It’s like Knight Rider meets Alien Crush in a very special episode.
6 Likes
Lemme hear ya say fire it up
4 Likes
Hyper Dyne Side Arms is definitely better than a lot of the early shooters but death comes so easy and I am not a fan of shooting to change what power up. Feels like you never have space for that in at least the first stage. As i was typing this I gave it one more credit not caring. The whole game has a very high tension panic moment to moment. Everything is just a little beyond your control and your reactions. Big hit box. You eventually come to a barrier that you can either have the right weapon to destroy or will open at the last second to let you through. I died by assuming I could touch all objects that were not enemies. That was an enemy. Panic!
Tengai Makyou Ziria is a standard JRPG. Except this is CD-RomRom and Red’s producers got anime voice talent and god damn Ryuichi Sakamoto to do well at least the title music. You gotta check that out. Most of the in game music is from the Hu-card side. I left my hidden training to go defeat the big bad by beating up a tanuki and pulling a catfish’s whisker to cause an earthquake (this is just something in Japanese folklore that giant underground catfish cause earthquakes right down to sometimes you’ll see catfish to represent evacuation routes.) the earthquake broke a big boulder so I travelled south and east seeing the havoc the big bad was wrecking as everyone knew I was the destined hero to fix this.
All the Japanese online reviews mention the encounter rate so you know it’s bad. They keep the damage numbers very low and i was consistently taking 3 turns to beat an enemy. In fact my first partner turned out to be a tanuki in disguise! Then i got a frog buddy that sometimes decides to get off their hopper and hit an enemy for 2 when I hit for 3.
The big bad is guarded by 13 underlings. I got to a Japanese castle, beat up a catholic priest tanuki who gave me a key. The key opened the basement of the castle where all the town’s people were being kept. I don’t know if I’ve seen so many npc sprites in a JRPG this early. Beneath that basement was a slimy organic corridor with the first underling at the end. I grinded for a tiny bit, timing it so I would get a level up right before the boss, giving me full health/magic.
I had gotten a magic spell by touching a big rock that did 18damage. The online guide said this guy had 68 health. I had enough magic to hit him 3 times. After that i was pinging him for a mere 3 as he dealt 7-15 a turn to my 50 health.
Sometimes he’d hit twice, just to send a message.
When he was one or two turns away from death he healed for all his health and then hit me for 30 damage killing me instantly. I woke up back at the last inn. I could…fight 39 battles in that corridor that was 3-5 minutes away from the inn to level up. Or I could remember I’ve played a little bit of Tengai Makyou 2 which is recognized as one of the best JRPGs there is and was definitely way breezier than this. That game has Sakamoto music all the time. It’s fucking sick if you like standard JRPG.
But I did it I played some Tengai. I should just try a Dragon Quest again. I know Minty has expressed a dream of the community playing every game each year. Well this is the last year that is happening. I peaked and from here on out there are too many Strategy, Adventure, and anime titties. And I the forum’s resident semi-fluent Japanese reader don’t like those genres. Sorry!
There was also this guy who taught me how to steal things:
11 Likes
I had a really great time exploring dungeons last night with HOBO, Polygonzo, and surprise Miffy, who came in at the last dungeon to defeat King Satan. I cosign everything demental81 has said. I’m not going to tell you how long it took us to beat it. The longplay on YouTube is 1 hour and 22 minutes. Imagine it took us a little longer than that.
18 Likes
Thank you for playing this! I considered giving it a whirl because the cutscenes are so impressive and I liked how the first NPCs you talk to are frogs. I was hesitant because so many of these late 80’s RPGs have busted math and it sounds like my hesitation was warranted.
I didn’t expect for it to happen this month, but it looks like it will. Next year, however, really does seem like an insurmountable wall, what with over 100 games and the library becoming increasingly verbose. Would it even be worth it?
I didn’t start this thread with the intention of playing every game, but then I read that Magweasel blog. It ends half way through 1989, and I just got so sad. I wanted more, and now I have more.
3 Likes
I played about 40 minutes of Last Alert and about 10 of Bloody Wolf. Hive Mind Opinion is Last Alert is the worse game in that it is slow and boring. It also feels better moment to moment compared to Bloody Wolf’s bombast and guys on top of things you can’t hurt.
Is it Last Alert or Red Alert? Either way I played the Japanese version and seeing a long play is 90 minutes long made me spit my water and lose interest in playing it again without save states. I am never gonna stop complaining about that in this thread.
2 Likes
it’s Red Alert in Japan as an enemy in Valis III proudly advertises that the game was made by TEAM RED ALERT
I’m a big booster of both Valis III and One-Man Army Guy Kazama
3 Likes
So, the PC Engine port of Kyukyoku Tiger (Twin Cobra) is actually pretty darn fun? Based on the M2 collection, it’s probably my favorite port of this particular game, even if it is not arcade accurate at all (depending on who you ask, this is a good thing, because the arcade game is definitely just fucking mean (in a fun way, but)). It doesn’t have the graphics issues of the Famicom version (or the weird changes to the life system for the NES version) and it doesn’t try as hard for arcade accuracy as the Megadrive release. The Megadrive one almost feels bad for how it just can’t quite get there.
