September Together Retro Poll

[Markies]

So, the poll ends on Sunday which means we are about half way through the duration.

Treasure Games has a hefty lead, but all of the other categories are very close. If you did not vote for two categories or did not vote at all, do so now. There is still time to change the tide and get an upset.

If not, then Treasure will win this pretty convincingly.

[Ack]

I voted for Treasure and Pinball

[Markies]

Treasure Games Has Won!

I am going to quote Exhuminator's post to give people a list of acceptable Treasure games for next month.

All of these games should be very easy to emulate. For the physical owners, I hope you have some of them in your collection and this month gives you the inspiration to dust them off and play them. Unfortunately, most Treasure games are rather expensive and a bit hard to find.

For some suggestions, I would go with Gunstar Heroes & Ikaruga. Treasure games are known for being difficult, but both Gunstar Heroes and Ikaruga can be beaten by anybody. Gunstar Heroes, you just need the correct weapon combination and to set it on easy. For Ikaruga, you gain credits with how many hours you put into the game. Eventually, you will unlocked unlimited credits and considering you start exactly where you left off, it should be doable.

You still have a while to find them, but here is the list. Let us uncover some...Treasure!

Looks like Treasure's winning by a wide margin presently.

If anyone needs a refresher as to Treasure's library:

Advance Guardian Heroes (Game Boy Advance)
Alien Soldier (Sega Genesis)
Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Game Boy Advance)
Bangai-O (Nintendo 64, Dreamcast)
Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury (Xbox 360)
Bangai-O Spirits (Nintendo DS)
Bleach: Dark Souls (Nintendo DS)
Bleach: The Blade of Fate (Nintendo DS)
Bleach: Versus Crusade (Wii)
Dragon Drive: D-Masters Shot (GameCube)
Dynamite Headdy (Sega Genesis, Game Gear, Master System)
Gaist Crusher (Nintendo 3DS)
Gaist Crusher God (Nintendo 3DS)
Gradius V (PlayStation 2)
Guardian Heroes (Sega Saturn, Xbox 360)
Gunstar Heroes (Sega Genesis, Game Gear)
Gunstar Super Heroes ( Game Boy Advance)
Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! (Game Boy Advance)
Ikaruga (Arcade, Dreamcast, GameCube, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch)
Light Crusader (Sega Genesis)
McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure (Sega Genesis)
Mischief Makers (Nintendo 64)
Radiant Silvergun (Arcade, Sega Saturn, Xbox 360)
Rakugaki Showtime (PlayStation)
Sega Ages 2500 Vol. 25: Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box (PlayStation 2)
Silhouette Mirage (Sega Saturn, PlayStation)
Silpheed: The Lost Planet (PlayStation 2)
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
Sin and Punishment (Nintendo 64, iQue Player)
Stretch Panic AKA Freak Out (PlayStation 2)
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Bad Dream (Game Boy Advance)
Wario World (GameCube)
Yū Yū Hakusho: Makyō Tōitsusen (Sega Genesis)

I believe that's everything Treasure has developed up until this point.

[noiseredux]

So these are the Treasure games I own, with some notes. Maybe you guys can help me decide which game I'll be playing next month.

Gunstar Heroes - I played this for TR back in the day. I liked it. I didn't love it. I felt like that gauntlet board-game-thing at the end went on for way too long. But I liked it overall.

Dynamite Headdy - Don't know much about this one. It looks okay...

Alien Soldier - Looks okay... Gunstar-ish?

Light Crusader - Looks okay... an action RPG thingy?

Guardian Heroes - Already played this for the beat-em-up TR earlier this year.

Radiant Silvergun - Have played in the past quite a bit. It's alright.

Ikaruag - Same as RS.

[Exhuminator]

Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, Alien Soldier, Light Crusader, Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga

My thoughts on those...

Gunstar Heroes = I respect this game's ambition, and it is impressively programmed. However I don't find GH a particularly fun game to play, honestly. I've beaten it co-op, and it was just "OK" overall. I never had a blast with it. Honestly I think GH is overrated, but that's a very unpopular opinion.

Dynamite Headdy = I've only played the USA version of this, which has unbalanced difficulty due to being screwed by its localization. I really enjoyed this game's sense of zany humor. Some of the special effects are rad. But the difficulty really starts to go off the charts eventually, and I never beat it. The original Japanese version may be a more reasonable experience.

