MagneticBurn
1986
Visually stunning, the use of FMV is jaw-dropping and seamless. There's literally zero artifacts in the background video, compositionally indistinguishable from the pre-rendered sprites on top, I don't know how they achieved this on Sega CD. If nothing else, this is a mandatory experience for the stellar cinematic energy.
It could be better as a shmup, there's often a feeling of being underpowered from enemies once they get close to the backside of the screen. With the viewpoint they've selected, it feel like you're doing something wrong when you move to the front of the screen to speed-kill enemies - it's no different than any other shmup, but the Z-axis depth makes you feel like you're breaking the rules. It's also hard to keep track of things and you get hit by a lot of unpredictable stuff because enemy fire can seem indistinguishable from the explosion VFX in the background. This also happens a lot with environmental hazards, it's hard to judge their perceived distance from the interactive playfield.
I didn't mind the re-use of bosses, but I DID have a giant bone to pick with the final boss, which screen-nukes you if you can't kill it in time AND sends you back to the prior stage. Evil and pretty experience-ruining imo. If you don't get right up in this guy's face and plaster him with bombs and rapid fire, you WILL be timed out.
It could be better as a shmup, there's often a feeling of being underpowered from enemies once they get close to the backside of the screen. With the viewpoint they've selected, it feel like you're doing something wrong when you move to the front of the screen to speed-kill enemies - it's no different than any other shmup, but the Z-axis depth makes you feel like you're breaking the rules. It's also hard to keep track of things and you get hit by a lot of unpredictable stuff because enemy fire can seem indistinguishable from the explosion VFX in the background. This also happens a lot with environmental hazards, it's hard to judge their perceived distance from the interactive playfield.
I didn't mind the re-use of bosses, but I DID have a giant bone to pick with the final boss, which screen-nukes you if you can't kill it in time AND sends you back to the prior stage. Evil and pretty experience-ruining imo. If you don't get right up in this guy's face and plaster him with bombs and rapid fire, you WILL be timed out.
1988
It's ugly and feels bad and has cheap checkpointing. I don't know why I felt compelled to re-verify that. Hell, audio flat-out stopped working after stage 3? Idk why
There's a reason it's one of the only Genesis shmups you'll find for a bargain, relatively speaking
There's a reason it's one of the only Genesis shmups you'll find for a bargain, relatively speaking
1989
There's this nifty thing in the menu where you can control the amount of enemy shots on-screen and how fast they travel. In any other game, this would be a clever accessibility feature. In an amiga shmup, it's a warning.
1995
The Earth Defend? I sure hope it does!
Attempted to get a 1cc and then randomly lost all my lives to random crap in stage 9 and realized it was too long to justify doing again and settled for clearing it for maybe the 4th or 5th time now?
I'd love to say Gleylancer is a model 'beginners shmup' with its insistence on checkpoints that force you to learn stages while keeping the routing and patterns extremely simple, but it stumbles enough to delegitimize that praise. Levels all end to be a bit overly-long and safe, except for the couple random parts that get too bad. The giant selection of option control types feels ill-conceived and poorly balanced, like you can coast through 90% of hazards with homing but then you get those random sections where you're surrounded on all sides or have to destroy debris tiles in your way and it fails to resemble anything functional.
Major eurojank vibes in the way it insists so heavily on this huge cinematic story set across a galactic war, with this sweeping spacy rock soundtrack and tons of animated stills for the cutscenes. And then you get to the back half of the game and enemies are microscopic 8x8 pixel dots that tank 20 hits and dish hardly anything back. Some war.
I'd recommend the Ratalaika port to modern consoles for its inclusion of option aiming via the right analog stick, it adds a very unique scheme that most other shmups don't attempt while also easing the problems with certain setpieces.
Wish this was better - wish all of Masaya's shmups were better, frankly. This was one of the earlier shmups I played once I got my everdrive and its always a little disheartening seeing how it stacks up against the better MD shooter.
I'd love to say Gleylancer is a model 'beginners shmup' with its insistence on checkpoints that force you to learn stages while keeping the routing and patterns extremely simple, but it stumbles enough to delegitimize that praise. Levels all end to be a bit overly-long and safe, except for the couple random parts that get too bad. The giant selection of option control types feels ill-conceived and poorly balanced, like you can coast through 90% of hazards with homing but then you get those random sections where you're surrounded on all sides or have to destroy debris tiles in your way and it fails to resemble anything functional.
Major eurojank vibes in the way it insists so heavily on this huge cinematic story set across a galactic war, with this sweeping spacy rock soundtrack and tons of animated stills for the cutscenes. And then you get to the back half of the game and enemies are microscopic 8x8 pixel dots that tank 20 hits and dish hardly anything back. Some war.
