① Nice review of last week’s Arcade Archives release, NMK’s Thunder Dragon 2.
② A new PV to remind you that next week sees the release of Platinum’s Sol Cresta.
③ I don’t have a ③ so here’s Gradius II on synth.
@chazumaru it‘s absurd to look at the Saturn’s library all laid out like that. Like, we may have better ports of most of these now, but damn what a bunch of games
@TracyDMcGrath also it’s a ridiculous dose of nostalgia! And a reminder that even though I feel like I have a whole lot of those games, I have a long way to go with my collection!
So… I started playing STGs last months and I‘m discovering a whole genre to enjoy and love after setting aside my prejudices. In the past I played Ikaruga and because of the high repetition an heavy memory component I thought those games weren’t for me, but last year I played touhou and that was totally something I could enjoy. Since then I‘m having a lot of fun with STGs and even got my first 1cc in the genre (Deathsmiles, Blue Wish Resurrection Plus and Hellsinker (not the true boss tho)). I want to say that, even I don’t write much in the forum, this thread helped me a lot to introduce myself in the genre.
Games I more enjoyed so far:
Cotton: Fantastic Night Dream and Cotton 2
Deathsmiles
Space Harrier (I wish I could play it on a arcade cabinet)
Perfect Cherry Blossom
Blue Wish Resurrection Plus
Terra Cresta
Hellsinker
Really great stuff from this weekend. Great commentary great runs great games.
Games and runner/commentator list:
Nice to see that Andro Dunos 2 is out on Switch and best of all, it's well reviewed, for the most part!
It makes me wish that the original was available on Switch too, but like so much Visco stuff, I'm guessing it's that the rights are held by someone working on some sort of 'special release' that will get teased and talked about for years before the project falls apart.
The company publishing Andro Dunos 2 is a Dreamcast homebrew team that‘s been reworking Visco’s catalogue for a long time, and while they do have the ability to produce new games using the old IPs and assets, they‘re not able to reprogram or emulate the old ones on modern consoles—they’ve put out several older games on Dreamcast, but they‘re just stuffing the ROMs into an existing homebrew emulator without any optimisation (and they’re basically restricted to NGCD games because those versions are better suited to DC emulation).
Andro Dunos 2 was made by Picorinne Soft, the tiny Japanese team behind Infinos Gaiden, Battle Crust and other games, and it looks to me like they basically took Infinos Gaiden and gave it an Andro Dunos paintjob. The music’s by Allister Brimble and it strikes me as an odd choice for what was and is a very Japanese game, but I don’t hate it or anything.
Other STG news:
- G-Darius HD‘s ver.2 update is coming to consoles on March 31—it adds the never-ported ver.2 arcade revision (in both HD & non-HD variants) as well as many new gadgets and extra features, and they’re even throwing in a port of the PS version for good measure. The Steam version‘s scheduled for release at the same time, and it’ll contain a couple of exclusive features: subwoofer support a la Darius Cozmic Collection, and a special “Exhibition” mode that offers a few boss fights that have been newly optimised for super widescreen.
- The Psikyo collections have been dated for PS4, one’s out late June and the other’s out in July; they’re basically just the PC versions and probably won’t play much better, but who knows.
- MOSS’s Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid game for Switch/PS4 is out now, and there’s a demo (maybe only for Switch, I forget). Nothing I’ve seen impressed me and the reviews haven’t been great, either, but maybe y’all will dig it.
- Shooters Fes 2022’s scheduled for next weekend—icymi, it’s a two-day event full of announcements and presentations from prominent Japanese shooting game publishers/developers, hosted by Mikado, and everyone you’d expect to be there is going to be there. I expect they’ll mostly be promoting recent or already-announced releases and there won’t be many huge reveals, but I’d love to be wrong.
Akai Katana port incoming from City Connection
Btw thanks @gsk for spending your weekend compiling all this ShootersFes news. We owe you one!
@TracyDMcGrath There is a little blurb about S-Tribute on the eShop page of Layer Section.
◆「Sトリビュート」とは
シティコネクションがプロデュースを行い、独自開発を行った「ゼブラエンジン」によりサターン時代の名作を復刻するプロジェクトです。
遊びやすさが進化する新たな機能を搭載し、様々なタイトルをお届けします。
« “S-Tribute” is a project to reissue Saturn-era classics using the “Zebra Engine”, produced by City Connection and developed independently.
We will deliver a variety of titles with new features that will improve the ease of play. »
The features in the RayForce
Going to be a damn shame when it ships with 10 frames of input lag though
Here is a PV:
Not tried it yet but thanks to @gsk here’s the demo for Layer Section
https://twitter.com/gosokkyu/status/1510272024207237127?s=20&t=RCtY-BeFqm05V8s-Ke4Osw
It feels playable. Not M2 or Live Wire fast but also not first round S Tribute bad. Just like Psikyo port bad. I'd guess like 7 or 8 frames?
@TracyDMcGrath fwiw I reserve the right to do a really half-assed job
One of the more interesting developments from day 2: Sega Toys brought in Manabu Namiki to compose some new music for the Astro City Mini V reissue of Armed Police Batrider, as a replacement for certain tunes that Namiki originally jacked from the Japanese metal band Cocobat posed a potential licensing issue.
Oh and one other bit of news I forgot to mention the other day: Rolling Gunner‘s out worldwide on PS4! It’s a good game!
Chop U and Let‘s Ass Kick Together right? My two least favorite songs on the soundtrack honestly so I’m psyched to hear him do more Toaplan 2 esque FMy boss themes.
Also holding out hope that going through all that trouble means it's not just getting ported to the Astro but that's incredible wishful thinking on my part
I never returned to Cotton Boomerang after launch-ish on Switch, but I know City Connection did end up patching the previous Saturn Tributes. Did they get the input lag down from like 11 frames to something reasonable? Cause I want to be excited about this Saturn stuff coming out, I truly do
Drastically unrelated, here’s a curio: Fingun (the trailer should probably not be played at work)
As I understand it, this comes from the Super Weekend Mode developer? I impulse downloaded it on Switch because it costs something like $3.99, I thought the pixel art was charming and I love a new shmup that isn’t ~ retro-style ~ or resurrecting an old STG. Now upfront, this game is lewd and intentionally hypersexualized, but (I think) it’s lewd in the cheeky, burlesque, cheerful way rather than the incels getting off in their subreddits way. You’re shooting boobies and butts and thongs with your finger bullets, pixel gals and guys are bouncing all over and such, that sort of thing
If I had to elevator pitch this, I’d call it WarioWare by way of Cho Aniki (complete with some buff bikini dudes). It plays out as a bite-sized boss rush and is more about positioning than reaction; each boss is so far enjoyably creative and well designed. It also has great music (a mix of live instrumentation and chiptunes) and conjures up that Pistol Daimyo or Bouken Danshaku type of feeling where you just kinda want to see what comes next
Anyway, I’ve beaten about four or five of the bosses and it’s been interesting enough to have paid cup-of-coffee price for sure