Your 2024 Gaming Diary

[Hero-of-Time]

Took a break from playing Persona 3 Reload and played another Cotton game. I noticed a couple of them were on sale and so picked up Cotton Fantasy.

Spoiler

 

This is easily my fav of the 3 that I've played. It has modern visuals and there's plenty of replay value. There are 7 characters to play as (need to finish game with each for platinum) and they all play differently to one another. Some require charging your shots before firing and others don't have lives but a time limit that reduces each time you get hit. One of them was hands down better than the rest. When powered up, her bullets fill the whole screen, as seen in one of the pics I took.

The levels are a lot more varied as well. Everyone starts on the same stage but you can then select which stage to go next. As you complete the game with more characters, you unlock different routes. They start off looking like standard Cotton levels but then things get wacky and end up in space!

Had a cracking time with it today. 

[WackerJr]

Spoiler

https://youtu.be/Ng87PCdSoRg?si=tTLu8F1sIYLen8be

Into the Breach (Switch)

I remember @Londragon raving about this a few years, so I finally got around to trying out this roguelike turn-based strategy game.

Starting off with just three units who failed miserably to defend my cities, I quickly realised this wasn’t an easy game (until I changed the difficulty setting anyway!).

I was expecting Advance Wars, but actually Into the Breach does enough to differentiate itself and carve out its own unique and fun niche.

Battles aren’t necessarily won by defeating the ever respawning the alien bugs, but simply by surviving each short 5-turn level.  Each of your three units has a pilot, who earns experience which can give them a couple of new skills over time.  If any of them die in a level then the unit itself will be replaced next level, but the pilot will no longer be able to able to earn experience. Each level has optional objectives which earn you additional stars, which can be used later to replenish the health of your cities or to gain new abilities or maximum health.  I like that this allows for you to strategise in each level and amend tactics, as the upgrades do become very useful as the game gets tougher later on.

The best part for me was the decision to show you what the enemy is planning to do on its next turn.  This allows you to prioritise certain enemies and potentially push them or dodge so they end up attacking and taking out each other.  It’s a tremendous idea that turns each go into a puzzle.

It was fun for a short time. I could have invested more time earning even more unit types, but after opening all levels and beating the final level it did feel a little too repetitive to me.  I ended up spending probably too much time on each level working out strategies for what would only need to be 5 turns each time.  For me personally I prefer the Advance Wars story-lead gameplay with a little more variety to levels as opposed to the shorter number of levels but do them repeatedly with different unit types mentality of Into the Breach. 

I can see the appeal though, and with plenty of unit types to open it has legs for those wanting to put the hours in. Glad I played it, and fun for a short while. 

[Jonnas]

Remember the pledge? The one that I made a few pages back?  It's time to address it.

Final Fantasy II

It was about darn time that I tackled this one. Ever since I finished FF1 a couple of years back, I wanted to do this one (also on the GBA). It took me quitting FE Heroes to properly start it. I already knew quite a fair bit about the game going in, so I went with the mindset of wanting to accurately judge its strengths and faults, and whether this "black sheep" was worthy of that title. So let's do it from best to worst:

Excellent soundtrack! Nobuo Uematsu did a cool soundtrack for FF1, but here? The man was cooking. The normal battle theme sounds like a military march, the regular boss theme sounds like a grueling trek, and the final boss theme sounds like the evil emperor just burst into the room to gloat via Disney song. The overworld theme feels like a sad resolve, while the final dungeon feels triumphant and intimidating at the same time. It's impressive, especially for 1988, how the soundtrack feels like a such a consistent unit, everything about it contributes to a feeling of dourness and near-despair, with a hint of militarism.

Cool story! This was also quite ambitious for the time. Most RPGs (and videogaming stories, really) were doing the simple premise of "evil overlord is there, you must defeat him", but FF2 really wanted to build a narrative. It starts with the player experiencing the overwhelming invasion first hand, then attempting to gain the trust of the good guys, then travelling to specific spots for missions (as part of a greater plan), meeting several secondary characters, which also get mini-arcs of their own... This series was attempting to do in-game cutscenes and set-pieces when that was virtually unheard of. The plot basically has the simple premise of fighting an evil empire, but they make a point of being novel (for the time) about how they're telling it. It was effective, as I was invested into characters like Josef or Gordon.

