ArcadeStriker
2023
Had written about my full first impressions and post-game impressions somewhere else back when I started and finished this game...
https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@acstriker/hitting-it-big-with-my-first-bomb-rush-cyberfunk-experience-engesp
https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@acstriker/bomb-rush-cyberfunk-my-reviewone-story-later-engesp
...But in a nutshell, it was fun while it lasted, notcieably improved quite a handful of things from JSR and JSRF :)
https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@acstriker/hitting-it-big-with-my-first-bomb-rush-cyberfunk-experience-engesp
https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@acstriker/bomb-rush-cyberfunk-my-reviewone-story-later-engesp
...But in a nutshell, it was fun while it lasted, notcieably improved quite a handful of things from JSR and JSRF :)
1999
Play the Sunday Cup first of all things to have actual races you can win with your starter car to then save up for upgrades/better cars and start getting some good ahh prize cars in some of the later events (also to the license tests early if you want to forget about those later). That's all you gotta do to be set for a neat journey with this game :)
This review contains spoilers
I have to continue playing in order to find the entrance to Stage 4' (and Stage 3' boss) alongside rescuing Tera and the other one, but otherwise I had gone through the main path entirely as Richter while rescuing Maria and Annette, and sent Dracula, the monster that doesn't belong in this world (steals mens souls and makes them his slaves) to die.
...So for now I could say that I got to the end, killed Dracula, roll credits...beat the game!
And for a game that had a lot of sudden challenges and trials through the bosses (and the way enemies were placed along the levels), the whole thing basically felt like a fight that eventually felt fair when I realized what I could do to work around the obstacles and succesfully execute the strategies. Pair that surprisingly balanced gameplay design for a Classicvania title with the crispy graphics and stellar soundtrack and you get a game that earned its legendary reputation.
...So for now I could say that I got to the end, killed Dracula, roll credits...beat the game!
And for a game that had a lot of sudden challenges and trials through the bosses (and the way enemies were placed along the levels), the whole thing basically felt like a fight that eventually felt fair when I realized what I could do to work around the obstacles and succesfully execute the strategies. Pair that surprisingly balanced gameplay design for a Classicvania title with the crispy graphics and stellar soundtrack and you get a game that earned its legendary reputation.
The slightly changed puzzles for two unlockables (finding Iris and Annette) were both an interesting twist and a bit of a "bruh I gotta get a guide to find these now?" with how they are.
Otherwise it seems all arond like Rondo but with a muddier 3D facelift (though it made the snake boss easier to stop fearing), and some songs are good if not kinda close to Rondo's ,others are alright but definitely not as good, and then there's Stage 7/Moon Light which is the one song I would say that beats the original song used.
Stage 5' isn't THAT different in that it did have a neat visual overhaul but when you have played Rondo, the stage does share a similar structure and layout (ducking under spikes over platforms in water, the split with knights guarding the areas, and that going the upper path will have you meet two black knights). Very similar in the first-time frustration factor as well.
A few moments were jankier to platform due to the 3D hitboxes (and Stage 7 has been tweaked to be a little bit more difficult) but other than that, the stages are often the same as Rondo in difficulty, and the bosses feel easier to keep track of which is kinda funny (though I couldn't bother with the Lesser Vampire so I ended up looking up how to find Annette and fight the real boss there)
Its still a version of Rondo which means that it does hold up, and having Rondo/SOTN in the same package really adds to value (even though you will likely need to look up where to find them, or at least Rondo in my case), but while the music remapping feature is cool, having to search so much to find EVERY song from both past games isn't so much. That and not being able to put the OG Rondo music for Dracula's fight; why show the option but lock that out?
That aside, I think that the visual style being kinda cluttered in some stages, the music unlocks (not going for a 100% run because of those when they are kinda useless if I have played everything already unless you want to revisit in the future or are a completionist) and getting a bit frustrated over "OH SO THEY WERE HERE ALL ALONG" moments with Iris/Annette along with Stage 5' being Stage 5' might have knocked off that one/half star from the Rating (though that frustration is also likely because I only played it the most on a phone...but it also means that I can say I beat Dracula and all stages except 5' so far on that of all things), but on the other hand, at least it doesn't break everything and what's still familiar feels more accessible than before.
I like Rondo more but a lot of what done here was clearly done with care for the fans, and PSP owners were eating real good when this came out.
Otherwise it seems all arond like Rondo but with a muddier 3D facelift (though it made the snake boss easier to stop fearing), and some songs are good if not kinda close to Rondo's ,others are alright but definitely not as good, and then there's Stage 7/Moon Light which is the one song I would say that beats the original song used.
