Gaming Journals

Various: Mega Man Legends 1 & 2, SSF4: AE Stuff

October 9, 2011 in Gaming | Tags: capcom, mega man legends, street fighter iv | by Aquas | 1 comment

Haven’t written one of these in a while, nor has many others on this site. We’ve all neglected it, but let’s put that aside and talk about games again.

For a couple of months I had an inkling to play the Mega Man Legends series again. These thoughts consisted mostly of the fact that I enjoyed it when I was 16 and it was cool and enjoyable. Riding this thought was also the fact I superficially decided against playing through Mega Man Legends 2. I set it aside because the control scheme was not exactly the same, or so I thought at the time. I don’t know where my copies of the games went off to, so I chose to emulate them in ePSXe.

Revisiting Mega Man Legends was a generally enjoyable experience. I often find myself critiquing a game’s difficulty as if it weighs on the experience heavily, but I’m not sure it’s always exactly warranted. That being said, Mega Man Legends is an easy game. This didn’t matter much to me as I spent much of the game in feelings of nostalgia. The shard of my 16 year old self coming through my memories of Rock and Roll’s prepubescent voices, Tiesel’s cocky shouting and Bonne’s lovesick quivering. Also in zooming around in the jet skates. Gotta love those jet skates.

Another reason for wanting to play MML again was because I did indeed want to give the sequel a real chance. Another part was probably the hubbub surrounding Mega Man Legends 3 cancellation. I wanted to see if finishing Mega Man Legends 2 would make me one of the many distraught MML fans who really wanted that sequel.

Having finishing the game, I think a third game would be very cool, especially in this age of gaming where a company like Capcom is expected to put out a triple A product for such a franchise. At the same time I’m not disappointed or upset. But if a new game came out, I would expect a much, much larger world than the previous 2 games. That reality excites me. As both games end you wish there was more to do and explore.

Mega Man Legends 2 was a good sequel. Many aspects of the original were improved upon. Notably I liked the new areas, bosses and enemies, as well as the new ruin areas. Since you travel to different islands in this game, instead of being stuck on one (Kattelox) there are varied scenes. Snow, desert, tropical. Getting this variety was refreshing and I loved the music for the different areas, as well as the battle tracks that play when Reaverbots shoot out of the ground in the over world.

One thing I missed about the first game was the ruins being interconnected with each other. That gave the world an interesting sense of cohesiveness. But in 2 it’s not there at all, in continuity to the setting.

Overall it was a carefully made game with the heart of Capcom that made it worth playing. And another one of those games that makes me laugh.

Moving on then to another Capcom title, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.

I managed to place 4th at my last local tournament. It consisted of about 40 entrants. Normally I don’t get past a 4th opponent. But this time, I finally performed in a satisfactory way. For many months I was having trouble adjusting to delay PS3 and HDTV’s introduce to the game. This is noticeable to me because I play the game on a 360, which has 1 less frame of input delay and because I play on a CRT which is about another frame of delay. I was having trouble hitting my 1 frame links and for my character Rose this is important because her most important link is 1 frame. Messing it up can lead to a big punish… anyway. I finally adjusted to it and that may be why I did better this time around.

I was put into the Loser’s bracket by a Blanka player which is hard for Rose… and I wasn’t very experienced in the match. After that I had to fight a Ken player who eliminated me in a previous tournament. I managed to beat him and after that I seemed to ride a momentum, knocking out about 5 other players. E.Honda, Cammy, (Balrog, Ryu,) Sagat players also fell to my Rose. I got to our strong Dudley player and lost fairly convincingly. But the best part is I have officially earned money playing a fighting game. Which is…. something. I profited $5 for placing 4th. Overall I’m satisfied but I’ve been putting some time into learning Evil Ryu and Makoto lately. Playing Rose all the time isn’t the most fun for me. I hope to do better next tournament but I need to practice more for sure.

