Axelay

[Low]

Originally posted by BenT
Disagree strongly on the shooters. Most of my faves are from the 16-bit days, and UN Squadron is one of them. I don't like the vertical formats and clouds of bullets that flood most modern shooters. Pre-manic shooters are almost a different genre, and I like them better.

Agreed, the structure of shooters has changed over the years. Multiple power-ups are nearly forgotten, most bosses have timers, bullet patterns have become much more elaborate. Still, the 16 bit era, particularly shooters actually developed for the home market are among my favorites, even though there's plenty of good titles today as well.

As for Axelay, I can't believe stage 4's music came out of my SNES. So haunting, what a great sound chip. "Arms installation complete. Good Luck."

*-neo

[Taito]

Horizontal Axelay was wonderful but the vertical levels were just another "look! The SNES can do Mode 7!" gimmick that plagued a lot of early SNES games. Needless to say, my opinion of Axelay is (on equal parts) mixed.

Other notes: SM's soundtrack really is excellent. And the 'dancing' bullet patterns in manic shooters like Mars Matrix and DDPDOJ only make me want to go back and play less annoying 16-bit shooters like TF or MUSHA. That said, the play mechanics in the modern shooter blow away what was available in old-school shooters. The Strikers games (especially 1999) offer the best mix of modern and old-school shmupping, imo.

[gameoverDude]

Originally posted by Seven Force
Don't forget the line "Gimmie a break, will ya?"

I like the bosses' smack talk. Nardork's (area 5, The Caves) is "Down with you!".

Being able to use alternate forms of the weapons is a cool feature in Super Aleste, also.

Your DOJ sig there is gold, 7F.

[Ragnarok the Red]

I loved Axelay, for the longest time it was my favorite shmup, still IS one of them, actually.

The music from the first level is pretty much forever stuck in my head...

I sincerely hope it gets the GBA treatment sometime, although with the system's screen the vertical levels will probably be much more difficult to navigate.

Still waiting for Axelay 2 also