Tilly knows

161. Geometric Sniper - Switch (80 mins)

Neat little Where's Wally/Hidden Folks (with a sniper rifle) budget title - £1.99 if you bite at the 20% off launch price - that doesn't quite execute everything perfectly but ends up being a laugh anyway.  The appalling translation and how the fuck am I supposed to know that? element that occasionally comes into play add to the charm to a certain extent, but the frankly outrageous decision to have exact lookalikes of your target wander around the stage on occasion hobbles its shins a little.  It must be a programming oversight rather than a design choice, surely?  I mean, I don't know much about this sort of thing, but I would've thought not having two identical targets bowling around a given stage at once would've been on the whiteboard at the inception of the whole 'snipe the character that looks like this' idea.  It doesn't happen often, but it does happen, and killing the wrong one triggers a fail state.

Anyway, it's fine for a couple of quid and I'll play any sequels if it spawns a franchise.  [6]

Your targets are all terriorists with a danger level out of five. It might look shallow but the story gets pretty derp in places.

Looks like a nasty version of Toem

Incredibly work from Tilly.

JonB wrote:

I must remember that technique for padding out a word count.

Real Michael Owen volleying past primary school kids vibes.

I had more fun with I Am Fish!

Fuckin lol maybe I am out after all

Baffling.  I'm fascinated by the whole thing.

163. Inside - Switch (2.5hrs)

I had to check.  There was no need to double dip on this whatsoever as I played it on the TV my Xbox One S is connected to (where I bought Inside at launch)...but it's £1.79 on Switch at the mo and I wanted to see what the port was like.  Pretty much flawless, as it happens (albeit at 720p on the good old burn-in monster).

The game itself is just as good - if not better than - I remembered.  A near flawless procession of top tier set-pieces that culminates in the greatest ending in the history of videogames.  Yes, even better than the original arcade ending to Golden Axe. If games are art this deserves to be hung behind bulletproof glass and revered for generations, whereas Somerville is something a parent would be reluctant to stick on the fridge.  

I can't suppress the urge to slap a [10] on it, so I won't.  This might be the only occasion I've played through a contemporary single player experience three times since I've been old enough to legally purchase this game [or a canine companion in the UK], and I expect I'll play it again at some point.

164. Mercs (or Senjo no Okami II, as it's known on the Capcom Arcade Stadium collection) - 30 mins

I borrowed the Megadrive version a couple of times as a kid, which was a decent port all things considered.  I knew they dropped the co-op mode, which was a massive shame, but I didn't realise the original supported three players simultaneously.  I'm pretty sure the MD version wasn't as long as this either, as stages 6 & 7 didn't ring a bell, so I assume they were chopped for the home port*.  

It's fairly basic to revisit and feels guilty of the 'moar money please' coin-op trappings that were de rigeur at the time.  It's tough to criticise an early 90s arcade game for being an early 90s arcade game though, so I was happy to just accept it.  It's a shame you can't fiddle with the audio settings in the Capcom Stadium package (unless I'm missing something) as the music is too low for my liking, but the basics did the job as far as semi-mindless shooting goes.

Still has one of the best flamethrowers in town, and it'd be worth a bash with two chums for sure.  Fits the screen nicely with the FlipGrip attached too.  The package is 50% off at the moment, which is the lowest it's been on Switch since launch.  Looking forward to choosing what to play next, as retro packages go it's very nicely put together.  84%



*It's also quite possible I didn't make it that far without the ability to drop an extra coin in whenever I fancied.

Ah yes, 'original mode' with all new stages and a different plot apparently. Might check the Master System version out at some point, not sure if I've ever tried it

Yep I had auto pick ups switched on in TLOU2 (I think). Love a raft of accessibility options.

All from Capcom Arcade Stadium on Switch....

165. 1944: The Loop Master - 40 mins

I know next to nothing about this series, so was surprised to see so many on the collection (because I didn't know more than maybe three entries existed).  I played 1943 last year, which was fun, but for a non-nostalgia fuelled quick visit this was even more rewarding.  It keeps a lid on its nasty streak for a start, which probably helped, but it also looks nice, plays well and knows how to feel like an arcade game.  The boss death pixel art panels that slap in one by one as a guardian explodes are a nice touch, and 16 shortish levels is good time not long time stuff.  I'm not happy with the sound for any of these Capcom Stadium games unfortunately, as to me they all sound disappointingly thin on Switch (with or without headphones - haven't tried any on a TV yet tbf).  I get that the nature of the emulation probably makes it 'impossible' for the devs/package curators to easily separate the music channel from the sound effects on menu sliders, but what I really want to be able to do with almost all of these retro titles is crank the tunes up and the effects down, rather than having the latter constantly overpowering the former.  Especially if it all sounds a bit more tinny that I'd expect it to anyway.  

