The words "retro rhythm game" absolutely evoke dread from me. To my surprise however, this unreleased masterpiece is not only just as playable as it was in the 90s, but even more so.

Sound Fantasy is something else indeed. It's a rhythm game that's playable entirely with a mouse. With modern mouse technology allowing for adjusted scrolling speed and the works, this meant I could set my speed to the 2nd slowest option and it felt absolutely perfect in terms of smooth movement.

In fact, everything about the game is accessible. The Pix Quartet and Star Fly modes are rather freeform if one wishes to get their brainjuices flowing, but what really steals the show is Beat Hopper. This can be best described as Q-Bert meets a concert. Clicking on a tile of a different colour or size can affect the abstract world's background, the pitch of the instrument, how long it is played, etc. Not to mention, the number of lines within make it immediately obvious how many times the player is allowed to hop on each square. If the player jumps outside an allowed hitbox, they lose hitpoints but the game is actually very generous, perhaps even too generous. It's easier to show than tell, here I suppose

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1101973056248889344/PERFECT.mp4

The real kicker is that the player has 2 means of progressing through a level; they can either clear every square like a badass, or they can left-click to progress through a stage automatically. This means there is a risk and reward element where the player can either clear with a high score, or save a life to continue. I think the system would be improved if the player was required to return to the center square for the auto-progress, but as is it's my one minor flaw.

Also yes, this means speedrunning the game entails just mashing left-clicks. And that's hilarious https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1101973575579222108/sneedrun.mp4

I've been thinking about this game a lot today. How with the rhythm genre being so non-existent, this could have very well been a breakout hit. It really makes one wonder just how often games came out that could have defined a genre, only to be canned behind the scenes because, say, a publisher didn't think it would make bank. And with how creepy the box art is, perhaps they were right

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1102015917589794916/SoundboxJP.jpg

In my quest to play every notable Famicom game to stay locked in Japan, perhaps the one I had hyped up to me the most was Murasame Castle. A cursory glance of the Japanese web will instantly reveal just how beloved this game was in Japan, with a tokusatsu created based on it of all things.

Well, I feel like I've sorta gained a reputation as the NES' strongest soldier around these parts, so it always feels awkward when I give an NES game a score below its average here. Roughly a week ago, I 1cc'd Gradius and made a review praising it for how it defied the boundaries of its genre and broke new ground even if it had some notable shortcomings; lately I've been engrossed in several games due to the academic factor surrounding them alone after all.

With Gradius I could overlook crippling flaws such as the lack of varied boss fights and enjoy it for its sheer ambition and how it helped shape the trajectory of the genre with its physics, but I feel like I'm in an odd spot with Murasame Castle. The mix and match of genres here is just alien to me. Takamaru initially moves at a very sluggish pace, and even with powerups he still struggles to keep up with the sheer variety of projectiles on screen to the point where beating every level became a matter of routing when it would be most useful to cast the shadow jutsu. The variety of powerups is rather meaningless because the fire is just straightup better than the other 2 combined, and the sideways hitbox also makes the 3 way shots unambiguously better than the quadruple shots. Basically, it feels like fairly little thought went into the game's core.

Did I still feel accomplished finishing the game, however? Yes. It took around 4 hours. Just long and difficult (barring the final boss who sadly was a cakewalk) enough to beat in a couple sessions and it has been a while since I drew my own maps to route a game which was refreshing. It also has Koji Kondo's best OST, if you ask me! I suppose I can see a bit of its DNA in my beloved Pocky & Rocky as well funnily enough. And hey, if this element interests you, several sound effects from it would be recycled in SMB3. I was very surprised to hear the screams when I shot the bosses!

I guess there's enough positives here I'd recommend it for those interested in experiencing more of the Famicom, and if nothing else it's a huge improvement on Zelda 1 in my book. However, I can't say it's in my list of must plays. Maybe if it had a Super Famicom sequel that built on the mechanics, core idea, and physics. Oh well!

In the past week, I've 1CC'd 3 NES shmups; Gradius 1, which was an interesting history lesson of a game even if not the most polished, Gradius 2 which was a huge improvement on the first game and possibly the most technically impressive on the system, and now Summer Carnival 92: Recca which... might just be the greatest and most ambitious 8-bit game I've ever played?

It's strange seeing this game have a reputation for being "too difficult" in some circles. The first thing to knock out of the park is the mention of difficulty. Recca was not made for casual audiences in the way Galaga or even Gradius was. Recca was made with world champion shmup players in mind for the sake of hosting Naxat Soft's eponymous Summer Carnival competition.

The game makes use of common shmup frameworks such as popcorn bullets, unreactable attacks, huge elaborate bosses, and so forth in the most devious ways possible. It's all as if to say if you're new to the shmup genre, this isn't for you and it makes no secret about it. Just surviving by memorizing the game to perform gradually and gradually better for a competition is the sake of this game.

And yet, the game is actually more fair than most of its contemporaries in areas. While dodging powerups is still a bitch here at points, most of the blue powers are actually still fine to have in just about every situation because the Options and bomb do most of the work for the player. I'm a huge sucker for shmups where the player can bomb constantly and has homing attacks that actually hit like a truck. In Recca, the player is given not 1 but 2 simultaneous homing attacks that cut through enemies like knives through hot butter to make up for the sheer enemy count and intimidation of the bosses. This is all packaged with bombs that make the player intangible in a certain area and can be spammed every 5 seconds.

