Much Samurai Shodown on Switch. Finally getting my head around how the game plays, where positioning, timing, movement and mind games take precedence over executing combos. It’s very satisfying.
Before the end of last week I had a win ratio of below 0.20, it’s steadily gone up since Friday!
How does the Switch version feel compared to ps4? I want to pick it up but I havent seen many impressions of how it compares. Is the online very active?
I didn’t have it on PS4 but I’m pretty impressed by the quality of the port, since it’s mostly 60fps, still looks the business and input lag is low for Unreal 4. Importantly load times seem to be the same as the other console versions, even if it’s still about 20 seconds per new arena loaded.
I haven’t had any trouble finding any ranked matches since the western launch, though I rarely see open rooms for casual matches. Leaderboards are pretty populated for the single player modes too.
Ranked was the only way to go on PS4 too. No one played casual because the rooms were a mess to navigate and use.
I randomly got River City Ransom for NES and am messing around with it casually between DW2 sessions.
I forgot how fun and silly of a game it is. All of those RPG elements and the chibi style give it a light hearted and inviting tone.
I’m back on the trail for 1 million in MaBoShi
So I wrote up all my thoughts/tricks/tips/techniques as a guide on GameFAQs
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/wii/946472-maboshis-arcade/faqs/
That feeling of a perfect bonus round in circle 
Perfection
I’m jealous of your MaBoShi circle game skills! Still been meaning to go back to it, and many Wii games, for that matter…going to aim for 1 million.
At home, a bit of everything really: Samurai Shodown, Project Diva Mega 39s, Deathsmiles, Mushihimesama Futari (black label DLC).
I also dug out a bunch of 360 games to revisit briefly, like Deadly Premonition (this game reminds me of Shenmue more than it did before), and one day I hope to finish Resonance of Fate but it’s rather hard to pick up when your save file has left you in a precarious situation with what feels like poorly built-out characters and equipment…
I was playing Deathsmiles on both 360 and iOS, was disappointed that the iOS version doesn’t have any slowdown whatsoever, making level 999 practically impossible, and the later stages even on level 3. Bullets come far too quickly and densely to make any sense of the action. 360 version is as good as I remember it, I wasn’t expecting to be impressed the most by the game’s story though. When I first played it it was before Magica Madoka, but to me it feels like the Deathsmiles universe was doing ‘dark magical girls’ before it became a big thing, with well thought out universe and characters, and some of the endings are rather heartfelt. Impressive for a STG.
I missed buying MaBoShi on Wii, is the DS downloadable game around these days, or is it locked to the Wii purchase, and thus inaccessible due to the store being down?
The DS game was beamed from the WiiWare game, so you’re only option at this point for either is…to take to the high seas.
If it helps, the Square/Shikaku game was released in upgraded form on DSiWare - check out Flametail/Trailblaze: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-DSiWare/Trailblaze-Puzzle-Incinerator-265656.html
iOS games, then:
Arkanoid Vs Space Invaders
This is brilliant! One of my favourite Taito games since Space Invaders Extreme 2. It’s supercharged Arkanoid with both brick and space invader enemies. There are 150 carefully designed levels, all with ‘hard’ mode variants - I’ve currently played about 95 - and the game continually introduces new mechanics with every world. There’s also a bunch of unlockable Taito characters who provide different modifiers. It’s a great little action game with superb level design that make the most of its crossover, while also being a perfect fit for portrait mode and one-handed touch controls.
Even better, we can now own a permanent copy to preserve for the ages - it’s coming to Switch as part of Gotch Technology Corp’s Space Invaders: Invincible Collection.
Saga: Scarlet Grace
I’ve already sunk 30 hours into this unconventional RPG on the Switch, but the excellent touchscreen interface and combat focus make it irresistible on a pocketable device with much, much faster load times (I was surprised to find that my 7 year old iPad loads the game significantly faster than the Switch). Even when upscaled well beyond the 720p resolution of the Switch the game’s art direction continues to sing, too:
Disgaea 1 Complete
I really didn’t need another port of this, especially one that I passed by on Switch due to the horribly upscaled 2D background art and the lack of original pixel art sprites. But the novelty of seeing a new interface for the game won me over. But it’s still too fiddly since the game’s flow is still very much the same as the early 2000s original, and while the new menus work fine with touch they haven’t been redesigned from the ground up, instead working exactly as they did on console. So a lot of pages to flip through and list items to navigate.
