ChopperByrne wrote:

Colony Wars was great.

I don't want to play it again and find out it's super clunky. I'll just keep my fond memories.

Red Sun holds up, I think. I played it fairly recently on handheld.

The first one plays well but has some jank in the difficulty - it felt punishing back in the day.
I never owned Vengeance.

Better than Hellfire??

Unlikely wrote:

Better than Hellfire??

Unlikely wrote:

Better than Hellfire??

He'll fire was too brutal for me

Forgot to cross-post this one:

Ranger-X - Mega Drive (55mins)

Stunning screen-push shmup* from 1993 that did all the right things in terms of rallying against the boundaries of the machine's specific technical limitations.  Much like Treasure's best work, visually this feels like proof certain things are indeed possible at times, and thankfully (much like Treasure's best work) the game backing up the puffed-chest graphics is no slouch either.  Sprite scaling and rotation were nice little buzzwords from the day, and both something MD owners were used to secretly seething about as, apparently, the SNES could push sprites in fancypants ways while standing on its head (although it turns out the SNES couldn't do it either, which I didn't know at the time, but it could skew background sprites).  So what happened was you started to get MD games that incorporated pseudo 3D effects or software based trickery that, to all intents and purposes, blew raspberries at the cocksure Nintullards.  Multi-jointed screen filling bosses that could transform into other bosses while you hurtled along in a minecart (Gunstar), Spinderella cranking the screen around while Headdy switched between foreground and background planes, faux sprite scaling in Panorama Cotton, snazzy spinning castletop battles in Castlevania: Bloodlines, rotating submarines deep within the map screen of Red Zone (wait, come back) and so on.  TLDR: certain developers could make the Mega Drive sing with more panache than it was ever intended to, and I don't think anything other than perhaps The Adventures of Batman & Robin looked quite as glorious as this, in terms of UNPOSSIBLE anyway (I'd also accept SOR2 or Story of Thor as the best looking MD games, amongst others).  The music is great too, which means that this looks and sounds like peak 16-bit Sega to me.  The stage where the lighting changes as you burst through the canopy of the trees is particularly kissable if you're a) a chef and b) loved it when the MD cooked the SNES.

Is the game any good though?  Yes.  It's not a full banger, and lower than Sub-Terrania on a list of my favourite Sega shmups of the era, but it plays pretty well once you get used to its various nuances.  Most stages see your mech - which is capable of 360 flight on a limited boost - accompanied by a companion contraption that can be climbed into and used to certain situations.  It's an intriguing design choice that works pretty well, particularly the bike which can be stood on or mighty morphed into for additional attack options.  Additional (missable) special weapons can be collected in various tucked away places throughout the levels, which can only be changed while connected to whatever mech buddy has tagged along for that particular stage.  It feels a touch cumbersome/slouchy in places admittedly, and your weapons do tend to suffer from the dreaded popgun feel throughout, but there's a good time here if you look for it.  As was the case with many Sega games of the era it's not a whopper, so for £45 a runtime of under an hour could be considered a bit of a swizz.  You'd need to get the hang of it to get through it properly though ofc - it's not an easy game on the default setting and continues are limited.  For a retro runthrough it's ideal though, and would make an inspired choice for the Tribute Games retraux resurrequel treatment. 90%.  

*I think this is what they're called?  I've seen it used once or twice anyway - not forced scrolling, the ones where the camera tracks the movement of your craft (think Bangai-O rather than Hellfire).

It is the best traditional Castlevania game.

Got a great PSP port, and can now also be easily played in Castlevania Requem on PS4/5.

I'm counting this one as a space shooter:

Panorama Cotton - Switch (40minutes)

The recent breakout of wasn't the Mega Drive ace? chat in the retro thread made me consider digging out a ROM of this one, but on my thrice weekly visit to the Eshop I realised that the Cotton games are all on sale. A series that passed me by completely.  After hovering over Cotton Fantasy for a while (at 75% off) I ended up plumping for this MD rerelease for £2.69, partly because I've always fancied checking it out and partly because Fantasy looks a bit shit.

