Been playing Jaleco’s 1993 mech shmup Cybattler, which recently hit the arcade archives. Don’t sleep on this one. For fans of 8 way aiming, melee attacks, huge sprites, and a good time.
Yeah, Cybattler was a day one for me! I played it exactly once in an arcade in the mid 90‘s and it was an obscure enough game in a saturated market that I couldn’t identify it until a few years back. It‘s one of the greats! I sure do wish it had somehow gotten a port by M2, but I’ll settle for Arcade Archives.
Still dipping back into that sweet, sweet, ZeroRanger from time to time.
Recently acquired Sterredenn and Project Starship X and am looking forward to check them out!
I‘ve been looking at Project Starship X for a bit now (that and Task Force Kampus). It has a little of that Velocity (PSP, PSV, PS3, PS4) feel to it with the dashing/teleporting mechanic. If you end up liking that one, I would recommend Rym 9000. I have no idea what kind of reach it got, but it is available on PC and PS. It isn’t particularly difficult or long but it was a blast to learn and it is quite aesthetically congruent in the best possible way
Has anyone here played Super Hydorah? It’s a pretty fun indie shooter that really captures the look and feel of gradius.
I really enjoy it! These guys also have a Ghosts N Goblins like game called Cursed Castilla… they do a great job of replicating some good arcade classics.
@milo it‘s been on my list but I haven’t played it yet. Didn‘t know about their Ghosts and Goblins game I’ll definitely try to track that down
I really like Locomalito‘s work in general! I’d go so far as to say that IC regulars should probably check out most of their work beyond just Super Hydorah and Maldita Castilla, especially cool stuff like L’Abbaye des Morts! (Speaking of which I kind of want someone more knowledgeable than I am on the subject to start a ZX Spectrum thread!)
On an unrelated note, does anyone have any opinions on Devil Engine? It’s got a heckuva great aesthetic, but I haven’t played it yet:
@Southeastpaw I’m friends with one of the developers of Task Force Kampas! Pretty cool game.
@milo And I have spoken with Locomalito a couple of times, he’s an extremely cool and gente guy. I love Super Hydorah but actually my favorite game of his is Maldita Castilla EX. Although I like Curse of Issyos a good amount as well.
@Karasu Don’t know much about the game other than the super weird controversy surrounding it, but apparently it’s pretty good, or so I’ve heard!
Yeah Maldita Castilla is so good! Tight controls and fun power ups. Never heard of Curse of Issyos but it looks amazing! Gotta check that one out.
@Karasu It‘s a great game. Thunderforce love letter with some gorgeous visuals. Unfortunately the publisher held it hostage and didn’t pay the devs. Then they started paying one of the devs and they stopped talking to the other devs who still aren‘t seeing any money. It’s a bizarre story and a lot of the details are confusing, but it seems like it’s still not a great idea to pay for it
@TracyDMcGrath Thanks for the info– I’ll continue to avoid it then!
https://twitter.com/Protocultgames
This is their Twitter with some statements about the current situation
@Southeastpaw I have played Rym 9000 (and have my eye on Kampas, both were in the Big Itch Bundle) but I had to stop because there was no autofire button that I could tell, so it was destroying my fingers to play. Which is extremely disappointing because I love the aesthetic of that game and have recommended people check it out a lot. I still plan to find a way to rig some kind of autofire and play it again.
Another week, another NMK shooter on the Arcade Archives!
My favorite Locomalito games are L’Abbaye des Morts, Maldita Castilla, and Gaurodan, probably in that order.
Maldita Castilla was the first of his games that I played and the one that convinced me to try more though.
Thinking about Gaiares this morning! I can recall the enemy weapon capture mechanic feeling like the most open-ended mechanic I had ever seen. It‘s funny to play it again, and to do some reading about it to realize that there are only 14 different weapons, haha. I’m always surprised that the mechanic never made it into any other games (that I‘m aware of at least). Also interested to see (years later) that given a bunch of Telenet’s other works were also things I loved, of course I really enjoyed it. Even though I had no idea at the time.
The soundtrack is also extremely good! The bosses seem awfully stiff compared to things that have come after it, but they were extremely good looking at the time!
Anyway, just wishing it would get ported someday to a modern platform so that I don’t have to pull out my extremely elderly Genesis and the cart to play it.
GUY ARE US
@s This was unfortunately the state of the world in 1990. I offer no additional excuses.
Sure looks like the game was pasted onto his hand after the fact!
@s ultra pencil thin moustache
This reads more like “growing a mustache as a high school sophomore” to me. And as someone who was in high school in the mid-90s, I knew people whose personal style was “dude in the Gaiares ad”.