This is a review of the more technical aspects of a 10 Star run in Silent Hill and my experience with the scoring system. For a quick review -- this is one of the best "survival horror" games on the market. Do yourself a favor and play it. It's almost perfect and one of the best games I've ever had the pleasure experiencing. It's a masterpiece, just like the first two games, and it's even more tense than they were, since you have a very small window of screw-ups that can just destroy any potential run. I played it so much, that I feel completely burned out on it, but you bet I'll be coming back in the future for replays.

I managed full 10 star run of Silent Hill 3 on the highest difficulty -- Extreme X. This game is interesting in that there's plenty of enemies for you to get every kill you need on the way to the end, but the fastest method is grinding for melee kills in the hospital. Shooting kills are easy to get, but melee kills are much harder, as Heather's kick is not an instant death, unlike with Harry and James in the previous two games.

This is easily the most difficult of the three Silent Hills, built for people who want an even more difficult challenge from the series. You have to play it on each difficulty as they unlock if you start out on Hard. So Extreme 1, Extreme 2, Extreme 3, all the way to Extreme X. They get more difficult as you progress as well. Enemies have better tracking and do more damage. The biggest obstacle, however, is the fact that there's several moments in this game where can just die immediately on Extreme X. Grabs from the Split Heads or Slurpers, getting knocked down by the Closers or Slurpers (if they are in groups, they can kill you on the ground), and the Borley Haunted Mansion hallway.

You also have similar requirements to Silent Hill 2. You need under 500 points of damage (technically under 450 points as you take some mandatory damage in the Underpass), 75 fighting kills, 75 shooting kills, at least 100 item pick-ups + the 5 special items, and new to Silent Hill 3, you need to kill each boss in under a certain time limit. There are also several places in the game that can be considered run killers on Extreme X, such as the Nightmare Hilltop Center, the Missionary boss, the Nightmare Hospital, Leonard's boss fight, and Borley Haunted Mansion hallway.

All this made for a very tense experience. I got a 10 Star run three separate times, and I must have played this game 30 - 40 times through the course of getting to Extreme X, including runs that were failures. I had a great time with it. It's the most action-packed of the first three titles, and it has some of the most interesting dungeons. While I prefer the first game, I think this is a very, very, very, very, very, very close second.

Good luck with the puzzles above Normal difficulty. On Hard, you have to be some sort of magic man to be able to solve them without some assistance. They are insane.

Sunset Riders, while overshadowed by Contra, is one of Konami's best run 'n' guns. Similar to Shinobi, the character you choose can jump between the background and foreground. Each character has a different spread and fire rate for their weapon. There are a couple of auto-scrolling stages where you're riding a horse and need to take out baddies before you get to the boss, which are my only criticism, as I wasn't as big of a fan of them as the regular stages. It greatly rewards memorization and good planning skills, especially for bosses. Highly recommended, because it's just plain fun.

The core of the game revolves around shooting crystals that split your beam into a green energy beam that charges your jewel meter, and you can get insane score through multipliers once your meter is fully charged. If you die, the meter resets to the original multiplier and you need to build it up again. It's really fun if you want to aim for scoring. Powerups are easily abused if you're just going for survival, especially the blue shield powerup, so I don't recommend that. I had a much better time when I aimed for score.

Demon's Crest is a spin-off of the much more popular Ghosts 'n Goblins franchise by Capcom. In it, you play as the dreaded Arremer, Firebrand, who was possibly responsible for the many deaths of Arthur in previous titles. This is an excellent action platformer by Capcom. It has a cool world map that is used as a stage select area, excellent levels with tons of secrets and collectibles, and really awesome bosses. It reminds me a lot of Mega Man X's level design. A super tight experience that I consider a must-play.

The levels in this game are what shine. It's varied and interesting, and each level has different challenges for you to overcome in different ways. All the powers you get have uses, and they're all necessary at at least one point in the game. The bosses are good too, with well telegraphed attacks and interesting patterns.

However, It's easy to abuse all the powers you get. You can heal yourself, you have a charge move that can be used anywhere and makes you invincible that you can fly through levels with, a power that makes you invincible for a short time, etc. They are way too generous with lives. They need to give you less. That was my main issue playing this game the couple times I did. I really did not struggle. I will say it's at least worth playing, however.

I recommend this shoot 'em up to everyone who anyone who is interested in getting into the genre but may be intimidated with games by CAVE or other shmups that are more intensive. It took around 3 hours to clear on Normal.

The first 4 stages are not too intensive but it picks up around stage 5 and stage 6 and resembles the more classic or Toaplan/Raizing like affairs, with some fast and tricky patterns to dodge. The game is very forgiving with lives and bombs. There's a meter that refills 3 bombs slowly, and when you have all three, there is an autobomb. Bombs are strong. Additional ships also assist you when your power is maxed out by blocking bullets and collecting more heart medals for score.

Sol Cresta is a new game by PlatinumGames, developers of big hits like Vanquish, Bayonetta, Anarchy Reigns, and The Wonderful 101. I have not really cared for Platinum's output for over a decade, but I found their first forray at shoot 'em ups to be very, very good.

This game quite a lot of depth. They have a bullet time, formations that change your shot type, and scoring mechanics that are heavily tied to survival (extends, meter for formations and bullet time, and shield slots for tanking hits if necessary). The game is also heavy on routing, and there are many varied strategies for bosses. The only criticism I have of this game is the length, about 50 - 55 minutes, which could have been cut as some of the game's levels have moments where nothing is really happening.

However, that certainly doesn't take away from how good the levels are, and how excellent the scoring system is. One of the most fun scoring systems I've experienced in a shmup.

