Gloves

12 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

That's because the game was designed as a caravan shooter. Were the others designed to be caravan shooters too or were they just designed to be technically and graphically impressive shooters?

As though a longer form game couldn't implement similar trappings? The fact that there's a time limit is a boon as it creates a more honed experience and provides a unique challenge. That same time limit doesn't invalidate it from the conversation nor mean that we can't compare similarly styled games which are themselves not bound by that same time limit. 

2 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

I'd argue that it's a little more of a Metroid style game.  A Megatroidvania as it were. 

That's totally fair, and I'll follow up with that I also don't like Metroid games lol. The first Castlevania was good though, and I've not played the rest of those. When I first played Battle Kid I was expecting (and was told to expect...) another I Wanna Be The Guy (which I loved), and was disappointed.

Just now, Seth said:

You gotta like Nintendo Hard, tho.

I just don't like Mega Man style games. 

4 minutes ago, doner24 said:

Any list of votes without Battlekid is unserious. It’s a Hall of Fame, not which recent game do you like the best. 

I didn't like Battle Kid personally, but agreed - when the game came out is irrelevant. If other newer games can't keep up then that's tough noogies. Can anybody name a homebrew that's a better NES platformer than SMB3? 

25 minutes ago, Seth said:

I like Blade Buster! But there are definitely shooters that are as good or better, from Astro Ninja Man to HaraForce to HaraTyler to Haradius Zero to Over Obj to Star Keeper. And those who like quirky games will say GunTneR or Oratorio.

See my statement above - I've played all those you've listed and would consider them all to be inferior, personally. GunTneR was horrible and the dev didn't really honor my purchase - I got the "put something in the game" tier and he was entirely unresponsive and didn't implement anything at all that I proposed. Oratorio is a rail-shooter, completely different genre.

I don't wanna be the snobby jerk in the room, but I play a lot of shmups and I play them at a very high skill level with a very deep understanding of the genre. The games you listed aside from maybe Astro Ninja Man aren't in the same ballpark as Blade Buster, and I'd personally once again place the two in separate categories. The spaceship shooter with full mobility and the Space Invaders style are both valid and these two games are high caliber examples of each, but I'd not necessarily compare the two beyond surface level aesthetics.

18 minutes ago, Ankos said:

Haven't played this one, but I saw HaraForce on a blog post by Scrobins, and it looked pretty cool

 

HaraForce is cool, but it and others like it lack a certain nuance. There's no mystery. Scoring lacks discovery and strategy. A good shoot em up is challenging, looks nice, and is fun to play. A GREAT shoot em up IMO has a fairly low barrier to entry but a high skill ceiling, rewarding daring plays, patience, strategy, and memorization.

Games like HaraForce and other shmups I've seen over the years on retro consoles for the most part lack what makes a truly GREAT shmup. Blade Buster rewards players for patience - orange ball enemies can be killed immediately, but if you wait for them to open you get bonus points. Big round enemies which enter the screen in 4 parts which come together can be destroyed prior to their joining for huge points. Early on in the game they show you that destroying two large orb enemies at the same time (they turn orange shortly before their deaths) will also grant a huge point bonus. Later on in the game this knowledge comes in handy as two of them come in staggered, and you have to partially damage them into orange (i.e. close to death) but not finish them until they're both on screen which takes a little bit to happen, all while dealing with other enemies, and when they converge on screen for that point bonus it's *chef's kiss*.

Most shmups could be played for high score - do better, kill more enemies, and often just farm popcorn during infinite boss fights, and you'll get a huge score or even max it out. Blade Buster gives you a time limit and challenges you to master your knowledge of the game and that just takes the experience to a whole nother level that others don't seem to be bothering to replicate or work to go beyond. The closest imitators mostly just ask the question "how much shit can I toss at the player at once on the NES?", with some going way overboard and creating a miserable experience. Over Obj is a recent example of this - I found that miserable to play and I love bullet hells. People need to respect the platform and its limitations and work within it.

7 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

The game was released in 2011 or whatever, as a ROM, though from my understanding the author did give people their blessing. 

I feel it's sad that we've been doing homebrew this long yet in 2024 so many of the games being mentioned were around in the NA days. To me it demonstrates that either homebrew hasn't come that far since about 2014 or so, or that people aren't playing the new games. And that I feel to be quite sad. 

I play a LOT of homebrews. I also play a LOT of shmups. 

Making a GOOD shmup is not that easy especially on the NES with sprite flickering and slow down, both of which are almost non existent in the game which is basically a miracle. 

There's not a ton of shmups coming out and those that do aren't great. The other one on my nominations is the exception - Astro Ninja Man is excellent, it's just not my favourite type of shmup. 

Again, you alluded to there being games out of Japan which are better. Name some. 

1 minute ago, fcgamer said:

Have you tried any of the homebrew, indie, or aftermarket shooters that have been released over the past few years, generally coming out of Japan? Seeing Blade Buster on the list is really sad, imo. Let's throw Battle Kid up on the list too along with Solar Wars and call them hidden gems.

How is seeing Blade Buster sad? It's fucking phenomenal. Show me a better shmup on the NES. 