I'd recommend the Ratalaika port to modern consoles for its inclusion of option aiming via the right analog stick, it adds a very unique scheme that most other shmups don't attempt while also easing the problems with certain setpieces.
Wish this was better - wish all of Masaya's shmups were better, frankly. This was one of the earlier shmups I played once I got my everdrive and its always a little disheartening seeing how it stacks up against the better MD shooter.
1987
Mostly solid port of the arcade original. Even though I love the 1HP brutality of Shadow Dancer MD, I was pretty happy to see a generous healthbar here. The enemy placement and AI is already starting to show the ingenuity of later games.
The Mandara boss from the arcade version is still just as horrible here, maybe worse, against him I felt all my inputs drop like rocks. Would rate a half-star higher if not for that.
The Mandara boss from the arcade version is still just as horrible here, maybe worse, against him I felt all my inputs drop like rocks. Would rate a half-star higher if not for that.
Gave it the benefit of the doubt for the second time and still came out hating it. Just back to back horrible enemy and level design mars anything you could get out of the campy bosses or Koshiro music. Gets put on this enormous pedestal only because it's like, the only launch window Genesis game that had any money or polish put into it, and yet it's still littered with damning design oversights.
Putrid.
Putrid.
Getting the no-savestate 1CC on this? Coolest arcade achievement in a long while.
What really had me coming around on this game is the intricacy of the enemy AI - each sub-type has multiple ways they'll initiate attack against you based on environmental geometry, your positioning, whether or not you've bumped them, etc. And yet how these enemies behave is always consistent on a level-by-level basis, your memorization and commitment to a plan of action is always rewarded and repeatable. Impeccable, intensely-replayable level design with a punishing but plentiful lives system makes this one of the most exhilarating games to master.
Shinobi III is the game to play if you want to live out the cinematic, acrobatic ninja fantasy, but this is where's it's at for the mindgames, the routing, and that up-close martial arts struggle.
What really had me coming around on this game is the intricacy of the enemy AI - each sub-type has multiple ways they'll initiate attack against you based on environmental geometry, your positioning, whether or not you've bumped them, etc. And yet how these enemies behave is always consistent on a level-by-level basis, your memorization and commitment to a plan of action is always rewarded and repeatable. Impeccable, intensely-replayable level design with a punishing but plentiful lives system makes this one of the most exhilarating games to master.
Shinobi III is the game to play if you want to live out the cinematic, acrobatic ninja fantasy, but this is where's it's at for the mindgames, the routing, and that up-close martial arts struggle.
It's bad but at least has the charm. These ugly no-name poorly-shaded gremlins are a sore sight for sorer eyes.
1993
PC-E CD: 7/10
Sega CD: 6.25/10
I played the PC-E version last year and didn't know how to express how i felt about it, so I kinda defaulted to 'its raw' as a safe catch-all. I replayed it today via the Sega CD port, which really put into perspective the issue I have with this - and by extension, a LOT of 16-bit CD action games.
Lords of Thunder is loud and gorgeous, filled to the brim with deliciously-glorious buttrock and power metal, and hordes of giant mini-boss-type creatures to lay waste on. It's a stark contrast to Gate of Thunder, Red Entertainment's prior faux-TF game, which tried to refocus the gameplay of the TF formula at the expense of visual creativity and memorability. But ironically, Lords of Thunder is similarly forgettable, even though it shouldn't be! I could remember every inch of TF2-5 like the back of my hand, even before I learned those games like a madman, but not here, and I think it's a problem with the weapon system of all things. I notice playing TF that every sub-wave of enemies is best fought with one of your selectable directional shots, and that little bit of locomotion gets your mind thinking about those enemies as tangible, resistible forces. In Lords of Thunder, your shot is picked at the start and they all function VERY similarly, and most of the time you won't even use it when you can just slash through shit. That kind of combat autopilot is enough to make everything in this game feel like an evanescent wisp in the air. Like, oh cool, a burning cerberus jumps at me and blasts me with fire, but I can just keep holding A and mince it. Even against an easy no-name TF, I'm having a mental back-and-forth - oh, I'll use homing so I can get out of the way, I'll use wave so i can cover the destructible projectiles it's throwing at me. And when nothing is happening on screen I'm still mentally reading myself, using the environment as a cue for what might hit me next. Again, nothing like that with Lords of Thunder. My brain is off the whole ride. All four armor types should've been weapons you alternated between, and they should have more distinct functionality from each other. This one-weapon-per-stage restriction feels like an arbitrary forced replay value gimmick.
