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MrPopo
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by MrPopo Sun Feb 12, 2017 3:57 pm

1. Pokémon Moon - 3DS
2. Tony Hawk's Underground - GCN
3. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising - PC
4. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Retribution - PC
5. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - PSP
6. X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit - PC
7. Star Wars Republic Commando - PC
8. X-Wing: B-Wing - PC
9. Blazing Lazers - TG-16
10. Tales of Xillia 2 - PS3
11. Shining Force CD: Shining Force Gaiden - Sega CD
12. MUSHA - Genesis

Another Compile game off the list. MUSHA is a fabulously crafted shmup that's difficult but not a quarter muncher (the fact you can't continue helps). It's intended for you to be able to beat the game, but you do have to get good to do so. And the general production is quite excellent.

MUSHA will feel familiar to those who have played other Compile shmups. There are pickups that choose your cool looking weapon and pickups that level up weapons. Here things are a bit different from Blazing Lazers. You always have access to your primary gun, and it is leveled up by collecting flashing drops from a carrier that dispenses them four at a time when shot (they fly off in slightly random directions so you can't always get all four). Your secondary weapon is chosen from one of three: a straight firing laser, a bomb spread, or a defensive shield that can block bullets. These secondary weapons can be leveled up by collecting a second secondary of the same type; otherwise you switch to the new type at the same power level. Secondary weapon power is ranked from 0 to 4, with level 4 frequently including a new effect. Whenever you take a hit while holding a secondary you lose that secondary and go invincible for a couple seconds. If you were at level 4 you drop down to level 3. Whenever you pick up a secondary you go invincible for a couple seconds. So you are going to want to have a secondary at all times and be willing to switch it up depending on what's getting thrown at you or to get that invincibility.

The other interesting thing in the game is your options. You gain one of these every time you get four of the powerup for your main gun, and can store as many as you can. If you ever have less than two it will spawn new ones and decrease your stock. These function similar to the slaves of Raiden Fighters; they take damage and can be destroyed but you have control over their formation. They can fire straight, at an angle, rotate around you, cover the rear arc, or fly free at your enemies (which is a good way to get them killed).

I'd say the bulk of the difficulty is in the levels themselves. The game introduces new kinds of enemies with every stage so you always have to stay on your toes. It also likes to vary between calm and frantic sections where you need to do a lot of fancy flying to avoid getting hit. By contrast, the bosses are extremely pattern based and aside from a sub boss on the last level don't throw out large volumes of fire, so you can expect on a blind playthrough to be able to take down almost all of them without dying (though you might take a hit and lose your subweapon). The exception to this is the second form of the last boss; this boss forces you to constantly be on the move due to an invincible bouncing ball taking up most of the screen, and then the two vulnerable points snipe at you with shots that can be extremely hard to see while you're doing damage. I ended up burning through 5 lives on that part. The form right after is much easier, as you actually have some contrast and can see the shots coming.
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by BoneSnapDeez Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:00 pm

That's a rad looking game. I was happy to discover it's on the Virtual Console.
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Xeogred
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Xeogred Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:26 pm

It has Technosoft tier graphics and music too.
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marurun
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by marurun Sun Feb 12, 2017 4:52 pm

Xeogred wrote:It has Technosoft tier graphics and music too.


It's a Compile shooter. Is has better than Technosoft-tier everything.
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Xeogred
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Xeogred Sun Feb 12, 2017 5:11 pm

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MrPopo
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by MrPopo Sun Feb 12, 2017 5:36 pm

That song keeps wanting to be E1M1 from Doom.
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MrPopo
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by MrPopo Sun Feb 12, 2017 7:58 pm

1. Pokémon Moon - 3DS
2. Tony Hawk's Underground - GCN
3. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising - PC
4. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Retribution - PC
5. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - PSP
6. X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit - PC
7. Star Wars Republic Commando - PC
8. X-Wing: B-Wing - PC
9. Blazing Lazers - TG-16
10. Tales of Xillia 2 - PS3
11. Shining Force CD: Shining Force Gaiden - Sega CD
12. MUSHA - Genesis
13. Sonic CD - Sega CD

So this is without a doubt the weakest of the Genesis mainline Sonic games. Someone decided it would be a good idea to go experimental and it shows. There's some interesting ideas at play, but none of it ever comes together into a complete package. The best thing I can say is its pretty and the boss fights are actually quite varied (though the last one has a really stupid design decision).

Sonic CD was developed at the same time as Sonic 2. While Sonic 2 said "let's go Mega Man 2 and iterate on what we did to make something really great", Sonic CD said "let's try a bunch of different things and throw them all together and maybe a game will pop out." I think the biggest problem is the Sega CD itself; the increased graphical capabilities went to the designers' heads and gameplay was sacrificed. The levels look crazy good; the backgrounds at amazing and there's a huge number of parallax layers. But this leads to some massive slowdown when it needs to draw a lot of sprites (like when you get hit) or when you're underwater (it's not just the physics). Also, the whole thing is incredibly busy; I kept taking hits from enemies and spikes I didn't notice because they blended with the background.

The other thing Sonic CD is known for is the time travelling mechanic. Now, I can see how this sounds interesting in a conference room. Go to the past and you can affect the present, and that'll affect the future. Except there's no reason to actually go to the future; if you just want to get to the end of the stage quickly you stay in the present, and if you want to get the good ending you go to the past to destroy the robot machine thing. The only reason to go to the future is to see what the nice future looks like, and you get that anyway because the boss stage forces you into the future. This mechanic was incredibly half baked.

Sonic overall handles sluggish, and the best thing I can say about the level design is there's only a bottomless pit in the final boss stage. Which brings me to the worst design decision of all; the final Robotnik fight requires you to have rings in order to hit him. See, he's in a ship that has damaging blades surrounding him. In order to damage him you have to damage boost through the blades, get in the hit, then collect the rings before they disappear. Even when he's down to one blade you still have to take a hit; you can't avoid it with timing. This is just a plain dumb design decision, and flies in the face of every other Sonic boss fight. Hell, most of them have a final boss where you can't collect rings at all.

Play this one for completeness, but don't expect something great.
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Xeogred
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by Xeogred Sun Feb 12, 2017 8:05 pm

The Sonic CD hate here is too much!
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by BoneSnapDeez Sun Feb 12, 2017 9:08 pm

I like Sonic CD but the time travel mechanic and bonus stages are complete ass.
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noiseredux
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Re: Games Beaten 2017

by noiseredux Sun Feb 12, 2017 10:27 pm

I love Sonic CD.
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