Burnout 2 Time Attack, part 2

July 8, 2011 in Games | Tags: Burnout 2, Racing, Time Attack | by Ghegs | Leave a comment

After a week or so of playing Ocean Sprint (R) I managed to get sub-1:42. First I just shaved off tenths of seconds, went from 1:42,099 to 1:42,050 and 1:42,016, until I finally hit 1:41,783. Then I tightened it up a bit and got 1:41,633, which is my current best.

Almost immediately after my last post I went and tried a Dualshock 2. I had previously tested only the first Dualshock model, and the analog sticks feel and handle quite different there. Dualshock 2 fares much better, it still has a slightly larger deadzone than the Hori Anashin pad I used at the beginning, but it’s so much smoother and I feel have much better control with it. So I went and bought a brand-new Dualshock 2 and that’s my weapon of choice now.

I also revised my line going through the tunnel. My previous line was fast, but only if nothing went wrong while entering the tunnel. Nine times out ten something went wrong, either I missed the very narrow gap between wall and civillian car I need to squeeze through, or the said car happened to spawn as a semi-truck that time, making the gap nonexistant. So it became rather frustating. My current line is safer in that it gives me a better view of the tunnel going in, so I quickly see if there’s a car I need to avoid.

I’ve now spent almost ten hours on this one track that lasts under two minutes. Oddly, I still haven’t gotten bored with it, but I am annoyed at not knowing how to significantly improve my time. I could still tighten up some turns, but I think that would only get me to a low 1:41. At 1:41,633 I’m still over three seconds away from the WR 1:38,216. I’m gonna be really pissed off if I discover the owner of that time did it while playing the game at 50hz. For some reason the game’s leaderboards are mostly filled by Europeans.

I should probably test that, actually. Play the game in 50hz and see if my times are consistent with my 60hz times. Just to put my mind to rest. If it turns out I get better times that way I can drop the game. If not, maybe I’ll play another track for a while. Still got two other point-to-point (plus reversed versions) tracks to attack.

Dragon Warrior 4 Adventures Part 1

July 8, 2011 in Gaming | Tags: dragon quest, jrpg, mother, nes | by Aquas | Leave a comment

Lately it had been on my mind that I was interested in starting up some kind of RPG. In my friends radio talk show, she talked about her Top 3 NES games and Dragon Warrior 4 was one of them. When I heard this I thought, “well, I haven’t really played any the DQ games all the way through, nor do I ever hear praise for the NES DQ games, why don’t I try it?” and so I have and I am.

Like I mentioned I only played some of DQ VIII on the PS2 and honestly I wasn’t big on it… the game took a while to get going and then I game over’d in a really lame dungeon and called it quits. Perhaps the game deserves a little more credit from me.

Another reason I was interested in trying a NES DQ game was just to see for myself all the similarities to it and the Mother series which blatantly clones many of the DQ game’s aspects. The text that runs during battles, your party wiping out and not having to start from when you last saved, each character having their own limited inventory space (I actually love this aspect of EarthBound.)

Even in Dragon Warrior 4, the game is divided into chapters and each thus far start you with a completely different character whom you aim to meet up with the rest of the characters. I’ve always loved this aspect of the mother games, mostly for 2 and 3, and it’s a pleasure to experience it again from the place it came from. I love it because you get to have more fun with the initial leveling up process and I like how each character can differ stat and skill wise early on.

I’ve really been enjoying the game. A very charming experience for an NES RPG. I haven’t had to grind all that much, just what was needed. I just started Chapter 3 which stars a character who aims to be the best arms merchant in the world. You need a little patience to play this game but not much, the battles and text go by quickly.

Magic Drift

June 28, 2011 in Games | Tags: Burnout 2, Racing, Time Attack | by Ghegs | Leave a comment

I’ve returned to playing Burnout 2 which I still consider the best in the series. It was a bit of a learning (or unlearning, I should say) curve to forget about the 360′s lovely analog stick and triggers and go back to PS2′s stick and using the face buttons for acceleration and brake. The deadzone on the PS2′s analog stick felt huge so I opted to use my trusty Hori Anashin 2 pad with a more comfortable one. I got the hang of it now, but my car’s movements aren’t nearly as smooth as they were with the 360 pad.

