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Post by OrochiGeese on Oct 27, 2022 7:13:40 GMT
Recently I've been playing two games a lot:
Super Mega Baseball 3 - Got into it more recently and trying to go up difficulty levels while maintaining my hitting. Trying to improve my defense and pitching too. Also still enjoying a super casual homerun derby experience on the lower levels. I use a few of my e-fed characters (the Walkers) on my main team. Robin Walker has this consistently canonical tendency of hitting a line drive into the pitcher at least once a game. This happened last night and the pitcher got hit in the beanballs 😂
Double Dragon & Kunio-kun: Retro Brawler Bundle - I bought this a few years back and get wildly into it for a few weeks every few months or so. That happened again last last week. Playing my share of River City Ransom and Baseball Stars. Also discovered Nekketsu Fighting Legend which is like a Nekketsu version of Smash Brothers. I think it's the first multi-player fighting game ever actually. You can even do a 4 player match. And I've been enjoying the Nekketsu version of soccer and hockey. This includes the super confusingly named: "Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club - Soccer Story". Is it dodgeball or is it soccer? It's soccer but performed by the dodge ball club. Oh Kunio, you trickster! 😁
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Post by Shadow Master on Nov 10, 2022 2:59:43 GMT
Splatterhouse Wankpaku Graffiti:
One game that I return to every Halloween is a little known Famicom title called Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti.
Unlike other Splatterhouse games, Wanpaku Graffiti dials back on the gore and goes for a more cartoonish, lighthearted approach, with a side of humour for good measure..
  The bosses and enemies also pay tribute to many popular Horror icons. The first encounter is a moon-walking Dracula who's theme is a direct tribute to Michael Jackson's Thriller. The blue-skinned demon child is a fitting tribute to Reagan from The Exorcist.   The next boss features face huggers (from the Alien series) bursting through the body of a sleeping woman; followed by a tribute to Sci-Fi horror classic "The Fly". From Ghostbuster's Slimer, to a slightly-recoloured Jaws, to Cropsy from The Burning and a copyright-friendly renaming of "Diamond Lake" (Jason Voorhees eat your heart out), Wanpaku Graffiti is chock full of horror movie references. |
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Post by Nth on Nov 10, 2022 7:19:03 GMT
I’ve got God of War Ragnarok in the mail and Tactics Ogre Remake Pre-ordered digitally. Probably going to hold off on Gungrave and Evil West until the new year since I’m losing four shifts on our December shutdown.
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Post by TwistC on Nov 11, 2022 15:21:49 GMT
Been playing Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher on switch (exclusively as of now) as my first monster rancher title, and its been very enjoyable everything is surprisingly deep, especially the battle system which relies on each attack being from a different distance to pull off, and a 60 second timer. I've found myself playing more and more defensively/using animations to waste time in order to win victories by decision.
the artstyle is what has wowed me the most while playing as it opts for rubber suit style (my current monster cant even close their eyes while sleeping lol)  if you're wondering why my kaijiu is named "the-dmx-kaiju", its because the game allows you to use a database of a ton of old (and some new) songs to spawn monsters. This is only in the asian physical release and japanese release, because seemingly it was too much of a copyright danger (even though monster rancher 1 and 2 DX released a bit earlier in the states with the exact same database). The song I chose was DMXs Its Dark And Hell Is Hot's intro, so if you ever wondered that song would look like as a physical kaiju, there you go. side point: this database is offline and on the cart itself, so itll be accessible even if some legality issues were ever to come up
also ill just mention this as well, you can scan NFC stuff to generate items and monsters, including your credit card and skylanders stuff lol. A big gimmick of this game is that before your monster retires, you have to fuse that monster with another monster in order to carry on stats/traits/moves. I am in my first run right now so I haven't reached that point of the game yet.
most of the games I end up playing are more retro, but I just remembered this thread existed and this game is what im actually playing right now so.
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Post by BakFu on Nov 11, 2022 18:15:26 GMT
I’ve seen monster rancher titles available and wondered if they still have some form of scanning or something to generate monsters. Thanks for the rundown, and I love the rubber kaiju look of the monsters, too!
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Post by Shadow Master on Dec 9, 2022 12:00:13 GMT
With work requiring me to be out of the house 12 hours a day, I unfortunately, don't have much time to create content in Fire Pro World. Luckily, I discovered a portable SNES emulator to help make those long trips bearable. In portable form, the one game I've been enjoying lately is 1994 cult classic Natsume Championship Wrestling.  The cheesy post-match dialogue is totally 90's. LARIATOOOOOooooOOOOOoooo!  Ladies and gentlemen....your new Champion!
Touch screen configurations and Wrestling games don't always pair together smoothly, but Natsume Championship Wrestling's controls are quite responsive in mobile form. The same can also be said for the Super Famicom Zen Nippon Pro-Wrestling series, too. |
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Post by Nth on Dec 14, 2022 19:42:48 GMT
Still in love with the classic 16bit era of JRPG's of the SNES days I recently picked up Chained Echoes. A new release that takes inspiration from Golden Era classics Chrono Trigger and Xenogears. Really liking it so far, both as a nostalgia play through of a simpler era of JRPG's but also a pretty decent story so far. Also airships and mecha.
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Post by OrochiGeese on Dec 15, 2022 4:41:09 GMT
Wow, thanks for posting that! I put it on my Steam Wishlist seconds into watching the video! 👏
Really impressed by the visuals, variety of experiences offered, and overall 90's JPRG vibe 😄
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Post by Shadow Master on Dec 23, 2022 16:21:07 GMT
Over in the "Wrestler appearances in other video games" thread, I wrote about recently discovering an obscure, mobile Wrestling game from Japan called Gong Wrestling. Despite being released in 2016, Gong Wrestling is still available for purchase in the Google Play store for only a buck. Starting up Winter work with a new phone, Gong Wrestling was the first game I downloaded. Simple, responsive controls and a cast of 8 legends to choose from. There's even an online play function (but good luck finding anyone to face).  Recently, I cleared the game with all eight playable characters. Would I recommend? If you're a hardcore Puroresu fan, then yes. I just wish there were more moves and characters to choose from. |
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Post by BakFu on Dec 23, 2022 19:26:13 GMT
Wow! Andreil Bosch Is so much bigger than Mario Greyla!!!
