GameKyuubi's GameLog

Perfect Cherry Blossom (PC) - Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:57:28

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:57:28 CDT

Updateupdateupdate time. Cleared Normal mode without continuing and without extra lives, cleared Extra, and then recently cleared Phantasm. Slowly working on Hard mode now. Extra and Phantasm are beautifully scripted. Each pattern is like a puzzle. You have to figure it out quickly (before you get hit). Once you figure it out, it's not over. The bullets will come faster and faster until you drain the pattern's life bar. Obviously a lot of thought went into these patterns. I'm glad I stuck with it for as long as I have.

超連射68K (PC) - Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:56:56

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:56:56 CDT

Got to Stage 7 (2-0) today. I can solidly say that I am very impressed with this game. The background finally changes at stage 7, and so does the difficulty. The boss(es?) are no longer mere ships. Somewhere around 7, they change into fully fledged destroyers. They no longer even fit on the entire screen. Considerably difficult.

Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) - Sat, 24 Feb 2007 15:26:05

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 15:26:05 CDT

Alright. I did something monumentally stupid. I got to the end of World 6. Like, quite literally, the fortress ship. And then I pushed B and hit A. I didn't really even mean to push anything. Can you guess what the first thing on my list of items was? That's right. The whistle. So I got whisked away to the warp zone, and if I wanted to continue, I would have had to re-beat World 6. That's not the only time having that whistle screwed me. I was in the middle of World 6, and I had just received a hammer from defeating a pair of Hammer Bros, and was planning to use it to enter a pipe. I had no idea where this pipe led, so I was pretty curious. I figured why not kill the other Hammer Bros before I go? So I do, and I get a Hammer Bros suit. Sweet! Guess where that suit went? Right on top of my hammer. That's right, I had reached the maximum number of items, and the Hammer Bros suit replaced my Hammer. =( Oh well. I was getting nervous about the 7th World anyway. I've tried to beat it before, but I never have. That being said, I did get quite far. Up until then I had beaten every single stage I had come across. I went out of my way to make sure that everything had been cleared. I like to think that I got a pretty good taste of SMB3. And I can say quite honestly that the level design in that game is absolutely beautiful. Everything fits perfectly. There was no one stage I had particular trouble with, yet all of them were challenging in their own unique ways. Almost every single one of them had some kind of secret to uncover as well. Whether it was just a few coins suspended above the field of view, or it was a freakin Tanuki suit, I greatly enjoyed finding the ones I did. A few times I actually went out of my way to attempt a stage again just to find a secret. Sometimes I would see something that quite obviously required the ability to fly, but at the time I would have the Fire Flower. I would intentionally die, use a leaf item from my item list, and then re-attempt the stage just to get there. I was having such a great time just flowing through the Super Mario Brothers 3 universe that I didn't realize that I had been playing for upwards of 3 hours. It was time to go to bed. ;)

Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) - Sat, 24 Feb 2007 03:06:32

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 03:06:32 CDT

I love SMB3. Back when I was a little guy, I would get up at the crack of dawn, waay before my parents did and way before school started, help my younger sister out of her crib/pen thing, and then the two of us would head downstairs to watch cartoons and play NES. While I have beaten the game before, I had never done it without using any whistles. So today, I have set that goal for myself. I will attempt to beat every stage in SMB3 without using whistles, without getting a game over, and without using any continues. So far, so good. I'm at the end of World 3 and though I've run into a few particularly tricky problems, I got past them and am now working my way through the rest. I can't wait to get to World 4 (the one where everything is giant). OH YEAH! I got this secret in the first world on stage 4. I don't exactly remember how you do it, but if you complete stage 1-4 just right, a white mushroom house appears on the world map containing a free P-Wing! CRAZY O_O! I accidentally got the first whistle, too. It's just a habit thing, you know? I won't use it, however.

Perfect Cherry Blossom (PC) - Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:00:00

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:00:00 CDT

So I played some more PCB today. Beat my high score on Normal with 200mil points. Ended at stage 5 boss again. There's just something about stages 4 and 5 that totally rip me to shreds. I can take the boss of 4, but getting there is a real pain in the ass. I think those stages are actually kinda comparable to Ikaruga's stages 4/5 in difficulty. The enemies shoot toward you in huge volleys and repeat rather quickly, so if you aren't in the right spot before they start firing, you have little hope of making it out alive, or at least without using a bomb. There are also sections where taking out the enemies as quickly as possible is an absolute must. The reason for this is that if you let them hang around for more than a few seconds, they start firing at just the spot you have to be in to hit the next oncoming enemy. It takes some really quick planning if you wanna get through those areas unscathed. Perhaps next time I'll try to record that area so you get a better feel for the sheer number of bullets that are fired in rapid succession.