My long-term goal is to time attack the point-to-point tracks in Burnout 2 and beat the best times I can find on the Internet. The best times I’ve found are listed on http://www.cyberscore.me.uk and http://www.vgr-fr.com so those two sites will act as my benchmark.

First target: Ocean Sprint (R), my all-time favourite track in the game. Not sure why I like the reversed version more. Best time is 1:38.216, my time is currently at a hair over 1:42. I’ve been playing the track seriously for maybe a week now and have improved my time almost every day.

First improvement came from just remembering how to do the boost start again. It has been a while since I played the game last. Second came from switching to manual transmission. Thanks Outrun Online Arcade, I used to avoid MT before you came along. The biggest improvement which shaved off whole seconds off my time came from figuring out how to boost my way through the tunnel located at roughly the midpoint of the track. It requires taking a slightly unorthodox line in order to avoid both the cars and the walls, with the boost on it’s quite easy to hit either otherwise. Now I can boost my way through the whole track.

My best run still had some small issues with, mostly how I lose time in some corners so hitting 1:41.xxx shouldn’t be a problem, but with my current approach I can’t beat 1:38.216. I do have some ideas on better lines at few places (the last three corners, mainly) so I’m going to have to start trying those. The difference between #1 and #2 times is pretty huge (1.6 seconds) so there might be something big I’m still missing.

Links of possible interest:
Track records @ VGR
Track records @ Cyberscore
Ocean Sprint map, the reversed track I’m playing goes from left to right.

Having the traffic sort of randomized even in Time Attack mode is a bit annoying. There’s usually always a car in the same spot every time, only sometimes it’s a normal car and other times a semi-truck. There’s one point in particular on this track where this is an important factor. Also, the tunnel I mentioned before is really harsh in this case. After the first cars (which are always there) there can be 0, 1 or 2 cars inside the tunnel, one of them in the oncoming lane hidden behind the corner. You either take a risk or a safer line at that point. Kind of a bummer, but I guess the best players will get the best times regardless.

Also, there’s a weird timer-related thing going on. When checking my recorded footage I noticed that the final time is a bit different from what the timer reads when I cross the finish line. I’m not sure if that’s a bug or if the game just doesn’t do the real-time timer correctly or what. Haven’t found any mention of it anywhere. If somebody else has the game and the possibility to check this out, lemme know how your game handles it.

Street Fighter IV — The Madness

June 6, 2011 in Gaming | by Aquas | Leave a comment

Some of you may know I’ve taken up playing Super Street Fighter IV, and have aimed to play at a tournament level. But something’s still missing with my play to become where I want it to be. Specifically with my character Rose.

For now I think I just need more discipline to my training. Right now I only practice FADC combos and my combos, safe jump timing practice and occasionally matchup specific things regarding which moves beat what. My safe jumps do need some work. And it’s finally coming to fruition about what it takes to play a fighting game competitively. Which is exciting as a new, serious fighting game player.

I’ve been to three SSFIV tournaments so far using Rose. But I haven’t made it past a 3rd opponent yet. I want to break through this barrier, at least. But now Super is over and Arcade Edition is taking over the tournament scene. I will still be using Rose unless I find a good reason to switch. But I’d like to try the new characters at least, they are all pretty neat. I’m most interested in Evil Ryu and I admit for fanboy reason. He’s just so damn evil!!

Almost bought the farm!

May 26, 2011 in Gaming | Tags: arcade, area 88, capcom, carrier air wing, shmups, stg, un squadron | by Aquas | Leave a comment

Since my UN Squadron post I started playing the arcade version and it’s really good. I got the 1cc after 4 hours of practice. Not too hard and still a very fun game. I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a game to 1cc.