1 hour ago, Seth said:

Gloves, just to be clear, that categorization I gave for VGS related *only* to the part of this site I linked to—the pinned three posts on Homebrewpedia: the marketplace, homebrew almanac for collectors, and alerts on upcoming games to buy(!) I would never have thought to call all of VGS a marketplace. I have been lurking for years, and very much know it is not that! I hope you will click the link to see what I mean, but if you want the link further clarified or narrowed I will do that. I did not limit it exclusively to the marketplace post because I didn't want anyone to sleep on the excellent other work Scrobins is doing to catalogue games that folks can buy.

I did see that you'd linked to a relevant section (I might argue that the "Share" section isn't a marketplace regardless), but given your explanation I'm arguing semantics; your point is fair. I just want to make sure people aren't getting the impression that this place is solely about buying old (or new old) games, especially when honestly not THAT many transactions take place here compared to, say, Facebook Marketplace.

1 minute ago, a3quit4s said:

My dude Tilt Bro ain’t even out yet  

The rules stipulate only:

1. avoid voting for games already in the Hall,
2. need to vote for ten games, and
3. cannot vote for any game you were involved in making

The only rule I've broken is #2, looking back on it.

Please ignore that the Sage is a character in Super Tilt Bro..

Here's a list of 10 nominations. No particular order.

1. Blade Buster
2. Nebs n' Debs
3. NEScape!
4. Gruniozerca (note: your link to this in your listing of games is a 404)
5. Astro Ninja Man
6. Super Tilt Bro.
7. Alwa's Awakening
8. Anguna: Scourge of the Goblin King
9. Gotta Protectors: Amazon’s Running Diet
10. Cowlitz Gamers’ Second Adventure

@Seth Can I ask you to make a slight adjustment when referring to VGS in your publications? 

I noticed that on your article, The Top 500 Indie NES Games, Vol. 9 - by Seth Abramson (substack.com), you refer to VGS as an "indie NES marketplace" and that's not indicative of what we represent. We're a community of gamers, on which you could say the core group has a primary affinity for retro gaming. I'd never call us a marketplace, nor would I say that the NES (or Nintendo in general) are our focus. 

13 hours ago, Seth said:

I love and will take these votes! (But do know that you get ten games per voting slate, if you want!) 

I'll take this in mind and make a new, better post.

2122, and agreed with doner.

My joke response is ShmupSpeed, which I'm sad to say isn't on your list at all.

My actual response is Blade Buster.

1 hour ago, BriGuy82 said:

I didn't even know this was a thing. Are we able to just post scores here? 

It's not been updated in a while, but if you wanna participate I could always edit the OP with your scores, yeah! 

1 hour ago, wongojack said:

I remember playing this bitd.  I may even still have my copy or perhaps it was a rental.  Anyway, I got scared off by the early difficulty, but the oddball humor/story/presentation was definitely memorable.

I generally have more patience now for this type of game.  Maybe I'll go back to it.

The difficulty off the bat was a bit rough, it TOSSES you into it. That said, I think the difficulty especially of the first dance bit is just the wonky timing on button presses. This permeates the game - WHEN do I press each button? It's something I think you need to stumble through on your first go.

1 hour ago, Sumez said:

Well it's definitely an underdog kinda game!

Soundtrack was made by Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra whom you might have heard of btw. which is kinda crazy.

I have and was surprised to hear a ska soundtrack, that was a real treat lol I've not listened to ska at length for some time.

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

I have actually seen it show up very frequently on those.

But it also had fairly wide distribution, and based on how often I saw it really cheap in second hand sales, it must have sold quite well. I even remember seeing it reviewed on national TV here. So I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people don't consider it "hidden".

Maybe that's just an outside North America thing, or my memory is failing.

Good, either way. I liked it a lot.

I played through Incredible Crisis on PS1 today and was blown away by how... unique it was. I don't think I'd ever even heard of it before, or I've at least forgotten if I have, and if it's not on a ton of "hidden gem" lists it deserves to be. 

It's a series of 25 mini games which tie together an absolutely ridiculously nonsensical (and hilarious) over the top story following members of a family as they each have just the most ridiculous day ever while trying to get home in time for grandma's birthday. The mini games are mostly simple in function, but were surprisingly difficult right from the start. Admittedly some of that is the game having odd timing on rhythm sections (and/or me sucking at rhythm mechanics) or throwing a lot at you at once, or demanding fast button presses at the same time as dodging. 

Anyway, super quirky title, highly suggest checking it out. 

Please buy the pins they're super high quality and really dope and cool. 

3 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

If you want customers to use your product, don't raise the barrier of entry. I'll pass.

Imagine trying to walk into a store and someone steps out in front of you and won't let you by until you interact with them.

Yeah but on the flip - don't pretend like the site is unusable cuz you can't be bothered to click an "X", there's far more egregious stuff out there. I agree that it's a terrible idea to toss a newsletter sign up on a user's first visit, but it's also not broken the site and can be ignored (and a cookie is stored that makes it not show again).

29 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

I tried using their website but there's a newsletter box covering half the page and nothing I click on works.

Here ya go buddy:

Just now, D~Funk said:

 

Huuuge gangsta vibes. Dang.

2 hours ago, D~Funk said:

This reminds me of a photo I sent my wife earlier.