Minwu has such a cool design. I know he's just one character, but it's clear that the series keeps referencing him specifically, with stuff like Paladins (FFTA) and Mystic Knights (FFV, Bravely series).

I like the keyword system. It's a subtle way to keep the players invested in the plot, and if well done, it can lead to a lot of potential dialogue without ever feeling too artificial. Obviously, the NES was not the place to put large amounts of dialogue, but even in this limited form, it was already enjoyable.

...Dungeons aren't great. They're often labyrinthic, they always feel a bit too long, and they're riddled with a lot of doors that lead to empty rooms with heightened encounter rate. They feel like gauntlets that leave me tired, and rarely accomplished. I can see that they did try to vary the formula here and there, but always in a way that translates to "face even bigger, harder enemies, in a different form".

Which leads me to the one thing that tanks the game: the battle system. I'm sure we all heard about this game's weird level up system, where there aren't any level ups, the stats raise according to whatever we choose to do during battle. Characters attack, they eventually raise their strength, if they get hit, they eventually raise their defence, and so on. I suppose the intention was to be able to raise your party members how you want, define your playstyle. But it doesn't work, it's a godawful system, or at least an awful implementation.

The way it's set up, and considering how you might deal with random encounters, your characters will raise strength, defence, and HP often... and rarely agility. You want to raise magic/spirit, you need to use magic, specifically in battle. If you want to raise the level for specific spells, you also need to use them often... which means that utility spells like Esuna, Protect, Shell, etc. will either miss or be ineffective if their level is too low. For crying out loud, for a spell to work properly, I need to use it incessantly and inanely during random encounters until it levels up?

This is all exacerbated by the fact that enemies get tough. I usually like that, but it's infuriating to get all of my party blinded or poisoned by a spell, and casting Esuna like 3 times until it works! Or running into enemies that are so sturdy, I need to cast Berserk - once again, a couple of times until it works - to damage them (bosses especially have such inflated defence stats). And it's not like I can just run away from those battles, what with my incredibly low, low agility. That's the main issue with this game, it rewards targeted grinding, but it shits all over people actually trying to play casually (and also, where's the sense with having such a grindy system in a game where characters just rotate in and out of the party?)

At one point, I ran into an incredibly tough optional Hillgigas at the end of a dungeon (lucky me, I saved near him), managed to beat him after multiple tries... and then literally the following dungeon just has two fucking Hillgigas as a normal random encounter, well above the average power level for the dungeon they're in. I can't run away from them either. I decided I had enough, the good parts of the game aren't worth that nonsense. I dropped the game.

It's a shame, because I was enjoying the story and ambience otherwise. And from what I know about the story, Emperor Palamecia sounds like a fantastic villain. Considering the good parts, and the number in the title, it is fitting that I rate this with 2 stars. If any mainline FF should ever be remade with an entirely new battle/gameplay system, it should be this one.

A shame that the first game to be cleared from my pledge is one I dropped, but... I did have something else going on.

Phantasy Star

So, I previously mentioned that I had this on Steam... Imagine my surprise to find that it was not there! For whatever reason, I registered all four Phantasy Star games as being part of my backlog, but the first one just wasn't there. I felt wronged, and since the eShop sales were still happening at the time, I decided to go for it and purchase the Sega AGES version.

In other words, thank you very much, @Hero-of-Time and @Glen-i, for recommending this version.

There were a few reasons I wanted to play this: I always wanted to check out this SEGA series; I did want to play the first three before tackling the fourth on NSO; I was really itching for old-school traditional RPGs; and the most recent reason, that my girlfriend cited this one as a childhood favourite (she's from Brazil, Master System was massive there). In fact, I was hoping this release would have the Brazilian Portuguese translation, but alas, it did not have it.