Still, this is a great one-and-done vertical shmup and I had a blast.  Glad I picked up the full collection because I'm loving game hopping & coin dropping. 83%



166. Commando - 20mins

The granddaddy of top down run & guns.  There's no denying this was great at the time (can confirm - they had it at the caravan site I always visited as a kid, although I preferred to spend my time with Galaxian), but there's also no pretending it's worth much more than a few goes for most people these days.  An important game in the history of the medium, and still kinda fun, I'm just not sure I'd suggest playing it over other similar titles this influenced, either from the era or since.  

Simple and mean, they don't make 'em like this any more, and sometimes that's a good thing.   

[Insert score here].



167. Progear - 35mins

You can't judge something like this after taking it for a credit fed spin.  Having said that, surely most of the campaign is just fucking unreasonable?  Too many bullets m8.  Looks very nice and plays well, but these expert level shmups (lel akshually this is considered to be outside of the top 25 most difficult Cave shooters) aren't for me.  I'm more 'that non survivable occurrence was annoying' than 'shouldn't have got yourself in that predicament', which is clearly why the bullet hell sub-genre isn't for me.  I'll take bullet purgatory from time to time, but there's only so much fun to be had from being shit at learn-to-win shmups (where bullets often seem to take up more than half of the screen) when having a quick bash.  Which I kind of enjoyed, but I wouldn't fancy going back to it.  For me this would get more annoying as I improved, so dropping imaginary 20p's into the simulated cabinet en route to the credits will have to suffice.

68% for scrubs, (massive guess incoming) 89% for the 1CC maestros. 



168. Battle Circuit - 35mins

One of those weird scrolling beat 'em ups where crime infested streets make way for quirky nuttiness.  I think it's a tradition with this sort of thing to have one standard character and a supporting cast of bonkers oddities for extra players to begrudgingly select.  In this case the useful/traditional character is basically Sonic Blastman (he's called Captain Silver but doesn't look much like a pirate to me), and the rest are: massive pink emu with a tiny female Rod for its own back (or something; gloss over this bit), stretchy Incredibles guy, cat lady and giant mutant plant.  It supports four players at once, so at least two participants are going to end up with a short straw.  It's actually quite good though, as throwaway examples of the genre go, but it's not likely to trouble anyone's belting belt scrollers list.  Played with Tilly, and she was looking for any excuse to ditch it after 4 or 5 stages (of 7).  78%



169. Tatakai no Banka - 25mins

Incredibly harsh side scrolling beat 'em up in the King Fu Master/Vigilante* mould that I would have no doubt loved as a kid, but by Christ it's hard going now.  I struggled on a couple of the bosses because there just didn't seem to be a reliable (or reasonable) approach to taking them down - and when I say struggled I don't mean 'it took me a few goes', I mean I was spamming the rewind button for actual minutes trying to land enough blows without dying.  I'm still none the wiser on a particular enemy type, but I assume there must be a better tactic than 'hope for the best while hammering buttons and massively cheating'.  

This is cack tbf, and I spent most of the game regretting the decision to start it, but there are probably worse things to choose from on the collection.  A harmless, charmless duffer that's about as of its time as videogames get. 56%.  Title translates as Requiem to Battle btw (or Battle Elegy, according to a different website), which deserved a better game to back it up really.  The end credits state that 'peace will probably return to this land', which is a relief after all that effort, but it plonks you back at stage one to have another go anyway.  Perhaps peace is confirmed after a second run, GnG style, but I can't confirm. 

*Apparently the guy responsible for Kung Fu Master left IREM for Capcom and this is one of his, hence the similarities.

