Shmups

Do you use it to play that copy of CAYLUS in the background?

The funny thing about these games is that even the ones from the late 80s/early 90s hold up really well- the core gameplay is the same, and some of the best shooters like R-TYPE and UN SQUADRON hold their own against the newest titles. It's not like the difference between playing the original NINJA GAIDEN and NINJA GAIDEN BLACK. Shooters have stayed pretty much the same with a couple of tweaks since...SPACE INVADERS?

ALIEN HOMINID is cool...lots of personality, which is what sometimes makes or breaks these games.

Michael Barnes wrote:


The funny thing about these games is that even the ones from the late 80s/early 90s hold up really well- the core gameplay is the same...[/quote]

I have a buddy of mine that works as a backgrounds developper at Ubisoft, that agrees with you wholeheartedly. We get into these lengthy shit shooting sessions about the graphics/gameplay ratio of modern games in comparison to their ancestors, and often find that most modern game comes up wanting for actual gameplay. according to him Ubisoft was pitched Guitar Hero a few years back. All the developping crew went apeshit thinking, "holy fuck this is gonna be awesome!!"

Management flat out refused the pitch on the grounds that "people will never buy into this nonesense."

Hehe. Oops.

There's a reason why retrogaming is now becoming a commonplace phenomenon amongst gamers and it simply comes down to this: my aforementionned bud boils down Ubisoft's strategy to the following formula:

1) stick to game engines that work
2) make it look good
and most importantly
3) spend a fuckload of money on marketing


He doesn't see them deviasting from this formula until it starts crumbling under it's own weight. It's funny, because he remembers when he first got into the industry the basic format innvolved designers creating a game, and then the marketing guys pushing it. Now it's the marketing guys that tell the designers what sells and what to develop.

Yes I can pull off some awesome combo moves against that provost fucker.

I've never heard of UN Squadron, or a lot of games mentioned in this thread. But now I want to check 'em out.

Yeah these games are timeless - the newer ones are just prettier.

Here's an early-80s favorite!

Well see, here's the thing. Video games have sort of gone two ways. One is the cinematic, "control the movie" experience (anybody remember DEFENDER OF THE CROWN or THE 7th GUEST?) and the other is in skill-based games. GUITAR HERO and the like are skill-based games. And those kinds of games have made a HUGE comeback due to retrogaming and "non console" platforms like the DS, cellphones, Flash games, and so forth.

It's funny because I see these admittedly awesome-looking games like METAL GEAR SOLID 4 and I feel like it's all just the same but with more immersion, more cinematic elements, and better graphics...but then something like GUITAR HERO comes out that may as well not even have graphics and I'd really rather play it...becaues skill games _are fun_. They keep you coming back. But a game like MGS4 is going to have a lot of watching, and a lot less playing.

I started playing OKAMI on the Wii last night...and after playing these shooters I felt like I was watching paint dry. Now, OKAMI is awesome. It's beautiful, unique, and incredibly stylized. But I wasn't having as much fun as I was playing fucking LORDS OF THUNDER. I wasn't as engaged, locked on, and totally captivated by this new game as I was by a damn 20-ass year old TurboGrafx game.

I beat DODONPACHI today with only 10 credits (that's about 30 lives) and I feel like I accomplished more than beating the last several video games I've played...and I want to go back and beat my high score and get it down to 9 credits.

It kind of goes back to the same things we've been talking about with board games...mass consumerism has taken over and replayability isn't as important.

BTW Neon- almost all of these games are on MAME. The Touhou stuff is freeware and highly recommended. HARD AS FUCKING BALLS.

You know, if Castle Crashers (new beat-em-up by the Alien Hominid folks) was out this week, it would so be my choice.

Michael Barnes wrote:

OK, I haven't been around here much lately because I've rediscovered my love for shooter v**** games. It started with a pre-gaming conversation with Frank Branham and the erstwhile and elusive Billy Motion where we wound up rapping about old school 2D shooters like Raiden, Darius, R-Type, Gaiares, etc. So I dug around a little, fired up MAME, and now I'm eyeball deep in a billion bullets.

