I finally beat Gradius 1 Arcade with no deaths and it only took 2 attempts for today!
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Fantasy Zone for Sega Ages is out today:
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Got Fantasy Zone, having it on Switch is really nice and it looks lovely with scanlines.
M2 really nailed the vintage filter, was such a good fit for Fantasy Zone.
Thought the HD Rumble worked pretty well too, especially on the boss with the wall of independently protruding lasers.
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Picked up a Wonder Price copy of Eschatos to complement Ginga Force. I previously only had it on PC.
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This makes me want to get into Gradius I and II again. Is it true the emulation in Gradius Collection on PSP is off? The only home version I’ve played is that…
Dug out a few old discs for my 360 shmups, otherwise I’ve been doing the rounds on Eschatos, Ginga Force and Natsuki Chronicle.
After rotating across all three games for a while I can say with confidence that Natsuki Chronicle is Qute’s most refined work to date, though as mentioned before the fixed horizontal camera angle does rob the game of the spectacle we’ve come to expect.
Arcade mode is great, though, because it’s pretty different to Chronicle Mode it’s just a lot more focused than score attack on Ginga Force was. The intricacies of the level designs really come to life when you have to juggle your EX shield powerups across all ten stages.
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I also picked up Mamorukun Curse on PS3. Had no idea it was released overseas and it’s only $5! Don’t regret not picking up a X360 disc when I was last in Japan now.
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Not sure if I’d call it “off” so much as modified. If you play an official ROM of Gradius arcade (the Japanese version) via the Gradius Deluxe Pack on PS1/Saturn, or via the Arcade Archives releases, you’ll know that when you reach the volcano section in Stage 1, for example, the gap between the volcano on the right side of the screen, and the right side of the screen itself, is larger than the gap between the left side of the screen, and the left volcano. In the PSP version, they’re equidistant, like the NES version of the game. The slightly wider screen also gives you a slightly stretched aspect ratio, unless you go into the settings and change it to strict 4:3. But I would say it’s at least slightly easier than the normal arcade game, on default settings. I was able to get a 1st loop 1CC on the PSP version about a year and a half ago, whereas I haven’t been able to get close to pulling that feat off on any other arcade conversion. Still a great way to play the game, though, and that whole collection is a great buy, especially because it’s (still) the only official Western release of Gradius Gaiden.
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Oh phew, that’s not so bad then. I was worried there would be bigger changes like with enemy behaviour, as long as it plays the same I’m generally okay, screen space inaccuracies aren’t so bothersome! Thanks for the heads-up!
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I ended up playing arcade mode on Mamorukun Curse for, erm, five hours today. Well, I’ve been down with the flu so I decided to give the game a whirl, just wasn’t expecting it to be as moreish as it is!
I haven’t played many STGs where a human character is grounded to the floor, I guess the most recent one I played is Alfa System’s Sisters Royale and that wasn’t all that interesting. Mamorukun Curse might be the most fun I’ve had with a G.rev game though. The progression surprised me actually. The combination of having a difficulty scaling stage selection and these optional missions that offer a sense of risk-reward as you try to extend your score and your remaining time, make for an extremely moreish game that always feels fresh each playthrough.
The controls were also fun to get to grips with. The developers added a twin stick mode in the PS3 version but that’s really a cop-out, and its autofire is too messy for thoughtful scoring. The original controls require some learning but they are fun to master - hold down the shot button to strafe-shoot, so you have to let go of the shot button to aim your charge shot or pick up fallen star points. Or you can use both in tandem. Basically you have to get used to using one or the other or both buttons depending on the situation and it’s pretty engaging because you have to think and master it.
The level design is too good - the developers have clearly used the ground-based setting to its fullest here, with levels that feature furniture and set-pieces that could have only worked on land, while also feeling very distinct from each other.
One little niggle though: It’s clear that GULTI, who worked on the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, remade the visuals with advanced shaders and shadow mapping and there’s no way to play the game with the original Sega Naomi visuals, even on arcade mode. I’m pretty sure they worked on Under Defeat HD as well because the presentation on both games shares an awful lot of similarities right down to the menus and screen settings options (and even the way the engine handles screen rotation). In Mamorukun Curse the simplistic character models don’t quite suit the more advanced look of the environments.
Oh and subtitles for story mode don’t show up in Tate mode. I originally thought the story manga panels weren’t translated at first.
It’s a steal for the $5 it’s going for on the US PS Store, I want a 360 disc now though…
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Just want to add I have 1CC’d Gradius on the PSP collection at least twice on whatever the corresponding “arcade” difficulty is on that. A few years ago I decided to also try 1CC’ing Gradius on the Saturn collection and after about a month of practice I hit a wall and couldn’t seem to get past the stage four boss (volcano drones). It just feels tougher on Saturn which is odd because Gradius 1&2 on PSP is supposed to be based on the Saturn DX pack builds (Gradius 1 on PSP Collection even uses the Saturn ending music/credit sequence). And Gradius 1 on the Konami DS Arcade Classics Collection? It’s even worse, I can barely get past the first stage! If I can also 1CC Saturn Gradius someday, great, that at least feels attainable for sure whenever I have time to get back to it. Gradius 1 on the DS Konami collection? Doubtful, no idea what’s going with that port, it just feels brutal. Makes me wonder if there could be different PCB versions these are being based off? NES Gradius is also really unforgiving.
I picked up Mamorukun Curse on PSN a while back, but haven’t played it yet, but because it was so cheap on PSN, I figured I should grab it, in case it ever got delisted. I had no idea it was originally a Naomi game, because I’m not aware of a Dreamcast version, and generally speaking, those go hand in glove. Sounds like a great game, though, so I definitely need to try it.
Just did a no death run on Gradius 2(Arcade)…my god this game was a fucking bitch to beat with no deaths(I almost died at the end), hell I only used 3 options instead of 4 to avoid the Option Hunter entirely along with using Ripple instead of Laser, lol. Should get the playthrough up next week. Yeah I did enough Gradius for now, got to work on other shumps. I want to get into the Raiden series as well.
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Congrats. Gradius 2 is one of my favorites, but it can be brutal. Looking forward to watching your playthrough.
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Gulti are the main developer on all versions of the game but they had nothing to do with Under Defeat, G-rev develop their graphic engines in house so that is why you will see similarities between games.
It was one of the last Naomi releases and by that time the Dreamcast was done for. You had Under Defeat, Trigger Heart and Karous after the hardware discontinuation but most of the late releases were on PS2 and the 360 some years later.
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Very nice! Sounds like you’re becoming an old school shmup beast. I haven’t played enough Gradius II to know how difficult that is specifically, but based on my experience with the series thus far, I’d say it’s an accomplishment. Prepare yourself for brutal gameplay with Raiden, especially the first couple games.
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Thanks for clearing that up!
I spent too much on Shmups this morning, I broke down and ordered the limited edition Ghost Blade HD for Switch, and pre-ordered the console collection of Darius games for the Switch. I wasn’t going to get it, but I broke down and said fuck it. I already have the import of the arcade games collection. On another forum I’m on they were playing Soldier Blade for the month of January. So I decided to jump into that.
Man I don’t know why I hadn’t gotten down with it before but it’s a fun game. The difficulty SPIKES HARD in mission 3, at least for me. My best run on it was 617,900. Which feels not bad, probably nothing amazing either.
I also keep going back to ESP Ra De, man that game is just so, so good. I really think it’s my GOTY for 2019.
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