Unlike the other Cotton shmups this one was a psudeo 3D rails shooter, and in terms of technical trickery it's easily one of the most flat out ridiculous 16-bit games ever.  It's an astonishing achievement for a MD game, to the point where it almost feels like a modern homebrew product designed to push the system with the added benefit of modern nous.  Forget the tongue-in-cheek console wars stuff just for a second - don't worry, normality will return in the next paragraph - this would be marginally less impressive on the SNES as it was better equipped to host these sort of visuals.  For a MD game however, given the way the Sega console tended to tick, this is a jaw-dropper.  Multiple layers of parallax scrolling give an impression of depth throughout the game, but how they managed to tease the Mode 7 effects out of the architecture is a mystery to me - there are a handful of occasions where a depth of field is created as one environment segues into another, and it's hugely impressive.  And also very SNES-like.  Go on admit it, all us Segafolk used to love a bit of impromptu into-the-screen action in our games.  Even into-the-camera stages were welcomed with open arms: Mickey Mania, Probotector, The Adventures of batman & Robin*.  Yep, sections akin to the worst parts of the Uncharted games were often the most impressive bits in our 2D platformers, simply because they were pushing the envelope (for the sake of it ofc - none of those sections stand out if you're focusing on gameplay).   

Panorama Cotton (great name btw) is essentially a Space Harrier clone that knocks the MD port of SHII into a cocked hat, and whilst the gameplay hasn't really stood the test of time - the let's push things forward types rarely do - it still lands somewhere between serviceable and decent.  It's surprisingly playable.  Obviously the visuals have a tougher time pulling the wool over modern eyes so I'm not going to sit here and call it a great game, but it's not a bad one and as an MD man it warmed my cockles.  It's mostly just shooting and weaving through bullets admittedly, with the added tactical nuke of a magic special, but that's what you got from rails shooters before the likes of Panzer Dragoon added the 360 thing.  You can also shift between three different speeds, and end-of-stage bonuses are doled out depending on how fast you played the majority of the stage.  It's simple but it works.  If you check an old rails shooter barometer (look away again quickly, Segachaps) it's better than Afterburner but worse than Starfox.  Plus there aren't any additional chips in the cart innit, ergo have one for your shoulder, Nintompoops - this is all done without cheating!!1  

Outside of the main visuals the general presentation is weird, which is usually the case with any Japanese game containing women tbf.  Why are fairies with human proportions lolling about in their smalls for cutscenes and level completion images?  Beats me, but someone must've been wanking to it otherwise what's the point?

In short then, a decent game with exceptional visuals for its time that may or may not be worth playing in 2023 - it all depends how much mileage you can eek out of the blast processing wow factor really.  I don't doubt that there are unknown rails shooter indies out there that are objectively 'better' (in fact I know there are, because I've played at least one), but they haven't been rolling in authentic Mega Drive pixie dust. 82%

NB: It's a barebones port so I should have just emulated it and spent the £2.70 on something else really.



*OK I know this gif goes into the screen but it reverses direction later in the boss battle.  Chef's kiss.

I might have a go of that one, I’ve had a soft spot for Space Harrier ever since Shenmue.

Aye...the only game in that style I can tolerate is Space Harrier. I just don't get on with the genre at all. I'm crap at Space Harrier but I do enjoy it for a quick blast. The JP Saturn port is basic but it supports the 3D pad and plays great. It also supports the Virtua On stick but that's a step too far even for me.

The Saturn Cotton games are now ludicrously expensive. Bear in mind that the Saturn ports on Switch are running in a Saturn emulator and I've heard the controls can be sluggish.

That MD game looks damn impressive btw.

After Burner and Space Harrier kinda relied on the OOOH factor of snazzy sit down coin-ops.  I do think Space Harrier is a decent game though.

Panzer Dragoon Zwei is arguably the best on-rails shooter ever made.

ChopperByrne wrote:

Panzer Dragoon Zwei is arguably the best on-rails shooter ever made.

It's Rez for me but PD Zwei is a great shout. I played it on Saturn but it got just a bit too ugly for me in places. Can't criticise the ambition and design of it though. Marvellous stuff.

Starfox 64 / Lylat Wars is best on rails shooter for me, magnificent space opera with bags of replayability and glorious set pieces.

I have very fond memories of Starfox on the snes.
Incredible game for its time. The graphics may have aged poorly but the gameplay still stands.

The pinnancle for on rail shooters for me is Rez, with PD orta a close second.

Not sure about space harrier and afterburner as I don't have much experience with them. Afterburner did introduce the lock on system if I remember correctly.

Galaxy Force was another on-rails by Sega. I never got to play the original but it got a solid Saturn port (now worth a packet). The J-PS2 got an "arcade perfect" port as part of the Sega Ages series but that's pricey too for what is a pretty basic game.

nick_md wrote:

Starfox 64 / Lylat Wars is best on rails shooter for me, magnificent space opera with bags of replayability and glorious set pieces.

My man [11]