Weekly Roundup

[LoneSage]

I found the supermarket opposite my school has a children's play area on the second floor...and a cabinet with Pandora's box. Been going here after lunch.

Zed Blade - I think this is my first time playing this. Man, I thought I'd enjoy it more but it's really terrible in how bland it is. I heard the music was supposed to be great but it's way too repetitive. Its greatest legacy is providing inspiration for Gunstar Heroes, at least.

Final Fight - nuff said. Capcom really captured lightning in a bottle. While their other beat 'em ups were great, this is still my favorite. I love how they had the enemies sitting, just waiting on the subway.

Demon's World - underappreciated Toaplan game. It's the little touches, like whenever the bullets hit something it makes a tiny mushroom cloud, that amplify my enjoyment.

Surprise Attack - 1990 Konami game that's basically an arcade Shinobi clone with an outer space motif. Unfortunately it comes up short against Shinobi.

 

[Ralfakick]

Its greatest legacy is providing inspiration for Gunstar Heroes, at least.

Sorry for my ignorance but where is the connection?

 

[@M]

It took many months, but, I finally reached and unlocked the final area of Pokemon Picross and caught Mewtwo and Rayquaza. Still need to save up another $500, each, to unlock the alt-world stages and the mega pencil (which is required to play the mega-evolved pokemon stages), but, I completed the game enough for the credits sequence at least.

 

[andsuchisdeath]

Sorry for my ignorance but where is the connection?

Pretty sure there isn't one. Zed Blade (1994) was released after Gunstar Heroes (1993).

LoneSage is trippin

Zed Blade's real greatest legacy is being the only NMK game on the Neo Geo, or is it
being the only Neo title with Namiki composing the music, or is it having one of the strangest scoring system of any Neo shooter (shooting scenery for points)?

Anyway, Zed Blade > Gunstar Heroes

 

[Ralfakick]

Thanks ASD, honestly always thought Treasure was overrated but Gradius V is pretty rad.

 

[fake]

Arcade
Did a quick run on Batrider at a friend's house.

MVS
Breakers Revenge. I'm rusty.

Smitch
Link to the Past - really loving it. Got further than where I got stuck as a kid.
Tetris 99 - gets my heart pounding. Haven't placed higher than the 20s yet.

 

[Ralfakick]

Arcade
Did a quick run on Batrider at a friend's house.

MVS
Breakers Revenge. I'm rusty.

Smitch
Link to the Past - really loving it. Got further than where I got stuck as a kid.
Tetris 99 - gets my heart pounding. Haven't placed higher than the 20s yet.

I still play Tetris 99 almost everyday since it came out, it’s easy to get into and addictive for sure, wait until you get into the final 10 then it will really be pumping

 

[LoneSage]

Pretty sure there isn't one. Zed Blade (1994) was released after Gunstar Heroes (1993).

LoneSage is trippin

Zed Blade's real greatest legacy is being the only NMK game on the Neo Geo, or is it
being the only Neo title with Namiki composing the music, or is it having one of the strangest scoring system of any Neo shooter (shooting scenery for points)?

Anyway, Zed Blade > Gunstar Heroes

yeah my bad. Zed Blade was inspired by Gunstar Heroes, the running man boss.

 

[wataru330]

¡I AM THE RUNNING MAN BOSS!

I do a mean Roger Rabbit, too.

 

[Liquid Snake]

Switch: Resident Evil 5 & 6

 

[100proof]

Actually got to play stuff last week... not buried in work and family responsibilities.

Steam

Resident Evil 2 Remake - Yeah wow that game looks crazy good. I mean I watched the trailers and what not but yeah... in 1440p and 144hz, the game is fucking gorgeous. Capcom is so fucking weird. They went a couple years taking one giant shit after another (SF x Tekken, Resi 6, Marvel Infinite, Dead Rising 4, being unable to unfuck SF5) and then put out this, DMC 5 (which most fans seemed to like) and MHW and its expansion in one 12-month span.

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark - Stupid name but a great indie strategy RPG. Total love letter to FF Tactics/Vandal Hearts. Bought it on the Steam sale last week but I'd recommend it at full price ($30). Solid art, music and it apes those old games without feeling beholden to them. I've played ~15 hours and I think I'm mayyybe 2/3rds of the way through it and that's mostly mainlining.

