You are too weak.
Enemies take forever to beat.
You can steal enemy attacks; they're all useless.
The game is very slow; no, it doesn't suffer from slowdowns; it just has a lot of sections where absolutely nothing happens.
There's no instant respawn; you die, and you get to the last checkpoint.
There's no way to earn extra lives if you die; it starts all the way from the start.
Do you think this review feels artificially generated? Wait until you see the enemy's patterns.
Enemies take forever to beat.
You can steal enemy attacks; they're all useless.
The game is very slow; no, it doesn't suffer from slowdowns; it just has a lot of sections where absolutely nothing happens.
There's no instant respawn; you die, and you get to the last checkpoint.
There's no way to earn extra lives if you die; it starts all the way from the start.
Do you think this review feels artificially generated? Wait until you see the enemy's patterns.
Horizontal shooter. You have a main shot, can alternate between three speeds, and you can fire the satellite weapon that moves and shoots with with you to have it latch onto enemies and absorb and power their shot type to switch you weapon. Interesting and constantly altering stage backgrounds, layouts, and obstacles along with many stages having a moment where taking a high or low path can put you on a path with different enemies or hazards. Boss fights and hazards like black holes or traps in the environment make this one of the few shooters I've played with the ability to switch between movement speeds levels where it is absolutely necessary to use the faster speed at times rather than just sticking to a preference. Good music and enemy design. Kind of introduces you to some enemies by having a more simple fight with a mini boss type before bringing them back with an extra attack or aided by other enemies.
Ends with a dull boss gauntlet, some of the better weapons I found just aren't that fun to actually use as a main shot type. If you die you start at a checkpoint passed in the stage, this can help to regain a more powerful weapon by draining enemies but but you lose one of the most powerful upgrades you can find which as a shield that can often be found at the start of a stage that can take a few hits for you. Losing all of your lives allows you to use continues that will also reset you at the stage checkpoint. A lot of the more common enemy types are really just their so you can drain a weapon type, it's the stage hazards, mini bosses, and some of the rarer and more powerful enemy types you might fight alone or two at a time that are the real threat.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1597461696784011264
Ends with a dull boss gauntlet, some of the better weapons I found just aren't that fun to actually use as a main shot type. If you die you start at a checkpoint passed in the stage, this can help to regain a more powerful weapon by draining enemies but but you lose one of the most powerful upgrades you can find which as a shield that can often be found at the start of a stage that can take a few hits for you. Losing all of your lives allows you to use continues that will also reset you at the stage checkpoint. A lot of the more common enemy types are really just their so you can drain a weapon type, it's the stage hazards, mini bosses, and some of the rarer and more powerful enemy types you might fight alone or two at a time that are the real threat.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1597461696784011264
Gaiares is one of the most difficult games that I've ever beaten. I've never felt as great beating a game as I did when I finally beat this monster. Anyway, this is a phenomenal Shoot 'Em Up for the Genesis with some of the best music from its time, which kept me playing a lot of the time. The unique power-up system is really cool, and the game is generally just really fun to play. Every time I died, I was eager to try again, which is the mark of a great game. The bosses are great and have awesome designs, and there's just so much to love here. If you like difficult retro games, this'll be right up your alley. It's much more than an R-Type clone, which is what I assumed it to be when I first popped it into my Genesis. The only major gripe I have with the game is that the last couple levels feel lazy, and the bosses in them are pretty weak compared to the rest. Besides that, everything's good here.
Omigosh what a fun game! The little ship was so responsive and cool, and I loved how you could shoot your little buddy to suck up powers from bad guys.
I loved how you go from space to a castle and then back into space and into a base.
You fight Death! And a Mermaid! And a cool big knight lady!
This was pretty dang fun
I loved how you go from space to a castle and then back into space and into a base.
You fight Death! And a Mermaid! And a cool big knight lady!
This was pretty dang fun
Society if Gaiares had instant respawn
A capa da versão japonesa desse jogo é perfeita, foi inclusive o que me deu vontade de jogar isso
Gaiares é um side-scrolling shooter belíssimo com uma mecânica única e interessante
Aqui nesse jogo você tem um satélite que te ajuda parecido com r-type, porém a diferença é que nesse jogo você rouba as habilidades dos inimigos da tela, nunca tinha visto isso até o momento, sinceramente achei genial.