Stage 5' isn't THAT different in that it did have a neat visual overhaul but when you have played Rondo, the stage does share a similar structure and layout (ducking under spikes over platforms in water, the split with knights guarding the areas, and that going the upper path will have you meet two black knights). Very similar in the first-time frustration factor as well.
A few moments were jankier to platform due to the 3D hitboxes (and Stage 7 has been tweaked to be a little bit more difficult) but other than that, the stages are often the same as Rondo in difficulty, and the bosses feel easier to keep track of which is kinda funny (though I couldn't bother with the Lesser Vampire so I ended up looking up how to find Annette and fight the real boss there)
Its still a version of Rondo which means that it does hold up, and having Rondo/SOTN in the same package really adds to value (even though you will likely need to look up where to find them, or at least Rondo in my case), but while the music remapping feature is cool, having to search so much to find EVERY song from both past games isn't so much. That and not being able to put the OG Rondo music for Dracula's fight; why show the option but lock that out?
That aside, I think that the visual style being kinda cluttered in some stages, the music unlocks (not going for a 100% run because of those when they are kinda useless if I have played everything already unless you want to revisit in the future or are a completionist) and getting a bit frustrated over "OH SO THEY WERE HERE ALL ALONG" moments with Iris/Annette along with Stage 5' being Stage 5' might have knocked off that one/half star from the Rating (though that frustration is also likely because I only played it the most on a phone...but it also means that I can say I beat Dracula and all stages except 5' so far on that of all things), but on the other hand, at least it doesn't break everything and what's still familiar feels more accessible than before.
I like Rondo more but a lot of what done here was clearly done with care for the fans, and PSP owners were eating real good when this came out.
I'm giving this one a 4.5/5 because the version I finished was Vampire Killer (the Japanese version) since the way limited continues work in the American version turned me off immediately after realizing how they worked and struggling up to Stage 4 where I saw the password kept my (lack of) lives and continues.
If you don't want to play with savestates, reloading passwords a lot and overall having to go through so much trial-and-error to complete the stages without enough mistakes that cost you valuable lives later on, I HIGHLY recommend you to play the Japanese version.
You still get "continues", but the passwords are given when you run out of them, and they will put you at the start of the stage you died at with all lives and continues refilled, so its merciful like Super Castlevania IV/Rondo of Blood instead of demanding like American Contra Hard Corps. And boy, you'll need that mercy when you get to Stage 5 and 6.
That aside, very creative game (specially for a Castlevania) and Iron Blue Intention slaps. Was pretty fun to go JOHN MORRISSSSSSS with bigger sub-weapons and whip swinging.
Might play Vampire Killer's expert mode one day (which is equivalent to Bloodlines's normal mode, but password system is unchanged), or maybe play thru Bloodlines with states, but for now I'm content with what I got here.
If you don't want to play with savestates, reloading passwords a lot and overall having to go through so much trial-and-error to complete the stages without enough mistakes that cost you valuable lives later on, I HIGHLY recommend you to play the Japanese version.
You still get "continues", but the passwords are given when you run out of them, and they will put you at the start of the stage you died at with all lives and continues refilled, so its merciful like Super Castlevania IV/Rondo of Blood instead of demanding like American Contra Hard Corps. And boy, you'll need that mercy when you get to Stage 5 and 6.
That aside, very creative game (specially for a Castlevania) and Iron Blue Intention slaps. Was pretty fun to go JOHN MORRISSSSSSS with bigger sub-weapons and whip swinging.
Might play Vampire Killer's expert mode one day (which is equivalent to Bloodlines's normal mode, but password system is unchanged), or maybe play thru Bloodlines with states, but for now I'm content with what I got here.
Completing this without savestates (and aiming for the best ending as well because of Death, but even without that) was HELL.
I recorded every time I played this game. One hour and 23 minutes to get through Stage 1 to Stage 5' (rescuing Maria and Annette on the way), spending a chunky 40-50 minutes approximately on retrying Stage 5'. 30 minutes of Stage 6 and failing to beat it on October 10. A total of 1 hour and 50 minutes
Then I played in two separate occasions trying to beat Stage 6 (and Death) again.
October 12 - 58 minutes
October 18 - 36 minutes
- And both came up unfruitful.
October 24 - 1h33min + 1h39min
It's 12am as of writing this which is why this might appear written at October 25, but I finished this session BEFORE 12am. But in any case, this fresh session...
