Let me tell y'all about my boy The Flying Pancake, they ain't no floppin' flapjack I'll tell ya what.
I'll always feel awful that I bounced off ESP Ra.De. as hard as I did, but I can't help but feel that the exact reason was because the theming didn't strike me that hard. Maybe if it had an experimental aircraft going by the name of "The Flying Pancake", an incredibly gritty guitar going off in it's OST, and cool fake photos of the wartime monstrosity bosses I was going after prior to the missions I would've seen the light.
The Strikers games I feel hit me in that exact sweet spot where it features military aircraft, but doesn't stick to realism to the point I'm begging for the aircraft carriers to at least pull out a photon cannon on me. I enjoy me some bits of legitimate history to go along with my crazy video game shenanigans once in a while, and I'm proud to say I instantly recognized the name of "Rommel" that the fortress stage boss used and had full knowledge that The Flying Pancake was a real airplane. Sometimes little nods like that which trigger your little brain remembering coils are very nice, even if it doesn't exactly walk straight up to you and give you the sharpest body blow to the right kidney.
I quite like this second game in the trilogy, even if it doesn't get quite as ridiculous as the first one introducing space alien crabs or the third one utilizing insects from another dimension, but at least the final boss is a giant cyborg ballsack. My only big takeaway is that some of the patterns are straight up too evil in the last third, and the sub-boss in the final stage's usage of the aforementioned photon cannon is way too much of an instantaneous "fuck you" even if it's goddamn hilarious the first time you inevitably die to it. The third one's second half is far harder though, at least in my recent marathon!
Recommend all three, but don't 1cc the first one otherwise you'll get swatted by the FBI.
I'll always feel awful that I bounced off ESP Ra.De. as hard as I did, but I can't help but feel that the exact reason was because the theming didn't strike me that hard. Maybe if it had an experimental aircraft going by the name of "The Flying Pancake", an incredibly gritty guitar going off in it's OST, and cool fake photos of the wartime monstrosity bosses I was going after prior to the missions I would've seen the light.
The Strikers games I feel hit me in that exact sweet spot where it features military aircraft, but doesn't stick to realism to the point I'm begging for the aircraft carriers to at least pull out a photon cannon on me. I enjoy me some bits of legitimate history to go along with my crazy video game shenanigans once in a while, and I'm proud to say I instantly recognized the name of "Rommel" that the fortress stage boss used and had full knowledge that The Flying Pancake was a real airplane. Sometimes little nods like that which trigger your little brain remembering coils are very nice, even if it doesn't exactly walk straight up to you and give you the sharpest body blow to the right kidney.
I quite like this second game in the trilogy, even if it doesn't get quite as ridiculous as the first one introducing space alien crabs or the third one utilizing insects from another dimension, but at least the final boss is a giant cyborg ballsack. My only big takeaway is that some of the patterns are straight up too evil in the last third, and the sub-boss in the final stage's usage of the aforementioned photon cannon is way too much of an instantaneous "fuck you" even if it's goddamn hilarious the first time you inevitably die to it. The third one's second half is far harder though, at least in my recent marathon!
Recommend all three, but don't 1cc the first one otherwise you'll get swatted by the FBI.