T-Pac

21 hours ago, Sumez said:

Ah well ... at least I tried.

[T-Pac]

2 hours ago, Sumez said:

Psh. OptOut started this and he knows it

I was speaking in general.

I struggle with the same urge to correct people on trivial stuff when I feel like I know better/more than them, but I’m learning that those responses make people cold towards me and I end up feeling way worse than if I had found something complementary to say instead.

(And hopefully you can look past the irony of me "correcting" you here haha.)

[T-Pac]

@Sumez - focusing on something to complement in a post can make you feel a lot better than focusing on something to refute.

[T-Pac]

12 hours ago, CMR said:

I would love this game if it wasn't for the slow clunkiness of it.  Have you played Gaiares yet?

Yeah - I've played Gaiares, but I can hardly get past level one.
I plan to try save-scumming my way through it, though - it seems to be held in high regard, and I want to experience the whole thing if possible.

[T-Pac]

20 hours ago, Sumez said:

Will you believe I've never heard of this game  

I hadn't either until I watched a YouTube video ranking every Genesis and Mega Drive shoot-em-up.

It feels a lot like a Renovation shooter, so I'd recommend it if you're a fan of those (although you'd probably breeze through it in just one or two attempts haha).

[T-Pac]

41 minutes ago, AirVillain said:

Let's try to be respectful, though, and not call the NES Advantage "mushy". No need to be rude. 

Haha, jokes. I did immediately think about it, though, haha. I think mine's pretty tight.  

At least that's what I'm telling myself. 
 

For sure - microswitch joysticks "click" when you move them, whereas the Advantage and other early console joysticks don't have that sort of feedback (which is what I meant by mushy). That's not necessarily a bad thing though - I actually like playing Atari 2600 with the stock "mushy"-style joysticks.

[T-Pac]

4 hours ago, Sumez said:

The MegaDrive port is a popular one, but from what I've seen of it, I don't really want to play it. The play area looks so constrained due to the squeezed horizontal/vertical orientation, and the enemy bullets are really hard to see, it must make the final stage a pure nightmare.

This happens on any mode - at least on arcade anyway. In Toaplan games you generally want to use all of your bombs all the time, because restocks are plentiful, and you always spawn with a bunch. It's only on the final stage (again, on arcade) that I really had to be conservative with my bombs, because I needed them to get through tight spots.

What I think is most unique about Tatsujin is how much your ship speed affects gameplay. Ideally you'd stop one or two powerups beneath max to get the best control of the ship, being able to dodge bullets on reaction, but since powering over max is so strongly tied to scoring, I feel enticed to always power to max even if I'm not actually playing for score, because I know it's what the game wants me to do.
So most of the time I'll be at either lowest speed (due to recently dying) or highest speed (due to not dying), which massively changes what the game plays like. On slow speed you want to preemptively dodge every aimed bullet, moving all the time and avoid getting trapped. At max speed, you can't possibly micrododge, and need to memorize stages and play strategically in a way that every obstacle can be dodge by being in a specific spot or just slamming all the way to the left or right.

Overall there's a ton of memo in Tatsujin, but I love it regardless.

I thought the "hard to see bullets" was a problem with the PC Engine port - I must have them mixed-up, but at least it isn't as bad as the near-invisible bullets in Phalanx haha.

Interesting to hear that you're meant to use smart bombs so liberally - I don't have much experience with Toaplan shooters, so that was a bit of a novel concept for me to get used-to (as someone who naturally likes to conserve any sort of limited-ammo). You're right about the speed, too - I had to actively avoid speed-ups so I wouldn't get too fast and run into stuff all the time.

And I definitely didn't expect Tatsujin to be a memo-heavy shooter, but that's probably why I ended up liking it so much. I'm an R-Type guy at heart, so those kinds of shoot-em-ups tend to go over well with me.

(Love hearing your take on all this, by the way. You really know your space-shooters, @Sumez!)

[T-Pac]

On 7/15/2023 at 9:38 AM, AirVillain said:

 

I feel heard.

Haha, jokes. This game is awesome. Great review. 

You can beat it without the save states, I have faith!!! Now that you know what it takes you can get it done. 

What controller are you using? Personally, I use the NES Advantage for most/all NES shooters, so that's my go to for this game. It's great because you can toggle back and forth to the ground "bombs" or hold it if necessary (I believe?)

I'm not ashamed to admit I likely couldn't beat this game without the NES Advantage. My skills are also Fisher Price compared to the big guns around here. 

Yeah dude - your "hidden gem" comments about Dragon Spirit were exactly why I decided to revisit it!

And while I also love the NES Advantage, these days I play nearly everything with the control panel on my multicade. (And I fear that, since I'm spoiled with microswitch arcade controls now, I'll never enjoy the mushy Advantage the way I used to haha.)

[T-Pac]

21 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

Lol. Nah. im fisher price compared to some of the big guns around. I’d like to say I always have a punchers chance against any of them and I do believe that is true.

"I'm Fisher Price" might be one of my new favorite phrases haha. I'm gonna use that all the time now.

[T-Pac]

16 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

@T-Pac: There's an easier mode if you die intentionally on the first level of the NES game.  You get the bad ending once you've beat it, but you get to play as the gold dragon for the whole game...

