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Lots of companies release less than a game a year but I still wouldn't pay 600 for them
God speed, goD.
Lots of companies release less than a game a year but I still wouldn't pay 600 for them
Shit, I meant to grab XYX while it was cheap. Oh well.Originally Posted by gameoverDude
Throat punch: the musical
That would be odd, I imagine they make the lion share of profits off DC.
Throat punch: the musical
Play Asia.
Good call, they are a little more expensive, but they still have them.
Razion's backgrounds are stunning for a Neo-Geo, and really demonstrate some untapped potential. It's quite easy to forget this is a 16-bit game running on 1990 12 MHz 68k hardware. The 1560 Mbits (192 MBytes) are well spent. There's CD quality music, loads of animation frames on enemies and some background elements, and great use of parallax. NGDT has gone with pre-rendered graphics like Pulstar and others. While pixel art is still good, I like both.
Besides the tap for regular shot/hold for focus shot system that's been seen many times, there's a beam weapon which will charge on its own with time. Giving the B button a tap when the bar is full will fire it, then it will start charging again. It clears out bullets and "marks" gold, turning it green. This is useful for the scoring system. Yellow gold can start flickering after being on screen for some time. If you see that- mark it, grab it, and be QUICK- or lose all the gold on the screen. Gold builds the multiplier- which is not decreased in any way if you die.
Powerups... who needs 'em? NGDT apparently dislikes the need for weapon leveling, as shown in Fast Striker, Neo Xyx, and Gunlord. Your ship will always be adequately loaded, and there are no "P" items to chase. Can't say I blame them, especially when some other games leave you nerfed to hell after a death & respawn (ahem, Darius II) and the Dodonpachi series ditched them.
There is a rare hint of flicker, and slowdown can creep in during busier parts.
Rafael Dyll didn't do the music this time, but Andre Neumann fills in well here. Some great techno/rave and ambient music tracks are featured.
Here's a 3-level demonstration play of the Maniac mode from Ghegs @ shmupsforum. Some effects like the flickering gold won't show up properly in the video thanks to the video being 30 FPS (damn it, Youtube).
A Dreamcast version has not been announced, but who knows what can happen later after the final update. I sure wouldn't mind having a PSN digital release for Vita. If Razion does get ported to DC or some other system, definitely go for it.
Throat punch: the musical
Thanks for mentioning this, was wondering what was going on in the water level. Seems solid!
Not all is perfect. The parallax you see in the first 4 stages isn't really there in the last two. Stage 5, the space stage, has a little but I've seen better parallax in Darius Gaiden than here. At least the rendered rotating asteroids make up for this. But stage 6 has no layers to speak of. It is simply what it is. Now the ending is actually kind of weak, if you even can call it one. No brief cinematic or even a page of story text. You get the credits (Timm Hellwig, Rene Hellwig, and Andre Neumann - with Ghegs & Plasmo as beta testers) and a "Thank you for playing" pic with two of the pilots.
One thing you'll see on stage 4 is a nice wavering underwater effect.
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