March 2021: 31 days game review challenge

[Hateandhatred]

March 29th

Today's challenge is: Game you played as a joke but enjoyed unironically.

This theme was suggested by sanzath.

As was hinted yesterday, today's another Japan exclusive, and a game I'm about a thousand hours in and that I'm trying to make a decent strategy guide for. It should be the Magnum Opus of my “guide” career, because I don't think I could ever top this project. And all this for a game I bought because I thought of it as a joke...



To be fair, I wasn't the only one who thought of it as such, and I learned of the game the same way everyone else did. I randomly asked a friend of mine to introduce me to a game I had never heard of that I'd absolutely need in my collection, and he introduced me to this insanity: there's a sandbox picture mode in the game that our lovely nerds in the land of the rising sun have taken in a very cursed and you-are-going-to-hell direction. Also, the game is notorious for having the longest title in gaming history, which, when translated, reads as follows: Summertime High School: A Young Man's Notes—How a New Exchange Student Like Myself Ran Into His Childhood Friend on the School Tour, Then for Some Reason Became Super-Popular with the Girls for His Daily Scoops on the School Photography Club Even Though He Only Takes Panty Shots, and What He Thinks as He Goes on Dates During His Summer of Island School Life.

Doesn't exactly roll right off your tongue now, right? But what is it? Well, it's pretty unique, so I can't really compare it with any one game, however I can try to explain how it works. It's an open world game in which you play as a student attending summer classes on an island. The world advances linearly (like it does in Majora's Mask, except over the course of almost 3 months instead of 3 days) at a slightly faster rate, but there are way to make it skip ahead to avoid having to waste time idling or something. You can take a leak to skip ahead about 15 minutes, take a nap in the nurse's office, work a day shift at a summer job, stuff like that. An interesting aspect of this is that there's “almost” no real way to tell the time other than finding a clock on a wall somewhere and looking at it. I say “almost” because you can make a save, then look at your savefile, and it will say what time it is.



This game isn't really about studying however, but interacting with the students, citizens and island workers, so it's a bit more like Animal Crossing if I have to compare it with anything. It's fairly big too, and there's a decent amount of stuff to do in there. It can also get pretty crazy, like meeting a god at a shrine or whatnot. The main set of quests would be those having to do with the photography club, which the main character is a part of. Those usually involve interviewing various people on the island in order for the club to write a blog article about it. Despite what is hinted in the game's title, taking pictures of panties, while being something you can do, is super counter productive. It permanently messes up your diary entry for that character by displaying a photo of whatever underwear they were wearing during that day instead of their portrait, which, if you care about trophies, makes it really hard to complete the whole album of every single person that visits this island over the course of those 3 months, plus, if you are noticed, it damages your reputation, and might lead someone to call the cops on you.



There is no huge, long term consequence for being arrested other than having your reputation lowered a lot, but it's better to avoid it anyway. You can raise your reputation by completing sidequests, giving gifts, selecting the best options in dialogs, returning lost money, and being an overall good person. You can lower it by raising havoc, bumping into people, running them over with a bike, crawling on the floor, looking at women's underwear, kicking people and so on. You could say the whole thing is a mix of Majora's Mask, Animal Crossing and Grand Theft Auto. With a huge anime slice-of-life skin. And even though the game is made by the same people who are behind Senran Kagura (the character models even look like they're from the same franchise), it is actually quite wholesome overall.



It's a shame I cannot understand a word of what is going on, because honestly I at least feel like I'm playing something really interesting. I've gotten a grasp on how to get every ending (there are over 300 characters on the island, and about 15 of them have their own ending with the main character, some of which are exclusive to NG+) even though it was an absolute nightmare to figure out. I like that there is so much to do in your free time as well, and even though the game's mechanics are a little clunky, it feels like you're playing something that the devs put some serious efforts into. I really hope to finish my guide for it, which might make the other trophy hunters consider importing the game, which in turn is the slightest chance I've got to help the game getting a western localization (it's incredibly unlikely to happen, but I'm doing what I can).

On an aesthetical note, while the game itself doesn't quite look like the sharpest thing ever made, it is still bright and colorful, which is not unlike the modern Falcom games. The main theme can get a little repetitive, but it never ended up bothering me a huge lot.