God, let's talk about the speed, pace, and aesthetic. Right from the beginning, the game brags about its sheer status as a technical marvel. High speed flight through the stars at a solid 60 FPS is immediately proceeded by 20 enemies flooding the screen with little to no slowdown as the player is tossed out of the frying pan and into the fire.

To be blown away this is running so smoothly on an NES, this section says it all: https://youtu.be/nfY79-3AdGY?t=196

Indeed, almost all of the game is rendered at 60 FPS, but the explosions were rendered at 30 FPS instead to save on resources much like in Contra. The result is an exhilarating pace that never lets up, with bosses that take up the entire screen and require precision bombing to destroy. Not to mention the music simply makes me feel like I'm stuck in a hostile mysterious alien environment constantly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC1FK7lt6mU

They say a game for everybody is a game made for nobody. Summer Carnival 92 Recca on the other hand is a game made for just about nobody. In an ideal world, I'd hope this means it's a game which can have its existence appreciated by just about everybody. If nobody else does, however, I appreciate it very sincerely.

When I first played it 2-3 years ago, I spent roughly 15 hours practicing it but simply could not get far into stage 4 as I was still a rather fledgling shmup player. Fast forward to tonight where I was deadset on beating it after 15 hours more of practice.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1070570802531008633/image.png

In the middle of a stream with 4 friends cheerleading me I managed to beat it with 4 lives to spare, almost as if they were there with me in spirit. I will never forget this as it is probably my proudest game clear ever. Many thanks to everybody who was there to witness it :)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1070570725963997314/image.png

On the Japanese side of the web, there's not much to say about Gradius that hasn't been said before. One of the most important video games period.

One of the first games to sell one million copies in Japan. The direct influence behind countless games such as Konami's own Axelay, Salamander, or Parodius series. A staple in Yu-Gi-Oh cards to the point of appearing in GX. One of Kamiya's primary influences. A soundtrack so beloved it appeared at the Tokyo Olympics. The origin of the KONAMI CODE, eat your heart out Contrabros.

On the English side of the web however, the first Gradius is widely considered an "aged" product and a semi-obscure curiosity that was thrust into a bit of spotlight by its inclusion on the NES Classic Mini and Nintendo Switch Online.

Having played most of the Gradius and Parodius games beforehand, even 1LCing Gradius 2 yesterday, I wasn't quite sure what to expect playing Gradius 1 again. After all, the last time I played it was for 5 minutes in high school. While I very rarely am one to critique graphical fidelity, I'll admit it took me a moment to adjust to the original Gradius' pixel art. Coming off Gradius 2, one of if not the most impressive looking NES games which had the VRC4 to give it a boost, Gradius 1 felt antiquated even compared to its direct sequel on the same console. However, once I had adjusted I was truly blown away by the world laid out in a mere 64 kb of rom data.

Gradius 1 is a very simple game. The same way Final Fight 1 can be considered a metric to measure other beat em ups by, Gradius 1 is my new metric for shmups; if a shmup is as good as Gradius or better, it's at least a passing grade. There are no custom loadouts to be found. There is the trusty laser, the double, 2 options, and a frontal shield. The sense of routing is surprisingly complete; for example the player can rank up to fly past ghostly easter island heads IN SPACE and come up with loadout plans between levels. There are just enough fodder enemies in between levels for me to come up with plans such as using the laser for the entire game but switching to the double shot in the last level due to the lack of a boss to worry about. Other games of the era like Galaga had their secrets in the form of twin ships, and Gradius has... flying between broken mountain pieces for extra points?

This may be the part where it's expected I go on a tangent about how Gradius must be judged for its time. However, I do not believe in the idea a game's quality can age honestly. Even at the time, Gradius 1 pales in some areas. Other 80s shmups had far more interesting stage secrets as mentioned before. There is also only 1 true boss fight in Gradius 1, which is repeated roughly half a dozen times until the player fights a final boss who does not even move. This is in stark contrast to, say, Sega's Fantasy Zone which has a varied array of mechanically complete boss fights.

Gradius 1 is a bit clumsy in its execution. Even at the time, I'm sure Konami was conscious of serious flaws such as the lack of proper bosses, which is why I imagine Gradius 2 is borderline an outright boss gauntlet game with a drastically increased difficulty (it took me roughly 10 hours of practice to 1LC Gradius 2 and 2 hours for Gradius 1 despite both being the same overall length, though I don't think in any Gradius game I will ever defend the checkpoint system lol)

However, it is also a game of great ambition, breaking new ground for the shmup genre as a whole. Treasure is my favourite studio and without Gradius 1, I can safely say your favourite shmup or mine could very well not exist.

Machiguchi wanted a game that could surpass Namco's Xevious. The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step, and Konami's single step here was all so brilliant and ambitious. The satellites (or Options as they are referred to here) went through 20 different programming revisions before settling on one that could work.

The cinematic tone of the game was unparalleled for such an early NES release. There are no stage transitions, it feels like one continuous adventure. Making the final boss into essentially a victory lap shootout was a ballsy move in an era where devs were intent on making final bosses as brutal as possible for longevity in otherwise short experiences. The execution is not my favourite, but it is inspired. Even the iconic easter island heads were included simply because the idea of them stood out in the otherwise traditional space shooter world.

Gradius is not as great or as legendary as something like Galaga or Space Invaders could hope to be. What it lacks in polish it makes up for in sheer scale and wonder. I may have given Space Invaders 5 stars, but I do not think about Space Invaders very often. Gradius as a series has a habit of coming to my mind. We achieve greatness by looking on the back of giants. For the shmup community, Gradius is one of those giants.

"It's decent, for a 1985 NES shoot em u-" it's a landmark release, for any medium.