Anyway I just tried the hardest mode on the arcade version, difficulty 8 (Hardest), 4 being normal. Finding the normal mode being a tad easy, I wanted to see what hardest offered. From what I could tell all the non-popcorn enemies have a bit of more health, bosses and their parts have more health, and bullets are faster and for boss battles, are shot out notably more frequently. I managed to squeak by with a couple save state re-dos on two of the bosses up to Mission 7 I believe which has the Minks, the ocean battleship stage.

While the large cannons on the battleship having more health put a wrench in the mix, also these napalm dropping popcorn ships just constantly come in after each other. Much more frequently than normal difficulty. This made it so I couldn’t hover by the large cannons as the screen scrolled at the beginning of the fight to destroy the cannons. The napalm would make me fly up. But then I couldn’t deal much damage except with my sub-weapon and enemy fire filled the screen too much. I’m stumped right now as to how to beat it, at least using Shin. Maybe Greg’s downwards shot could do it.

Since I got the 1cc on U.N. Squadron (AC) I tried Carrier Air Wing. Cool game. I like it. Similar to U.N. Squadron and similar quality from what I could tell. I’ll try to play it a bit more, maybe go for 1cc.

As for my SNES adventures, they have been discontinued as my buddy asked for his SNES back before I expected him too. The next adventure was going to be for Illusion of Gaia and Super R-Type. I got to play Gaia a bit though. Oh well.

Fresh-cut fruit

May 20, 2011 in Gaming | Tags: caravan, casual games, fruit ninja, mobile games, score attack, video games | by Raydere | Leave a comment

In the midst of my studying for final exams, I decided to pick up a neat little “casual” game known as Fruit Ninja.

The game consists of cutting up fruit thrown onto the screen for points by swiping across the touchscreen–somewhat like cutting enemies in Mazan: Flash of the Blade or possibly whipping enemies in Castlevania: The Arcade. Swiping 3 or more fruit in a single quick stroke yields a combo bonus. In two of the three 1P modes, bombs also pop onto the screen to hinder the player; a cut bomb in the standard mode yields an instant game over, while a cut bomb in arcade mode removes points.

I’ve been mainly working on Zen mode, a 90-second mode with no bombs and infinite lives. Seems like the more balanced of the two “caravan” modes; Arcade mode has the hazard of bombs (which I miss seeing in Zen mode), but the existance of status buff bananas tend to make this mode somewhat luck-based, meaning that equal performance across several rounds may not yield consistent scores.

Maybe I’ll try the standard mode, but it being an endless mode, it’s hard to play when I’m pressed for time.

My current Arcade record is 475, and my current Zen record is 228, and I play on a Motorola Atrix. It being widescreen, the game forcily stretches itself to fill the screen, an effect that really grinds my gears, and the Atrix’s touchscreen is prone to derping at times (twisting lightly on the phone seems to fix this). Anyways, if you play this game, add me on OpenFeint! My (current) username is Raydere no Bousou.

Aqy’s SNES Journeys – Part 5 (Super Castlevania IV)

May 12, 2011 in Gaming | Tags: castlevania, konami, konami kukeiha club, sidescroller, simon belmont, snes | by Aquas | 1 comment

This box art is hype!

boring US logo

Super Castlevania IV has always been a favorite SNES game of mine. I never owned it but I rented it as a kid. Even back then, I was instantly enchanted by the uniquely dark atmosphere of the game. I primarily attribute this to the soundtrack which is unlike any other SNES soundtrack. The various instrumentation: wind instruments, piano, orchestral strings, electric organ, horns, realistic and earthy bass sounds and percussion, all come together to make the side scrolling legend Castlevania come to be more imaginative than it is on screen and in game play. The soundtrack is what I always liked most about the game, though the presentation and game play are nothing short of classic Castlevania. Rondo of Blood is also lauded for its soundtrack and both are wonderful, but Super Castlevania IV’s music always leaves me in awe because of what it did with the SNES hardware.

bad ass jpn logo

Revisiting the game has been a treat. The intro sets a serious tone as a grave is struck by lightning and explodes, revealing a bat (presumably Dracula) who flaps around and flies away into a purple night. Then mist and a wailing siren eerily que the story text and you begin to think you’re going to play the best game ever. The first stage starts and the Theme of Simon plays, immediately an organ shouts a triumphant melody and you’re whipping the shit out of skeletons and doing the signature Belmont strut. Fuck yeah.