The game is available on PS3 and PS4. While there's no region locking on these systems, do know that this game is extremely import unfriendly, mostly due to how much Japanese you need to know in order to truly play it. Lastly, major shoutouts for the dedicated Japanese wiki of the game, which at least lets me know where something is happening on any given day. If I didn't have that, I'd be looking at a 10 000 hours project instead.

[Hateandhatred]

March 30th

Today's challenge is: Cereal Box Game.

This theme was suggested by xXOpkillerXx.

I'm a little disappointed today. I really wished to have my entire grid free of PC exclusives, but Oppiie really threw a wrench into those plans. While doing research on it, I was counting on Japan to have some sort of Famicom cereal box release, but no dice, since apparently that's a Western thing. That's too bad, because I would have taken any weird mahjong/pachinko garbage over a PC game (you know, the kind that littered those illegal multicarts in the late 80s and early 90s). Then, upon learning how Europe was also into cereal box bonus games, I hoped that they at least had some micro computer game, since that would be a bit more interesting to talk about. But that didn't happen either. There were some DOS games early on, so at this point I'll just throw the white flag and talk about a DOS game you can actually say a bunch of things about.



I don't actually hate computers or PC gaming, far from it. I think they're the most powerful machines to play on, and with certain genres, like FPS and RTS games, they're by far the go to platform, and I'm 100% ok with that. If you're into modding or fanmade stuff, they're also the first choice, and they come with insane multiplayer, multitasking and broadcasting convenience. Really, PCs are great. But my personal love for pc gaming has long since died. It died on the day I became a video game collector, where my focus has shifted primarily to beautiful plastic and dedicated systems, which became a necessary part of the experience to me. I know a tiny bit of PC games do get physical releases nowadays, but it's a dead art in my mind. I can respect a collection featuring many individual builds from a variety of eras, since in my mind it works like having a collection of micro computers (one of these days, ZX Spectrum, one of these days), but I can't buy and store everything. And since this challenge is also a very personal thing to me, well... That's why I was so adamant not to include PC games. Oh well.



Anyway, I'll talk about Chex Quest. I know, I know, very predictable, but there's a very good reason why I picked this one. Not because it's the best one, I haven't even played it, I've only watched part of a speedrun of it after seeing the AVGN's episode on the game. Also not because it's the one cereal box game that's still being played by a significant amount of people to this day. I picked it because LimitedRun Games rereleased a massive collector's edition of the game for 150 fucking dollars, and it's the most amazing thing ever. If this was a console port with the same amount of goodies, it would be sitting on my shelf as we speak.

For those who don't know, this is a DooM clone that is breakfast themed (too bad that's not today's theme, else I would have picked Captain Novolin (or Captain Diabetes, you pick) for the SNES instead, which has a lot to be said about, starting with how it was never sold in stores, but given to diabetic kids by physicians to teach them how to manage their sugar levels and insulin dosage). Like I said, I haven't actually played it, but it looks pretty cool, and all of Doomguy's arsenal is in there as mods for the Zorcher, a special remote that pacifies breakfast aliens. Other than that, well it plays like DooM, but it's not like they were straight up reusing levels or anything, it's its own project. And there's no E1M1 theme in there, or anything close to that, which is really disappointing.



And that's about all I'll say about it, since that's all I know about it, and this challenge should be more about my knowledge of the game rather than me doing research on games to then talk about them. That by itself is kinda sad, because I used to collect these games as a kid. I'm pretty sure I had all of the cereal box games released in Quebec from 1995 onwards, but despite that, I must admit that Chex Quest is the King of the “genre”. RIP to the Tycoons and Age of Empires of the world.

Chex Quest is a PC exclusive. Today was kinda lame, I apologize!

[Hateandhatred]

March 31st

Today's challenge is: Favorite Sports Game.

This theme was suggested by thesunfan.

Here we are, FINAL DAY OF THE CHALLENGE! And this another obvious one, so no need to think about it too hard. It's also pretty funny, since both Evascythe and T-Force wanted to give me a sports game theme, but they both had second thoughts. Greg is a little bit of a major tool for being the one to suggest the theme since he asked me about it a few months ago, unless he wanted me to talk about it some more. I do not mind that one bit however, since today, I'm talking about Windjammers. And Windjammers kicks ass.



