zonipoi wrote:

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/12/segas-astro-city-mini-is-getting-a-tate-version-packed-with-shmup-goodness Might have to get this in the summer.

That looks very nice. Depends on how good it performs of course.

I read TATE mini and thought it was a small art gallery or something, then I remembered where I was.

Saw a beautiful LG rotating monitor advertised on Facebook, but no. I won’t make much use out of it and TV is big enough that even with the fat borders on each side, main section is big enough when I sit close enough.

Gradius 1 and 2 are so old we forgot how good they are. I have the Saturn versions of them.  Gradius 1 looks clunky now but plays great - really sucks you in. First time I played it was in the arcade. Played a lot of the NES port but I stay with the Saturn for it now.  When I went back to it on Saturn I was really surprised how well they had aged and how balanced they were - they don't suffer as much from "1 death and it's over syndrome" because of loss of powerups.

Gradius 2 is a big step up in the graphics dept.

I imagine much of the experience is retained on PCE. However I don't think the Parodius games on PCE feel anywhere near as good even though it's basically a Gradius reskin. Just seemed to be a step too far. The SNES ports of Parodius are splendid albeit with too much slowdown.

G3 & 4 are soulless coin grabbing shells of the original game. I have them on J-PS2 for collecting purposes more than anything. They are crushingly tough. It took G5 to bring it back to being enjoyable.

There's Gaiden on PS1 but I haven't played much of it. It looks pretty much to be the best of the lot.

In other news, I'm glad you said "slowdown" instead of "lag". Every gamer on YouTube and Twitch uses 'lag' any time a game has framerate issues, and I could write a thousand word essay for the Things that annoy you thread.

Nice.

Re Gradius and death/powerup syndrome. It still has some issues later on but the rank adjusts far better than in later games like and 4. 5 fixed it by leaving your options on screen to pickup after a life loss.

G5 will make you its bitch though. Its mentally tough. Ive never really dug deep into it but its superb. Still ps2 only sadly.

Blue Swirl wrote:

I've really enjoyed Parodius on my mini, but that might be just because you can play as a anthropomorphised PC Engine that fires CDs and has HuCards as shields. It could literally be the worst game in the world and I'd probably still love it, just for that. The PCE version is pretty slowdown free, but in Stage 7 it crawls along at points - but there's got to be a high double-digit number of sprites on the screen, so it's still pretty impressive.

The PCEngine is a playable ship in Star Parodier as well....another reason that game is superb. I love the caravan/timed score attack mode too. Splendid stuff.

Physical copy of G-Darius for Switch incoming. Another distraction from getting a 1CC done.

Darius has been given the royal treatment lately. It got the 2 compilations from M2 - the arcade collection and the console collections both for PS4 and Switch. 

There's also the new Darius game (Burst/Chronicles/ex) which got a double widescreen cabinet in the arcade - it has now got ports to PS4 and Switch. There's the G Darius port too......originally a PS1 game and was the first in the series to use polygons.

Darius has also recently go re-released for Megadrive on cartridge. Ports tended to suffer because of the 2 and 3 screen cabinets but some ports like the MD one are a re-imagining for 4:3 screens.

I'm not sure where all the recent love has come from. It was always been a mid tier game with the exception of Darius Gaiden which is the best in the series and a true classic. Perhaps the interest has been generated from the new arcade game which is always a big deal in shmup circles.

That would have been G Darius. Think Gaiden only appeared on Saturn.

Edit: I'm wrong..it got a PS port too.

Confirming G Darius on Switch is marvellous. You can play with original graphics or slightly touched up HD.  I'm glad they haven't overdone the HD mode as there is a charm in these big early textured polygons flying about the screen.

There's some nice gameplay elements like the alpha beam and capturing mini-bosses to try. Once you capture a mini boss you can use its special attacks using a SF2 fireball move!!!    How the hell I will manage that while dodging bullets is anyone's guess! I've only managed to capture minor enemies thus far....    With its trademark multiple routes to enjoy there's plenty to look forward to with this.  Only £24 from Amazon.

G Darius is on one of the Taito Legends discs for PS2 but it runs way too fast unfortunately.  But if you have that it will let you get an idea of the game.

A real workhorse of a console. Genuinely something for everyone on it. I got one for RType Final and Gradius V but built a rather nice library of games for it.

RType Final 2 is an indie effort and an ill-judged one at that. Response has been lukewarm.