Like most Toaplan home ports, it doesn’t seem to be made by Toaplan. It’s published by Taito though, so maybe? Who knows. They definitely change the layout of the stages in the game in some minor ways that only stick out to me from getting obsessed with trying to 1cc the first stage of the arcade game (yes, it is that much of a dick; I can do it most times now). The overall game is a bit easier, probably due in no small part to some hardware limitations on how much the enemies could be goddamn snipers or how many bullets could try to murder you at once. The arcade game loves to put bullets in places where you will be in the near future. It’s great. The PC Engine is much more friendly. The bullets are less dense. They tend to be where you were, not where you will be. So you might beat a couple stages of this one. The music sounds great here as well.
8 Likes
is red alert the game that had a vocal theme song for the american release?
that’s Final Zone II
1 Like
My high score
I really like Kyukyoku Tiger, in some ways, more than Blazing Lazers. While it’s not as technically impressive, it’s just really well designed.
The bombs are a big part of it. Unlike other games where bombs act like panic buttons, the bombs here are slow to come out and only cover part of the screen. That means I have to be more thoughtful about when to use them. Sometimes I’ll use them on big enemies to take them out quickly. Sometimes, I’ll use them to cover my retreat after grabbing a powerup.
I also like how powerups never move below the middle of the screen, forcing me to leave the relative safety of the bottom row. These powerups aren’t so powerful that they make me feel invincible either, so there’s not as much of a Gradius syndrome as there are in other shooters.
The most common enemy, the helicopter, moves in such a particular way. It really forces me to learn how to dance with the game’s rhythm.
7 Likes
the music in Kyuyoku Tiger is excellent, like a lost Mega Man soundtrack. love the chunky explosions too.
1 Like
Did some Valis 2 tonight. Like Minty got to the last stage and felt like it might unwinnable without changes. I was playing the Japanese version which seemed visiously unbalanced as even the first enemy in the game took 3 hits to kill. The later enemies easily in the 9-12 hit range. For everything charming this might be a Bad Game.
And messed around with staring at a black screen and juggling 5 digital floppies to play 15 seconds of the 68000 version of Valis 2 before going “yep this sucks.”
Can’t really find footage of someone struggling with the 68k port. But this video reminds me I should play SD Valis!
4 Likes
This seems like a very thorough explanation for why the Turbografx-16 failed. Stalled engine: The TurboGrafx-16 turns 25
6 Likes
That was really helpful. I hadn’t even understood Hudson Soft’s role in the console all this time. Also I don’t know that I’d seen a photo of the Family BASIC Famicom keyboard before, at least not hooked up–that was startling.
1 Like
I went and played titty mahjong. As I am a gentleman and don’t know fucking shit about mahjong the lady kept her clothes on. I could at least tell they gave me a very easy to win hand if I knew anything about anything.
I also played Sunsoft’s Shanghai 3 because I fucking love Shanghai now and Strikers 1945 which I am convinced the PCB for must have been cheap at the time because god damn is it everywhere.
For a shooter fan I sure do have complaints about every one that I play that is not Deathsmiles (lol) .
Anyways I felt bad about taking a picture of the titty cabinets but they had the whole selection from Video Women to Anime to Hot Gimmick! You know you can buy a hot gimmick game on switch? That’s the consoles for perverts.
13 Likes
Super Momotaro Dentetsu
Did you know that Hudson Soft is responsible for Mario Party? Playing this game, it’s pretty clear. Momotaro Dentetsu is a bit closer to Monopoly than that series. The title is a pun on another Hudson Soft game, which gets ported to the PC Engine next year. I’m not saying what it is. You’ll just have to find out. I guess Hudson Soft really had a fascination with peach boy.
I wanted to do great things in this game. It’s got trains and a wacky map of Japan. I couldn’t though, probably because I didn’t quite understand how to make good decisions. I kept landing on a space that gave me a little devil card. This card would sap money from my account at the end of every turn. The computer never got this card! There’s a property buying mechanic because Japanese train companies own way more than just trains…I think. It actually reminds me a lot of Top Shop, a game I endured with @Mothra while we stayed at Twin Peaks. If he played with me, we could’ve ganged up on the computers somehow. We could’ve made sure the robots don’t win.
Wow, they’re still making these? The last one was the top-selling game in Japan during the winter of 2020/2021. Please sign my change (dot) org petition to get it localized in the US.
12 Likes
There’s a very early Game Center CX with an interview of the head guy of momotarou dentetsu series creative lead which really shows how Konami operated. The first one sold moderately well so Konami said “you are in charge of this now, forever.” You see the same thing happened with Igarashi and Yamaoka. Those guys left the company eventually. I think this guy is still there. Or maybe he died a few years ago?
I’m not gonna name names but the company that owns the train line that runs by me owns my apartment, my electric lines, the supermarket, the department store, and has a bad mascot. Not like good ole Momotarou.
Lady Rude knows like 4 things about video games and has big Natsukashii for Momotarou on the Super Fami.
16 Likes
Back in 2020, I experimented with playing PCE Super Momotarou Dentetsu over Fightcade with a friend in Japan and we had a great old time. Unfortunately, Fightcade will limit you to two players instead of the full four, but that kept the game length manageable. It’s really charming.
5 Likes