What are you playing?

[Sarge]

Got to the 5th boss in Contra 3. WTF, I'm gonna vomit. This level sucks.

(Try it on Hard, it's even worse!)

[dunpeal2064]

Got to the 5th boss in Contra 3. WTF, I'm gonna vomit. This level sucks.

Yes, it does. That level is one of the worst I've played in a video game. You'll want to hold down the left shoulder button.

Even better, you can double-tap the shoulder button (Normally does a quicker rotation) and lock yourself into position. This works for both the boss, and the stage section with little whirlpools. Makes that boss infinitely more manageable

[Xeogred]

Operation C is amazing. The biggest challenge to me after playing the others, is adapting to the slower framerate. Makes it a little tricky to figure out new timing on dodging some stuff, haha. Got a game over on the 3rd boss, but maybe I can knock this one out today too.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Was still feeling in the Pikmin mood, and I've finally booted up Pikmin 3. It's so fun! I'm LOVING the quality of life improvements they've made over 2. Pikmin actually try to get out of water if they're just on the edge, they keep in a 3-4 Pikmin-wide line behind you, following the path you've walked (not just going in the straightest possible path to you), ONE OMNI-ONION. Flying Pikmin and Rock Pikmin are also fuckin' sick and way better than Purple and White ones were. I'm also glad they do SUCH a good job of telling you what the Pikmin can and can't do, or what their sub-specialties are. Like, Reds have always been the best fighters, but I think this is the first game where they explicitly tell you that.

[Xeogred]

Contra Hard Corps seems awesome, bigger in scope. For better or worse? I can't tell yet, but I hope this isn't the Castlevania 3 of Contra for me! Controls are kind of funky compared to the other games, so I have to adjust again. But I love the graphics/music. It's cool how insanely different Konami's entries between the SNES and Genesis are, Super CV4 vs Bloodlines, Contra 3 vs Hard Corps, they're super different.

Also gets me thinking, it doesn't seem like Capcom supported the Genesis nearly as much as the SNES back then? Some kind of Genesis Mega Man X would have been epic. But yeah their output seems way bigger on the SNES. They did some of the Disney stuff, but not the Genesis counterparts, etc.

[Gunstar Green]

Capcom just never really had a serious interest in it for whatever reason. Maybe it was their relationship with Nintendo at the time, maybe it was because the lack of popularity in Japan made them disinterested in sinking effort into developing for the system.

By contrast it seemed like Konami really liked playing with the hardware.

I think it worked out for the best in retrospect. We got some great X-Men and Disney games we probably wouldn't have if Capcom was developing those games for both systems. I would have loved more Mega Man on the Genesis but those guys were already busy enough churning out games for one console.

[Xeogred]

Don't you love when different consoles meant different things.

[Segata]

Don't you love when different consoles meant different things.

I miss it. Probably why Switch is such a breath of fresh air.

[dunpeal2064]

I hope this isn't the Castlevania 3 of Contra for me!

Did you mean Castlevania 4? Or do you not like CV3?

I also really enjoy the varying outputs on these consoles. If I only had a Genesis, I would be sad that I didn't get the excellent Contra 3, but having only an SNES would mean losing the far better CV game.


Speaking of CV, I spent the evening last night playing Rondo of Blood (It and x86k being the ones I had yet to properly experience).

Its an odd game, definitely feels of a middle ground between OG vania and SotN. Luckily, it maintains its foothold in the prior enough to still offer scaling and good, old school whippin. The latter does seem to seep in though, as the enemy count and overall aggressiveness, and the visually impressive but mechanically lackluster early bosses just kinda make the game more of a sight-seeing tour than a testing action game. That said, the latter also brings fun moments of finding hidden switches and routes, which feels really neat when it happens.

One thing about Rondo is that is really, really feels like it lacks its own identity. I know CV likes to pay homage, but this felt more like a "Best Of" or Black Label than a new CV experience. Not necessarily a bad thing, as the powered up graphics and arranged OST are sweet! But it still left an odd taste.

Its no Bloodlines. I'll enjoy going back to see the alternate bosses I missed, but unless those bosses and stage routes are drastically improved, I doubt I'll be left wanting to revisit this one as often as CV1, CV3, or Bloodlines.

That said, I appreciate it's approach to move the game towards its eventual goal, while keeping the spirit of the old games mostly in tact. Plus, some moments are very good, and actually go toe-to-toe with the better games in the series. Stage 5's fight against Death and onward (especially Stage 6, being an entire boss rush stage) were quite excellent.

[Segata]

I will always consider CV4 the best in the series. I really hated the direction it went with SOTN. While I liked Lament,CoD,Circle of the Moon plus Portrait but eh. Circle at least was more Gothic in feel. LoS in some ways felt like CV4 so I loved it. Also Agatha falls in LoS gave me chills. Everyone has a fave in CV but for me CV4 is everything I love most about the series wrapped in one. Atmosphere to the title screen and the music is insane. Series always has great music but felt CV4 for it's time had a certain creepy factor to it. Really added to it. I will say Rondo had the better final fight. I prefer my CV games less anime (again I like anime and mostly play very Japanese games) and more inspired by western horror films.