There's many sorts of D-Pads out there but generally speaking, you can categorize them into two: Nintendo D-Pads and SEGA D-Pads. Nintendo reflects the home and SEGA reflects the arcade, and this can be see right down to the controllers. Nintendo's D-Pads are more about precise tapping and holding, while SEGAs D-Pads are more about frenetic rolling. Mario is amazing on a Nintendo D-Pad, but Street Fighter and Ikaruga aren't. Kirby is... Fine on a SEGA D-Pad, but certainly not as good as with a Super Nintendo D-Pad.

Mushihimesama, a shmup, is a game that I have elected to play with an Xbox Series S/X controller, and upon beating this game several times I can say confidently that the Xbox Series controller has the best D-Pad ever made, the first hybrid Nintendo-SEGA D-Pad. Precise enough for the 2D platformer, but frenetic enough for the shmup. It's perfect. It is the definitive controller for playing: Platformers, fighting games, puzzle games, and shmups! Pretty darn good!

Mushihimesama is a real good game, and has an even better soundtrack(s)

I had first played DISTANCE many years ago through my Cousin's Steam library, back when the game was still in early access. I mostly have my fun messing around with the Steam Workshop levels and the Transmogrify mode, which allowed seeds of levels to be generated in a way similar to MINECRAFT.

Recently I actually went through the effort of uh, actually playing through the campaign of DISTANCE. It was awesome! I had never quite played a Car Game like DISTANCE before, and I wanted more. I learn that NITRONIC RUSH is the spiritual predecessor of DISTANCE, made as a student project in the early 2010s.

I did not expect to like NITRONIC RUSH more! But why is this? The student project vs The Kickstarter project would make you think the latter would be more enjoyable. Make no mistake: both games are masterpieces, and I don't think the Kickstarter is why I like DISTANCE less. DISTANCE is still more polished, more customizable, more moddable. Yet I find it less fun. I feel like NITRONIC RUSH was made to maximize enjoyment and experimentation in a small Container of Game. Going through NITRONIC RUSH takes a fraction of the time it takes in DISTANCE, but this means that you learn concepts quicker, less is more in this case as the level design pushes these concepts farther than DISTANCE does.

There's also some things that are just better and leave me baffled that they removed these things in DISTANCE. NITRONIC RUSH has a more intuitive control scheme, and the drift option being on the right analog stick makes going through corners so much more fun. Drifting isn't really a thing in DISTANCE, at least not nearly as prominently. That's a major movement option here. I also find that steering here is less realistic, which helps because you yourself are in a vehicle that goes much faster. There is this exhileration to NITRONIC RUSH that doesn't exist in DISTANCE, at least not in story mode. Everything from the level design, UI, even just things like how quickly you can get back to the game after dying: It's all swift and gets you to the point immediately and that makes a big difference! NITRONIC RUSH captures me in a way that DISTANCE didn't.

It also has some really intense rumble! I love intense rumble man, make my hands and body quake and you already got a lot of my heart! Still, play both please

Basically, NITRONIC RUSH resembles OUTRUN more than DISTANCE... so of course I like it more