Alien Soldier = My favorite Treasure game, and I consider it a masterpiece of the run 'n gun genre. I just love this one to bits. However, it's almost entirely a boss rush, so if you don't enjoy fighting boss after boss after boss, it might not be your thing. Some of the most amazing programming the Genesis ever saw, that's indisputable.

Light Crusader = I don't know much about this one, I've never put much time into it. I think Sarge and Bone have beaten it though, they may be able to offer better perspectives. I do know this game is very outside the box for what Treasure usually produced (it's an isometric fantasy action-RPG IIRC). I'm thinking of playing Light Crusader myself next month because of how unique it is for Treasure's library.

Guardian Heroes = I think you and I are the same page on this one.

Radiant Silvergun / Ikaruga = I've only put a little bit of time into both of these. They are very impressive shmups, that's for sure. I enjoy shmups, but I am not especially good at them. Both of these are rather challenging, and demand a lot of practice. If you're a shmup lover they're worth playing for sure.

[Nemoide]

I'll share my own list of Treasure games I've played with notes:

Gunstar Heroes - This game is pretty good, a solid run & gun action that is indeed an impressive piece of Genesis software. But while I had fun with it, it's never been my favorite example of the genre (the Metal Slug series wins by a mile).

Ikaruga - In a lot of ways, I feel like this is a step down from Radiant Silvergun. I don't know if there's anyone who's naturally talented at how to play that game, but I could only get descent scores on a few levels via trial and error and completely memorizing the order in which enemies come. People talk about R-Type as a shmup that requires memorization? Ikaruga always hit me as being a million times more intense. I can absolutely understand why some folks like it, but it requires too much rote memorization IMO; I'd rather just work on memorizing Pac-Man patterns or something.

Radiant Silvergun - This was the first video game I payed a ridiculous amount for! ($150 back when I was in high school, around 2002 which was WILD). This game's reputation was pretty big in the early 2000s for how expensive it was, how difficult it was, and how dedicated the fanbase was. Surprisingly, it's one of the few "prestigious" retrogames in my collection which still goes for the same amount I paid for it. I might give it a go for TR, but I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it's technically impressive and has some really cool ideas. But in practice, I never *really* got the hang of strategizing how to defeat enemies in chains of color in order to maximize my weapons' powers, which is a major part of the game. I liked the game, it gave me enjoyment, but it's not really the kind of shmup that appeals most for me.

Silhouette Mirage - okay, I've never beaten this game, but it's NUTS. This game kind of shows the seed of the idea for Ikaruga: you have two different types of attacks with different effectiveness for different kinds of enemies. But instead of a shmup, it's kind of a run & gun platformer with heavy amounts of 1990S JAPANESE CUTENESS/WEIRDNESS. The boss that sticks out the most in my mind if a combination of a young flower-girl and a giant fish. Unfortunately the game is also difficult to begin with and when it was ported to PS1, Working Designs upped the difficulty even more, so I don't know how if I'll ever beat this. But it's fun and I'd highly recommend it if you're a fan of weirdness and are looking for a challenge.

Slipheed: The Lost Planet - another one I haven't beaten. It's a shmup that struck me as exceedingly bland. I've never played the original Slipheed, but this one didn't really strike me as anything special. Maybe I should give it another chance, but I'd say it's not worth playing...

Wario World - not a bad little platformer for Gamecube... with emphasis on little. I found this game to be too short and repetitive to recommend wholeheartedly. While it's fun, I didn't find it particularly memorable; especially when compared to the awesome Wario Land games. It's worth playing, but with tampered expectations.

I also have Dynamite Heady in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the 360, but haven't given it a proper chance. It seemed like a potentially fun, very offbeat sort of platformer. And I've got Alien Soldier for Genesis via Wii's Virtual Console that I haven't even attempted to start playing.

[noiseredux]

Exhum I share your thoughts on Gunstar and Guardian Heroes. I love shmups but prefer bullethell personally. I may go with Alien Soldier based on your enthusiasm, though Light Crusader is an option if someone else is playing to compare notes.

I have also played Silhouette Mirage, Silpheed Lost Planet, and Wario and both Bangai-o titles in the past. I feel like I've given Treasure a pretty fair shake and think they make great looking games I don't love. But I'm willing to give next month a fair shake.

[alienjesus]

If we're doing this, here's my thoughts on the Treasure games I've played!

Gunstar Heroes - I absolutely adore this one, it's by far my favourite run and gun game. The diversity of the weapon system and the relative leniency of the health and continue system compared to something like Contra both make it more accessible than most run and guns and also allow it to throw more at you at once, without it feeling unfair.