Funciona da seguinte forma, você lança o satélite em inimigos do level e ele "pesquisa" se tem uma habilidade disponível pra "roubar", ele basicamente pega o exato mesmo tiro do inimigo pra usar junto de você, podendo fazer isso até 3 vezes no mesmo inimigo pra maximizar o poder do seu tiro seja deixando ele maior mais rápido enfim, muito criativo.
Essa mecânica deixou o jogo muito mais que apenas um simples jogo de navinha, fazendo você pensar qual tipo de tiro é o melhor pra enfrentar o próximo boss.
Outra mecânica que gostei bastante foi a de regular a velocidade da nave, isso é tipo muito útil, e graças a isso conseguiram dar uma variada na gameplay colocando sessões onde você apenas deve desviar de objetos caindo espinhos e afins, essa mecânica obviamente também serve pra te ajudar a desviar mais fácil dos projéteis.
Mudando de assunto, a qualidade audiovisual desse game é MARAVILHOSA foi o que eu mais gostei
Os cenários de fundo são lindíssimos, os gráficos são cheios de pequenos detalhes, usando de vários efeitos visuais pra causar um impacto visual belíssimo
A nave do maninho é meio genérica mas não é feia não.
A soundtrack é uma montanha russa, tem músicas muito muito boas como a da segunda missão e as mais ou menos, mas nenhuma realmente é ruim felizmente, todas casam perfeitamente com o que ta acontecendo na tela (vou até colocar na playlist algumas porque u de fato gostei).
E felizmente só lembro de uma queda de frame o jogo todo, esse realmente atrapalhou pqp.
Falar da parte mais importante, a dificuldade
Sim sendo um shooter tem uma dificuldade punitiva, porém esse deu uma facilitada legal colocando um escudo no início de cada level, o mesmo protegendo de até 3 hits (isso ajuda viu vai por mim)
Levei 2 horas pra terminar e nem sou tão bom nesse tipo de jogo.
A dificuldade obviamente é gradual, os 2 primeiros level são tranquilos demais, depois começa o inferninho você vai sofrer um pouco a partir do level 3
Se não fosse o boss dragão do level 5 eu teria terminando muito mais rápido.
Infelizmente nem todos os bosses são legais, tem uns 3 que são meh demais
Os que mais gostei foram o terceiro e o sexto, o design deles é lindíssimo.
Pelo menos os bosses tem uma variedade absurda, vai de uma nave gigante genérica A PRÓPRIA MORTE (essa eu ri quando eu vi)
Os primeiros 6 levels são maravilhosos por mais que difíceis
Uma pena que não posso dizer o mesmo dos dois últimos, esse me broxaram demais
O sétimo level é literalmente enfrentar todos os bosses zzzzz inclusive o que você enfrentou minutos atrás no sexto level pqp ein, se essa não fosse a penúltima fase eu teria desistido sinceramente
Como se já não bastasse a batalha com o final boss é uma das coisas mais broxantes que já vi num shooter, o dragão é mais difícil que isso.
E sim o jogo tem uma historinha sci-fi contada em forma de cutscenes com visual de anime da época (por isso a capa)
É extremamente bobinho mas eu gostei, pelo menos da um contexto a tudo ali, mas não espere nada mais do que o genérico/básico.
Gaiares foi uma experiência interessante pra mim, lembro que abri o jogo ontem e simplesmente fechei por achar chato demais
Felizmente dei uma segunda chance e fui surpreendido
Vale a pena demais experimentar por tudo que ele te entrega.
Gaiares é um side-scrolling shooter belíssimo com uma mecânica única e interessante
Aqui nesse jogo você tem um satélite que te ajuda parecido com r-type, porém a diferença é que nesse jogo você rouba as habilidades dos inimigos da tela, nunca tinha visto isso até o momento, sinceramente achei genial.