Spent 1 hour and 33 minutes ONLY in the Stage 6 and Death fight, then 1 hour and 39 minutes repeating Stage 7 in order to beat Dracula.
This made for a game that I ended up playing for a total of 6.6 hours, and HALF THAT TIME WAS SPENT IN THE DEATH AND DRACULA FIGHTS.
This is a game that was clearly made to be difficult, very likely for Rondo players that thought that game was too easy (I think on both the Japanese name being "Akumajou Dracula XX" and the interview of the developer that stated Rondo being 5 times more difficult before being adjusted), and there's a lot of good that carries from Rondo (Item Crashes, Richter, the music) and even some of the first half does some few interesting ideas with their stages.
But it is limited in enemy variety because of the cartridge space, telegraphs less often enemies so it will be a lot of trial-and-error until you memorize certain stages (Stage 5' onwards for me), Death is a bastard and a half to defeat with how one of his attacks is unavoidable if you were too far from him before he executes it (the spinning one) unless you item crash for invuln, and Dracula is less demonic and more so of a CHEAP boss: It would be easier to keep track of the fireballs and whack his face in if it was on even ground, but the pits make it so that one wrong hit on the wrong side on the ledge means an instant death.
Oh, and RetroAchievements didn't recognize what I did today because apparently those cheevos don't unlock if you complete stages/clear the game from a password. Having gone through the entire game state-less and only reloading with my passwords when I didn't want to keep playing in one ginormous session because I was too angry only to result in that is...insulting. But not enough to deter me from the fact that I completed this forsaken game.
3 stars which I would say its...average or good? I say that if the difficulty wasn't so wack at the very end (Dracula pits), I would rate it higher, but it does comply with what some would expect to be a hardcore challenging Castlevania game that requires you to stay alert at all times and remember where to whip spawning enemies. And it has that cheeky pass of having half of Rondo's DNA with the presentation.
Not playing this ever again without savestates though. No way. Quoting @Gibdorf from their review:
"Watching the credits for this game and realizing there were no play testers made me the most vindicated I've ever felt"
And I didn't notice that myself (was too busy listening to victory music)...but that sure is insanely relatable right now.
I recorded every time I played this game. One hour and 23 minutes to get through Stage 1 to Stage 5' (rescuing Maria and Annette on the way), spending a chunky 40-50 minutes approximately on retrying Stage 5'. 30 minutes of Stage 6 and failing to beat it on October 10. A total of 1 hour and 50 minutes
Then I played in two separate occasions trying to beat Stage 6 (and Death) again.
October 12 - 58 minutes
October 18 - 36 minutes
- And both came up unfruitful.
October 24 - 1h33min + 1h39min
It's 12am as of writing this which is why this might appear written at October 25, but I finished this session BEFORE 12am. But in any case, this fresh session...
Spent 1 hour and 33 minutes ONLY in the Stage 6 and Death fight, then 1 hour and 39 minutes repeating Stage 7 in order to beat Dracula.
This made for a game that I ended up playing for a total of 6.6 hours, and HALF THAT TIME WAS SPENT IN THE DEATH AND DRACULA FIGHTS.
This is a game that was clearly made to be difficult, very likely for Rondo players that thought that game was too easy (I think on both the Japanese name being "Akumajou Dracula XX" and the interview of the developer that stated Rondo being 5 times more difficult before being adjusted), and there's a lot of good that carries from Rondo (Item Crashes, Richter, the music) and even some of the first half does some few interesting ideas with their stages.
But it is limited in enemy variety because of the cartridge space, telegraphs less often enemies so it will be a lot of trial-and-error until you memorize certain stages (Stage 5' onwards for me), Death is a bastard and a half to defeat with how one of his attacks is unavoidable if you were too far from him before he executes it (the spinning one) unless you item crash for invuln, and Dracula is less demonic and more so of a CHEAP boss: It would be easier to keep track of the fireballs and whack his face in if it was on even ground, but the pits make it so that one wrong hit on the wrong side on the ledge means an instant death.
Oh, and RetroAchievements didn't recognize what I did today because apparently those cheevos don't unlock if you complete stages/clear the game from a password. Having gone through the entire game state-less and only reloading with my passwords when I didn't want to keep playing in one ginormous session because I was too angry only to result in that is...insulting. But not enough to deter me from the fact that I completed this forsaken game.
