megadrive version includes both Jap & Western versions, and the Pandoras Box I have has the arcade version too. I think the Megadrive's an awesome system, and often ends up with the ports being better than the arcade originals due to additions and tweaks, but like you say in Grindstormers case the arcade is the only way to play.

Groovy tunes on Slapfight! Yet to play that myself but I'll get there! 252 16-bit games down, around 800 more to go lol.
 
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BLOBERT

BLOBERT

FUCKING SLAYINGN IT BROS
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Codex 2012
BROS DONT KNOW WHY IT STUCK BUT CYVERN IS MY FABOTIE SHMUP

BROS NOTHING I FEEL LIKE ANALYZIZING OR ANYTHING I JUST LIEK IT

 
Lutte

Lutte

Dumbfuck!
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G-Darius, which imho is the best in the Darius series, is finally out on steam.


Price is a little steep for a touched up old game, but as a fan.. I'll still buy it. They added a (limited on some content) ultra wide/dual screen mode too which looks pretty cool.
 
Falksi

Falksi

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Not had chance to read it properly yet, but got my copy of SHMUP Mania yesterday. Looks decent...

ulxsRpL.jpg
 
Great Deceiver

Great Deceiver

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Falksi is a true bro especially for having an Excalibur quote in his sig. Excellent movie, one of my top 5 of all time
 
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