That's a great suggestion! I played the Gold Dragon "easy" mode first to get my bearings, but I wanted to finish the Blue Dragon mode as well so I could play through all the stages (since easy mode omits a lot of them).

[T-Pac]

13 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

The NES version is also one of my favourite shooters.  I actually like it better than the TG version, although the Turbo's rendition is still a solid game...

That's encouraging to hear! Dragon Spirit is the gift that keeps-on giving (I also picked-up a copy of Dragon Saber for the PC Engine in hopes that it stacks-up well, too.)

[T-Pac]

53 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

Dragon spirit is one of the best shooters on the nes. The soundtrack is amazing! I can’t say enough about the music in this game it is so good.

the only issue one might have is the game is a bit on the easy side. But it’s so fucking fun to play! From the epic opening scene, to playing as a dragon, the gameplay, music and graphics! It’s the whole package and I would put it up against any other games in the genre on the nes.

Too easy!? I had to resort to save-states at the end just to finish haha! 
Teach me how to get your shoot-em-up skills, @docile tapeworm!

[T-Pac]

8 hours ago, Jeevan said:

dude, as long as you experienced it, that is what counts, i think you should give alttp a try, it is by far the best zelda ever!!!!!!!

I've got a shortlist of influential classic games that I want to play through for context even if I don't technically enjoy them (Metroid, Super Metroid, Final Fantasy, Sonic the Hedgehog, etc.), and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is constantly hovering in and out of that list. I actually started playing it back in high-school, and I was enjoying it until I got lost and stuck in the Dark World section. But if I use a guide like I did here, it might be worth revisiting.

[T-Pac]

45 minutes ago, Sumez said:

I was never a massive fan of the first Zelda game. Every time I've tried playing it, the same issues turned me off on it. I do enjoy exploration and even map-making, but this game feels to me like it has a lot of obscurities just for the sake of having them in a way that's not very enjoyable (and I enjoy Metroid).

I don't feel the moment-to-moment action gameplay makes up for it either. The game feels stinted due the 4-way movement restriction.

I've been building a Top 100 NES(/FC) games list over a few years now. If I ever release it publicly, I feel like the biggest "controversial" take on it will be that I'm probably not gonna feature LOZ anywhere near the top. I'm honestly still unsure where it's gonna land.

I do love Zelda 2 however.

This might be the first time we've ever held the same opinion about a video game... WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH SUMEZ!?

[T-Pac]

17 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

Dude…..Ill I can think to say is. you can’t come to my birthday.

Awww ... well at least I still like space-shooters, right?

[T-Pac]

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

The single player mode of Super Bomberman 2 is probably my favourite of the "super" games next to Super Bomberman 5.  

I'd recommend Kickle Cubicle (arcade version, Meikyu Jiima is recommended for better bosses and a more streamlined structure, but the NES/FC version plays nearly the same) for an action-puzzler with a nice puzzle focus.

Also, "Bomber Man World" on arcade (not the PS1 game), is possibly my favourite Bomberman game. Unlike Super Bomberman where you keep your powerups over the entire game, that game resets you on each stage, and learning how to get the powerups you need while outsmarting the enemies makes out a super fun puzzle. If you want Bomberman to be more puzzle-focuses, that's a good one to look into.

Another of my favourite action puzzlers is Mr. Driller, have you played any of those?

@Sumez comin' in clutch with the recommendations!

I've got Super Bomberman 5 saved for a rainy day. I bought the whole Super Bomberman set this year, and I plan to play my way through them all between other games.

Kickle Cubicle is great, too - I played it back in college, and while I didn't like it as much as "Adventures of Lolo", it's solid for sure.

I don't have access to any proper arcade games (no local arcade, no modern consoles for anthologies, and no MAME piracy for me haha), but if I ever come across Meikyu Jima or Bomber Man World somehow, I'll have to give them a go.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[T-Pac]

1 hour ago, ThePhleo said:

True, which is why all NEW pictures I add have date stamps added so I can revert back to a point where I need to re-evaluate every photo added since.

Not gonna lie, the plastic wrap on the cart has me concerned but the damage and browning on the label makes me think legit.

Im sure it wouldn’t be too hard to track Jeff down myself, but I think it’s best not to as to avoid breaking my rule bout tracking people who own these things.

Solid - you've got a good system going, here.

Concerning the plastic-wrap: that actually gives me a bit more confidence in the authenticity of the cart. It looks like tape to cover-up the exposed bit of the pcb, which is something that a prop-department might not think to do, but a kid with a NES game might do in a heartbeat to avoid damaging the circuit board of his fancy new contest-cart.

-CasualCart

You may be jumping the gun a bit on this one. As much as I'd like to believe this is a new confirmed copy, Netflix could've easily made a replica cartridge for the sake of the documentary. I'm no NWC expert, though.

I just watched that episode yesterday, and I was wondering why they didn't prominently display the cart, considering it's significance. I figure the reason could either be ...

A) to keep Jeff Hansen from getting hounded by people over the cart (which would imply it's authenticity), or

B) because a half-baked replica cart could be scrutinized too much by people like us (which would imply that it was faked)

-CasualCart

Meta Knight is cool - would you consider him a 'defender of the Nintendo Universe', or is he more of an antagonist?

-CasualCart