Drixxel

Much appreciated! Glad you're diggin' it.

So a whooole long time ago, I'd posted here on AA about a game my friends and I were gearing up to make, the much-expanded sequel to an Xbox Live Indie Games multiplayer arena battler called Grand Class Melee that we'd wrapped up the year before. Long story short, the Indiegogo campaign failed to go anywhere despite the best efforts of some very kind people, but after an uncertain and stressful 2+ years in development where we essentially scrapped everything and started from scratch six months ago, it's almost ready. The game's been up on Greenlight for a few days and I was wondering if anyone here on Windows PCs wanted to give the beta a spin. Check out a lil' gameplay footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVkbVjvzdIQ Anyhow, if you're into the idea of foolin' with the beta, let me know here and I'll message you the details once I finish up the bug reporting system and confer with my two partners on a few things. Also, this is completely shameless, but if you wanted to show a little support for the game with a vote on our Greenlight page (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=273500981), that'd be seriously awesome and I'd appreciate it hugely. Getting GCM2 up on Steam would be a dream. Questions, comments, soul crushing criticism, anything! Let me know, I'll be keeping an eye on the thread. Thanks for taking the time to check out the thing my life's been about for a good long while.

Thanks! Haha, I have to admit, I was hoping to end somewhere in the range of your impressive ~1.2 mil but things became devastatingly ugly right at my run's end. Years ago I cleared the game in normal mode, yeah -- in fact, I just discovered that I'd saved a key for level 97, and trying to jump straight into that on beastly with no lead-up at all is just a crazy thing.

It's been quite some time since I've gotten some serious T2k in. As a warm-up last night, I played for awhile on beastly mode and cracked 1 million points by the time that completely evil 4-pointed needle nose star web cropped up. By comparison, it took ages to score beyond that playing it reggers just now. Had a blast, though, and I'd never noticed before how much faster the frame rate gets once the webs ditch the coloured shading in the "Ultra Yak" zone.

Been spendin' some time with the PlayStation lately. Doom: Custom Playstation Edition -- I seriously dig this version of Doom. Tempest X3 -- If only it loaded up as quickly as Tempest 2000 on the Jag... Raiden Project -- Raiden 1 has been, and continues to be, my most-played shmup for the better part of a year now.

Man, I'd love to get into the Sega CD shmups, but I've been saving that for the day I luck out and stumble upon a console in the wild. Yeah, great pick with Sagaia, that's quite a nice one. Among the best of the horizontal shmups on the Genesis, I'd say.

I've been on something of a vertical shmup kick, it's been a lot of fun working through what's on offer in the Genesis library in search of some new favourites. Fire Shark is pretty badass, I've really warmed up to Truxton, and I find I keep coming back to Raiden Trad despite having better versions of it on hand.

This isn't exactly what the OP was getting at, but some friends of mine have come up with an extremely entertaining drinking game ruleset for Super Mario World that's guaranteed to get all participants drunk and disorderly. It's a hot seat setup that goes a little like this: - Take a drink for every coin collected or enemy defeated - Take three drinks for every Yoshi coin collected - No penalty for collecting power-ups (better hope you've memorized which question mark blocks are which!) - Switch players every life lost or stage completed What this results in is a hilariously overcautious game of Super Mario World that's even entertaining for spectators.

While it's fun from time to time to work through the baker's dozen of carts I have for it, my Jaguar may as well be a dedicated Alien Vs Predator / Doom / Wolfenstein 3D machine (I get my Tempest 2000 jollies from X3 on PSX, mainly). It's kind of amusing to look back and see how strong the FPS library is for the thing, that's one genre where the Jaguar distinguishes itself without too much need for defensive fanboy statements as backup This is kind of a cheat, but the very-much-on-hand-and-available Neo Geo Pocket Color only ever has 1 of 3 carts plugged in: 1) Cardfighters Clash (SNK), 2) Puzzle Link 2, 3) Neo Turf Masters. Even finding three games that I play consistently for it took a telling amount of time to figure out, but the N64 under my TV is pretty much only used for Super Mario 64, F-Zero X and... uh... well, I guess I dick around in Pilotwings 64 more often than the next in line. It's pretty sweet to see so much love for Blazing Lazers, such an awesome shmup.