Street Fighter V - Yeah yeah I know... bought the Champion Edition add-on to get all the costumes and bullshit I refused to pay for individually (but mostly to get the last couple of characters without needing to grind currency). Now that the roster is complete (or will be shortly) and they've been tuning it for nearly 4 years, I'm feeling more generally positive about it (after love/hating it for years) but I'd still say it's the worst of the mainline Street Fighter games that matter (ST, 3rd Strike, Ultra SF4, Alpha 2/3). That still makes it better than the vast majority of fighting games for me but by SF standards, disappointing. Glad they seem to be moving on though. They desperately need a fresh start... whether it's another Street Fighter or a crossover game or whatever.

 

[Ralfakick]

12/8

PS4
In the Hunt
Hypersports - I remember this in the arcade before Track and Field even though it was the opposite, I guess being under 10 I wasn’t able to get to the arcade too much
Parappa 2 - Almost forgot this, ran through normal mode

PS Classic Modded
Fatal Fury Wild Ambition - After two sessions I haven’t been able to beat Geese

Xbox 360
NCAA Basketball 2K8 - Last great NCAA bb game

Switch
Tetris 99 - Got a number 1 and 2 on the same day this week

 

[fenikso]

Switch

LoZ LttP

XBONE

SamSho
Some shitty Nickelodeon cart racing game

PS4

Ultra Street Fighter IV

3DS

Solitaire

 

[fake]

Swith
Link to the Past - Got the shell detectors, so I've been going crazy finding those before hitting the penultimate dungeon.
Tetris 99 - I still suck.

 

[ggallegos1]

Lots of LttP in this thread.

Switch
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night - Got to the Oriental Sorcery Lab, exploring a bit. I accidentally got the bad ending fighting Gebel too soon

 

[LoneSage]

Pandora's Box 4

Strider - 你这个笨蛋! 这要有空中战舰Ballog的，世界就是我们的。I can confirm it is correct.

The Simpsons - I'm kinda surprised that I still really like this. One of the best parts is most enemies take a single hit and they're out, it really helps the flow of the game (compare it to something like Metal Slug 3, where having to shoot enemies for a bit slogs the game down imo). Only bummer is having to kinda line up almost exactly with the enemies to connect a hit.

 

[Ralfakick]

Dec 15

Dreamcast - Hooked my Dreamcast up to my Benq monitor for the first time, actually the first time I've turned my DC on in years. It is great that it has VGA, I actually tweaked my monitor for DC and it looks great. It was a great system for its time, but so much of what made it great has been available elsewhere, or has had a sequel that has improved upon the original game, which brings me to:

Capcom vs SNK - Fun game, love the backgrounds, love the game itself, the bosses are a little too easy, but I hate the ratio system on this one, I hate how Yuri is "dumbed down" for one

Sega Rally 2 - Had a hard time with this one, the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are so good, and it doesn't have the nostalgia of the first one with me playing it on the Saturn or in the arcade, didn't play too much of it, I actually shut it off for ...

XBOX 360
Sega Rally Arcade - Such a great game, captures what was great about the OG one, the arcade version is different than the physical version, I actually enjoy both in their own way

NCAA Basketball 2K8 - Finished the Legacy season as Princeton (you have to start as a small conference team from a list) - on to the NCAA tournament. I've kind of lost interest in this though

Switch
Tetris 99 - Still play this daily, not sure if I dig the new team mode yet

Nitro Ball - Picked this up as the Johnny Turbo Data East games are on sale - Fun Smash TV clone, wish it had the same analogue directional shooting setup as Smash, that makes the controls much more precise

 

[ggallegos1]

PS2
Beyond Good and Evil - fantastic game which still holds up today

PS3
Ratchet and Clank HD - played through this campaign as it's short and sweet.

PS1
Grandia - started this as my last big RPG before going back to grad school.

3DS
Shin Megami Tensei IV - this is a hard one to get into. I like the fusion of technology and samurai stuff, but man is the combat system a lot to understand at once.

 

[Ralfakick]

PS1
Grandia - started this as my last big RPG before going back to grad school.
.

