I was getting nowhere in Rock On Island until I learned that it’s more about setting up your economy than it is about unit placement.
If anyone else gets stuck like I was and wants a hint, focus immediately on placing chickens next to campfires. A chicken takes two rounds to cook unless it’s touching two campfires, in which case it takes just one round.
I hadn’t seen this, but coincidentally I ran into it right after seeing you mention it. You’ll be able to beat it, but there seems to be more to it than just beating it.
Finished Vainger (29) mere milliseconds too fast v_v;
Pretty nice Metal Storm-troid. You have gravity flipping right from the start. For the main upgrades, you collect elemental-ish powers that can be applied to either your flip, your body, or your gun. You can only respec your character at save points. Save points are also the only place where you can view your map, which is an interesting way to get around the limitation of the fantasy console here not having any start or select equivalents (kinda similar to the SMS in that way…).
The map design and flow is, idk, fine I guess. I’m not sure how linear it is, but I know I accidentally did a couple sequence breaks towards the end of the game (one minor, one major). Backtracking in previous areas can be a bit annoying because the rooms themselves are a touch overdesigned imho (a common search-action design pitfall). Still, the scope is well-managed enough that it’s not too bad.
The final boss is the meanest bit in the entire game, really — vicious attacks, multiple forms, long runback from the last savepoint, and it basically demands you respec your character a specific way.
I don’t have much to say about the atmosphere/vibe, other than that it doesn’t aim to be atmospheric (at least in a metroidian sense). There are text terminals throughout the game that gradually unfold the events that transpired beforehand, but I was able to guess what had happened well in advance.
Somehow, even though I completed this in a single sitting, my playtime for this ended up being longer than Pilot Quest lol.
I also booted up Avianos (12) for a bit. The premise of rival clans of birds fighting each other, while worshipping their ancestral dinosaurs for blessings is very funny. Unfortunately I wasn’t in the mood for an abstract strategy game, so I nope’d out after a I flubbed a menu input 5 minutes in (though I was starting to understand some things). (hey @Tulpa PVP of this might make for an interesting match in the kusoge tournament)
Really enjoying my time with this as it is doing a similar thing to what the gamecenter cx games did of presenting an alternate reality of retro videogames with significant concessions made towards modern design sensibilities. the gamecenter cx games do a few neat things with the premise which this doesn’t, but obviously as an overall package and on an individual basis, nearly all of these games are more fleshed out than anything in the arino trilogy. my magic garden highscore is 28000 btw.
Disagree. There are several games here that I found less interesting than Haggleman 3, Star Prince/GunDuel, or even Cosmic Gate and Wiz-Man. (The affordances added to the latter two to make the “beat the game” achievement reasonable are worth noting).
there’s definitely some recency bias from me and some good luck with what i’ve played so far in ufo 50. ufo 50 has definitely reminded me how cool and novel those games were and still are and that i should check out the switch ports.
I’ve tried so many different approaches to the “Open Field” level in Combatants, but I can’t quite beat it. I’ve come close, but I can’t be everywhere at once and the enemy always finds a way to significantly outnumber me.
Edit: I was able to beat that level and the game. I wonder what it takes to get the cherry win.
Star Waspir is brutal – it’s very feast or famine bc of how the multiplier system works. I do think it’s good, though. Specifically if you’re a fan of Treasure shooter scoring systems (I am not, but like it anyway!)
The combo system as I understand it:
There are only 4 valid combos of powerups: EEE, GGG, GEE, or EGG (thus the 4 “invalid” combos are EGE, GEG, EEG, and GGE).
EGG will increase your score multiplier by 1 each time. This will persist until you die or you input an invalid powerup combo (e.g. GEG will immediately reduce your multiplier back to 1x).
One interesting thing about this system is that any two letters you collect first could be part of a valid combo, but the last letter in the combo always has to be a specific letter. Like, if you collect GG then the last letter can only be G. If you collected GE, then the last letter can only be E.
It seems like powerups tend to drop in E->G->G order (depending on when they spawn, maybe), which means Gs are about twice as common as Es. It also means EGG is typically easier to get than any of the other combos.
EGG adds multiplier for all ships, but the other three combos do different things depending on which ship you’re using.