I hope this new director, Takanori Sato, continues to impress with Plat's Neo Classic Series. I can't wait to see what he does next.

Batsugun is the last shoot 'em up by Toaplan before they went defunct. It is considered the first real bullet hell, or at least an early prototype of one. Toaplan eventually formed into the CAVE. You can really tell, because the bees in DoDonPachi, the stage 3 boss in Mushihimesama, and probably a lot more, were ideas that were likely conceived by Batsugun, whether artistically or more gameplay-oriented. It is a short game. You have a big hurtbox as well. I used Type B, but on the player 2 side, as I liked Alteeno's design more.

You have an experience bar, you increase it by killing enemies and destroying environmental objects. You fill it to level-up, with a max level of 3, and get a power increase each level. Each time you fill it up after level 3, you get a bomb. Stage 4 was my favorite level, requiring a mix of memorization and reflexes, and sporting some very, very cool background work, as well as an awesome tune that just keeps you going. This game's soundtrack is all adrenaline. I enjoyed every minute from start to finish.

The game's premise and design are simple. You create a mech from parts and use it to do missions. You get money for better parts as you do these missions and upgrade your mech. You can tailor your mech to your playstyle and for specific missions to optimize and maximize earnings. There's secret parts, and bosses in some of these missions. The missions are well structured, the controls are great, and it's enjoyable optimizing your mech for situations where you can gain an advantage.

Nineball's theme is just the best.

Blazing Chrome is a 2019 video game released by Joymasher, a Brazilian-based indie developer. Strong Contra: Hard Corps and Metal Slug vibes. I was recommended this game, and I managed to get every achievement, as well clear Normal and Hardcore mode with my character of choice, Mavra.

There are six stages in this game, each more difficult than the last, though you can play the first four in any order you want. The enemy design and placement in this game is some of the best I've seen from an indie retro-inspired title. The difficulty selection to Hardcore mode changes things by adding more enemies and making them more aggressive, forcing you to adapt and building on what you learned in Normal mode. My only criticism is I wish it had more difficulty modes. Hardcore felt like it should have been the Normal mode.

The game also has a Halloween skin, which is pretty cool.

The Ninja Warriors Once Again is the second remake/remaster from Natsume-owned studio, Tengo Project. This studio is a group of individuals, originally from Natsume, that have reuinited and, for the past few years, have been on a mission to remake the games they've worked on years past. The first one was Wild Guns Reloaded, a fully loaded remake of the SNES 1994 original, Wild Guns. The second one is The Ninja Warriors Again, a fully equipped remake of the SNES 1994 original, The Ninja Warriors Again. They've struck gold once again, because this remake, and all their remakes, are blueprints of what remakes should be like.

The Ninja Warriors Once Again is a beat 'em up. Unlike most other beat 'em ups, this one is not a belt-scroller, but a side-scroller. You can play as one of five characters, two of which are unlockable by completing Normal and Hard mode. Each one has their own moveset and combo strings. They are all very different and play very different, which offers a lot of replayability to this title. I struck a cord with Ninja, a big robotic grappler who has a lot of really strong throws that assist with crowd control.

I cleared this one, and the only real walls I ran into were Stage 5's boss, Jubei, who's just insane to run into after playing the first 5 levels. He's fast and strong, and you need to preempt and block a lot of his attacks to get an opening. The second is Stage 7's boss, Zelos. The boss himself isn't bad, but in Hard mode, he gets a lot of fodder that you need to kill or avoid or throw at him in order to do some good damage. I died to them several times on my runs, but once you get through, you're pretty home-free for Stage 8. Just be careful with the final boss.

I wholly recommend this game if you're looking for a great 2D beat 'em up in an era where there are so few.

Deathsmiles is a horizontal scrolling shmup by CAVE that allows you to shoot left and right, Fantasy Zone style. It bodes 8 stages, one which you can skip.

The game itself lets you choose which stages you want to go to and the difficulty of each. There are 3 stages on the bottom to start and 3 on the top. You alternate between choosing the top and bottom stages. You can choose from difficulty ranks 1 - 3 for each stage. In Arcade mode, it limits you in how many of each Rank 1 and 2 stage you can choose, but not Rank 3.

There's a hidden mode in the game called Death Mode. When you choose Rank 3 difficulty 5 times, you enter Death Mode Level 1. This introduces suicide bullets, where the enemies will throw bullets at you upon death. You can enter Death Mode Level 2 by going to the Gorge or straight to Hades' Castle (the final stage). The Gorge is an extra super difficult level. If you do beat the Gorge, you can enter Death Mode Level 3 for the final stage.

It's the first time CAVE experimented with 3D models and it looks good, though I really don't care for the loli style anime art. The music is very good. Burning Halloween Town and Hades Castle were my two favorites. I used Rosa, as I liked her playstyle, and she's also just really strong.

For my first 1CC of this one, I just did the Arcade mode with stages going Rank 1-1-2-2-3-3. It took me about 3 hours to clear. However, for all Rank 3, it added an additional 12 hours of game time (minus the Gorge, that would have been a lot more difficult). The game has a super high skill ceiling, and tailorable difficulty, with the arrange mode, Mega Black Label, sporting a Rank 999 difficulty, for those willing to take it on.

For general gameplay, you collect items worth different values until you get to 1000. After that, you can activate hyper mode, and item drops will increase, and give you huge score boosts.

Each stage is meticulously built to have a great sense of flow and there's never any down time at all. The new port is also really good, with low input lag and accurate slowdown. This is a good start for beginners looking to get into shoot 'em ups.

Obligatory five-star rating for a CAVE game. There's very few games by this dev that I don't consider a masterpiece.