Funciona da seguinte forma, você lança o satélite em inimigos do level e ele "pesquisa" se tem uma habilidade disponível pra "roubar", ele basicamente pega o exato mesmo tiro do inimigo pra usar junto de você, podendo fazer isso até 3 vezes no mesmo inimigo pra maximizar o poder do seu tiro seja deixando ele maior mais rápido enfim, muito criativo.
Essa mecânica deixou o jogo muito mais que apenas um simples jogo de navinha, fazendo você pensar qual tipo de tiro é o melhor pra enfrentar o próximo boss.
Outra mecânica que gostei bastante foi a de regular a velocidade da nave, isso é tipo muito útil, e graças a isso conseguiram dar uma variada na gameplay colocando sessões onde você apenas deve desviar de objetos caindo espinhos e afins, essa mecânica obviamente também serve pra te ajudar a desviar mais fácil dos projéteis.
Mudando de assunto, a qualidade audiovisual desse game é MARAVILHOSA foi o que eu mais gostei
Os cenários de fundo são lindíssimos, os gráficos são cheios de pequenos detalhes, usando de vários efeitos visuais pra causar um impacto visual belíssimo
A nave do maninho é meio genérica mas não é feia não.
A soundtrack é uma montanha russa, tem músicas muito muito boas como a da segunda missão e as mais ou menos, mas nenhuma realmente é ruim felizmente, todas casam perfeitamente com o que ta acontecendo na tela (vou até colocar na playlist algumas porque u de fato gostei).
E felizmente só lembro de uma queda de frame o jogo todo, esse realmente atrapalhou pqp.
Falar da parte mais importante, a dificuldade
Sim sendo um shooter tem uma dificuldade punitiva, porém esse deu uma facilitada legal colocando um escudo no início de cada level, o mesmo protegendo de até 3 hits (isso ajuda viu vai por mim)
Levei 2 horas pra terminar e nem sou tão bom nesse tipo de jogo.
A dificuldade obviamente é gradual, os 2 primeiros level são tranquilos demais, depois começa o inferninho você vai sofrer um pouco a partir do level 3
Se não fosse o boss dragão do level 5 eu teria terminando muito mais rápido.
Infelizmente nem todos os bosses são legais, tem uns 3 que são meh demais
Os que mais gostei foram o terceiro e o sexto, o design deles é lindíssimo.
Pelo menos os bosses tem uma variedade absurda, vai de uma nave gigante genérica A PRÓPRIA MORTE (essa eu ri quando eu vi)
Os primeiros 6 levels são maravilhosos por mais que difíceis
Uma pena que não posso dizer o mesmo dos dois últimos, esse me broxaram demais
O sétimo level é literalmente enfrentar todos os bosses zzzzz inclusive o que você enfrentou minutos atrás no sexto level pqp ein, se essa não fosse a penúltima fase eu teria desistido sinceramente
Como se já não bastasse a batalha com o final boss é uma das coisas mais broxantes que já vi num shooter, o dragão é mais difícil que isso.
E sim o jogo tem uma historinha sci-fi contada em forma de cutscenes com visual de anime da época (por isso a capa)
É extremamente bobinho mas eu gostei, pelo menos da um contexto a tudo ali, mas não espere nada mais do que o genérico/básico.
Gaiares foi uma experiência interessante pra mim, lembro que abri o jogo ontem e simplesmente fechei por achar chato demais
Felizmente dei uma segunda chance e fui surpreendido
Vale a pena demais experimentar por tudo que ele te entrega.
A run-of the mill Sci-Fi SHMUP with a unique "searching" ability on enemies to replicate their fighting power that is underutilised. There's not much to be said other than it's a decent time, but not one worth 1CC'ing.
Could have been a spectacular exclusive shoot'em up if it wasn't for the increased difficulty. Unique ability grabbing mechanic allows you take use of enemies weapons. Changing your ship move speed frequently is essential for defeating bosses and navigating certain stages, that's why it is mapped to button A (instead of select for example). An overall difficult shooter, but in a totally different way where reflex and bullet recognition isn't the factor but recognizing deceptively placed pattern order and navigating though a AI that predicts your last ship placement is. Things are not as they seem, before you progress the scrolling screen wait for a traps to be released on several stages.
