Played through The Raiden Project this time, a PS1 compilation release of pretty much direct arcade ports of Raiden 1 + 2. I had previously played the "Raiden Trad" versions on SNES and Genesis, both compromised a bit in different ways, but the original itself isn't really all that different. Well, maybe from the SNES version, but what I mean is it wasn't really any more or less engaging for me. It generally feels a lot like Toaplan's vertical shmups, but I find many of those more interesting to discuss than this one.

Cruel. Ranges from bizarrely unintuitive to extremely button mashy, so much so that I could just about never keep up. I only got a feel for the ski jumping events, the rest rendered me a sitting duck. Fuck that, man.

I've always been much more fascinated with the winter olympics than the summer olympics. I do partially attribute this to Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games being one of the first games I really owned myself instead of sharing with the siblings, and having a blast with it on and off for years. But also, the winter olympics themselves are just much more of a spectacle to me. I wouldn't give this game to a kid who was into the winter olympics. A kid would want to play a sports game where they could feel like an athlete, moving with the same grace as the people they see on TV. The tedium and frustration present here does not feel rewarding even when pulled off. I'd be mad if I was a kid and a video game effectively told me "fuck you pal, being an athlete is Bullshit Insanely Hard. Go be an accountant or something lol"

Not very good, honestly. Movement is really slow and the game is really long overall, with 1cc remaining over an hour long. There are shmups this long that manage to keep things engaging, like Super Aleste, but such is not the case. At least the music is quite nice, although some loops are much too short for where they're used.

I had similar trouble as Angel_Arle with a boss around two thirds in. It wouldn't die under any circumstances, but when I used a continue and tried killing it without using the option, it worked just fine. No idea what that was all about.

Very cute Touhou fangame by an artist I follow on Twitter (@WOAH_MAAAN). The blend of puzzle gameplay and shmup gameplay is pretty neat, though frequently overwhelming and a hassle on setups other than keys and a mouse (such as on a laptop with a trackpad, or a controller). It also feels like a bit of a one-trick pony towards the end, more of a concept for a Game Jam than a 3-5 hour game. Music could've been a bit better too maybe, or included more tracks.

Predictably, the real star of the show is the art and presentation. Love it to death. Love watching these goofballs interact, same goes for the real Touhou games. My brain is fried for the toohoos at the moment and I'll probably praise most things involving them, but it is genuinely fun writing and really nice art all bias aside.

Overall, pretty decent. There are things I could do without or see improved, but from the looks of it this was a one-man effort, a pretty impressive one at that. Not their first either, so maybe I should check those out soon. Should check out more Touhou fangames as well.

Would recommend giving this a shot! It's free!

Kind of crap. The boat racing is bad, and the battle mode is only slightly better. It is also plagued by long loading times, confusing collision, racist and misogynistic character bios, and being ugly. Interesting concepts here bogged down by poor execution and just presenting itself as rather unlikable. I'm sure it's been done better elsewhere.