I decided to play with the classic Exp&Gold rates, and after listening to both soundtracks for a bit, decided to go with the 8-bit tunes (they just fit better). This version also helps a lot with QoL features. Namely, you don't need to do any guesswork to figure out who can equip what, or which weapon or armour is better than which, as the AGES version comes with a handy guide of what's what. Oh, and the dungeon maps were definitely kept on!

As for the game itself... It's lovely, actually, I had amazing fun with it. It's actually very conventional for the most part, with a few unusual aspects here and there (the Talk command, for example). It definitely scratched that itch for a comfortable traditional RPG. It only demands a bit of grinding at the very beginning (likely to teach players the value of level ups and equipment), and then it's smooth sailing. The only snags I found were on how to use the Ice Digger (I did not think I had to randomly test it on every wall) and how to open the path to the final dungeon (I thought for sure I needed that Miracle Key...)

Aesthetically, this game is just Star Wars. Not just because it's fantasy sci-fi, the evil guards are literally just Stormtroopers, for example. The plot is... there's a local evil King who killed the protagonist's brother, and she's out to avenge him. Classic stuff. There are also small details here and there that bring flavour to the world (like the lying Dezorians, or the beggars asking for a drink before talking), and I did like the detail about how that one key item ended up in the hands of the mad scientist.

Music is fantastic. Really catchy tunes all over the place (Palma is an instant classic, but even the dungeon theme is great). Oh, and 3 distinct overworld themes. Way ahead of its time.

I will admit, I did not love the dungeons (I generally hate first-person dungeon crawlers), so the map was a lifesaver. Another issue is that the game doesn't have repels or anything like it, would've been really helpful to have a breather when figuring out where to go next.

I was even more impressed when put into the context of the era: this game came out almost at the same time as Final Fantasy 1, but it feels so much more advanced than that. There are cutscenes, named party members who talk, enemies have animations (!), dungeons are 3D crawlers, there's more than one world map in the game... even a set piece like an unwinnable boss battle was unheard of at the time.

Also, the developer team was basically 40% women? And Yuji Naka programmed the game so well, the M2 team literally could not find where he stored the data for one of the enemies? The story behind this game feels unreal.

I also had fun discussing parts of the game with my girlfriend. She mentioned that getting through the game back in the day was practically a social event, with a bunch of kids trading impressions, playing together, and trying to figure out how to beat the game as a group. I imagine at least one of those kids may have been drawing maps of the dungeons himself. Kinda wild to think that PS may have been to Brazil what DQ was to Japan.

Despite the confusing dungeons, the truth is that I loved this game. It's truly one of the best 8-bit RPGs I've ever played (second only to Dragon Quest III), and... it's a shame that it doesn't get the respect it deserves nearly as often. It's 5 stars from me.

Kid Icarus

I did play a few NES classics during my last update, and I wasn't planning on skipping this one.

So, the main reason I wanted to properly beat this title in particular, is the fact that I never gave it a chance. Every time I tried to play it, I found it too confusing to understand, and would drop it. No more, I want to know what was it about this game that made it such a cult classic, even before Brawl came out.

It... really is a confusing game. Not a bad or unfun one, it just has very specific rules that are hard to parse. At its core, it's a level-based platformer where you can shoot enemies... except every 4th level is an elaborate labyrinth, Metroidvania-style (with maps so shitty, it's better to have no map at all)

Shooting enemies gives you hearts, which is currency, basically. There are shops to spend them, and you can interact with them in highly specific ways... There are rooms with games of chance with confusing rules... There are rooms where you can get your weapon upgraded (but only if you fulfill an invisible "skill" counter), rooms where you face a barrage of enemies in order to gain a reward (either a buff, or a lot of hearts).... And the Metroidvania levels have this specific move where you can free petrified centurions (using mallets) so they can help you against that level's boss (I did not expect Pit's Brawl Final Smash to actually be a thing here, but there we go).

That's a lot of unexplained mechanics! Once you finally understand what's going on, it's an enjoyable game that grows a lot as your progress, but that initial knowledge barrier is surprisingly steep.

A weird quirk of the game is that the first 4 levels are pretty challenging, but the rest of the game is much easier to get through. Pit gains new skills as the game progresses, sure, but I think the main reason is that they just didn't put any healing rooms in those first few levels. Not sure why they designed the game like that.