An HCG101 article describes it the best "... enemy locations and firing patterns are not fixed but based upon player position, meaning the game constantly adapts and is almost procedurally generated. You can’t simply memorize their locations, you need to be ready to adapt with them. In conjunction with this, speed changing is essential."
An HCG101 article describes it the best "... enemy locations and firing patterns are not fixed but based upon player position, meaning the game constantly adapts and is almost procedurally generated. You can’t simply memorize their locations, you need to be ready to adapt with them. In conjunction with this, speed changing is essential."
I accidentally flimflammed myself into buying a reproduction of this off Retrobit/LRG a bit ago, I preordered last year when I still had some inkling of hope of getting more physical Genesis/MD games, until I just gave up and used my Everdrive Pro that I initially got to play SCD games with less moving parts involved.
"Guy r' Us", "Gary's", or whatever you want to pronounce it has it all with it's presentation. It's got all the parallax scrolling, all the giant boss sprites, all the graphical nonsense for a 1990 release to make the old school tech nerds squee like comedy relief anime schoolgirls. Even if I begrudgingly found a bunch of the backgrounds distracting on my CRT setup, I still found them pleasing. It's why it's even more disappointing that I find the gameplay itself excruciating and downright torturous at times. It's really not a good look when I find Super R-Type's philosophy of sending you all the way back after dying to it's stage boss to be less annoying than the checkpoint system in Gaiares. They exist, but they send you back more than far enough for it to strain your emotional state and the ruthless enemy patterns really don't compliment this system at all. There's plenty of times where I found myself getting shut off from all escape from the enemy patterns with my only choice being to either die, or hope I had a shield on to absorb the hit. There's difficulty and then there's just punishment that drains my will to play longer, and that's saying a lot from the NES Ninja Gaiden apologist.
I need to give a special shoutout to some of the mini-boss design that's basically "shoot bullets, then suddenly bumrush forward with zero warning", a tactic straight out of Gadget Twins, which is an absolutely scathing insult I can throw at Gaiares. If I can find a way to compare your shmup to Gadget Twins then you've failed, I'm sorry. Go to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect 200 didgeridoos. Go to your room and stay there. And of course, what else could the final stage be, but a boss rush? I let Gradius get away with that shit due to actually using different bosses, but come on, do I really need to fight the robo-bitch with the sword and shield again when I just killed her in the last stage? She's awful.
I'm convinced that so-called "Boomer Gamers", aka the gamers that are somehow older than me that played these games just fell in love with the cool grim reaper boss in stage 3, and jerked it to the naked anime lady on the JP cover. It's a shame. When I personally see Gaiares I don't see a cult classic or sleeper hit from the 16-bit generation, instead I see wasted potential.
Hate to echo the sentiments of other regular backloggers here, but I agree with them. "Queen Zz Badnasty" is probably the best thing from this game.
"Guy r' Us", "Gary's", or whatever you want to pronounce it has it all with it's presentation. It's got all the parallax scrolling, all the giant boss sprites, all the graphical nonsense for a 1990 release to make the old school tech nerds squee like comedy relief anime schoolgirls. Even if I begrudgingly found a bunch of the backgrounds distracting on my CRT setup, I still found them pleasing. It's why it's even more disappointing that I find the gameplay itself excruciating and downright torturous at times. It's really not a good look when I find Super R-Type's philosophy of sending you all the way back after dying to it's stage boss to be less annoying than the checkpoint system in Gaiares. They exist, but they send you back more than far enough for it to strain your emotional state and the ruthless enemy patterns really don't compliment this system at all. There's plenty of times where I found myself getting shut off from all escape from the enemy patterns with my only choice being to either die, or hope I had a shield on to absorb the hit. There's difficulty and then there's just punishment that drains my will to play longer, and that's saying a lot from the NES Ninja Gaiden apologist.