Nice - good luck on your journey

 

[fenikso]

Arcade1up Street Fighter Cab

SNES

Super Metroid

Dreamcast - Hooked my Dreamcast up to my Benq monitor for the first time, actually the first time I've turned my DC on in years. It was a great system for its time, but so much of what made it great has been available elsewhere, or has had a sequel that has improved upon the original game, which brings me to:

Capcom vs SNK - Fun game, love the backgrounds, love the game itself, the bosses are a little too easy, but I hate the ratio system on this one, I hate how Yuri is "dumbed down" for one

Meh, I still get the 'experience' part of hooking up old systems. I know most of the library is available elsewhere, and in most cases better, but I could never see me letting go of my DC and games. I think it was the first console I ever picked up day one, and I still use that same console and controllers.

CvS is one of my favorites on the system, and yeah, the ratios were a silly idea, but I still like it a hair more than the sequel. Both are great games.

 

[Ralfakick]

Meh, I still get the 'experience' part of hooking up old systems. I know most of the library is available elsewhere, and in most cases better, but I could never see me letting go of my DC and games. I think it was the first console I ever picked up day one, \

Has a few Capcom exclusives (Mars Matrix, Giga Wing, Cannon Spike, Tech Romancer, Plasma Sword, etc) that aren't available anywhere else but the arcade.

The only system I bought day one for me, and probably the only system I ever will. I'm glad I waited till I got the PS4 Pro and to see if the Switch was any good. I got an early 360 and ended up buying a few used ones that kept breaking until the newer models came out.

Do you like the SF cab? I've held off on those for now, but Jon from Ohio who comes to visit us Philly guys a few times a year raves about his TMNT cab and he really likes his Star Wars cab as well.

 

[fenikso]

The controls need to be swapped out. Buttons are OK, but the joysticks are trash. And, and this is really stupid, too, they've only put one speaker in it, but have not set all the games to mono. So, effectively, I only have right channel audio on two of the three games. Really fucking dumb.

I don't hate it, but I am going to have to mod the hell out of it. I shouldn't need to do that for the price they are asking. Only get one if you can find it cheap.

PS- Also: don't expect to get two full-grown adults side-by-side playing SF. It's just too small. I may pick a second one of these up down the road, when they inevitably are sold at garage sales for cheap, and make custom single player panels and link two together for a better two player experience.

PPS- I have no idea if they've fixed any of the problems I mentioned, but I do have the very first release of the cab, so maybe they fixed some of those sound/control issues in later releases. I wouldn't hold my breath, if I were you.

 

[Ralfakick]

The controls need to be swapped out. Buttons are OK, but the joysticks are trash. And, and this is really stupid, too, they've only put one speaker in it, but have not set all the games to mono. So, effectively, I only have right channel audio on two of the three games. Really fucking dumb.

I don't hate it, but I am going to have to mod the hell out of it. I shouldn't need to do that for the price they are asking. Only get one if you can find it cheap.

PS- Also: don't expect to get two full-grown adults side-by-side playing SF. It's just too small. I may pick a second one of these up down the road, when they inevitably are sold at garage sales for cheap, and make custom single player panels and link two together for a better two player experience.

PPS- I have no idea if they've fixed any of the problems I mentioned, but I do have the very first release of the cab, so maybe they fixed some of those sound/control issues in later releases. I wouldn't hold my breath, if I were you.

Yeah a good part of my thinking on why I haven't gotten one so far is I can get a better experience playing the SF collection on the PS4 with my vewlix stick than on something like this, I'm sure it's still a fun experience and I would pick one up sub $100 to mess with. I do like "projects" though even if it has the added stress and time messing with them, so I would be up for modding the machine hardware or software.

 

[Ralfakick]

12/22

Xbox 360
KOF 2002 UM - Arguably the best KOF ever
Pink Sweets
Daytona USA - I’m always decent on the first stage and terrible on the other ones

Switch
Tetris 99 - I finally unlocked all of the backgrounds so far

Steam
Melty Blood AACC - I actually watched a technique video on this and it definitely improved my game

 

[ggallegos1]

360
Spec Ops: The Line - decided to do this one since it's short and sweet. I'm at the part near the end where you fight someone and there's a really irritating strobe light in the room, it's incredibly annoying. Good game but the control sensitivity is awful. There's a huge dead zone when aiming and then the camera just jerks quickly, resulting in a lot of misses and needless deaths for me.

PS1
Grandia - broke up the wedding, leaving New Parm. Love the battle system

3DS
Shin Megami Tensei IV - I was just tying up some side quests before finding the Black Samurai