There doesn't seem to be a gif available so here's someone completely ignoring the fact that level 3 is a cunt:

177. Carrier Airwing - Switch (30mins)

Enjoyable arcade shmup that doesn't inundate you with bullets, which is always nice.  It's the sequel to UN Squadron, so it's no pushover nonetheless, but there are far less wtaf moments than there were in Progear.  I didn't see anything that would make me assume this is an all-timer, but it's perfectly good at what it does and I enjoyed my run.  Nice visuals with some neat touches (a spray effect if you fly too close to water, for example).  Sound was a bit meh again, but I should probably stop banging on about it as music/SE emulation on the whole of the Capcom Stadium Collection seems to hit on the weak side to me.  Good game though. 80%



178. Pix the Cat - Switch (2.5hrs)

Genuinely excellent PacMan/Snake/Chu Chu Rocket hybrid that deserves more appreciation from modern retroheads.  There's some Flicky in here too, but I've already mentioned enough influences really.  You move around boards with perpetual PMan style motion, collecting eggs and depositing chicks in nests while avoiding contact with your conga tail.  The trick is to maximise your combo meter (and thus score and character speed) by collecting all the chicks on a screen before dropping them off (rather than the safer alternative of a few at a time).  Once a board is cleared you can go deeper, but sometimes heading back to previous boards and and entering elsewhere is a viable approach to the puzzles.  It's fucking ace, but the appeal does start to wane after a while thanks to the repetition as you seek to improve.  It's a shame you can't extend the timer as you play, as that might keep the addiction from burning out imo, but the fixed time limit is a conscious decision as learning the boards and eeking out slightly better scores within 200 seconds is the whole point.  It's more about how perfectly you can play than how deep can you go, and maybe the balance isn't quite right for longevity, but it's still terrific.  The laboratory and nostalgia mode are completely different too.  Lab in particular is a neat little 100 stage puzzle game perfect for on-the-go gaming (I played it on Vita years ago).

For 99p, which it seems to drop to every other month, it really is a magnificent little short burst gem.  If I made a thread called my bread and butter: bargain basement bangers, this would be a top tenner for sure. [8]

I've got someone from here called Chrissy on my friends list and they're better than me at this, crai, but it was fun chasing their ghosts. 

I can't find any gifs for it, but it deserves a click:



179. Big Rumble Creed Champions Boxing - Switch (90mins)

Got £50 from my dad for my bday, so I finally pulled the trigger on this (and Triangle Strategy, which I probably won't even like).  I knew what to expect from the mostly middling reviews and I knew I'd probably quite like it anyway.  It looks and plays like a lost Dreamcast movie tie-in, and the arcade centric barebones approach makes it suited for two players with retro leanings.  There's no career mode as such, just an arcade mode with short bursts of chat between stages and occasional training mini games.  I cleared it with Rocky and despite the fact that it's all A Bit Budget, I defy anyone not to get slightly tumesecent when Eye of the Tiger kicks in.  Which it often does.  Plus you get to fight Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago, so it's tough to be too critical when you're grinning like a twat.

When retroking used to host retro days boxing games often fared terribly - the genre really was dogshit for the most part for ages, despite the fact that I latched onto one or two as a kid (Heavyweight Champ on MS springs to mind).  Things moved on a little with the jump to 3D but I'm not sure there's ever been a truly great boxing game.  Ready 2 Rumble was an mp riot and Fight Night Round 3 was a big flex early 360 effort, but neither are what I'd describe as classics.  This could rub shoulders with those two without feeling too self-conscious, it's just not much more than an enjoyable [6] really.  Having said that, it's actually a half decent punchman with a neat rhythm/decent ebb & flow, it's just a little bit irrelevant at the same time.  I bet a lot of folks would've enjoyed this in 2001, there just aren't a ton of people who want those kind of experiences today.  I'll wheel this out for two player bouts now and then if I have mates round, and fully expect to be told that it's shit, but it's not...it's just a bit undercooked for a modern release.  Just about happy with the £16 I paid.  Licensed games with half the pertinent licenses missing are a pet peeve of mine - the Back to the Future Pinball FX3 table has a don't-call-the-lawyers theme tune and randoms providing the Marty/Doc/George speech snippets (ergo what's the fucking point?), but thankfully this has all the necessary likenesses, tunes etc. in place (admittedly it may not be the original voice cast, but it does that JRPG thing of characters blurting out 'hmmm' 'aha', 'what?' alongside the text boxes, so it doesn't matter).

I might hit 200 if I continue to rinse the Capcom Collection. Or buy the second set of packs. Loving the arcade tour so far, didn't realise how many games from different eras were on there - I assumed they'd mostly be from maybe '89-94ish but there are a few from the early 00s (or very late 90s, can't remember what the title screen to Giga Wing said off the top of my head).

Edit: 1999

I might 'complete' some games in half an hour each to bump my numbers up this year.

Actually played something like an hour of Vampire Survivors, that's gonna count.