I need to give a special shoutout to some of the mini-boss design that's basically "shoot bullets, then suddenly bumrush forward with zero warning", a tactic straight out of Gadget Twins, which is an absolutely scathing insult I can throw at Gaiares. If I can find a way to compare your shmup to Gadget Twins then you've failed, I'm sorry. Go to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect 200 didgeridoos. Go to your room and stay there. And of course, what else could the final stage be, but a boss rush? I let Gradius get away with that shit due to actually using different bosses, but come on, do I really need to fight the robo-bitch with the sword and shield again when I just killed her in the last stage? She's awful.
I'm convinced that so-called "Boomer Gamers", aka the gamers that are somehow older than me that played these games just fell in love with the cool grim reaper boss in stage 3, and jerked it to the naked anime lady on the JP cover. It's a shame. When I personally see Gaiares I don't see a cult classic or sleeper hit from the 16-bit generation, instead I see wasted potential.
Hate to echo the sentiments of other regular backloggers here, but I agree with them. "Queen Zz Badnasty" is probably the best thing from this game.
hard as fuck maronn
Gaiares is one of those schmups I heard a lot of praise for. In fact it has so much praise I've even seen it be called a top 10 for 16 bit games in general. A top tier game for the Mega Drive Schmup genre. So I thought hey why not try it. I think judging from my score you might know where this is heading.
Look I'm going to confess, I suck at schmups, I know I could practice for days trying to beat it so I'm going to fully admit I did use save states to help me get through it because I'm going to say it, some of the crap this game pulls at you is actually frustrating to me.
First to go with the positives for a second, I do like some of the presentation in this game, it's quite nice for a Mega Drive title though there was one background that hurt my eyes like it was really hard to look at. The music is your typical Telenet music where I swear they all use the same sound. I even like how they try to do a story though its about as deep as others I've seen from the genre. I would have liked to have seen more personally. In terms of the gameplay I also really like the whole taking abilities from other enemies. It probably makes for good replayability and I would love to see another schmup try this idea.
Now I'm sure if I was a veteran or just actually good at these games. Maybe I would love it as much or close to Battle Mania 2 but I just don't and I probably have no one but myself to blame. I'm sorry but some of the stuff this game does just annoys me to no end. Like why does the game sometimes just have funny gotcha moments like there are times I swear you don't have enough reaction time for. But what really annoys me the most is this is one of those games that takes you to a checkpoint if you die. Again this is probably no issue for pros at this game but I'm just so used to other good schmups not doing this that I prefer it much more.
Some of the bosses are also so inconsistent in difficulty. That one boss near the end of the game with the sword is one of the worst bosses I've ever fought. Seriously does anyone know if I was just fighting the boss wrong? It not only have this super annoying 3 spread projectile attack but I can't even figure out its hitbox at all. It takes like over 5 minutes and THEY MAKE YOU FIGHT IT TWICE! The worst part is the two bosses after are way easier which makes me convinced I was doing something wrong after all.
Also why does the game basically give up on level design by the last few levels. It's basically just refighting bosses the entire time and fighting new ones. It just feels weird there's like nothing to it.
So yeah, I got kind of mad. I'm sorry if this was really negative especially for anyone who is a fan of this game. Maybe if I play it more I'll love it? It's just man it really left a bad taste in my mouth. I really want to like it but I just need to get better at this genre. I can't really recommend it to anyone who sucks at this genre like I do. Though like I said probably like 5 times already lost count. This probably does deserve praise if you are amazing at these kind of games.
Look I'm going to confess, I suck at schmups, I know I could practice for days trying to beat it so I'm going to fully admit I did use save states to help me get through it because I'm going to say it, some of the crap this game pulls at you is actually frustrating to me.
First to go with the positives for a second, I do like some of the presentation in this game, it's quite nice for a Mega Drive title though there was one background that hurt my eyes like it was really hard to look at. The music is your typical Telenet music where I swear they all use the same sound. I even like how they try to do a story though its about as deep as others I've seen from the genre. I would have liked to have seen more personally. In terms of the gameplay I also really like the whole taking abilities from other enemies. It probably makes for good replayability and I would love to see another schmup try this idea.