3 stars which I would say its...average or good? I say that if the difficulty wasn't so wack at the very end (Dracula pits), I would rate it higher, but it does comply with what some would expect to be a hardcore challenging Castlevania game that requires you to stay alert at all times and remember where to whip spawning enemies. And it has that cheeky pass of having half of Rondo's DNA with the presentation.
Not playing this ever again without savestates though. No way. Quoting @Gibdorf from their review:
"Watching the credits for this game and realizing there were no play testers made me the most vindicated I've ever felt"
And I didn't notice that myself (was too busy listening to victory music)...but that sure is insanely relatable right now.
2004
Had chroniclesd my first impressions and winning run of this game once again in another site:
https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@acstriker/neo-contra-pure-2000s-top-down-action-with-the-manliest-super-soldiers-engesp
https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@acstriker/learning-to-love-neo-contra-the-surprise-revenge-engesp
But the summary is that despite the intimidating first run, it is possible to catch on this game's pace and tricks after a few attempts, specially if you have the right weapons at hand, such as the Type-E set which I got from my first B-rank playthrough in co-op, and used to repeat Stages 2 to 4 repeatedly to get an S or A-rank in them in order to unlock the final two stages and finish the whole game with an A-rank.
Bombastic, fun, can take some time to get used to the lack of twin-stick controls, but otherwise it is a pretty cool game that I would recommend checking out.
https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@acstriker/neo-contra-pure-2000s-top-down-action-with-the-manliest-super-soldiers-engesp
https://peakd.com/hive-140217/@acstriker/learning-to-love-neo-contra-the-surprise-revenge-engesp
But the summary is that despite the intimidating first run, it is possible to catch on this game's pace and tricks after a few attempts, specially if you have the right weapons at hand, such as the Type-E set which I got from my first B-rank playthrough in co-op, and used to repeat Stages 2 to 4 repeatedly to get an S or A-rank in them in order to unlock the final two stages and finish the whole game with an A-rank.
Bombastic, fun, can take some time to get used to the lack of twin-stick controls, but otherwise it is a pretty cool game that I would recommend checking out.
2014
Played it with a friend; it is a small package but boy it still keeps a lot of the BROOOOFORRRRRRCE charm in it, specially with that interrogation scene and final escape sequence at the end.
If you ever showed interest to Broforce but don't know if it is for you, this is a FREE sample you can give a shot to see how good the guns fit to your glove.
If you ever showed interest to Broforce but don't know if it is for you, this is a FREE sample you can give a shot to see how good the guns fit to your glove.
2011
Game feels just right with the precision of analog stick and triggers from the X360 controller, looks and plays great, and has both old and new extra modes, including the Challenge mode which is what forced me to learn properly gear shift drifting...which is a game changer for this of all things.
It would be cool if this game could run at 60fps like the original SEGA RALLY 3 and had some extra maps like the home versions of SEGA RALLY 2...but other than that, this is a mighty good little arcade racer to give a shot at if you got the means to do so. The Classic mode is neat and so is having a time attack mode added to this version, but the main challenge will be at the Championship mode and surviving it.
I recommend to just let go of the accel briefly to try doing drifts with medium and 90° turns, and only use brakes for hairpins, but that might vary if you aren't using anything other than the Subaru which I did on my first run...where I somehow managed to get a succesful Championship run, down to winning at Lakeside.
I recommend to just let go of the accel briefly to try doing drifts with medium and 90° turns, and only use brakes for hairpins, but that might vary if you aren't using anything other than the Subaru which I did on my first run...where I somehow managed to get a succesful Championship run, down to winning at Lakeside.
2007
I blame EasyLeftMaybe's challenge for pulling me into this game after so long lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzHXgOztVN8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzHXgOztVN8
1999
Played online for the first time today wooo
No idea when or if I will sit down once again doing the whole game itself, which is the puzzle section, but maybe someday with how I had done that once on the GBA version in my PSP.
No idea when or if I will sit down once again doing the whole game itself, which is the puzzle section, but maybe someday with how I had done that once on the GBA version in my PSP.
2000
Co-op, arcade ver with infinite continues made me realize how short this game was lol
Completed Gunblade NY in both modes, and Mission 3 of LA Machineguns- still haven't done a full LAM run on the Wii since the day my Wiimote batteries died but overall it is a cool double pack of games otherwise unported, even though they don't offer that much on extra content or length if you aren't keen on replaying them
I don't know when I started, but I definitely know I finished it with a friend in two player mode, and here's the receipt of both that and the specific date I pulled it off.
https://twitter.com/ArcadeStriker/status/1619496450219712512
https://twitter.com/ArcadeStriker/status/1619496450219712512