Together Retro: Eighties' Ladies' Night

[BoneSnapDeez]

Last time I visited the NeoStore they were selling Giana Sisters... And they still are trying, apparently:
http://www.neostore.com/The-Great-Giana ... p/1421.htm

[Sarge]

I'm counting Mugen Senshi Valis for Duo as part of this. I know it was made later, but it is a remake of the original Valis, which came out in 1986.

Anyway, it's not a bad game at all. A bit basic, though; it feels a bit like a mid-'80s arcade game in some respects. You get a few magical spells, something I didn't entirely learn until trying to figure out a tough boss and checking what I was doing wrong. Of course, right after that, I figured out the pattern, so... yay? You also upgrade your sword with various icons that give different shots. You can collect up to three of these, almost like a shooter.

Yuko moves pretty slow, and a lot of enemies are quite fast. The only speedy move she has in her arsenal is a sliding kick that is blisteringly quick, but also has a good amount of recovery time when coming out of it. It will kill enemies, though, although you bounce off of ones that take multiple hits. The last boss seems like a pain, but careful play in the last stage will get you outfitted pretty well for the final fight. I went with the homing shot, as it helped take out his first form. The second fell by trying to stay close and crouch-slashing. This didn't always work, but I would keep hoping the RNG would trigger his morningstar move instead of the bomb projectile, which can be a bit hard to dodge.

The other notable bit (and perhaps it was in the original as well) comes in the form of cutscenes. And boy, are there a lot of them. That death scene for a particular character (who I didn't particularly know I should care about) took a long time, in particular. Voice work litters the game as well, but given that it's in Japanese, I have no idea what they were saying. I got the overall gist of it, though. Regular school girl gets magical powers to defeat evil dude. And might have lost a brainwashed friend along the way. Probably all I needed to know!

Since I was playing on the Duo, no save states for me. Most bosses aren't tough, but the stages can leave you in bad shape without much margin for error. On several, if you die on them, chances are you'll be too underpowered to pull off the win upon respawn, so you'll end up taking a game over and go through the stage again. That's part of why it took me the better part of two hours.

I'd say overall, the game is worthy of a 6/10. A bit above average, maybe worth a rental back in the day. One likely wouldn't revisit the game that often.

(On a complete side note, finally got some CDs that the Duo (relatively) likes. Older Sony discs made in Taiwan circa 2004 were employed on this burn, and other than missing an occasional read (and it would catch it on the next pass), it worked fine from start to finish.)

[Exhuminator]

Well, I fell down the mountain until I figured it out:



Beat Gall Force: Eternal Story tonight.
It's a shmup with some unique ideas.
Lots of ladies, lots of eighties, lots of Hades.
Yep, one of those ideas is to brutally beat your face in.
Until you get a certain pilot that is.
Lufy doesn't mess around.
Overall not too bad, thanks Iwata!

Full review here.

[Sload Soap]

I'm playing Phantasy Star for this challenge. It's my first time giving it a real crack and I'm enjoying it so far. Alis (Alys?) is badass and the whole thing looks amazing. My major problem so far is how cryptic the game can be. Have had to resort to a guide a few times. That and while I enjoy the dungeon crawling, the samey visuals do make it pretty easy to get turned around. Lost a hour of progress getting lost in the cave south of Scion.

I'm bumming about in a town called Albion at the mo, have to find a robot to fly a spaceship.

[BoneSnapDeez]

That game rules.

[alienjesus]

I spent today working my way through Legacy of the Wizard - with the help of a guide, because this game is 2 Cryptic 4 Me.

The game is fun enough when things are flowing, but it has a lot of shitty elements that ultimately ruin the experience - lots of forced damage, hidden blocks, cheap bosses - the list goes on, all of the worst traits of games from the era are present.

However, it's an ambitious title, and it does have some charm. The music is pretty cool too. I actually ended playing through the whole thing in one sitting, despite thinking the game is a bit weak overall.

Also, Prfsnl-gmr (I think you were the guy who also planned on playing this right?) - if you do play through the game and follow a guide, the Strategy Wiki guide is excellent besides one thing - it tells you to get the crown as Xemnas (the father) last because he's the strongest, but he actually can't shoot fast enough to take on the 4th boss. I'd do it in the following order:

1st Boss - Pochi (the monster dog)
2nd Boss - Xemnas (the dad)
3rd Boss - Meyna (the mum)
4th Boss - Lyll (the daughter)

Lyll and Meyna actually need items from each others section of the dungeon to get to their respective bosses - it's easier to play as Lyll up to the point where you get all of Meyna's items, then do all of Meyna's part of the dungeon before becoming Lyll again - getting to the boss of Lyll's bit is quick on the second trip, whereas Meyna would have to do basically her whole section again.




After that, I decided to keep the NES love flowing and jumped into The Legend of Zelda - Starring Zelda!

Zelda has so far found 3 of the overworld heart containers, the white sword and the blue ring, and cleared 2 of the dungeons. She's progressing nicely.

[Exhuminator]

I put an hour and a half into Space Hunter for Famicom tonight. But it's too long and complex to beat in one evening. I like it enough to keep going though. When a game has you breaking out the grid paper you know shit's gettin' real.

[noiseredux]

Phantasy Star II

I didn't have much time to play over the weekend, but I got a couple of hours in. Mostly that was spent grinding. First for levels, then for moneys so I could get some decent weapons. I did go to the Shure dungeon, and then went ahead and rescued, uh, is it Tiem from um... Nido, I think? I'm pretty bad w/ names. But yeah, I've made some progress it's just slow going for now.

[dunpeal2064]

I started up The Guardian Legend, and have been having a decent time so far. The game was surprisingly obtuse at the start, I had basically no idea what I was doing, what all the symbols were on the ground, what the items did, or even what my goal was.

After a bit of research, though, I figured things out, and started having a lot more fun. It is certainly a knockout graphically, with some sweet tunes too. The shmup levels are okay, but the overhead exploration bits are really nice.

[Ack]

Hey folks, I have a question about Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair. I know you can play as Princess Purapril as the second player, but is it possible to play as her for Player 1 instead in single player?