Great topic! As much as I enjoy the awesome Zyrinx console-pushin' visuals and the squelchy Jesper Kyd sound, The Adventures of Batman & Robin is a game I have yet to gain a taste for. That first stage is paced so very, very badly, IMO -- it just goes on and on, spamming enemies thoughtlessly. The boredom is palpable. For me, the Genesis game that best fits the bill of "first hated, then loved" is Thunder Force II for that obvious and predictable reason. I didn't see anything appealing about the overhead stages, initially finding them twitchy and frustratingly vague, but after however many attempts to get a handle on the first level (and having figured out how to open freakin' gates, is it just me who had no idea?), my opinion flipped and now, I actually prefer the overhead stages and their seek-and-destroy stylings to the horizontal ones which feel bland and unpolished compared to the later Thunder Force games. My only wish for the overhead stages was some additional level of flight control, something as simple as being able to decelerate temporarily would fix the twitchiness for me.

I echo the recommendation for Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. It plays perfectly faithfully, there's no silly "updating" of sound effects and I don't feel the game is affected in any significant way by the cropped screen size like other SNES-to-GBA ports are. Also, coolest of all is the arrange mode exclusive to this release that features remade levels from the earlier games in the series. A total must-have among GBA platformers, IMO, but this is coming from someone with a huge, huge fondness for the SNES original. F-Zero: Maximum Velocity is one I've had a lot of fun with. It's a bit... plain compared to the best of the F-Zero series, specifically the track designs which are distinctly lacking in personality when compared to the highly memorable roster of the original game. Despite a lot of the tracks feeling narrow and samey, handling in this one has some technicality to it for those that really want to practice for faster laps. The GBA game that I've played the most, bar none, is Columns Crown. Columns may not receive the universal adoration of Tetris, but for those who get any fun out of the classic jewel stacker, this is a game I highly recommend. The style and presentation is a little weird and does little for appeal, but the gameplay is near perfect. Best puzzle game on the handheld, in my book. In runner-up puzzler position is the GBA version of Super Puzzle Fighter II. I used to play this game endlessly around the time of its PSX release, but the concept has gotten a bit stale and unchallenging for me. Also, I find it takes an uncomfortable amount of effort to differentiate between yellow and green gems on the frontlit GBA SP's screen. Game & Watch Gallery 4 is an awesome compilation with the largest library of titles to choose from among the Game Boy Game & Watch Gallery releases. The remade version of Chef on this cart has swallowed a great deal of my time, but there's at least a bit of quick, shallow fun to be had with each of the 20+ games here. An honourable mention goes to the Millipede / Super Breakout / Lunar Lander release from the sketchy series of Atari / Midway compilation carts that came out on the portable, Lunar Lander works beautifully on a handheld and the emulation does it justice.

Gradius Collection - PSP <--- My brother got this for me for Christmas and, damn, I'd almost forgotten just how much I love the Gradius series. Penguin Wars - GB Sagaia - GB

Perhaps the most ubiquitous video game of the modern day is Angry Birds, I can't think of another game in the last 20 years that's been so widely played and hugely merchandised.

Hooked up the Jag the other day and played through a row of carts, with the following three getting the brunt of my attention: - Tempest 2000 - Alien Vs. Predator - Kasumi Ninja (this may be my ultimate guilty pleasure) EDIT: Haha, I forgot to mention, I threw on a few selections from the Aliens soundtrack while playing AVP and it added quite hugely to the experience.

If you're looking for some simple pick-up-and-play SFC games with little to no language barrier, here are a few more recommendations that spring to mind: Jaki Crush - My personal "must have" Super Famicom game, but I'm kind of a huge fan of video pinball and this one really strikes a chord with me. Battle Pinball - A solid video pinball title with a chibi Ultraman theme, a variety of tables and some decent physics. Cosmo Gang the Video - An extremely playable Galaga-style shooter and much more interesting than Cosmo Gang the Puzzle, which can be found in the West as Pac-Attack. Super Loopz - Loopz is a cool Pipe Dream-kinda puzzler and this is probably the best version of the game I've played. It's a SFC exclusive, but the game is fully English and must have been on the cusp of a North American release as this did get some mention in magazines of the day. Caravan Shooting Collection - A combo of Star Force, Star Soldier and Starship Hector. These are direct NES ports with no gussying up to speak of, and while the individual games are far from unobtainable, it's kind of cool to have 'em all together and playable on SNES.

Dr. Mario, Game Boy -- Level 20 on high speed is the only Dr. Mario that matters. Puzzle Link 2, NGPC -- In-game card collecting is strangely compelling. Sonic 2, Genesis -- Played with a QuickShot II Plus for clicky satisfaction.