I eventually reached the end and got the second-best ending. Felt really nice. It's a fun game with a lot of charm, it just has some complicated mechanics, and a handful of questionable design decisions. 3 stars feels like the fairest rating.

----------------------

And just like that, I crossed a few titles off my pledge. One of which is an RPG I beat (that's another 2024 resolution fulfilled, too).

April is upon us, and I know exactly what to play next.

[Hero-of-Time]

I can understand why you dropped Final Fantasy II, @Jonnas. It's very much the black sheep of the family and really hard to get to grips with. It took me multiple attempts to play through the game and it wasn't until 2021 (had a quick search and found my posts about it) that I finally sat down and played it from start to finish and I ended up enjoying the game. My love of grinding really came into play when I played through it. Early on, I made my team ridiculously OP and broken, so much so that I took out the last boss it 2 shots. I think if you do a little prep early on with what spells you learn you can pretty much coast through the game. 

[Dcubed]

I’ll always have a soft spot for a game where punching yourself in the face is the path to victory.

Also Minwu hates doors.

[bob]

I had hoped to finish another game this year, continuing my streak of 1 per month.

However, Mass Effect 2 has turned out to be way better than I was expecting, and skipping all the side quests is too difficult, so it's taking me longer than the first game. The writing and quest design is head and shoulders above the first game, which make them actually enjoyable to play rather than just box ticking. Hopefully I can finish this game off soon though, as it's messing with my GPM average.

[Glen-i]

11 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Early on, I made my team ridiculously OP and broken, so much so that I took out the last boss it 2 shots.

Pfft! Two shots? Weak sauce! I beat it with one casting of Toad.

No, seriously, that works. In fact, Toad in FF2 works on around 95% of enemies, provided you keep up with leveling it up. Which isn't hard, because it's the best spell, by far.

Unfortunately, Pixel Remaster changed the final boss so Toad heals it now, for some reason, but it still works on the rest of the game.

FF2 is proper wonky, and I love it!

[lostmario]

Finished and then got the Platinum trophy on Spider-Man: Miles Morales over the easter weekend. That's back to back platinum trophies. @Hero-of-Time is no doubt very proud of me.

I wasn't expecting much from the story but I was surprised as I thought it was pretty good, especially the ending.

Having to do New Game Plus to get the platinum trophy unfortunately highlighted how short the story was if you didn't bother with the side missions.

Regarding the side missions, I really enjoyed them, a nice variety and while I normally hate stealth in games (I don't have the patience), I completed quite a few of the enemy bases without being seen.

The postcard scavanger hunt one was probably my favourite side mission. Quite touching with the messages from his dad.

Gameplay was spot on as expected with Insomniac. As with God of War: Ragnarok, it looks great on the PS4 Pro.

Now I really want to play Spider-Man 2 but I don't want to buy a PS5.

[Hero-of-Time]

Indeed I am. Well done. 

[drahkon]

I beat Mega Man last night.

He's too slippery Other than that: Good game. Lot of fun, fairly difficult, solid start to an apparently legendary series.

I also started Mega Man 2 and the dude is still slippery, though not as much as in the first game. Will the third installment be the one where Mega Man stops in place when you let go of the directional buttons?

[Hero-of-Time]

48 minutes ago, drahkon said:

I beat Mega Man last night.

He's too slippery Other than that: Good game. Lot of fun, fairly difficult, solid start to an apparently legendary series.

I also started Mega Man 2 and the dude is still slippery, though not as much as in the first game. Will the third installment be the one where Mega Man stops in place when you let go of the directional buttons?

 

 

[drahkon]

8 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

 

 

Did you just "let me google/reddit that for you" me?

But thanks, that's good to know

[Hero-of-Time]

2 hours ago, drahkon said:

Did you just "let me google/reddit that for you" me?

Indeed.  

