@“Punchmaniacs”#p142130 nice, I'm vaguely recalling this now! Looks terrible but I wanna try it.
@"KennyL"#p142135 I just realized yesterday that there are 3 gundam battle assault games! The first one didn't come out in the West, and the second one was called battle assault here, and the third one was called battle assault 2. And there's a nice looking gundam wing game too, which is how I started looking at all this.
https://youtu.be/JoEghWavyvg?si=_YEDXVYSbQzyTwHM
Oh and thanks for the gegege no kitaro one, I don't think I realized that was a platformer!
@“exodus”#p142137 I just realized yesterday that there are 3 gundam battle assault games! The first one didn’t come out in the West, and the second one was called battle assault here, and the third one was called battle assault 2. And there’s a nice looking gundam wing game too, which is how I started looking at all this.
The genealogy of Natsume's Gundam fighting games is a little more complicated:
-
Gundam Wing: Endless Duel (SFC): this never got an international release, but the SNES-only Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition was a sort of test run for Endless Duel
-
Gundam: The Battle Master (PS, Japan-only): all the pilots were created specifically for the game
-
Gundam: The Battle Master 2 (PS, Japan: a sequel with even more original pilots
- Gundam: Battle Assault (PS, NA/EU): localised with pilots from various versions of the anime and half-presented as a tie-in to Gundam Wing; later given an official JP release as a promo bonus for another game
-
Gundam: Battle Assault 2 (PS, NA/EU): features additional characters from G Gundam and Wing, and the pilots that appear in the story mode are voiced by the actors from the NA dub, with big cut-ins on their attacks and so on
- Simple Character 2000 Series Vol.12 G Gundam / Vol.13 Gundam Wing THE Battle (PS, JP-only): a localised Simple 2000 version of Battle Assault 2, split into two games with slightly different rosters and all the voice/cut-in stuff stripped out; most of the roster has to be unlocked and some requires save data from the other version, but neither version contains the entire BA2 roster. (BA2 was already a $20 game, so the Simple 2000 versions are actually worse value for money for a change.)
-
Gundam Seed: Battle Assault (GBA, NA): based on Seed, which was just being localised at the time
-
Gundam Seed Destiny (GBA, JP): a sequel based on Seed Destiny that includes a JP-localised version of Seed: Battle Assault as unlockable content
-
Battle Assault 3 featuring Gundam Seed (PS2, NA): a polygonal game based on Seed, with a few bonus unlockable suits from classic series; this game borrows the engine/systems from some other Natsume-made Bandai mech game but the Gundam version never made its way to Japan... at the time, it was the only Gundam game not released in Japan, and it still might be.
Gear Fighter Dendoh's another Natsume game, as it happens, and the 2D sections clearly borrow from MMPR/The Ninja Warriors Again.
@“exodus”#p142137 That Gundam Wing one is pseudo prequel that's on Super Famicom! And I also think this looks nice/better cuz it has cleaner more cartoony sprites. Also less puppety, though puppet 2d have its own janky charm.
@“KennyL”#p142149 lordy! I totally missed that this was snes. It does look a little nicer without all the puppetyness
To make up for it here's another ps1 original licensed fighter, shaman king! One of the few games where they pit a 3D character against 2D ones, with mixed results as you can see.
https://youtu.be/yL0ICkrZA6M?si=zv5oq3MzEbnagxUZ
Since it was developed by Dimps, it's likely this shares lineage with The Rumble Fish and their other puppety games.
Okay, time for another. It‘s everyone’s favorite mediocre gustar heroes-like, gunners heaven! If they got the movement, bullet patterns, and hit stuns better they might have had something here, but as it is it‘s enjoyable enough, and one of the earlier original 2D action games on the ps1. Maybe the most interesting thing about it is the fact it’s got two soundtracks to choose from. Usually you see that in arcade ports with an “arranged” version, but here it's just two different soundtracks.
InuYasha: A Feudal Fairytale. Another anime fighter with very nice sprites and animation. Sprites are lit against stage lighting. You can see dusk, daylight, and night lighting from this video.
@“KennyL”#p142193 Yeah, they really gave it their all for this one. The backgrounds have a nice amount of detail - the one with the rice paddies where the clouds reflect in the water is verrrrry pleasant.
The switch definitely needs an Itadaki Street,; Billion Road and all the other board-game likes on it (even and especially Super Mario Party) are lame in comparison. I actually liked how they handled Fortune Street (mixing Nintendo and DQ characters; honestly seeing the Normal-looking characters in other versions looks kinda lame to me personally, especially since you end up turning off dialogue anyway to speed things up). And my brothers, who never played a DQ game in their life, found the DQ characters (especially Platypunk) amusing in a good way (they had something familiar to hang onto with the Nintendo characters, so felt safe enough to branch out - my armchair psychoanalysis). I imagine if there was a switch version, it would 100% have Nintendudes in it, and if they did DQ11 or 12 characters (good way to advertise DQ12 tbh, they didn't learn enough lessons from SSB Melee) it would feel like a natural sequel. But I'm also not a marketing person, so truck-sized grain of salt etc.