Before getting into it, I have to explain an additional rule I made for myself when I got this suggestion. It wouldn't have changed anything since I love Windjammers, but I wasn't going to include non “ball” sports games. It's unfair to compare a football game with a racing or fighting game, so I don't want anyone thinking “Herp Derp, you didn't even think about F-Zero GX, woooooooooooow what a gamer”. Besides, when people mention sports games, they're not talking about games like that, but instead whatever FIFA, NHL or NBA 2K whatever game is out.

While planning for this challenge, I tried to at least have one game representing every major player in the video game industry. There's been games for Nintendo, SEGA, Sony, even one each for Microsoft, NEC and Atari. I feel like this list is missing one more company, which mostly left its mark in the arcade market, but who still released what was once hailed as the Rolls-Royce of home consoles, the Neo Geo (AES or MVS, but I'm not going into that, nor am I qualified to). And that's what Windjammers is on.



I've known about Windjammers ever since LimitedRun announced they would release it for Vita and PS4, but I had never actually played it. My first time having a crack at it was while I was in Montreal. I was wearing a Hatsune Miku wig that a friend gave to me because he found it uncomfortable to wear, then we went to an arcade bar. When I saw that they had this game there, having at least seen how it works, I immediately asked Felix to play it with me. We did just that, and I was really impressed at how fast it went, how the power moves worked, and how you could just slide all across the field. I sucked big time at it, but I thought it was awesome.

Shortly after that, a friend of mine who works in an independent game store messaged me and asked me if I was interested in a collector's edition of Windjammers for the PS Vita. Naturally, I said I was, and picked it up not long after. I immediately started grinding for it, and even borrowed someone else's console (and bought him the game too) to grind away at that online multiplayer trophy on my own. Getting the platinum trophy was actually really hard, as the arcade mode is no joke, but I enjoyed every second of it.



That's it for my experience with the title, now about the game itself. The game is actually a Frisbee game, and is known in Asia as “Flying Power Disc”. There aren't any differences between the Asian and western versions other than one of the characters (who represented korea) was palette swapped to represent the UK instead. Your goal is to either shoot the disc in the opponent's goal (sort of like how you play air hockey) or have it land on the ground with your opponent unable to catch it in time. There are some bumpers in between the fields for an element of randomness as well. A game is won by winning 2 sets, and a set is won by getting 12 points. Goals either give 3 or 5 points depending on where the disc goes through, and throwing it on the ground on your opponent's field is worth 2 points.

You should also know that this is to Frisbee what the Prince of Tennis anime is to Tennis, meaning you can expect all sorts of fireball launching and physics breaking moves in this game, complete with attack names typical of a Japanese anime. There are also 6 playable characters. They each represent a country, and all come from a different sport. There are guys from Germany, Spain, the USA, Italy or the UK/South Korea (depending on which version of the game you are playing, as mentionned before), and also a Japanese girl. They all throw, receive and move differently depending on their builds, but the real difference lies in their special attacks. The Japanese girl throws can throw it in a snaking pattern reminiscent of an Asian dragon, the UK/Korea guy can throw it against the wall which makes it go forward like an electric buzzsaw, and so on. Some characters are also more likely to be thrown in the goal along with the disc if it's thrown hard enough at them, and you can reverse special attacks against their original users.



Graphics wise, like most of what is on Neo Geo, there is absolutely nothing to complain about. It looks perfect, and I also love the referee making the calls. I wouldn't listen to the soundtrack on its own, but coupled with the sound effects, I can almost feel the arcade excitement as though I was playing in an actual arcade, much like the way I felt the first time I played it. One more thing to say about this is that there is a sequel to Windjammers that was announced 2 years ago and that is supposed to come out sometime soon on the Switch, which, like Cuphead, was also a title that factored in heavily in me buying the Switch earlier that I otherwise would have. It doesn't look all that great in comparison, but since I haven't had my fill of the original game, I'm looking forward to that one as well.

In between some of the matches on arcade made, you also had some minigames. One involved throwing a disc with a dog by your feet, and you'd control the dog as he ran for the frisbee while dodging and jumping over various obstacles. The other one was a bowling minigame, and you'd just throw the disc at some bowling pins.