Dynamite Headdy - I personally think this game is underrated as a Mega Drive platformer - it's incredibly inventive and has some stunning graphics for the system too. However, the western difficulty level is insane, and I highly recommend playing the much better balanced Japanese release instead.

Guardian Heroes - Guardian Heroes feels like Gunstar Heroes but a beat em up. Still lots of customisation possible thanks the the stat distribution system, and the three lanes let them throw lots at out whilst always offering an escape route. Another of my favourites.

Mischief Makers - Whilst it's not as technically impressive as the previous entries, Mischeif Makers is a very creative game which makes use of it's odd assets and art style to create some very memorable setpieces. One boss lets you ride a cat riding a missile. It's pretty fun.

Sin & Punishment - This one is much more of a technical showpiece for the system, and it's pretty short and pretty tough to boot. The odd control scheme takes quite some time to adjust to on either the original controller or the Wii's classic controller, but once it clicks it feels good. I don't love it as much as some people do as I think it can be a bit inconsistent on difficulty, but the scene where you're taking out battleships from a moving platform is one of the absolute best on N64.

Bangai-O - The Dreamcast and N64 releases are apparently quite different, but I played the much more accessible Western DC release. This game is super chaotic and a ton of fun, thanks to the amount of bullets you can launch and that get launched at you. Whilst I liked the game having a conventional structure here more, I actually think this game was bettered by it's much neglected sequel.

Ikaruga - This is probably my favourite shmup ever made. I know it's not for everybody, and I have absolutely zero interest in the scoring mechanics - it's just fun enough for me working through the game and getting better at surviving. I actually feel like the black and white mechanic makes bullet hell feel more accessible - it somewhat highlights where the gaps are for you and make it feel more possible that you could have survived when you die. A classic in my eyes.

Advance Guardian Heroes - I'm not going to lie, this one is probably my vote for the weakest game on my list. It's a sequel to the game on Saturn, but it barely plays the same at all, has much more wildly inconsistent difficulty, a very limited set of attacks and a linear and incomprehensible story. I still had some fun, but I don't think it's up to par with the rest of the list.

Astro Boy Omega Factor - Astro Boy is also a beat'em up with a limited range of attacks, but it's just done so much better. Astro boy feels mobile and despite his limited attack options you always feel like it's enough to do the job. I feel the game can feel a bit cheap sometimes, especially with the giant enemies who take off huge swathes of health, but exploring the environment to get power ups is fun and I enjoyed completing the game.

Bangai-O Spirits - This one is my vote for most overlooked game on the list. Whilst this is a sequel to Bangai-O and plays much the same way, it ups the ante tenfold for something super impressive. Lots of weapon options you can choose between, over 100 stages by default and with a stage editor built in (which can be shared via soundclips!) this game is just absolutely amazing. Every stage is available from the start, and the difficult can vary drastically overall, but just picking and choosing at random is a lot of fun. A must play.

Sin & Punishment: Successor to the Skies - Like Bangai-O, this is another time where they took a great game to begin with and made it even better for the sequel. The Wii control scheme is a no brainer for Sin & Punishment, and this game really shows off it's potential. Big flashy setpieces and action packed rail shooter gameplay makes me a happy man.


As for me, I have a handful of Treasure games I own but haven't beaten yet, so I'll likely tackle some of those. I have Alien Soldier on Virtual Console but I'm not sure I've ever got past the first boss as I've barely played it so far. I also have a physical copy of Freak Out (AKA Stretch Panic) which has been sat on my shelf for ages, and I just picked up Wario World for the Gamecube to play through too. I've also been eyeing up Silhouette Mirage as an option, but maybe I have enough to be getting on with already?

[marurun]

Here's a Treasure game many of you have probably overlooked:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald% ... _Adventure

I haven't played it, but I think it's a bit more traditional a platformer, but still with some of that Treasure programming magic and a really good soundtrack. And since it's a Genesis title, it's easy as cheese to emulate.

Also, if you are thinking of playing Silhouette Mirage, play the Saturn version. SM takes excellent advantage of the Saturn's technological advantages and quirks (in true Treasure form) to produce some really amazing and interesting special effects. One level in particular is amazeballs to look at.

[Nemoide]

I really want McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure.

When I was a kid, my thought was basically "this game is obviously for DUMB LITTLE BABIES and I don't want to play it!" and now my sense of nostalgia makes me miss all those oldschool McDonaldland characters and I like to see them in anything...