[Jonnas]

On 02/04/2024 at 6:54 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

I can understand why you dropped Final Fantasy II, @Jonnas. It's very much the black sheep of the family and really hard to get to grips with. It took me multiple attempts to play through the game and it wasn't until 2021 (had a quick search and found my posts about it) that I finally sat down and played it from start to finish and I ended up enjoying the game. My love of grinding really came into play when I played through it. Early on, I made my team ridiculously OP and broken, so much so that I took out the last boss it 2 shots. I think if you do a little prep early on with what spells you learn you can pretty much coast through the game. 

I'm surprised to hear that. I know you love grinding, so I thought this game would click with you right away But grinding isn't my style at all, unfortunately.

12 hours ago, drahkon said:

I beat Mega Man last night.

He's too slippery Other than that: Good game. Lot of fun, fairly difficult, solid start to an apparently legendary series.

I also started Mega Man 2 and the dude is still slippery, though not as much as in the first game. Will the third installment be the one where Mega Man stops in place when you let go of the directional buttons?

Starting with MM1 is tough! Easily the hardest one. I usually recommend people start with MM2.

While some complain about the slipperiness, I personally think that Megaman feels excessively stiff in MM3. To the point that it's hard to turn around. But only in that game, as he feels fine in the ones following that.

[Ike]

On 02/04/2024 at 1:55 AM, Jonnas said:

but even the dungeon theme is great).

So good that PSO did a remix of mostly PSII songs but this song made it in.

 

Quote

April is upon us, and I know exactly what to play next.

It's Fire Emblem, right?

...Right?

[WackerJr]

Spoiler

 

Metroid Dread (Switch)

A triumphant return for the Metroid series and while it doesn’t reinvent the franchise, it is essentially 2D Metroid on modern consoles.

The counter move, introduced in the 3DS Samus Returns I believe (correct me if I’m wrong) adds an extra nuance to gameplay, although is pretty much a necessity on bosses.  Speaking of which, I thought the bosses here were excellent.  Each major one I did, I pretty much got wiped out quickly and wondered how I’d ever defeat it, especially with no visible life bar.  However, each attempt I lasted a little longer through naturally learning the attack patterns and my fingers hitting the right buttons a fraction quicker.  It’s a pretty cool feeling and motivation to persevere, and actually after a few attempts I found I was taking them down.

I’m glad they introduced the QoL improvements such as areas of the map flashing to indicate there’s a hidden power-up, without revealing exactly where it is, and the scanner to identify breakable blocks in an area.  I was never that great in backtracking and finding lots in previous games, so this made that aspect faster and much less frustrating, especially as having a host of missiles and health is vital later on.

I can see why views are mixed on the E.M.M.I. stealth sections.  I appreciate whst they added, but I didn’t really enjoy them, employing a more cowardly ‘run, run, as fast as you can’ mentality a lot if time and seeing way too much of Samus’ death animation!  I preferred the Zero Mission stealth sections.

The Shinespark puzzles were clever, although some used mechanics I don’t recall the game ever mentioning, which made some much trickier.  I did need to look up help on a few.  

I had no desire to replay it though, unlike some of the previous games, so I was determined to at least find and collect 100% of the items.

Overall, great game, and fixes a Metroid itch and will introduce many to the 2D Metroid games.  It feels tough, and players need a little patience, especially with boss battles.   A good ‘once and done’ title.

[S.C.G]

On 01/04/2024 at 12:08 AM, S.C.G said:

Hmm, that's not too bad... with shipping, plus import fees it'll likely be £150+ but still, not too bad.

Or... maybe it'll be closer to £100 with the conversion rate, and maybe there won't be import fees if it's only £100, or at least they might be less than the console would be.

Edit - *checks on the website* OK, it'll be £126.69 including shipping... that's reasonable.

Update - Analogue don't want my money as the credit card payment won't go through, oh well.

Well, I managed to score an Analogue dock on eBay for just under £170... it's the white dock, plus an Anker UK power adapter.  

It would have cost more to order from Analogue, if I could, which I can't due to the credit card issue, plus it's in the UK, so it should arrive soon.

[Dcubed]

37 minutes ago, S.C.G said:

Well, I managed to score an Analogue dock on eBay for just under £170... it's the white dock, plus an Anker UK power adapter.  