Gray ship:
EEE - get two rotating options that can be used as a shield (with limited health) or can be rammed into enemies for damage?
GGG - spawn an option on your left, or if you already have one, one on your right. if you hold fire, the options will follow enemies.
GEE - a ship will spawn (aligned with where you collected the last power up?) and shoot a powerful attack straight up for a few seconds
(Uniquely, gray ship will charge an attack if you stop shooting.)
Yellow ship:
EEE - your primary shot is more powerful for a limited amount of time
GGG - spawn an option on your left, or if you already have one, one on your right. they shoot diagonally, but close in and shoot straight when you hold fire.
GEE - clears the screen of bullets (from the middle outward)
Red ship:
EEE - gives you one bomb – a powerful attack that explodes a set distance away. you can carry up to 3 at a time. you fire them manually with the other button. you lose them if you die.
GGG - gives you an option on your left, or if you already have one, one on your right. they shoot missiles while holding fire, but otherwise just block shots.
GEE - a ufo will move across the screen and attack enemies for a limited time
You’ll notice all of these effects are either temporary or they’re options, and the options all have hitboxes and take damage so are effectively temporary too.
This essentially guarantees you’re always interacting with this system – getting more firepower when you need it, and otherwise focusing on EGG to increase your multiplier.
Even if you’re playing for survival, I think it’s in your best interest to get your multiplier as high as possible (especially early) because points = extra lives.
I have truly binged on this today. I bought it after not really playing many games for the past month and a half. Today, Steam says I’ve played for over 6 hours…
As someone who really enjoys snacking on the whole of a console’s library, this set is more or less designed for me. In contrast with Retro Game Challenge, the developers have took up the concept to make original designs, unseen in our own history. Sometimes, the games I’ve played resemble ones I know, but I haven’t come across many that are pure one-to-one clones. There’s a Make Trax variation that has so many changes that it hardly feels the same. The “snake”-like that others have talked about has just as much in common with Flicky. It’s a beautiful thing, complete on its own.
I’m trying to play each chronologically until I earn my “gift.” That’s just enough effort for me to understand the systems at play. For two of the games, I was able to “beat” them on my first try. There are many I expect to struggle against for weeks. I have only played the “first” 10 games but I’ve already encountered so much variety. I’m really impressed with what they’ve been able to put together.
okay these observations are pretty close to what i was able to determine. i just wasn’t sure if the chain breaking was a time-out thing or an incorrect string and i hadn’t sussed out the differences between the three ships
here’s a score attack from someone who managed to keep a game-long chain:
thank you so much to @wourme for gifting me a copy of UFO 50!!! i have a cold right now, so it’s a good excuse to play while i’m feeling out of it.
i didn’t have a great start to this game. the first game i randomly picked was The Big Bell Race… which struck me as just a lesser Super Offroad and i did horribly because you return to the beginning of the lap every time you die. i wasn’t in the mood for that. so i moved on to Divers, which appeared to be some sort of strategy game i didn’t have time to try to understand. so i moved to Bushido Ball, which is like a Windjammers type of thing and was pretty fun. but i struggled tremendously to win any matches. it appeared like the CPU players had all these abilities i didn’t? i got a little better, but i think i won maybe one of like 15 different matches. unless i’m missing something, that game is balanced kind of insanely difficult to start.
today i came back and picked Mooncat which… once i figured out the bizarre controls, i really grew to like. i like the weird sensibility of it, it kind of has a Bennett Foddy esque navigating around non-ideal controls to it. though at some point i just kept getting stuck in a loop with the same stage, so i’m going to need to look at a walkthrough to figure out what i missed. then i picked Barbuta, which i really did like the commitment to making a clunky C64/ZX Spectrum style open ended platformer. that’s really something you don’t see too much at this point. the one i’ve played most so far is Warptank, though, which is just a smartly designed little action/puzzle game with an upside down mechanic similar to Metal Storm or VVVVVV. it definitely feels like the most approachable so far for me, with the reasonable sized stages and the checkpoints provided. it’s probably the one i’m going to try and beat first.
anyway, after the rough start i’m enjoying what i’ve played so far! i definitely think it’s going to be a matter of me just not liking some of these games i guess.
