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At the halfway point (of characters), here's where I stand with 1 credit on each.



1st score over 3 million - Southern Cross/Mountain Route/Stage 5

2nd score at 2.17m - Big Mama/Jungle Route/Stage 2

3rd score at 1.97m - Marie Bee/Valley Route/Stage 2 (boss)

4th score at 1.60m - Rio/Jungle Route/Stage 1

Observations -

Mountain Route is the easiest. More powerups & health and as long as you stick with a good character like Southern Cross, his special weapon is perfect for these areas.

Jungle Route's first stage is LONG, longer than the other 2 routes. Rio did OK, but I found Big Mama's Bazooka to be a lot more useful.

Valley Route is perfect for the other 2 ladies, it seems, as that instruction decal has it. I like the stage where you travel and shoot at stuff, it changes it up a little bit.

The other 4 characters will be played next!

All right, I played through with all the characters on one credit, and the current Top 5:



1st - Southern Cross/Mountain Route/Stage 5

2nd - Big Mama/Jungle Route/Stage 2

3rd - Marie Bee/Valley Route/Stage 2 (boss)

4th - Rio/Jungle Route/Stage 1

5th - Jackal/Jungle Route/Stage 1

Milky, Maru, and Loki did not rank in, even though I did not change up my play style at all, I've been mainly trying to stab nearby enemies for points only when safe, and shooting them far away or near tanks or other threats.

Next, I'll try teams and maybe then do some credit-feeding. I think a 1cc is possible with Southern Cross if the final boss isn't too hard.

Team Battle runs complete. Got farther with all of them, in fact, I reached the Stage 2 boss with each team.



1.92 million is the Valley team score (Marie Bee/Milky/Maru)



2.34 million is the Jungle team score (Jackal/Rio/Big mama)

I did a Mountain team playthrough (Southern Cross/Loki/Milky as wildcard) and didn't rank in.

On to try 2nd Squad, but when I played it years ago I really didn't find it as good as the first game was.

ExedExes wrote:Team Battle runs complete. Got farther with all of them, in fact, I reached the Stage 2 boss with each team.



1.92 million is the Valley team score (Marie Bee/Milky/Maru)



2.34 million is the Jungle team score (Jackal/Rio/Big mama)

I did a Mountain team playthrough (Southern Cross/Loki/Milky as wildcard) and didn't rank in.

On to try 2nd Squad, but when I played it years ago I really didn't find it as good as the first game was.

So would you say team battle is the way to go for score chasing?

Sload Soap wrote:So would you say team battle is the way to go for score chasing?

It certainly has its advantages. Having someone who runs faster in certain situations or has a better special weapon does come in handy. They all share the same life bar, but you also get 3 health bonuses at the start of each stage. It was more fun mixing it all up too. Keep in mind everyone's special weapon count is different (that is, they do not share a set number) so one character can have 5 left and another can have all 10, so when you see an item that gives you more special weapons, switch to one that needs them.

So, Shock Troopers 2nd Squad.

It definitely took some design cues from the Metal Slug series (cartoon-like artwork, entering vehicles), and the characters each have different statistics. It moved at a more deliberate pace than the original did. There were also more items you could get out of close-range attacks.



I was only able to rank in with 3 of the characters on one credit. The most powerful (Leon) was a bit too slow, and as a result, got hit easier.

All in all, a good month and it was nice to revisit both of these games.

ExedExes wrote:So, Shock Troopers 2nd Squad.

I meant to pick up and play this during this month, but I just never got around to it.

I did however partake in some playthroughs of the original, even though I didn't really post here much. I was mainly just playing for fun and didn't bother tracking my scores.

I prefer team battle mode just because it feels more interesting, but I struggled to find a 3rd chracter I really liked. My first two were generally Marie Bee and Milky.

Yeah I thought about playing 2nd Squad until I found out it was MVS/AES exclusive. Looks like a really cool game.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Yeah I thought about playing 2nd Squad until I found out it was MVS/AES exclusive. Looks like a really cool game.

Its on Wii Virtual Console.