Still want to play this. I have the PSP version of OutRun 2006 and the novelty of having it portable quickly fades away when the highly variable 15-60fps framerate often rears its head. Still, impressive port for the time!
Just finished Metroid Fusion for the second time. Last time I played it was when the GBA was still the current handheld!
Coming from a second, similar revisit of Zero Mission, I also came away really impressed, and for different reasons.
There’s a lot of variety in the boss fights and some of the most inventive - like Nightmare - feel like they’d fit right in from Nintendo R&D 1’s previous game, Wario Land 4. Most of the staff on Fusion worked on that game and Super Metroid.
I also liked how the game played around with standard Metroid conventions. Things like how the sectors initially feel claustrophobic, how the item drops, as X, can morph into other enemies or the environment, or how the bosses unexpectedly return to parasitic forms that need to be finished off. And the appearances of S-A-X help the game maintain an atmosphere of uncertainty.
Speaking of that, I was delighted when I accidentally made it into Sector 4 after getting the gravity suit. I’m still not wholly certain whether this was intentional or not but if it was, that’s top work from the designers. I got stuck in sector 4 (since you can’t boost-run back to sector 5 from the other side) and locked in by red doors.
I also just generally like a lot of the arcade-like sensibilities that made it into Nintendo R&D 1’s games. Stuff like the post-game score system (something which was also in the classic Fire Emblems) and the cool attract mode sequences which show a glimpse of your abilities.
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It’s Outrun Online Arcade on the Xbox 360. The pic is from the Outrun continuous mode, where the player goes through all 15 stages, instead of the normal branching path.
I really would love to be able to play this again! I have the 360 version but no longer own any Xbox hardware. It would swell to see it come back to modern platforms. Damn licensing issues are lame. But, I guess it’s not Outrun with a red Ferrari. I’d be OK if Sega just ditched the license and used a generic car likeness in order to make it available again. I’d love to have it on Switch…
Broke in the Astro City with some EsPraDe. Went through it a couple times. First time took about 30 credits,second was around twenty. Shit blows up real good in this one.
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Returned to this last night after a gap of a few months. Not completely taken by this game but it always feels good to see the credits roll on an RPG. Took me 27 hours total.
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PAL Mega Drive 2 over RGB to a B&O 26" CRT.
I played through Contra Hard Corps yesterday with a mate. It was the Japanese version, because 1 hit death and only 5 continues is some kind of bullshirt. Or I’m just bad
Cool game though, with some interesting and creative levels, and really smooth game play for all the craziness on screen.
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Finished the Normal Mode in Mario vs Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! It’s a great game with a goofy final boss encounter. I probably won’t delve into Plus Mode too much or the Special or Expert level. I’m ready to move onto something else on the DSi XL.
Nice. How many credits for Final Fight? I can make it to the end of the Subway now on one if I’m really nailing it.
A million. I don’t know. It was embarrassing. I haven’t played it in years. With the snes one I can beat the subway without dying. On the arcade it was… Bad.
Finished Jack Bros. as Jack Frost. What an excellent little game - will definitely be coming back to complete it with the other characters.
I think the North American version might have had extra work added to the ending though. Apparently if you clear the final boss with more than 3 special attack stars left you get a character roll and artwork during the credits. I cleared the game with 8 stars left and got nothing 
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I never got far in that game. Well done!
If I’m not mistaken, it’s the first SMT game that came to NA. It’s exceedingly rare these days.
Thank you! The last area probably took me a dozen goes, but eventually something clicked against the final boss which at first seems brutal.
I had a look at prices for the North American version and…wow. I’m glad I picked up a copy while I was in Japan!
Been back on the Virtual Boy this afternoon:
Finished Jack Bros with Jack Lantern - area 6 was much easier with Lantern’s higher attack power, and coming straight from area 5 rather than use a password I had bags of time for the last boss.
I also finished Hudson Soft’s Panic Bomber on Normal Mode. This is a superb falling block puzzle game! I like how chaining works (8 directional, with opportunities to use cleared blocks to make chains) and the explosion mechanic has a cool element of risk-reward since you ideally don’t want to set off explosions too early to clear space.
The final boss is a best of 3 match which I like - in the rare event that the CPU messes up you still don’t get the victory.
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Went and finished it with Jack Ripper too!
Got the credits art this time - I wonder why?
There’s a ‘for super players’ hard mode which I’ll probably give a try at some point. Really like the game.
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I’m intrigued.
Like a lot of VB games Jack Bros should appeal to arcade game fans, so definitely check it out if you can! A whole run through of the game is probably under an hour once you’re familiar with it.
I did try hard mode in the end, but died on floor 31. It’s a remix of the main game in more ways than just adding more enemies, which I wasn’t wasn’t expecting. Floor layouts have changed in subtle and major ways and there are even new tilesets and enemy sprites!
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I seem to be on a roll today - just finished Vertical Force on one credit.
It turns out the repair drone is probably the most useful of the three types. I had no idea it was a repair drone (and used to just detonate it instead) as it didn’t do anything - you have to stop firing for it to recover your ship.
While this has a cost in terms of points during regular stages I feel it makes the boss fights a bit too easy since any mistakes can quickly be repaired. But a player relying on the repair drone will take a lot longer to clear the game. It would have been cool if the developers assigned ranks to the scores above: one for time and one for score.
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