It would have cost more to order from Analogue, if I could, which I can't due to the credit card issue, plus it's in the UK, so it should arrive soon.

Nice one! It really does complete the Analogue Pocket experience.

Well pleased with my one

[drahkon]

Just play it. It gets quite difficult but the way the narrative unfolds...it's worth it.

[bob]

Still plugging away at Mass Effect 2.

But annoyed because last night I managed to fail a mission. I didn't realise there were any missions you could fail (and not just restart), but the Samara loyalty mission ended up with her daughter buggering off.

I love the way all your decisions follow you through the game and even through to the next game, but because this one was an actual failure rather than a conscious decision, it just didn't sit right, and I've been griping about it ever since...

[Jonnas]

On 04/04/2024 at 9:17 PM, Ike said:

It's Fire Emblem, right?

...Right?

Good guess It is the anniversary month. But I didn't mean a game from the pledge, I meant another April release...

...But before I ever explain whatever that means:

A Jonnas NSO Update

Watching Sakurai's channel has been a treat, he's got a lot of insight into a myriad of details. One thing I noticed is that he seems to be a big Shmup* fan, having referenced quite a few titles from this genre throughout his videos. I was never really into the genre, so I did feel a tad alienated whenever he made any such reference.

With the NSO carrying quite a few titles from this genre, I figured it would be a good idea to delve a bit deeper into it, try to find something to connect with.

*(For the record, "Shmup" is short for "Shoot'em Up". I insist on using this abbreviation, because... we western gamers have somehow called two distinct genres the same thing: "Shoot'em Up" refers both to the genre with auto-scrolling ships (like Gradius) AND the genre with run&gun marines (like Contra). Thankfully, they both have alternative, distinct names, so "Shmup" it is!)

The 8-bit Shmups

I knew I wanted to start with Xevious. It's the oldest one, and often mentioned as a reference in the genre. I didn't actually like it much, though. I did think that the bombing mechanic was interesting, but between the endless level, the boss with a time limit (and also a difficulty spike), and the generally slow pace, I got bored quickly. I will give its due as an impressive game for 1982, but that's it. On the brighter side, I finally know what was that Bacura thing in Tales of Symphonia.

Next, it was Star Soldier. Sakurai explicitly mentioned this one as a good title in the genre. It's faster and feels more fun, but... what is up with this level design? There's so much metal all over the place, and it blocks your bullets, but your ship can run through just fine? If it wasn't for these weirdly artificial barriers, I'd like it a lot more, but as it stands, it just feels like my shots disappear no good reason.

I moved on to Gradius. This is a particularly famous title, almost synonymous with the genre. A bit slow, but plenty fun. There's an element of strategy, with the player having some control on which power-ups to unlock, pretty creative stuff. Sadly, the game got really dang hard from Stage 3-ish onwards: those Moai heads just fill the screen with bullets, and if you die, your power-ups reset entirely, and now the bullet hell is unbeatable. Shame, the game was doing pretty well up until that point.

And then there was Twinbee. All I knew about it is that it's a lighter and softer take on the genre. Hated it. There's a power-up system that doesn't seem to function properly, it has the same bombing mechanic as Xevious (but not the slower pace that makes it work, nor the precision that made it fun in the first place), and the game is just too damn hard for what was supposed to be a "lighter" title.

I'd say my ranking of these goes Gradius > Star Soldier > Xevious > Twinbee. Can't say I was hooked on any of them (though Gradius came the closest). Probably because they all feature a ship that dies in one hit.

The 16-bit Shmups

For some reason, my instinct decided to start with Super Earth Defense Force. Might've been the generic look and title, made it a good base starting point. Right off the bat, I'm actually having a lot of fun with it! Music is good, graphics look impressive, it feels super pleasant to simply move and fire shots, and the selectable weapon system made me try a bunch of playstyles. Then I carried on with the game, and found out that the Homing weapon ought to be the default for 80% of the game, because goddamn, so many tiny enemies surrounding you all of the time! But there's a couple of bosses that render Homing useless, which was cool, forced me to adapt my gameplay. Ended up depending on Photon to deal with the final level.

