Never tried that one, but if you like the idea of switching forms mecha-transformation style I’d recommend Scrambled Valkyrie on SFC. Heck of a lot of weird, interesting, and cool ideas in this one. One of the more competent licensed games I’ve played from this time, certainly one of the better licensed STG in general
Why save Border Down and Gradius V from access obsolescence when you can release Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta! instead?
Now waiting for the inevitable Muchi Muchi Pork♪ revival…
Finally a release date! I’ve been waiting. The new “ReCurse” branding is interesting too. Opening up the vertical aspect ratio to full widescreen must require a lot of balancing adjustments. I don’t remember, did other recent re-releases of tate games like Under Defeat go for features like this as well? I’m not aware of it being especially common. Seems like quite a lot more effort is going into this than just a simple port job in any case. You know I’ll be there day 1
the original release went AC > X360 > PS3, and the original devs added a widescreen-optimised mode specifically for that PS3 version (“Netherworld something-or-other” in the localisation). This new port’s additionally making the story mode playable in widescreen as well.
As far as reissues with 16:9-optimised arranges go, the other big example that comes to mind is Under Defeat (another G.rev game, dontcha know), which added the New Order mode designed for widescreen and/or twin-stick controls. There’s also Cave’s Akai Katana Shin, but that came out so soon after the original, in both arcades and on consoles, that it’s more of a direct revision and not really a tertiary arrange or whatever.
You might also want to include the Bitwave Toaplan reissues for PC, many of which include a hacky option to remove horizontal screen scrolling and display the full width of the stage at once., often with unintended side-effects.
They’re doing a second Telenet Shooting Collection, with… four pretty average PC Engine games? I’m guessing this will be priced the same as the first one, which is a heck of a lot for what it contains.
This week’s Arcade Archives is NebulasRay, a 1994 Namco game that… I’ve never played! Anybody familiar with it at all?
I’ve also never played but it sure seems cute! The rendered sprites look almost like miniatures, like gunpla or something, which would be an interesting aesthetic for an indie game to pick up some time. Definitely got kinda tired of all the voice lines even just by the end of the gameplay trailer though.
Nebula’s Ray is a highly requested title, kinda Namco’s own The Revenge of Death Adder. It came out in 1994 in full bitmap glory just when new consoles and new arcade systems made 2D feel outdated and compromised, which prevented a console port during the Playstation transition. The game is considered pretty good.
That’s good to know! But who am I kidding? I was going to it anyway.
I’m already a sucker for pre-rendered sprites like this. It’s got a really good look to it.
Damn, I have absolutely zero recollection of writing this post (I had a very long night out) but dangerously drunk me forgot to share the most important information about NebulasRay : it’s the missing link between Starblade and Dig Dug in the UGSF timeline. So really, you have to play it if you want to understand the plot of Dig Dug.
a note on Nebulasray: Hamster released it at the premium price tier usually reserved for IP games like Macross, and I suspect that price point’s going to become more common moving forward—they didn’t really try to justify it beyond saying “this is a 32-bit game and we’ve been giving y’all games every week for 11 years”.
big ol’ Gradius Origin Collection interview summary, should you care to read it—do note that in-depth talk about the brand-new Salamander III is being withheld until the launch of the collection on August 7.
City Connection and Clear River announced toaplan Arcade Collection Vol.1/2 for Switch/PS/XB, out August 14 in most of the world and August 28 in Japan—these are essentially just the recent Bitwave PC ports on console, with eight game apiece, and the footage from their live stream suggests the audio issues that plague most of the PC versions haven’t been fixed. (No word on what this does or doesn’t mean for M2’s own, slow-going Toaplan Arcade Garage line.)
my self-control when it comes to buying Telenet collections is thin, but they are making it easy with this one. this coming from a person who loves and defends Psychic Storm.