The modern console version of the original game is quite faithful to the old school version, and you should feel obligated to watch the trailer for it, as it ranks among the greatest game trailers of all time in my opinion, and I'd say it is tied for my favorite trailer along with Ace of Seafood.

This is another ludicrously expensive game on the original system, costing a 4 digits figure, but honestly that's par for the course for the Neo Geo nowadays. Otherwise, you can get the rerelease on PS4, PS Vita and Switch.

[Charu]

D A T A Y E E T

[Hateandhatred]

Originally Posted by Charu

D A T A Y E E T

Rest in pepperoni

[Hateandhatred]

April 1st

Today's challenge is: Recap and afterwords.

Wow, it's finally over. I've gotta admit, it was really fun to write these, though sadly, with my messed up, overloaded work schedule (I haven't had a day off since like halfway through February, with sometimes multiple shifts per day) it ended up being extremely strenuous to keep up in the second half of this challenge.

There are a few interesting things I'd like to point out. First of all, even though a lot of this was about my personal experiences with gaming in general, I haven't actually picked anything from the 5th and 6th generations, which are probably the most well represented in people of my age group, and I'm no exception to this. There are a lot Nintendo 64, Playstation 1 and 2, Xbox, Saturn and Gamecube games I could have talked about, but I guess that wasn't happening this time around (No, fuck the Dreamcast, retarded overrated console, that's it I said it, shots fired). I'll probably have to do another challenge like this with a similar set of rules, with an additional one being that I shouldn't be allowed to use any title I've used in this one, because it feels just wrong. I can tell myself that I've had a Neo Geo and a GBA game, which sort of counts for each of the missing generations, but that's not a very satisfying perspective. Plus, there isn't even a Mario game in this thing, and that was in consideration for favorite active franchise, lol. So yeah, sometime in the future, I might do this again.

Another thing that's strange to me is the genre representation in this challenge. Sure, ok, I was bound by the themes and rules and could not freely talk about everything, but it was still pretty bad. There isn't a single rhythm game in all of this, and it's my favorite genre of all time. I did have consideration for the Project Diva games for “Favorite Active Franchise”, and I would have loved to talk about the spinoff games as well, like Uta Kumi 575, IA/VT Colorful and Miracle Girls Festival, but the fact that I'm not a huge fan of Future Tone ruled it out, unfortunately. I also did mention that the game I was always coming back to could have been either Stepmania or FlashFlashRevolution, but my “no PC” rule killed those options. There are also 3 turn based RPGs (and fucking Heavy Rain), and that's just awful proportional representation of my personal interests. Finally, I also feel like I started leaning too deep into the anime games in the second half, and I know some people really dislike those, so a little more variety wouldn't have hurt.

Despite this, most of the games on this list are among my favorite games of all time, many of which were my #1 picks on whatever systems they were on, and I'm really curious to know if people who have kept up and read all of my entries have a better understanding of why I like video games and what I like in them. Speaking of this, I have gotten feedback that I was picking too many “obscure” titles from a few people, and I'm wondering if this is a problem. I don't think the majority of them are all that obscure, but very few are what you'd call “mainstream games”. I can see Cuphead and Breath of the Wild being that, with maybe Heavy Rain and Other M being slightly in that territory, and the rest being games that, say, my parents would have have never heard about. On the flipside, It's not like I only talked about unreleased prototypes and shit like that, and that's probably what some other people would have prefered reading about. At the end of the day, I was mostly putting myself through this for my own satisfaction, as it's yet another way to do something out of my general interest in video games. I still like to hear what people think, however, since that's also a super fun part of the hobby.

I also feel a little sorry that my approach to this challenge was rather inconsistent, but to be fair, I went in a little blindly. The only days I knew for sure what I was gonna write (or had anything else pre written for) were the final 5, the rest I just crammed in on a day-to-day basis. I also wanted to keep these short and easy to do daily, but that quickly went out the window. I also wish I started making gifs earlier on, since those are so much more fun to watch whenever they're appropriate, as they tell far more than still images without making people have to click links or anything. That sucks, because some of the earlier games I talked about, I would have gone far more in depth with (looking at you, Gravity Rush 2). That being said, I still feel satisfied with the end result.