Happy to see Adventures of Lomax brought up right away! I saw a neighbor play it (and maybe rented it/borrowed it to play for myself a little bit), but I was real dinky at the time so I don‘t think I even knew the name. Those graphics man! Absolutely captivated me for years. Even though I could see the game pretty clearly in my head, it took somewhere around 12 years to finally figure out what the heck the name was so I could look at it/plah it again. So I kinda got a soft spot for it! Since it was a game whose incredible 2d graphics managed to stick in my head despite only briefly being a part of a week of my childhood, I figured I’d come shout it out. Yall seen this Lomax guy and his graphics?? They‘re big, they’re fast, and, lord help us, they're British!!
I‘m glad after reading the OP that I don’t have the opportunity to write the same things about Bomberman Party Edition and the swath of great 2D Playstation games I got given to me because I was seven years old as these mid-90's 2D games were relegated to being for children during the 3D boom era… for the fifth time!
I'll have to come back here next time I think about it. lots of amazing stuff here so far, a lot of which I'm surprised I haven't seen before like Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer.
I forget what kind of disdain the IC podcast had for *Tomba!*, but since I was seven years old at the time of playing it, *I think it's rad*. His main weapon being a "blackjack" and the weird world that serves the gameplay sparked my imagination. I hadn't seen Klonoa at the time I played Tomba!.
Maybe some more that just miss the mark:
You have Moon of course. Maybe similar to legend of mana with its hand drawn art style.
Digimon World 3, like Popolocrois has an unusual amount of sprawling 2D assets that seem neverending, a true 32bit 2D. Completely 2D at all times outside of battle. I guess Wild Arms did that too but it used prerendered style sprites for the overworld. https://i.redd.it/kom9cb3bnrka1.png
Digimon as a concept at the time was just so slapped together, and so is this world.
Those palm trees have a very specific gameplay mechanic where you can kick them. I'm not certain to what extent the mechanic is used. When you first learn to kick it progresses a side quest where you find a little guy. This weird game is enigmatic to me.
A decent 2DPS game doing its best to cosplay as a Saturn title is Community Pom (quick misreadings galore!), which apparently has recently shot up in price on the aftermarket.
https://youtu.be/D7OVZ2R-A64
There is also nearly direct Super Famicom sequel **The Firemen 2**. It’s not very interesting visually but it does add PCM soundtrack voices, and the multiplayer co-op heavily lamented about in the SFC predecessor.
https://youtu.be/kQllTCNvgx8
And this one is unmistakenly PS1, despite the obvious inspiration from Grandia, but Bandai’s best game on the system is probably **London Seirei Tanteidan**, entirely set in a fictional and JRPG-fied Victorian London.
https://youtu.be/yv7EkhoP6lU
>!(Also I guess SOTN has been ported on multiple platforms but it’s pretty funny that we don’t get to mention PS1’s highest profile and only truly iconic 2D game due to the rules of the thread.)!<
@“◉◉maru”#p142253 yeah, my thread, my rule!!! ha ha. no sotn, no strider 2! though strider 2 should maybe count since the arcade hardware is ps1-based!
Anyhoo, I'm excited I picked up London Seirei Tanteidan on a whim last trip, especially when you said it was great! Sure looks pretty. Also I keep meaning to get the firemen 2, I'll have to fix that at some point.
@“whatsarobot”#p142263 shoot, they are going for it!!!
Now to add another - Zanac X Zanac, a compile game maybe not made by compile (I forget!?) remaking their original famicom disc system xanac (which is included here) as Zanac Neo. It's a very fluid, very fun compile shooter and basically the last one? I'm doing no research here, sorry. Anyway, fun to look at, fun to play, give it a go.
@“exodus”#p142270 good timing, i was just listening to another pod where they talked about compile shooters for a while, needed this reminder to check out a zanac!
Milano no Arbeit Collection! It‘s Westone so of course it has some ridiculous 2D sprite work that’s colorful and overly charming. The thing I was blown away by in it the most is the amount of effort done in animating all of the mundane tasks you can do around the house at the end of the day. Gorgeous game, and the mini-games are fun too!
Kyoro-chan no Purikura Daisakusen, a game featuring the mascot of the Morinaga ChocoBall candies, and it's really good! A platformer with some light puzzle elements that pop up every now and then. It's really cute, has a super good soundtrack, and a lot of elaborate and expressive animations for the titular Kyoro-chan. I love him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ochOxXOCMfU
クエックエックエッ...!
Not entirely 2D, but this 2D effect seems very unique, unlike anything I've seen before. Just an artistic choice and maybe not technically that special, but boy does it look cool, like something straight out of EVA
https://i.redd.it/kom9cb3bnrka1.png