Medusa puked everywhere!

Stage 2 begins as Simon enters “The Forest of Monsters,” the music is still upbeat but the melody isn’t strong anymore, instead the song’s flow is in the bass line. Like Simon’s legs in the stage’s running stream, pushing you forward. It’s apparent now that you’re edging closer to the evil as new enemies and hazards appear. So you get the idea. Every stage and part of this game is so accentuated by the soundtrack. As a lover of game music I can’t help but adore this game for what it’s done in that department. I also enjoy the usage of some old Castlevania things. There are yellow zombies that when killed make a sound that is taken from Haunted Castle (the arcade Castlevania.) It’s the sound of your Grandpa who smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day for longer than he could hope for, croaking for thinking he could land a jump off of his Grandson’s swing-set while drunk as a kite. Then I liked seeing the spiders from Simon’s Quest that simply dangle down and shoot a smaller spider at you. Nostalgic little fuckers, they are. There were other continuities of course but those were my favorite.

I’d say the game is worthy of the “Super” in its title. All signs point to the fact that Konami wanted better hardware to explore the unique mood of Castlevania. The graphics are colorful and the use of scrolling and foreground/background is good. Some things are pretty, specifically the detail of the enemies and bosses. But some of the background textures look like puke. I honestly thought my game was glitching because of how garbled some of the textures are. This is really my only nitpick with the game. The graphics merely pass the test of time.

Platforming stage, somber tone

In this game you can fling your whip diagonally and dangle it and swing it around for less damage. Also you can control your jump fairly well. None of these things compromised the fun factor of the game play or made it less “Castlevania” for me. I was still getting knocked into pits and dying instantly from spikes, so that’s left in tact. Also you can crouch walk which has a purpose for a total of like 4 parts of the game. The game is pretty helpful with the locations of health items in the stages, so I didn’t have a lot of trouble getting through the game, only after about 6 continues. Struggling with certain spots briefly. This time playing, however, I realized that the game is harder on the 2nd run through. I gave it a run and it was a good change of difficulty. Not annoying, not unfair, just more enemies and enemies take more hits to kill. Because of this, certain sections require your strategy to be tweaked a little. Figuring out those new strategies was a joy. And I finished the game on my second continue. My favorite boss is the bat made of gold, whom when attacked, sprinkles gold that can damage you. Watch out for that bat gold!

Best back of box description ever. The 90's.

Aqy’s SNES Journeys – Part 4 (U.N. Squadron)

May 6, 2011 in Gaming | Tags: nintendo, shmup, snes, stg, un squadron | by Aquas | 4 comments

U.N. Squadron is a special game for me. It was the first shmup I played that really made me want to play it more. This was way back when I was 9 or 10 years old when at first my brother had rented the game. I remember it being hooked up to a vintage TV that was sat upon an old wheeled piece of wooden furniture. In the basement my brother had a big sleep over with his friends, and to my recollection, they were all playing U.N. Squadron. Later when all of them were gone, I got to try the game… and I don’t know how well I did. But I knew it was cool. I rented the game later on and really enjoyed it.

Then the years passed and I’m probably 16 now, when one day I suddenly wanted to search out the game. I called a lot of game stores around my area and eventually found a place that had it. The smallest game store I had ever went to, a little place called Raven Games. This place was the size of a 15 foot by 10 bedroom. Walls completed shelved with games, and I’m sure a mother load of games under the counter or “in the back”. I picked up U.N. Squadron for $7 and the orange price tag is still on the cartridge I’m playing today. The cart is in poor condition. Grime is in the crevasses and the cover is partially peeled off, including the end label, as well as the back label completely scratched off.