I've seen this game get criticised for being too difficult, and I can see why: even though your ship can take 3 hits before dying, you only get 3 lives/credits total for a whole playthrough (no extra lives whatsoever). Plus, despite a sensible difficulty curve, the game gets pretty hard in the later half. Thankfully, if I use the NSO to create save states only at the weapon selection between levels, I can effectively make this game have infinite lives, while still making the challenge count. This ended up being the first NSO shmup I've beaten. 3 stars

Looking at the other titles, I really wanted to go for MUSHA. This one really, truly clicked with me, right off the gate. Game looks hectic, game-feel is super fast, but still smooth as butter, and the aesthetic direction of this game (sci-fi with a lot of traditional Japanese iconography) is impressive. I played for several levels without understanding what the heck was going on, or how the power-up system worked, but I was having a blast. I eventually figured some parts of it out, restarted the game, and went on to beat it in full. The last level/boss was a bullshit difficulty spike, but other than that, it was a fantastic experience. 4 stars. I might play it in Hard Mode in the future.

Then I went for Thunder Force II. What a downgrade. You command a ship in overview perspective and you go around shooting other stuff. I had no idea when the level was supposed to end, I just... flew around for a long time, blowing up ships and bases, until I got literally too bored to try to dodge anything. I would later learn that this game has more typical side-scrolling sections, but it's not winning me back.

How are you gentlemen !! Someone set up us the bomb. What you say? Get signal, all your base are belong to Zero Wing. I was really happy to see this classic 20+ years old meme show up in the NSO, for great justice Legendary opening aside, the game itself felt pretty rote, and overly slow as well. As soon as you get some fully upgrade homing shots, I just kept my finger on the firing button all the time, while waiting for those interminable slow levels to end (Is this what CATS meant by "Make your time"?). I just stopped at some point, looked up the final level, and... I'm sorry, you don't even fight CATS!? Zero Wing, you have no chance to survive on your way to destruction!

After the NES disappointment, I kept delaying this one, but I needed to tackle Pop'n Twinbee. Thankfully, it is considerably more fun than the NES game. The colourful aesthetics work a lot better here, the power-up system works properly now, and it is very fun to control and play. I still dropped it quickly though, as the game is insanely hectic. The bombing mechanic is still here, but it doesn't fit the fast pace of the game, and grounded enemies generate an oppressive bullet hell. Meanwhile, you're juggling colourful bells, while still doing the usual loop of shooting airborne enemies and dodging bullets. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when I reached the first boss (a simple, single enemy to deal with, huzzah!), but then the next level was more of this crazy game, so I stopped. I can see this being a hit with hardcore shmup fans, but not me, clearly. What is it with "cutesy" games that fail at being simple and/or easy?

(At this point, I was convinced that MUSHA totally spoiled my expectations for the genre, as I wasn't enjoying any of the other 16-bit titles)

Finally, another Sakurai recommendation, and one I've seen from time to time: Super Fantasy Zone. I wanted to finish on this one, because it looked to be the most unique and interesting. And in many ways, it really was. One of the few titles to not be an auto-scroller, you just command the ship in a looping corridor (and you can turn left and right!), your mission being to destroy 10 specific objects while tiny enemies respawn infinitely. After that, you face a boss in a more traditional fashion. There's also a cool upgrade system where you collect coins to buy power-ups and weapons, it's really cool (except for the part where new guns have a time limit to be used, that's silly).

Overall, a really creative and fun game. Sadly, it's not one I could finish, because... the ship dies in one hit. The enemy bullets are really tiny in this game, and though you can buy extra lives, they get expensive. At one point, I reached a level that was just too difficult for me, and I dropped it. A shame.

My ranking goes MUSHA > Super EDF > Super Fantasy Zone > Pop'n Twinbee > Zero Wing > Thunder Force 2

-------------------

This is not the end of my Shmup journey, but it is a good place to pause. I still don't think the genre is a good fit for me, but there are a few occasional aspects here and there that do end up resonating with me. Like being able to survive more than a single hit

Edited April 11 by Jonnas

[Glen-i]

2 hours ago, Jonnas said:

This is not the end of my Shmup journey, but it is a good place to pause.