And then there's just this horrible feeling of dissonance between the aesthetic and the actual weight of the gameworld - god it's so HOLLOW. I felt so similar about Robo Aleste, it's how rich, intricate and hi-fi the music is against the lo-fi crunch of the pixels and sound effects - or lack thereof, it feels like there's barely any impact sfx here. This incongruent presentation immediately signals the artificiality of the world and takes you out of it, it's a thing I see in so many early CD games that's totally absent from anything PS1-onward.
So without the mechanical and immersive hooks of Thunder Force, you're left with all the ameteurish ends of TF's game design - enemies that bum-rush you without a chance to react but die as soon as you glare at them, environmental hazards you can't avoid unless you already know they're coming, and a general lack of resistance from oncoming waves for 80% of the time.
What cemented this was playing the S-CD version, which heavily neuters the difficulty and feels like its missing some sound and colors. My ass was fucking yawning through this shit! Honk-shoo-ing and mimimi-ing, even!! While shit like this is playing in the background!! Fundamental mistakes get blown right open by the little issues in this rushjob, the total lack of roleplay or player projection all made sense.
Don't take this as a total condemnation of Lords - if it looks cool to you and you like PC-E shmups, you'll probably find something worth celebrating here. It's arguably the most impressive-looking shooters on the console, but if we've learned anything from the last 3 gens of gaming, looks can be deceiving.
Sega CD: 6.25/10
I played the PC-E version last year and didn't know how to express how i felt about it, so I kinda defaulted to 'its raw' as a safe catch-all. I replayed it today via the Sega CD port, which really put into perspective the issue I have with this - and by extension, a LOT of 16-bit CD action games.
Lords of Thunder is loud and gorgeous, filled to the brim with deliciously-glorious buttrock and power metal, and hordes of giant mini-boss-type creatures to lay waste on. It's a stark contrast to Gate of Thunder, Red Entertainment's prior faux-TF game, which tried to refocus the gameplay of the TF formula at the expense of visual creativity and memorability. But ironically, Lords of Thunder is similarly forgettable, even though it shouldn't be! I could remember every inch of TF2-5 like the back of my hand, even before I learned those games like a madman, but not here, and I think it's a problem with the weapon system of all things. I notice playing TF that every sub-wave of enemies is best fought with one of your selectable directional shots, and that little bit of locomotion gets your mind thinking about those enemies as tangible, resistible forces. In Lords of Thunder, your shot is picked at the start and they all function VERY similarly, and most of the time you won't even use it when you can just slash through shit. That kind of combat autopilot is enough to make everything in this game feel like an evanescent wisp in the air. Like, oh cool, a burning cerberus jumps at me and blasts me with fire, but I can just keep holding A and mince it. Even against an easy no-name TF, I'm having a mental back-and-forth - oh, I'll use homing so I can get out of the way, I'll use wave so i can cover the destructible projectiles it's throwing at me. And when nothing is happening on screen I'm still mentally reading myself, using the environment as a cue for what might hit me next. Again, nothing like that with Lords of Thunder. My brain is off the whole ride. All four armor types should've been weapons you alternated between, and they should have more distinct functionality from each other. This one-weapon-per-stage restriction feels like an arbitrary forced replay value gimmick.
And then there's just this horrible feeling of dissonance between the aesthetic and the actual weight of the gameworld - god it's so HOLLOW. I felt so similar about Robo Aleste, it's how rich, intricate and hi-fi the music is against the lo-fi crunch of the pixels and sound effects - or lack thereof, it feels like there's barely any impact sfx here. This incongruent presentation immediately signals the artificiality of the world and takes you out of it, it's a thing I see in so many early CD games that's totally absent from anything PS1-onward.
So without the mechanical and immersive hooks of Thunder Force, you're left with all the ameteurish ends of TF's game design - enemies that bum-rush you without a chance to react but die as soon as you glare at them, environmental hazards you can't avoid unless you already know they're coming, and a general lack of resistance from oncoming waves for 80% of the time.
What cemented this was playing the S-CD version, which heavily neuters the difficulty and feels like its missing some sound and colors. My ass was fucking yawning through this shit! Honk-shoo-ing and mimimi-ing, even!! While shit like this is playing in the background!! Fundamental mistakes get blown right open by the little issues in this rushjob, the total lack of roleplay or player projection all made sense.
Don't take this as a total condemnation of Lords - if it looks cool to you and you like PC-E shmups, you'll probably find something worth celebrating here. It's arguably the most impressive-looking shooters on the console, but if we've learned anything from the last 3 gens of gaming, looks can be deceiving.