What’s with people and their games sometimes? I wonder if the person who had the game originally was raging over how difficult it was, and released their anger on the cartridge in such a way.

But the difficulty is just right for beginners of the genre. You would get your ass kicked at first, but then you would buckle down and find out there wasn’t a strong threat in the game except your own haste and lack of strategy.

image links to page I stole it from

Now coming back to U.N. Squadron after gaining experience and knowledge of beating other shmups, it became easy. I realize now that there is a right way to play any shmup, and the game just wants to show you the way. In my first play through, I was automatically analyzing the screen for safe spots during the boss battles and I was able to utilize the special weapons to full effect. My experience with shmups showed. So I went all the way to the end and 1cc’d the game on my first visit back. With Greg Gates and 2 lives remaining. Wow!

Then I tired Hard Mode and did well until the last 3 stages. Then the difficulty began to equate to arcade level difficulty and I didn’t know the best strategy for the ceiling boss on hard mode. Hard Mode is nice though. The bosses are more aggressive and the enemies shoot more bullets and faster. I was using the whole screen to herd enemy fire, almost like a Gradius loop. Hard Mode is definitely more suited for me and I was having genuine fun. Playing the game made me remember that I wanted to tackle the arcade U.N. Squadron some more some time.

These type of games were just not prevalent enough to garner an obsessive attention from me. There were lots of cool games in the SNES era. And an SNES was all I had. Yeah I played Gradius III but I never owned it. I had the same impression with it. I thought it was cool but in the end it was just a “simple” shooting game that became very difficult near the end. It was only until I found out some shmups have scoring systems that I gave them the proper respect. …And that was another 5 years later!

All in all U.N. Squadron on the SNES is a stand-out port of the arcade game and has aged quite well.

BREAKING WAR NEWS !!!!

I found out that there is a “Gamer” mode which is an even harder difficulty. I will report on the war when the conflict has been confronted.

5-7-11 — AQY defeats HARD MODE and gets special ending message. He also tries the secret “Gamer” mode and finds it is more difficult than the switch from normal to hard. It became like P-47 Aces shit. Fast bullets that require memorized dodging!!! Also the 1 million dollar plane is over powered! lawl

Aqy’s SNES Journeys – Part 3 (ActRaiser Metroid Completion)

May 5, 2011 in Gaming | Tags: actraiser, enix, nintendo, snes, super metroid | by Aquas | 1 comment

Finishing Super Metroid was alright. As soon as I began any backtracking I felt like the magic of the game was lost. And that magic is the constant exploration of Zebes. I can see why Super Metroid became popular for speedrunning. Sequence breaking can be done in many different ways. Finished with 4:30-ish and 73% item collection. Never got the Spring Ball but now I know that you have to let this worm caterpillar dude to destroy some sand in your way. I love the final battle musics. They’re so serious and provoking. I saved the animals and escaped and that was it.

With Actraiser I began to maximize the populations in the different lands. Doing so is not hard at all, just tedious. So I want to say that even after knowing how to maximize the populations for each land, it really won’t matter that much by the end of the game. The difference between populating the lands unawares to knowing is only a few extra HP bars.

As it stands, the stages and bosses are fairly easy. Only because you can use a brute force / tank damage technique to beat most of the bosses. However if you don’t want to just tank the damage, you can fight them the real way, figuring out their patterns and such. Doing it that way is more fun. It would be a better challenge to just ignore the town segments and then face the stages with less MAX HP. The town simulation is just a novelty as far as it’s purpose. But it has it’s appeal. The masters of each land use peculiarly somber phrasing when they appeal to you. And what happens in the town stages helps define the struggle of the people and your role as God’s servant.

Enix really made ActRaiser awesome. I love it. And so glad I was able to play the same cartridge that came from the video store when I was 12.

I like that they added the Professional! mode, just the action stages with small enemies taking 2 hits, you take 2 HP instead of 1 HP on hit, and the bosses are slightly more aggressive. I got the nice message “You are the best player!!”

Thanks Enix.