Well, when you single handedly make Super R-Type materialise on NSO by playing too many Shmups, that's bound to happen!

[Glen-i]

Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game is effectively a spiritual sequel to the DS title, Super Princess Peach. It's an action-adventure game developed by Good-Feel for the Switch that released quite recently.

Peach gets an invitation to the Sparkle Theater. Of course, trouble follows Peach like a bad smell, and the theater is almost immediately overtaken by the evil witch, Grape, and her Sour Bunch minions. The performers of the Sparkle Theater are missing, so it falls to Peach to team up with the guardian spirit of the theater, Stella, to utilise the power of Sparkle to take over pivotal roles of various plays and use those abilities to fight back.

The big selling point here is the various transformations that Peach gets throughout the game. Normally, Peach has a somewhat limited ribbon attack as her only action other then jumping, but when she finds some Sparkle, what she's able to do changes depending on the setting of the play she's in.

I don't think that's a real horse?

This provides a decent amount of variety to gameplay, it's still very simple and an absolute breeze to get through (Good-Feel aren't exactly strangers to that mantra), with the only possible challenge coming from optional things, like finding all the Sparkle Gems dotted throughout the game. There's nothing inherently wrong with an easy game, and I enjoyed my time with it.

The aesthetic style in this game is great! Loads of nice touches that sell the idea of everything taking place on a stage. Another nice detail is Peach herself. Her animations all change to reflect the costume she's in, and it's really impressive. It can't be faulted, in that regard.
That said, the frame rate of this game takes a noticable dip at times, this only seems to happen in the hub area, and cutscenes, so it doesn't affect actual gameplay, making it merely a minor annoyance.

I swear, it was like this when I got here!

The music is... fine. Doesn't really stand out to me, though.

So yeah, this is a fun game. Doesn't set the world alight, mind.

Spoiler

Sea of Stars
Chained Echoes
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game

 

[Hero-of-Time]

After the Triple-i event, I decided to play through some indie games.

I played and enjoyed Coffee Talk a year or two back and figured I would give this a go, given that it's pretty much the same kind of game. I wasn't that big of a fan of it. The narrative wasn't as interesting as Coffee Talk and I really didn't get on with the UI when it came to making the drinks. It felt very clunky, although I imagine it would be fine using a mouse and keyboard or a touch screen.

There was at trophy for completing a mini game that you end up unlocking. Its a good job I had been playing Cotton over the past couple of weeks because otherwise I would have struggled with it. It's a ripoff of that and pretty brutal as well. Such a weird thing to put in a VN game.

This was a fun little game. You have to collect pieces of map that are scattered around the area and then place said pieces to create a bigger world for you to explore. For example, if you come to a dead end, place a map piece down so you can move forward. Want to reach a cave that is out of reach? Pick up the map piece, rotate it so it fits and place it down. It's very, very clever and surprised just how well it works. 

I LOVED this. I vaguely remember @RedShell enjoying this a couple of years back and now I can see why. It's a massive love letter to Pikmin and plays exactly how a top down, 2D Pikmin game should. Instead of a whistle to call your creatures, the main character rocks what is essentially a Proton Pack from Ghostbusters. You suck up the little creatures to get them back to you. The development team knew what they were referencing because when you fully upgrade it this is what the trophy us called.

Yeah, loved this to bits and it's up there with Bat Boy and Tinykin as some of my favourite indie games I've played this year.

I also played through the GBA WarioWare game. This was due to Nando posting about his adventures on the more recent Switch version. Its been years since I played the original game and so set about fully completing it. This required me to unlock every mini game and also beat the high score on each of them. This took some doing and so I was just tackling a few at a time, in between other games.

It was fun playing though it again and reminded me of when it was first released. I would take my GBA to work with me and during our lunch break, me and the lads would take turns trying to get the high scores. 

 

[Jonnas]

On 12/04/2024 at 3:21 AM, Glen-i said:

Well, when you single handedly make Super R-Type materialise on NSO by playing too many Shmups, that's bound to happen!

Yeah, that game got announced and released on the same day I posted that update! That was some shmupping good timing.