1989
im jackass and this is glenn quagmire
1991
Replayed for a Difficult Mode 1CC
Technosoft's project furthest from their comfort zone, eschewing their sci-fi horizontal setpieces for vertical on-foot fantasy shooting, with more traditional fleet-like swarms of enemies - and it has some of their tightest game design for it. The density of each level is very impressive. My favorite part of the game is the weapon system - the usual TF alternate shots are unlocked from the first four bosses, are permanent upgrades, and each have a screen-clearing charge shot. They're not equally balanced (you can get by mostly with the 3-way spread and its orbital bomb super), but all very fun to experiment with like any other Technosoft game.
My main critique is the difficulty: Pretty easy until around the stage 6 boss, and then those last couple fights are make-it-or-break-it. This also introduces the problem with its healthbar system; theres no incentive to practice earlier stages because unlike other shmups, there's no power ups or lives to carry with you to the later sections. The solution would be buffing the early-game stages in difficulty or replacing the healthbar with hearts or lives, maybe something like BM Daiginjou where all damage takes away lives but they're as plentiful as HP would be in other genres.
Technosoft's project furthest from their comfort zone, eschewing their sci-fi horizontal setpieces for vertical on-foot fantasy shooting, with more traditional fleet-like swarms of enemies - and it has some of their tightest game design for it. The density of each level is very impressive. My favorite part of the game is the weapon system - the usual TF alternate shots are unlocked from the first four bosses, are permanent upgrades, and each have a screen-clearing charge shot. They're not equally balanced (you can get by mostly with the 3-way spread and its orbital bomb super), but all very fun to experiment with like any other Technosoft game.
My main critique is the difficulty: Pretty easy until around the stage 6 boss, and then those last couple fights are make-it-or-break-it. This also introduces the problem with its healthbar system; theres no incentive to practice earlier stages because unlike other shmups, there's no power ups or lives to carry with you to the later sections. The solution would be buffing the early-game stages in difficulty or replacing the healthbar with hearts or lives, maybe something like BM Daiginjou where all damage takes away lives but they're as plentiful as HP would be in other genres.
2022
Happy 2024!
Fantasy Zone MD's a great port of the original, and playing it side by side with Super on the same console really highlights the differences between the two. Never realized how heavily the feeling of bullet hell was evoked from the raw density of microscopic bullet waves - compared to Super, much more reserved and of its era but with larger hitboxes and less movable space. As always, M2's customization bells and whistles are greatly appreciated.
I guess my problem w/ this port is there's nothing new to see or do here? Hideki Konishi's other supported M2 port, Darius (and its upgrade, Extra) is this definitive version of a game whose quality varied greatly across ports: The 26 bosses, rebalances, and boss rush were all finally in one convenient spot. By contrast, Fantasy Zone is hardly different from any other versions you've played, and the portjob doesn't add any Genesis-y juice to its flavor. I would've preferred if they finally ported R Type Leo like they proposed in the past, or any other shmups that had been under-represented.
Fantasy Zone MD's a great port of the original, and playing it side by side with Super on the same console really highlights the differences between the two. Never realized how heavily the feeling of bullet hell was evoked from the raw density of microscopic bullet waves - compared to Super, much more reserved and of its era but with larger hitboxes and less movable space. As always, M2's customization bells and whistles are greatly appreciated.
I guess my problem w/ this port is there's nothing new to see or do here? Hideki Konishi's other supported M2 port, Darius (and its upgrade, Extra) is this definitive version of a game whose quality varied greatly across ports: The 26 bosses, rebalances, and boss rush were all finally in one convenient spot. By contrast, Fantasy Zone is hardly different from any other versions you've played, and the portjob doesn't add any Genesis-y juice to its flavor. I would've preferred if they finally ported R Type Leo like they proposed in the past, or any other shmups that had been under-represented.
Some games are good. Some games are bad. Some games are Adventurous Boy. Ah, Adventurous Boy, what is there to be said about this classic that hasn't already been said? The graphics are full of color and gameplay has many types of things to do. It is a seminal archetype for many of a genre to follow and respect. We would not have such titles as Dodonpachi DOJ and Touhou 6, without the foundational brilliance of Adventurous Boy. Now, that is not to say Adventurous Boy is a perfect game - in fact, it is far from it. The collision detection is not good? It is not good because if it was good, I would be winning all the time. And the bombs are like, old game bombs, because they do not work right. A good video game should have bombs that make you smart, not bombs that let you be stupid and jock. No stupid and jock in video games. Let's just say,,, Adventurous Boy has not aged well.
But! There is just something magical about Adventurous Boy, you know? It makes me feel things that I cannot describe. They do not make video games like they used to. Do not ask me my opinions about JRPGs or oil tariffs.
But! There is just something magical about Adventurous Boy, you know? It makes me feel things that I cannot describe. They do not make video games like they used to. Do not ask me my opinions about JRPGs or oil tariffs.