Now I'm sure if I was a veteran or just actually good at these games. Maybe I would love it as much or close to Battle Mania 2 but I just don't and I probably have no one but myself to blame. I'm sorry but some of the stuff this game does just annoys me to no end. Like why does the game sometimes just have funny gotcha moments like there are times I swear you don't have enough reaction time for. But what really annoys me the most is this is one of those games that takes you to a checkpoint if you die. Again this is probably no issue for pros at this game but I'm just so used to other good schmups not doing this that I prefer it much more.
Some of the bosses are also so inconsistent in difficulty. That one boss near the end of the game with the sword is one of the worst bosses I've ever fought. Seriously does anyone know if I was just fighting the boss wrong? It not only have this super annoying 3 spread projectile attack but I can't even figure out its hitbox at all. It takes like over 5 minutes and THEY MAKE YOU FIGHT IT TWICE! The worst part is the two bosses after are way easier which makes me convinced I was doing something wrong after all.
Also why does the game basically give up on level design by the last few levels. It's basically just refighting bosses the entire time and fighting new ones. It just feels weird there's like nothing to it.
So yeah, I got kind of mad. I'm sorry if this was really negative especially for anyone who is a fan of this game. Maybe if I play it more I'll love it? It's just man it really left a bad taste in my mouth. I really want to like it but I just need to get better at this genre. I can't really recommend it to anyone who sucks at this genre like I do. Though like I said probably like 5 times already lost count. This probably does deserve praise if you are amazing at these kind of games.
Motivation is a heavily under-discussed part of game difficulty imo. Usually I see people hyperfixate on 'fairness' as an abstraction of other assorted challenge parameters: Is the game teaching me how to play at a smooth learning curve? Are threats properly telegraphed to me in advance? And the more time passes, the more I think 'fairness' means jack shit to playability. I fucking LOVE a lot of games that are filled to the brim with categorically 'cheap' game design: Sonic Adventure 2, Slay The Spire, Thunder Force IV, Atomic Runner - to name a few. Whether or not those games are easing you in psychologically doesn't matter because they are 'motivating' experiences. The way these games are designed empowers me to tell MYSELF to get back up on my feet and try again; to experiment, to commit to unconventional solutions, to feel comfortable getting right back into it regardless of whether or not I'm having my ass handed to me.
How does this relate to Gaiares? Because I hated Gaiares for the longest time for how demotivating it is. But I've beaten it now, after trials and errors, and I think it's better than initial impressions, but overall kinda draining.
Gaiares is really big in the dad shmup community and early-Genesis boomer fandom, akin to Revenge of Shinobi and Strider. It has a lot going for it, with its intricate stage and boss designs, meaty campaign length, huge expanse of weapons to nab via a kirby-esque copy ability, Its parts come together to make something akin to a lifeline hybrid of Gradius' stage design, R-Type's pacing, and Thunder Force's cinematic flair. Its scope is highly impressive compared to other early Genesis games, and I don't even think a lot of its tangible design elements have aged bad. But it's a looooong shmup, and it's checkpoint-based, and those simple anecdotes bring out all the other cracks in its design.
Gaiares feels needlessly arduous. You're gonna die a lot, and often to shit that doesn't feel like it should've hit you. But you're not just losing lives on death: You're losing progress. There's so much distance between each checkpoint, and the game's length and challenge don't feel designed for it. My initial playthroughs started and ended at the tail end of stage 2, where you have to weave through narrow gaps in glaciers without getting shot at. The jerky scrolling fucks up the way the bullets move in this stage, and if you get unlucky, it can be impossible to pass through without taking a hit. It's just one of the many instances where it feels like the game is gatekeeping your progress to solve a puzzle that it provided without a satisfying solution. And that's compounded with all the little issues the game has with bullet visibility, awkward sine wave movements on enemy sprites, deceptive hitboxes, and bosses with attacks that are disconnected from their perceived animations. It adds up, it slows down progress to a crawl, and it all masks the fact that Gaiares... really isn't that hard? Like, very few of the bullet patterns or stage designs are gruelingly difficult, it's just that it's easy to get fucked up, lose your progress, forget your rhythm and repeat the same petty mistakes.