Lastly, special thanks to Phil and Felix among others whose names came up many times through this challenge, and this really did put into perspective the influence you and a couple others have had in my gaming life. Most of you guys are friends I made through our shared interest in the field, and that too led me as a gamer and a human being. Y'all r0xx0r my b0xx0rz off. Can't wait to expand dong some more with you bromingos.

Again, I'm open for suggestions for whenever I decide to do something like this again, so please slide into my DMs if you have anything to suggest or if you simply wanna talk games, since that shit gets me fired up.

Hope y'all enjoyed!

[choof]

wait is this thread broken, can't see next page

rly good thread, I have not played a vast majority of these; basically it's just the "big" ones I've played lol. share teh sentiment about star ocean too
ys music rips we need more charts for it

[Hateandhatred]

Originally Posted by choof

if this is the case then oot must be your least favorite for being as on rails as it actually is

Originally Posted by flashflash account

What? Oot is very traditional

I dunno how that's the case honestly, it doesn't compare much at all with the previous titles. I'm not saying it's bad, in fact I think it's fantastic, but traditional is probably the last word I'd use to describe it. It was more "groundbreaking" than anything.

Originally Posted by choof

wait is this thread broken, can't see next page

rly good thread, I have not played a vast majority of these; basically it's just the "big" ones I've played lol. share teh sentiment about star ocean too
ys music rips we need more charts for it

I dunno why it says there's another page, Haku thinks some posts were deleted or something.

We absolutely need more Ys music holy shit. I think there's like only one on FFR (god bless zagh)

What sentiment are you sharing from my Star Ocean post?

[Queria]

I tried a 30-day ranking up the challenge in cs2, and it's tough)

[Hateandhatred]

Originally Posted by XelNya

I need a spoiler, is the Indie pick Celeste? Please say yes.

Originally Posted by ElectricZap9

Is the depressing game TeRa: Mad of Fire?
perhaps the game with favourite music is 'Madvillany' by Madvillian?
And the "Game you played as a joke but enjoyed unironically" is Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing?
ps: Is the "Cereal Box Game" Chex Quest?

P A T I E N C E I S A V I R T U E

also lol @ zap

[Hateandhatred]

Originally Posted by ElectricZap9

Does Ivan Ooze appear in this game? and if so, is he as op as he is in the fighting edition?

If you don't know how op he is in the fighting edition, here's this educational video from 2007 that will tell you so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-g4TqMFemY

He is. However, he's pretty easy, much like everyone else.

Also, that's like a gentle version of Parace L'Sia of Arcana Heart 3.

[Hateandhatred]

Originally Posted by ElectricZap9

I'm guessing she learnt PSI (hence why she's cheap when up against normal characters).
Also, Parace L'Sia being the only character to be able to move before a section starts reminds me of Kazuya being the only character in 'Tekken 2' to sidestep.

Well other characters have broken shit, like uh Angelia, who was the boss of the second game. Parace is just legendarily broken lol.

I think all characters can move before a fight however, if memory serves right at least.

The video doesn't show her most bs move sadly, which she can execute at any time, is unavoidable/unblockable, is instant, and basically takes half your half bar or more. If you are unlucky, she will use it twice at the beginning of the fight, and you won't even have a chance to move before you're dead in mere seconds.

The reasoning behind this is that in the arcade, if you are to die against her, and insert coins while game over'd, you can fight her again, and she starts with less healths. Therefore after blowing like a hundred bucks on her, she goes down with a love tap.

That being said, there's no such mechanics in the love max!!!!!! edition, and she's just horrible to defeat. It took me several thousand retries to get her lol.

Also I actually never knew that about Tekken 2. All I do in that game is to spam Paul's burning fist to troll my friends.

[Hateandhatred]

March 7th

Today's challenge is: You like, but everyone hates.

Okay, soooo... Today was actually pretty difficult to figure out. I had two options: The first was going for a specific game that people disliked that I think is great or at least has some redeeming qualities that makes it more enjoyable. Stuff like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on NES, which people hate for valid reasons, but actually don't know about some of the secrets in the game, like how to get the true ending with the boss fight, which is actually kinda cool! My second option was to pick from a well established franchise, in a scenario where I'd really like a certain title that everyone else considers the weakest. That's what I went with today. For example, I could have picked Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, which people dislike for being clunky and having nothing to do with other Final Fantasy games (on top of not being the upgraded FFVII everyone wanted) while I personally loved it. But I'm not sure if people really dislike it for what it is.

