Basically Sppikeout with a fantasy twist. The core combat has seen changes, like characters using weapons and charge attacks being changed to spells which makes characters much more differentiated, but at the same time the combos seem more limited, and the branching path system isn't nearly as robust as it was in Spikeout; the entire game isn't one continuous area, with different sub areas you can choose to go through after encounters like in that game, it's 5 distinct levels, with secret levels that can be accessed depending on how fast you beat each one. Enemies also don't feel quite as fair in this game, they're much more likely to blindside you from offscreen and gang up, but that might just be me. It's still damn good, but Spikeout is still king.
so i did end up going back to beat this thing. i made a concession, though. i didnt care to spend the next 50 years perfecting it for a 1cc, but i also didnt want to just bruteforce it with infinite continues. instead, i used save states as a checkpoint so that i could continue infinitely, but without getting to bruteforce it. it was peak when the checkpoint ended up with me fighting a late game boss with 1hp lol, i spent a while there...
i should probably have done that for Spikeout, but spikeout's bosses are garbage and dont deserve respect. this game, on the other hand, has some awesome bosses for the genre and the combat is much more fun. which is a shame, personally, because spikeout has a cooler aesthetic to me.
anyway, this game would be higher rated from me if final gatekeepers and the final boss werent fucking GARBAGE. final gatekeepers are strong mooks that have hordes of infinite mobs helping them and they're before the final boss of each stage. the later ones are bullshit because they have extremely fast mobs alognside them, which can stunlock and prevent you from doing anything. basically, i think they were the inspiration for the final bosses of yakuza 1 and yakuza 4.
as for the final boss, it sucks ASS because its attacks are extremely different and its AI is random as shit. some of its attacks let you wail on it for free, while others cover the entire arena in shit AND give it iframes for the entire duration. the thing is that the AI has no rhyme or reason, so it might just let you win or it might spam the invincible move 10 times in a row and time you out. when i won i didnt feel like i won due to skill, i won due to luck. i looked up a guide and the writer pretty much said the same thing, it's pure luck.
that said, i respect that the boss has a fetus theme and is called VAGIO
anyway yeah, i didnt want to strangle someone during 90% of the game, which is more than can be said for spikeout, so there's that. still not quite as fun as Spikers Battle tho, but that game's final boss is on some cancerous shit
---old shit below
i dunno if i'll care to try to beat this so i only played a bit. it's still spikeout, with some of the same flaws
(characters still feel too slow to evade what some enemies do, camera still fucking sucks balls)
but it also fixes some things
(bosses seem better, elite mooks telegraph their iframe bullshit attacks better instead of instantly doing them during your combos, you have more varied combos tho you cant grab)
i might run it tho, just because i liked what i played a tad more than spikeout and at least Flycast is a better emulator than Supermodel. i dunno tho
also i know this is formatted weirdly but i like it like that
deal with it
i should probably have done that for Spikeout, but spikeout's bosses are garbage and dont deserve respect. this game, on the other hand, has some awesome bosses for the genre and the combat is much more fun. which is a shame, personally, because spikeout has a cooler aesthetic to me.
anyway, this game would be higher rated from me if final gatekeepers and the final boss werent fucking GARBAGE. final gatekeepers are strong mooks that have hordes of infinite mobs helping them and they're before the final boss of each stage. the later ones are bullshit because they have extremely fast mobs alognside them, which can stunlock and prevent you from doing anything. basically, i think they were the inspiration for the final bosses of yakuza 1 and yakuza 4.
as for the final boss, it sucks ASS because its attacks are extremely different and its AI is random as shit. some of its attacks let you wail on it for free, while others cover the entire arena in shit AND give it iframes for the entire duration. the thing is that the AI has no rhyme or reason, so it might just let you win or it might spam the invincible move 10 times in a row and time you out. when i won i didnt feel like i won due to skill, i won due to luck. i looked up a guide and the writer pretty much said the same thing, it's pure luck.
that said, i respect that the boss has a fetus theme and is called VAGIO
anyway yeah, i didnt want to strangle someone during 90% of the game, which is more than can be said for spikeout, so there's that. still not quite as fun as Spikers Battle tho, but that game's final boss is on some cancerous shit
---old shit below
i dunno if i'll care to try to beat this so i only played a bit. it's still spikeout, with some of the same flaws
(characters still feel too slow to evade what some enemies do, camera still fucking sucks balls)
but it also fixes some things
(bosses seem better, elite mooks telegraph their iframe bullshit attacks better instead of instantly doing them during your combos, you have more varied combos tho you cant grab)
i might run it tho, just because i liked what i played a tad more than spikeout and at least Flycast is a better emulator than Supermodel. i dunno tho
also i know this is formatted weirdly but i like it like that
deal with it