超連射68K (PC) - Mon, 19 Feb 2007 08:42:12

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 08:42:12 CDT

So I dusted off my old CH050820 folder and took this for a spin again. After playing Perfect Cherry Blossom and Ikaruga so much, I noticed a few things about this game that made it different from the others. This game is an interesting mix between manic shmup and classic shmup. There are certainly enough bullets on the screen to be considered manic at times, but the patterns are very very simple to dodge. The catch is that the volleys come at you so fast you really have to have your shit down if you want to make it out alive. The other thing that I noticed is that if you're hit, you're hit. There's no leeway that is so common with the traditional manic shooter. If any part of your ship touches any part of any bullet, you are hit. So in this outing, I got to ... the end of level 2. Yeah, pretty pathetic considering I used to be able to get to the end of lv 6. Being used to the much more thought-inducing PCB and Ikaruga, I just didn't have the reflexes I needed at the time to take on the 2nd boss. All in all, this is a very cool game. It has a very neat and fitting soundtrack, which I always love, very nice pixel animation, tight controls (perhaps a little too tight?), and very challenging gameplay. Most shmup fans will be right at home with this game. It's got the traditional fire and bomb buttons; use a bomb if you think you're gonna get screwed soon. This game has a shield powerup, which allows your ship to get hit one time without losing a life. However, you can only carry one at a time, so if you get hit, the next hit will kill you unless you find another. You have your weapon powerups and extra bombs to collect as well. Very solid. My only complaint is that the background never changes. Oh well.

Gradius (NES) - Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:21:00

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:21:00 CDT

So I played some more, and the best progression of powerups that I can figure out is option->missile->option->double->shield->speed for the first stage. Shield can be switched out for laser, but then you won't be able to get an extra speed boost in the end. Not that it matters too much. After the first stage boss, you get a ton of free powerups. Increase your speed to your liking, and once you get it to where you want, get powerups until the last bar is selected (it should be empty), and then don't get any more. This will ensure that you always have a shield just in case. The only thing that can kill you now is not reactivating your shield fast enough and running into a wall. 3rd stage is still proving a problem. Mostly because I run into the walls there. I also just found out that you can kill the monoliths if you shoot them enough. Kinda handy.

Gradius (NES) - Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:06:31

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:06:31 CDT

I played Gradius early EARLY this morning and was surprised with a few things. The game is easy. Very easy. The catch is that you have to get every single powerup. As soon as you die, you may as well restart the game because your huge arsenal is now gone, and getting it back is next to impossible in the later areas if you don't already have some powerups to help you. It took me a few tries to figure this out, but once I did, I got to the third stage and promptly died in the beginning.

Virtual Console: Gunstar Heroes (Wii) - Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:48:40

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:48:40 CDT

I really think I like this game. I've been playing it for awhile, but still can't get past the fourth stage without using a continue. The game is quite challenging, though probably not as challenging as the Contra series, which is good or bad depending on your point of view. Gunstar Heroes is a side-scrolling shooter, similar to the Contra series. You progress through the stages with a range of weapons, blowing up crap and chucking your enemies everywhere. Unlike Contra, a direct hit will not kill you immediately. You have a certain amount of life, and when that depletes completely, you die. The tradeoff, however is that you only have one life. If you die at any point during the stage, you are faced with the continue screen and, should you choose to continue, are dropped off at the beginning of the stage or a checkpoint somewhere in the middle. The controls feel very natural, considering it's a port, and I was using the Wiimote to play. The weapons are varied; you can hold two weapons at any one time and use each weapon separately OR you can select both of them at once for a special combo-weapon. Considering that there are four different weapons, this gives a total of 14 different shot types! My favorite weapon is the lightning sword; a combination of the flamethrower and the lightning weapon. It is extremely damaging, but it is the weapon with the shortest range. Not only do you have ranged weapons, but melee attacks as well. If you press fire while you are covering an enemy, you will chuck the enemy in the direction of your choice. If you press jump while already in the air, you will do either a dive attack or a flying kick. Press down and jump while on the ground and you slide into oncoming enemies. There is a fourth melee attack, but I can't seem to replicate it very well.

Soul Calibur III (PS2) - Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:30:35

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:30:35 CDT

So I played Anthony for a few hours recently. He certainly picked up his game since we last played. He started with Mitsurugi, and I with Siegfried of course. We were pretty even, though I think I won more of the matches. When fighting Mitsurugi, the match either goes one way or the other. Once he puts you on the ground, it's difficult to get your mojo back. If you try to roll away, you get a sweep, if you try to rise ducking, you get uppercutted, if you try to rise standing, you run the risk of getting grabbed. Mitsurugi is one tough customer, so in this case, the best defense is a good offense. Make sure Mitsurugi's out of range for most of the match, which can be hard considering Mitsurugi has almost as much range as Siegfried, but if you manage to keep the right distance, you can poke him without running the risk of getting knocked down. If you fall, you have about a 1/3 chance of recovering the match. So after some Mitsu smackdown, Kilik decided to come out of the closet. Some of Kilik's weird spin moves were hitting, but I was able to read and block most of it. When that wasn't enough, out came Maxi again. This time, I didn't fare so well. I kept letting him get close, which I learned was a baaaaad idea. There just isn't any way to properly read and punish his stupid high/low strings that doesn't involve mind-reading. Thus, the solution here is to again, keep out of range. This is a little easier with Maxi than with Mitsurugi. Mitsurugi is slower than Maxi, but has more range, so it requires some intuition in order to see the fine area where you can move without worrying about being hit. Maxi is faster, but has less range, so it's easier to know when you are/aren't in the sweet spot. However, this knowledge didn't save me from many an embarrassing Maxi-mixup-landings. I guess I just need to fight Maxi more. :/