A windfall of 300 bones, hmm... interesting question! I'd be most tempted to assign those dollars as follows: 1) Achieving closure on my backburner obsession of obtaining picture quality goodness from a handful of my favourite consoles. ~$80 for a decent RGB to YUV video converter, ~$50 for the cables. 2) A Lynx (either model) and a whack of games, ~$170.

I'm quite partial to Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge on SNES, myself. The Spider-Man levels in particular are quite enjoyable, and while web swinging takes a bit of getting used to, it works a whole lot better than, well, every other Spider-Man platformer I can think of.

Great video, Metal Jesus! As much as I want to like Firestriker, the sloppy ball physics wreck the experience for me. The game ought to be awesome -- the RPG flavour and coop is totally great in theory, but there's an undeniable clumsiness to how it plays. Legend's another let down for me, although less so than Firestriker. The combat is some of the stiffest I've run across in a beat-'em-up, but despite that, it is kind of a cool game and, as John pointed out in the video, the Golden Axe-ish theme is definitely welcome among SNES brawlers. Underexposed-yet-quality games make for some of the most interesting lists to assemble, IMO. Sticking to NA releases, a handful of titles that spring to mind are... Brain Lord - It's a bit rough around the edges but there's something about Brain Lord that really appeals to me. Could be the awesome soundtrack and wonky translation. Kid Klown in Crazy Chase - As a big fan of No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! on PSX, this one's right up my alley. Top notch sprite animation and a ton of charm overall. Shien's Revenge - I've always enjoyed Cabal-style cursor shooters and this is an especially cool one. The melee combat adds some much appreciated depth and the boss fights are rather intense. Super E.D.F. - The diversity of the arsenal and the somewhat RPG-like power-up system make for a highly entertaining shmup.

Hey, just thought I'd update the thread to let y'all know the campaign now includes a bunch of new reward tiers centering around a PC port of Gunlord (with a physical release, even!). Totally a good idea, IMO, as the campaign was definitely limiting itself with the playable rewards being 3DS/Wii U exclusives. The appearance of a Gunlord PC port sold me on this thing, at least. Best of luck to NG:DEV.TEAM!

Of the Tiger handhelds I've played, the standout for me is Space Harrier II. When I was a wee lad, I actually sunk a fair bit of time into this game, but I was fascinated with all things Space Harrier at the time. My imagination was almost certainly doing me a service by making the Tiger version more fun than it would ordinarily be, but the gameplay does feel kinda authentic. Compared to some of the truly junky adaptations of popular platformers into LCD handheld territory, this one bears a definite resemblance to Space Harrier with its perspective, and the LCD graphics are at least recognizable.

One quirk I picked up on years ago with Jag Wolfenstein 3D has to do with, well, the inability to walk straight. If B.J. Blazkowicz were a car, he'd need a wheel alignment or something because he pulls very slightly to the left or right when he should in theory be moving in a straight line. This effect can be easily demonstrated by first centering your view on some sort of landmark (line yourself up with a door or Hitler painting or something) and then alternating between forward and reverse (d-pad up, d-pad down) over a short distance, causing you to slowly drift sideways with every back-and-forth. It's always bugged me about this version of the game, and while I usually stop noticing it after a few minutes of play, I'd kind of like to know what the hell's going on behind the scenes that causes the player to passively, subtly and uncontrollably strafe.

Kind of a cool TV, but it's a serious turnoff for me that composite video's the best you'll be feeding this thing. The disproportionate quality of those built-in speakers and subwoofer are just crying for a more robust set of video inputs. There's a reasonably informative write-up about the experience with the set here: http://www.retrothin...tro-gaming.html.

There's definitely an element of luck/determinism to it, but I've found there is room for strategy in the way in which a player goes about clearing tiles, mainly to try and prevent a situation near the end of the game where no matches remain. Some versions of Mahjong Solitaire I've played don't offer a "shuffle" option in those circumstances, really forcing you to be more thoughtful in your approach. For the longest time I couldn't understand the appeal of this game, but there is a bit of depth if you look closely.

Hah, Viewpoint - that's a neat idea. I've never considered the possibility of Neo Geo ports on the Jag, but it's interesting to imagine. If only there was some sort of Jaguar RAM expansion released and carts exceeding 32 megs were a viable option for developers.