18th April 2010, 3:05 PM
Great Rumbler Wrote:I just don't see how you can complain about the difficulty in Contra III, but then gush about Hard Corps.
First -- Contra isn't a series I played as a kid. I can't remember ever playing Contra then, beyond maybe level one of the NES game sometime or something like that. So it's not a series I have much nostalgia for. The first Contra game I owned was Hard Corps for the Genesis, which I got in 2005 or 2006 some time after getting the system.
Oh, Hard Corps is insanely difficult. I've never gotten more than three or maybe four levels into the game. I like the game anyway, though, for whatever reason. It is the first Contra game I owned, so there is that to probably help explain it. It's a more complex game than Contra III, manages to pull off many of the same visual effects on much weaker hardware and more (the scaling effects they pulled off on a stock Genesis are just amazing). It's basically a long series of high-intensity bossfights, with short levels in between.
Contra III feels like a step back in comparison, with the completely lame plot, identical characters, etc. Also it's an early SNES game, and doesn't push the hardware as much as Hard Corps does the Genesis. It's too bad that there was never a second SNES Contra game, it'd have been interesting to see them hopefully push it more (though of course with Castlevania, it's actually the first game that pushes the system more... but that's one of SNES Dracula X's major disappointments of course, along with how much worse it is than the TGCD game.).
Quote:Or complain about how Contra III is really basic, but then gush about Rendering Ranger.
R2 has a very different style of gameplay within the genre from Contra,though. It's much more like a linear, simplified Turrican game than anything else, I think... with full aiming control, instead of just being able to fire left and right like in Turrican games (Yes, you have things like the freeze ray, missiles, etc, but your main gun is left or right only). I just played to level four of R2 and then a bit of Super Turricans 1 and 2, the full aiming control of R2 makes things so much easier and more fun... but the games do all have some clear similarities.
Oh, R2's first shmup level is level 2. Then there are several shmup levels in a row before you return to the run & gun stages. I definitely think that it's a great game, with great graphics, great gameplay, and lots of fun. You think that those levels are long though? Really? They aren't long. Ten minutes... what? Neither of the first two levels are anywhere near that long. The environments are a little repetitive, but still, the game keeps things mixed up and challenging. The pits are the main challenge in level 1 really, I only died once from enemy fire versus five or six times from falling in pits. :)
I did get game over before reaching the level 1 boss the first time I played today, but I was within a few screens of the boss and again had only actually been killed by enemy fire once. The next time I did much better and beat the level, then beat levels 2 and 3 too before getting another game over and stopping.
Good points of the game:
-Fantastic graphics, as good or better than anything on the system.
-Incredible speed -- no matter how many sprites are on screen, the game never slows down. That's just unbelievable for SNES games with no addon chips!
-Full aiming control, you can fire in every direction.
-L and R allow you to fire at a 90 degree angle up or down without moving! Once you get used to this, it's very hard to go back...
-Nice variety of weapons and gameplay, good balance too (when you die the weapon you have equipped is reduced to its lowest level, but you keep the others at full power... reminds me a bit of Lightening Force's system).
-Password save system and infinite continues means that you will actually beat it, and won't be frustrated with having to start over from the beginning yet again after getting 90% of the way through the game or something.
-It's nowhere near as hard as any Contra game (I consider this a good thing)
-Good music
Bad things? Um... uh...
-Japan only release, and even there it is very rare. Expect to pay triple digits for this game.
-I'm not sure whether the rendered graphics were an improvement over the original sprite work.
-Somewhat repetitive graphics, each level looks different but within each level things do start to look similar.
-It is frustrating when you die and your best weapon gets reduced to zero power... sometimes in the first level particularly I think it might be more fun to start over than continue, if you die with the full-power spread shot late in the stage... but that's how games like this go, so I don't consider this a big negative.
It's really a very good game, with great action, great design, fun levels to play through, and more.
Super Turrican and Super Turrican 2, in comparison?
-More complex controls -- Super Turrican 2 has the grappling hook, there's the ice beam in the first one, Mega Turrican has the rope, etc. You have more moves and it takes longer to get used to how to play than the pretty straightforward R2.
-More open level designs, particularly in Mega Turrican and Super Turrican 1. Super Turrican 2 does have a couple of open levels too, but is mostly linear; R2 is entirely linear. Of course the first two Turrican games have gigantic, open levels, utterly unlike pretty much anything in the later games. If you think R2's levels are somehow too long (I don't really understand why, they aren't that long I thought... not short, certainly, but not THAT long), I'm not going to hold out any hope that you're going to like Turricans 1 or 2... but anyway.
-Also great graphics and sound
All of these games (Turrican, R2) have a similar style, which makes sense because they're all from some closely related German developers, Rainbow Arts and Factor 5. Perhaps you just don't like that style of European action games, some people don't.
Quote:Or complain about how Bloodlines doesn't have 8-way attack, but then gush about Hard Corps.
Contra isn't Castlevania... I don't expect everything to have 8-way attack. Has any Contra game had it? That is one thing that makes the games harder, though, certainly, and yes it'd be nice to see a Contra game with 8-way attack...
On that note, GunForce actually DOES have full all-way attacking, like R2. Yes, really. Metal Slug of course only has up/left/right attacking, unless you're using a machinegun or somesuch, but in GunForce you have full control of where you are attacking. And you're right, it is better. It's one more reason why I like the game. :)
Quote:And as for Rendering Ranger's graphics: nothing animates! Everything just slides across the screen as static image, except for the player character.
That's true for plenty of SNES games though... and there is some animation, like the turrets turning to fire at you and stuff. And the player character has great animation. Plus the other stuff dies pretty fast, so who cares. :)