So instead, I went with Metroid: Other M, my favorite game in the franchise so far. I've actually played VERY LITTLE from this game, but I've at least watched a playthrough in the past. People have criticized it for playing weird (it's the Wii, so par for the course in general), for ruining the ambience and feeling of solitude, for being much more linear, and most of all, for ruining Samus' character. But the thing is... None of these things particularly bothered me.



While I can see why people feel so let down by this title, Metroid in general, for me, has been a mixture of boring, frustrating and annoying. I also understand why people love the series so much, but even though I've genuinely tried to get into it, I just can't. There's too much backtracking, too much “where the fuck do I go?”, too much “why am I even here”, too much inconsistent pacing. The bosses and general ambience are cool, but the latter wears out once I start feeling too much like a rat in a maze. It's just my personal taste. The only one I managed to finish was the first Prime game, and finding all the damn Chozo artifacts made me despise an otherwise interesting title.

But Other M came to me like a breath of fresh air. I'm not saying Nintendo should just scrap the old ones because I preferred this one, but it gave me a fair chance to get into a lot of iconic Metroid stuff simply because the game felt like something I could appreciate for what it is. Just straight up guns blazing with cool abilities, and while I agree Samus kind of has an uninspiring personality, I'm not super fond of silent protags I'm supposed to project into (Prime did her far better however), and, at least, they didn't give her a gasp syndrome, which tends to be a pet peeve of mine.



I know that some people will want to give me an earful about how Super Metroid is so much better or whatever, but frankly, Other M has opened a door for me to enjoy the rest of the franchise, and that's why I've picked it today.

Out on Wii, and apparently on the Wii U's virtual console as well? Interesting...

[Hateandhatred]

Originally Posted by ElectricZap9

THE NUMBERS MASON!! WHAT DO THEY MEAN!?!?

I googled that to watch the cutscene, and omg @ at the comment that listed Big Smoke's order, holy shit I died.

[Hateandhatred]

March 9th

Today's challenge is: Underrated.

Today kinda gave me trouble. “Underrated” felt somewhat redundant with “you like, but everyone hates", so I had to come up with a very specific interpretation of “underrated”, and here's what I've got: I have to pick a game that's generally understood to be great, but that I feel like is still not valued as it should. Thinking of it like that, a few titles were singled out in my mind, and I think I've found a satisfying example. But first, some context.

The console wars of the early 90s could be particularly difficult for the average gamer. I'm talking Genesis/Megadrive versus the Super Nintendo. For most gamers who could not invest in both systems at the time, they'd feel like both systems had exclusives that more or less countered whatever the other one had. That is, unless you were strongly skewed towards certain genres. For example, if you were into RPGs, this choice was pretty simple. Sure, SEGA had the Phantasy Stars, the Shining series and a few other gems like Beyond Oasis, but there's no way it could match what the SNES had to offer in that respect. On the other hand, if you were into shmups, Nintendo might have had a few heavy hitters, like Space Megaforce/Super Aleste and a few others, but there's no way it could rival with SEGA, who was the king of all arcade genres and ports in my mind.

And I am going to focus on shmups here. The Genesis is one of the consoles any shmup enthusiast has to own given what it has to offer, but if you look at anyone's top 5 list or whatever, you'll see titles like Thunder Force IV/Lightening Force, MUSHA, Eliminate Down, Gley Lancer, Elemental Master, but there's one title that's usually missing from those lists, and I'd argue it should sit at the top of most of those lists, or at least tied with Lightening Force or something. That game is Battle Mania Daiginjou, also known as Battle Mania 2, which was unreleased in the West, but was a sequel to Battle Mania, which was known over here as Trouble Shooter.



So what exactly does Battle Mania Daiginjou do that the rest doesn't? Well, a little bit of everything. It offers multiple playstyles, an extreme and tasteful variety in level design, great characters and a fun storyline (yes, really), perfect controls across the boards, great arsenal customization, a fantastic soundtrack, wacky enemy designs (remember how I said I was into cute 'em ups?), amazing visuals and a plethora of other great features.