Good god, are any of you guys into this stuff? If you're not, and you like action games, then you're missing out. All those old Cave games are _amazing_...GUWANGE,
ESP RA.DE, DODONPACHI, PROGEAR...some of this shit is so freakin' hard (ahem, MARS MATRIX) I can't believe it. But that's one of the things that makes these games so cool- you're looking at a screen literally filled with bullets and somehow you manage to scrape by and survive. There's so much tension, and it's all skill when you pull it off.

I've gotten a few of the VC ones too...I adore LORDS OF THUNDER, especially with that faux-Dio soundtrack wailing away. And GUNSTAR HEROES even has a little board game element.

Any that I might be missing?

If you can hunt down the GC disc, get Ikaruga (or if you have a 360, buy it off of XBLA) and if you do have a 360, holy jesus buy Geometry Wars 2.

Grab Axlay (Super Nintendo) and Blazing Lasers (TG16) off of the VC.

Maybe R-Type 3 too.

Stonecutter wrote:

...if you do have a 360, holy jesus buy Geometry Wars 2.

PS3 owners can scratch that itch with Super Stardust HD. I've also heard good things about the new version of 1942 (available on XBLA and PSN). If you're into portable gaming, Space Invaders Extreme (DS and PSP) is a pretty fun little re-imagining of the granddaddy.

Ah, that's it--Ikaruga is out for the virtual consoles, that's the one I couldn't think of and it comes highly recommended. Someday, I'll definitely play it.

benny lava wrote:

Stonecutter wrote:

...if you do have a 360, holy jesus buy Geometry Wars 2.

PS3 owners can scratch that itch with Super Stardust HD. I've also heard good things about the new version of 1942 (available on XBLA and PSN). If you're into portable gaming, Space Invaders Extreme (DS and PSP) is a pretty fun little re-imagining of the granddaddy.

Super Stardust is coming to PSP too. PSP also has Gradius Collection (I think its I, II, III, IV, Gaiden). And I think a couple others.

"Metal Slug 2" is my favorite arcade shooter.

But it's also freaking hard. I only managed not to lose a live through the first two levels. From that point onwards the machine sucked in my credits.

Michael Barnes wrote:

BTW Neon- almost all of these games are on MAME. The Touhou stuff is freeware and highly recommended. HARD AS FUCKING BALLS.

Neat-o. Thanks!

My dad teaches at a small liberal arts college in Illinois. The town junior high school was right down the hill. So in 7th and 8th grade I would usually walk up to the college after school to kill time until my dad was done for the day and we'd drive home.

I took to hanging out with the nerds in the college computer lab, where they had a solitary Amiga back in the student worker area. On very lucky days when the fat slobs weren't playing BARD'S TALE nonstop, I could hop on the Amiga and play some of the stuff--a sweet medieval England game where you besieged castles, had swordfights, etc (can't remember the name of it), the excellent shooter HYBRIS , and others.

Good memories.

That medieval game is DEFENDER OF THE CROWN. No doubt.

OK, so I finally got a working emulator of RADIANT SILVERGUN up and running (no sound though). GOOD GOD it is the hardest game I think I've ever played. It's really interesting- you have five weapons out of the gate, no powerups, no collecting objects, no bombs. It's just pure shooter mania. I haven't decided if it's truly awesome yet, but it's definitely the connoisseur's shooter.

AXELAY...that's one I'd like to play again...

I loved the GRADIUS games...I haven't played past III though...PARODIUS...oh man...that cake level kills me.

You young whipper-snappers make me feel so old. For me and my friends Galaga was the height of addiction. I remember starting with a pocket weighted down by fistfuls of quarters and ending up several hours later with nothing but a vow to try again tomorrow.

I admit that new stuff looks awfully pretty.

BillN

DEFENDER OF THE CROWN.....thank you! Man I loved that one.

Wasn't POPULOUS also on the Amiga? You move your ankh around and play god--raise mountains, dig out seas, put down swamps to swallow up the enemy civilization.