@gsk Thanks for these thoughts. Thunder Force AC on Switch is on sale as of today and I picked it up for like, $4. I‘ve played TFIII on the Genesis Mini and I’m looking forward to seeing what the differences are.
I’ve also played Thunder Force 4 on Switch enough to know it’s also cool and fun and really really hard. I haven’t actually played through the game with M2’s emulation updates (save states etc.) and I intend to do that some time.
@gsk Awesome. I have tried Sapphire before and bounced off of it, but I think this bumped Lords of Thunder up my list. I’m playing these on my MiSTER so access is easy. And this put Thunder Force 3 on my radar as well. Thank you.
I played some of the R-Type Final 2 demo last night, and I’m here with an after-action report.
Other very-high-level observations:
Let’s talk about the death effect in a bit more detail. The player ship explodes and then all motion on the screen freezes very quickly. It’s abrupt and distinct. The lack of “follow through” is jarring. It nags your brain. It’s like in poker when you fold and you really want to see that last card (even though you lost), but your dealer won’t let you rabbit hunt. It’s a part of a song when the mastering engineer clamps everything to fx00000000 and there is perfect digital silence. More games should apply the total absence of motion as a way to contrast with the game’s regular visual pacing.
Finally, yes, I highlighted the wrong thing when I took this photo of the options screen. And I love that there’s a setting for the ending song specifically. For the record, your other choice is “Japanese”.
And hell. This is why posting from the Switch is stupid and I should do it and also why Twitter should provide an edit button.
This concludes my scat/instrumental version of my thoughts.
@antillese I know I‘m a bit late to this conversation but I’ve used pretty much all of the methods and I feel like I‘m getting used to them all. Main reason, really, is that I don’t have an arcade stick for all of the consoles that I play my shooters on so I‘ve gotten better with playing on the pad. It almost feels like Ginga Force, Natsuki Chronicles, and R-Type Final 2 were made with controller in mind. My collection spans five generations and PC so it’s hard to count on a universal controller.
I have a beautiful MAS arcade stick with an Happ Controls Perfect 360 Optical Joystick in it that is my absolute favorite way to play but it only has a hook up to a 360 so I rarely break it out and haven’t gotten a converter yet. Good thing there were so many great shooters on that system.
Of course, this will forever be the perfect controller:
I want it. So. Badly.
@s I have the game for 360, but as one of the few game CAVE games I could get into, this is a big sickos.jpg from me.
M2 shared a new trailer for the upcoming Aleste game a few days back. This one is only set for arcade release at the moment, from what I can tell.
Has anyone tried out Godstrike yet? Looks like it is available on at least Switch and Steam, not sure if anywhere else.
Seems like a dual stick shooter with a bit of bullet hell, and a potentially interesting mechanic where you have limited time to complete a stage, and taking a hit reduces the timer by some amount (rather than having HP, or a one hit KO).
I’m curious to check it out, but also curious if anyone here has already done so before me and has anything interesting to say about it
@rejj I haven‘t tried it (and hadn’t even heard of it– thanks for the tip) but it reminds me a bit of ITTA, also for the Switch:
But of course it also reminds me of the bullet hell boss sequences in Nier Automata (just with a slightly different POV)!
Oh, I keep meaning to ask: Does anybody have thoughts on the two (soon to be three) Darius collections for the Switch? I love Darius, and side scrolling STGs in particular, but the price for the existing two games is absolutely bonkers (and even more here in Canada than in the US). I mean I’ve already said I love Darius, but I’d love to hear if someone’s bought them and if so, are they nicely done?
@Karasu I love the two Darius collections but yeah it‘s hard to justify their price point. It’s an M2 joint, so the ports are great and there‘s a ton of extra goodies, including a training mode where you can set the level and the powerup build. Darius Gaiden is one of the best shmups of all time, and the SNES exclusive games on the console collection are really good too, but the console ones don’t have as many features (just a single savestate slot instead of a full training mode).
@TracyDMcGrath Thank you! I think that‘s probably enough to push me over the edge to buying at least the arcade version. Maybe I’ll wait a bit on console though, since G-Darius is upcoming, and the home port I remember the most.
But yes, those prices! They’re astonishing!
I don‘t like Darius. Is it because I don’t have three monitors in a row? Change my mind!
@antillese like the original Darius? The 3 screens is the gimmick. Darius 2 is slightly better. Gaiden and G are both pretty good.
And the more recent games that I honestly could not tell you which is which or what the new port is different from the old port are alright.
Also honestly find the music of all of them to be weird and boring as opposed to weird and good (Evergrace.)
The tunes are good, the level branching is good, the powerup system is good, the fish are good, everything is good. G and Gaiden are definitely a cut above the rest but it's a charming series all around.
Most (all?) of my Darius experience has been on the Genesis Mini. Is that one good? It’s got that make a mistake and your game is over because you at no longer powered up system that I don’t like.
@antillese Most (all?) of my Darius experience has been on the Genesis Mini. Is that one good? It’s got that make a mistake and your game is over because you at no longer powered up system that I don’t like.
For that specific conversion, setting your ship to Tiat lets you keep your upgrades when you die.
That port’s an admirable and fundamentally accurate single-screen conversion of the original three-screen arcade game, so if you don’t like it you probably won’t have a profoundly different experience with the arcade original, nor the sequel.
Been playing R-Type Delta the past few days. Such a fantastic looking game.
Lots of shoot em ups coming to the Switch over the next several months! In addition to R-Type Final 2 that‘s out on Friday, there’s Raiden IV X MIKADO coming on May 6 (https://www.nintendo.com/en_CA/games/detail/raiden-iv-x-mikado-remix-switch/), Deathsmiles I&II coming (to Japan only, for now) in December (https://www.gematsu.com/2021/04/deathsmiles-i-ii-for-ps4-xbox-one-and-switch-launches-december-16-in-japan), and Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou– the Japanese feature phone version– was just announced (https://www.gematsu.com/2021/04/g-mode-archives-dodonpachi-blissful-death-dx-announced-for-switch). Oh! And Arcade Archives Thunder Cross II is launching this week too!
I'm still kinda amazed how many shoot em ups are available for the system already!
@TracyDMcGrath This was me back in the day at one point. The only thing I didn‘t have was the shirt. Yes, I’m including the hair…
@antillese Just catching up on this thread and I was to appreciate this post. Einhander was such a great came that just came out of nowhere but I still hop back into it from time to time myself.
And if I can’t bring myself to pull out the game, I’ll turn to the soundtrack.
So many crazy branching paths, hidden weapons and ways to mix up each play through. Top of my shortlist for this genera for sure.
@tomjonjon I love the game as a whole, but the last stage in Delta is absolutely mindblowing and I hope there‘s something that’s even half as inspired in Final 2.