So, what's the catch? Well, feel free to look the game up on ebay to find out that it typically ranges in the 4 digits (not counting the pennies, so at least a grand to get your hands on a genuine copy). It also wasn't released in the West, so gamers didn't grow up with this title. Those who played it know it's amazing, but that doesn't include a whole lot of people. Even so, I find it odd that this game is so often excluded from personal lists, especially nowadays, with the everdrives, emulators, fanmade translations and reproduction carts. I honestly cannot comprehend how it could fall off of anyone's top 3 among the shmups on the console if nostalgia is ignored. And there's a level in which one of the enemies is Super Mario himself, hurling mushrooms in your face. I am not joking.



It took me forever to play this title. My bro Felix bought me an everdrive for my 28th birthday, which I spent with Hakulyte (given that we share the same birthday). It was one of the first game I wanted to try out, so I handed him the controller after selecting what I thought was the first game in the series. It blew both of our minds, and instantly overthrew MUSHA as my favorite Genesis shmup, and became my favorite “classic and retro” shmup as well. It's a little hard to admit because I really, REALLY like Power Strike 2 on the Master System, but this is just too good.

The game was only out for the Megadrive, and if you ask me, I do think it's worth its hefty price tag.

[Hateandhatred]

Originally Posted by ElectricZap9

Oh look, it's a game I know nothing about and neither the background behind it, so I'll opt out today.

I mean, that's part of the plan. You get to discuss those you know, and to discover new games.

[Hateandhatred]

March 13th

Today's challenge is: That atmosphere...

Today's challenge was kind of a revelation to me. I feel like my gaming experience is severely lacking in the “atmospheric” department, to a point where I almost wanted to troll and pick an aircraft game (specifically, I was gonna pick Ace Combat 7, and even more specifically, its VR mode, since it's amazing), because of the possible meaning of “atmosphere” being of Earth's actual physical atmosphere.

Anyway, while I do play a bunch of games with a great atmosphere, they're never or at least extremely rarely the reason I play them. You can argue there are several rhythm games like Rez or Thumper that I play and love with a really strong emphasis on ambiance, but I really just want to test my reflexes with hand-eye coordination challenges, and the rest is just random flavor to me. On the other hand, I would associate the concept with horror games, and I've played far too few of those to be able to say something about it. Lastly, I could talk about games with an upbeat and overblown atmosphere, since I'm a much bigger fan of those in general, but it felt like cheating. I wanted to pick a game that has a much heavier feel rather than an uplifting one.

I remembered Felix making me play Super Metroid for that reason, and that wasn't gonna cut it. But it made me think of another game he recommended me after asking about if he knew a shmup and platformer hybrid, and that's how I thought of Air Fortress, made by HAL (the Kirby and Smash folks!) for the NES.



After being gifted the game by a friend (giftwrapped with airplane lolis, thanks Phil!), I got to play it. Air fortress is exactly what I wanted Felix to suggest me. You control some guy trying to defeat an incoming army of “space fortresses” by destroying them from the inside. First, you have to fly through and past an enemy defense fleet into the main structure, then carry on by foot in order to find the core and force the whole thing to self destruct.

The game is very simple, and there isn't so much of a strong atmosphere up to that point. But then, you actually have to escape the fortress in order to move on to the next one, and honestly that part is absolutely crazy. There's no timer or anything like that, but you just know that you should probably hurry up. As you progress (and as time passes), the structure starts shaking more and more, and after around 2 minutes, if you haven't made it out, you will die with the structure itself.



I didn't play this game for this moment, I didn't even know it was gonna be a thing, but now that I know about this, I often boot the game just to go die there. I think it's fascinating, how the atmosphere changes after activating the self destruction protocol, and on NES on top of that. This was wayyyyyy ahead of its time. Sure, there were Metroid and Zillion before that, but those had simple countdowns, so nothing like what Air Fortress did in its escape sequences.



Oh, and some quick googling told me that after the last fortress, the player finds out he is the last fortress, and has to kill himself. That shocks me, I'm pretty sure the ending mentions no such thing.

The game is exclusive to the NES!