The new graphics are very hit and miss, really, I miss the pixel art sprites as I mentioned earlier, because they were very distinctive, and the upscaled 2D background art is nasty. Looks better on a small screen though.
More Wii
Dewy’s Adventure
Eledees (Elebits)
TrackMania
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
On Switch:
Langrisser I and II, which I found very disappointing. The half-assed presentation (at least in Classic Mode) is something I can overlook, but they’ve really neutered the difficulty to the point where it plays itself. By chapter 10 I could leave a vulnerable Hein right exposed in front of enemies and they’d attack his units and all die one by one. And I haven’t even been doing any of the grinding the game lets you do! For a strategy title this is a fail, only the superb energetic Mega Drive soundtrack saves it.
Ring Fit Adventure, which is the perfect remedy for a sedentary lifestyle under today’s self isolation environment. Still a compelling and well put together RPG that manages to make workout routines fly by. Happy to have gotten back into it!
The Last Remnant Remastered, which I wish I started sooner. Its novel battle system takes me back to a time when publishers were diversifying what an RPG could be mechanically. Great stuff.
Trials of Mana remake demo, thought this was guff frankly. Despite playing on Hard, the same boss that gave me trouble (Duran’s Crab) on the original was a cakewalk. The rearranged music is nice, but everything else feels far too aware of modern trends, from the quest markers to the new and rather pointless camera angle. The original game was a pioneer on the Super Famicom, one of the most ambitious games of its time. This is a half-hearted Unreal Engine 4 reimagining with little in the way of ambition.
On Wii:
Super Mario Sunshine, wow this game has some demanding level design! The hotel level really forces the player to explore and understand how its rooms are put together, all without a map! Frustrating, sure, but very fun at the same time.
Sin and Punishment 2, which I never gave as much time as I would have liked a decade ago, having only played it thoroughly on Normal with Kachi. Started playing on Hard with Isa, even the first level shows more creativity than some entire games. RIP Treasure.
I also got my PC Engine Mini! Looking forward to digging in to that.
I got the Switch Sega Ages version of Gain Ground because I remember really liking the Genesis port when I played it on that ps3 sega collection and man, it’s rough.
Basically nothing about the game’s design translates well to the arcade format and design problems that are forgivable with the genesis version’s reduced difficulty become obvious (and frustrating) with the arcade’s faster and more aggressive enemies. For example, I realized a crosshair or some other way to gauge the distance of your attacks would’ve massively improved the game. You have to constantly reposition yourself to hit enemies on ledge while enemies can just pelt you with arrows as soon as you get in attack range. With the console versions more lenient timer, it’s just kind of whatever and you don’t think about it but with the arcade’s strict timer, it sucks.
This takes up most of my gaming time and in fact all my time now we are in isolation. Lately the last few days the game is showing performance issues where for several minutes while either in gathering hub or in a party battling the frame drops to a slide show and I have to hard reset the console. I wonder if it’s to do with bottlenecking from either my ISP or something on SEGA’s side…?
Dark Falz Urgent Quests
far too much animal crossing, with a side of OG FF VII to get hyped for the remake on friday
it’s been surreal; i haven’t played this game since racing through it in the fall of '97, skipping math class to stay in my dorms and try to finish it before any friends/gaming mags ruined it
it’s holding up well so far! going from a stolen hotel TV where i couldn’t adjust the contract to a solid trinotron with good sound system & RGB picture is…quite the jump across the years, haha
I finally got myself a competent PC a few months ago and have been loving revisiting old games I used to play as a teen.
Right now, I’m replaying the original Doom, which is as fun as I remembered it. 
Nice, glad to see more PC gamers here. I been one for many years now.