It's not hard; it's demotivating.
It took a fan patch that adds shields and a save feature for me to finally beat this on OG hardware, and I couldn't imagine playing through without it. It's a cool game, but learning it is such a miserable ordeal. Removing checkpoints is honestly all it would take to bump it up fro 'begrudgingly cool' to 'excellent'. As is, I love a lot about it and can see the components that make it shine above some of the more cheapishly-made Genesis shmups, but I don't anticipate myself going back to it. It tests my patience too much and shuts off my interest.
How does this relate to Gaiares? Because I hated Gaiares for the longest time for how demotivating it is. But I've beaten it now, after trials and errors, and I think it's better than initial impressions, but overall kinda draining.
Gaiares is really big in the dad shmup community and early-Genesis boomer fandom, akin to Revenge of Shinobi and Strider. It has a lot going for it, with its intricate stage and boss designs, meaty campaign length, huge expanse of weapons to nab via a kirby-esque copy ability, Its parts come together to make something akin to a lifeline hybrid of Gradius' stage design, R-Type's pacing, and Thunder Force's cinematic flair. Its scope is highly impressive compared to other early Genesis games, and I don't even think a lot of its tangible design elements have aged bad. But it's a looooong shmup, and it's checkpoint-based, and those simple anecdotes bring out all the other cracks in its design.
Gaiares feels needlessly arduous. You're gonna die a lot, and often to shit that doesn't feel like it should've hit you. But you're not just losing lives on death: You're losing progress. There's so much distance between each checkpoint, and the game's length and challenge don't feel designed for it. My initial playthroughs started and ended at the tail end of stage 2, where you have to weave through narrow gaps in glaciers without getting shot at. The jerky scrolling fucks up the way the bullets move in this stage, and if you get unlucky, it can be impossible to pass through without taking a hit. It's just one of the many instances where it feels like the game is gatekeeping your progress to solve a puzzle that it provided without a satisfying solution. And that's compounded with all the little issues the game has with bullet visibility, awkward sine wave movements on enemy sprites, deceptive hitboxes, and bosses with attacks that are disconnected from their perceived animations. It adds up, it slows down progress to a crawl, and it all masks the fact that Gaiares... really isn't that hard? Like, very few of the bullet patterns or stage designs are gruelingly difficult, it's just that it's easy to get fucked up, lose your progress, forget your rhythm and repeat the same petty mistakes.
It's not hard; it's demotivating.
It took a fan patch that adds shields and a save feature for me to finally beat this on OG hardware, and I couldn't imagine playing through without it. It's a cool game, but learning it is such a miserable ordeal. Removing checkpoints is honestly all it would take to bump it up fro 'begrudgingly cool' to 'excellent'. As is, I love a lot about it and can see the components that make it shine above some of the more cheapishly-made Genesis shmups, but I don't anticipate myself going back to it. It tests my patience too much and shuts off my interest.
I can understand why a lot of people think this shmup is antiquated. It's the kind of game that actively hates the player - if you die at all in most parts of the game you can probably kiss your run goodbye because of the brutal checkpoint system that feels out of place given that Gaiares is a Thunder Force style shmup. The shot absorption mechanic, which I can best describe as "shmup kirby", is a really neat concept but feels underutilised because most of the weapons are unviable, you'll want to be getting the V. Laser from the stage 2 midboss and then doing your best to keep that for the rest of the game.
But I dunno, I just think it's neat. The stages are fun on their own, the boss designs are kinda jank but very unique and the devs were "nice" enough to include a boss rush in stage 7. Also one of the best early Mega Drive soundtracks imo with a lot of simple but catchy tunes.
On another note, you should check the North American advertising that happened for Gaiares. It's peak early 90s cheese that's just adorable in retrospect lol
But I dunno, I just think it's neat. The stages are fun on their own, the boss designs are kinda jank but very unique and the devs were "nice" enough to include a boss rush in stage 7. Also one of the best early Mega Drive soundtracks imo with a lot of simple but catchy tunes.
On another note, you should check the North American advertising that happened for Gaiares. It's peak early 90s cheese that's just adorable in retrospect lol