Is that AEW? Everyone in that picture has a belt. 😁
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Post by BakFu on Jan 8, 2023 7:04:26 GMT
I grabbed a couple of nicely discounted arcade throwbacks during the recent Switch sales. First one is called Hotshot Racing, a surprisingly large, complete, and competent racer that resembles the old Sega Daytona game but plays like a Ridge Racer title. This game is a total gem with tons of modes, and eight racers (with four different cars each) to choose from. I paid less than $5 CAN for this title, and it’s hard to put down! If you’re looking for a really fun arcade style racer, here’s your game! m.youtube.com/watch?v=0SNxKstWaKwThe other title is a SHMUP titled Raging Blasters. This is not a bullet hell ballet, it feels more like old cabinet vertical scroll shooters like 1942 and the like. One button focuses your guns straight ahead, the other spreads your shots out diagonally in four directions. There are five, non upgradable power ups to get, all useful, some more in certain situations than others, so combat is refreshingly simplified relative to other SHMUPs. This one is a lot of fun, and would serve as a great gateway into the genre for curious gamers, or could just be a fun shooter for those already at the party! This one was less than $10 CAN, and worth way more! m.youtube.com/watch?v=wistK6nwUTA |
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Post by Shadow Master on Jan 11, 2023 18:25:57 GMT
Getting my butt handed to me trying to figure out a very rare, incredibly unknown Spanish title from 1986 by the name of Wrestling on the MSX.
 On startup, be prepared to wait a VERY long time for matches to start.  In Wrestling, the player controls an Antonio Inoki clone ...who fights other Antonio Inoki clones under different names. The first palette swap opponent is "Tiger Man", a character meant to resemble Tiger Mask. Tiger Man even has Tiger's trademark Rolling Sobat spinkick. Should any of you wish to try this Wrestling obscurity (and perhaps progress farther than I, or anyone else has), you can play Wrestling below (online emulator already included): ![]() msxgamesworld.com/software-emulator.php?id=4206CONTROLS (from my current progress): Up, down, left, right - move character Page Down (pg dn button) attack |
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Post by Shadow Master on Jan 16, 2023 4:03:47 GMT
If you were to ask me what my favourite version of Fire Pro Wrestling is, I'd probably answer with Super Fire Pro-Wrestling Special on the Super Famicom. While Special may not look as good as X Premium from a graphical standpoint, the smoothness in Special's gameplay, diverse cast
of Wrestlers to choose from and infamous story mode are worthy of similar praise in their own right.
 Jake The Snake Roberts - one of the hidden Wrestlers found in Special's Edit mode, prepares to deliver a DDT on Sting!
I think the biggest hurdle that has prevented Special from garnishing more praise in the west is Special's game menus and story mode dialogue; both of which are almost entirely written in Japanese. Over the years, I've tried to help players outside of Japan find more enjoyment out of Special. From writing the first-ever (but not perfect) FAQ for the game back in 2017, to posting Youtube videos and scanning/translating original game guides dedicated to Special's inner-workings. In fact, it was writing the original guide for Special that inspired me to start learning Japanese (specifically the Katakana portion). A skill I have used on a professional level in the past - that's the power of Super Fire Pro-Wrestling Special. About six years after posting the Special FAQ, players continued to ask for an official English translation rom hack. Thus began a translation project here on the Critical Club forums. This time around, I decided to clear up any confusion by providing translations screen by screen as I continued to translate Special (again) for the second time. 1,400+ screenshots and roughly three years later (and with the help of a select group of very talented contributors) 90 percent of Special has been translated. Talk about a labour of love. All that's left is to finish up the Edit mode and the game is ready to be sent over to anyone skilled enough with table/hex editing to modify the text inside of Special. Maybe after 28 years, hopefully Special will finally get the respect it deserves with an English translation; joining the hallowed ranks of it's 16-bit counterpart Super Fire Pro-Wrestling X Premium. |
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Post by Nth on Jan 22, 2023 4:16:34 GMT
35 hours into Chained Echoes. Still on Act II of III. Game has turned out to be quite expansive. Hoping to get through it before I go on vacation. I finally picked up Syphon Filter 3 now that it just released and I want to give the entire trilogy a playthrough again.
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Post by Shadow Master on Jan 26, 2023 5:06:30 GMT
Since All Japan Pro-Wrestling just celebrated their 50th anniversary, I decided to load up Zen Nippon 2: 3.4 Budokan.
For those that don't know, the "3.4" portion of the game's title is actually meant to represent the date in which AJPW hosted main events at the Budokan arena.
The game itself is actually considered the second game in the Zen Nippon series (following the first game & Dash - which was essentially a tag team update of
the first title).
Besides being loads of fun to play, Budokan is probably one of the earliest examples of a booking simulator in a Wrestling game. In Budokan's main mode, players
can assign referees, choose to participate in matches, or allow the game to sim CPU matches in their place. The number of people in attendance will also increase
depending on how exciting the card is! Do well enough, and the arena will display a sold out crowd.
At the very end of the show, Giant Baba will grade the player's performance. Use special moves too much and Baba will comment. Bounce the opponent off the ropes
and Baba will suggest avoiding that technique in future playthroughs. Pretty revolutionary stuff for a game that came out in 1994!
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