SNES side-scrolling spaceshooter ended on a single life? HELP NEEDED!

[youtoo]

Hi,

I realy need your help to find out a "side-scrolling space shooter" for SNES taht you can end with a single life if you upgrade your weapons "to a certain level" and then make your way "going as low on the screen as possible" and keep firing.

All this stuff is from Rollings and Adams "on Game Design", but they don't name the game "to prevent embarrassment on the responsibles".

I'm doing the final tesis about game design and I'd like to find out the name of this game.

Thanks in advance!!

[vertigo]

Well there aren't that many shoot-em-ups on the SNES, and most of them are cute ones, so there must be only a few space ones. Gradius 3? R-Type 3? Super R-Type?

[Mad Gear]

Bio Metal?

[JazzFunk]

Super EDF/Earth Defence Force?

Or Phalanx?

[youtoo]

I'd like to know the exactly game, because it's for my tesis and I've to be as acurate as possible.

Thanks for your time btw.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

It's Phalanx or Gradius 3.

[S3M]

I realy need your help to find out a "side-scrolling space shooter" for SNES taht you can end with a single life if you upgrade your weapons "to a certain level" and then make your way "going as low on the screen as possible" and keep firing.

All this stuff is from Rollings and Adams "on Game Design", but they don't name the game "to prevent embarrassment on the responsibles".

I have known alot of books on gaming to talk rubbish in the past. When you talk about side-scrolling space shooter are you talking about vertical or horizontal shooter as side-scrolling could mean both.

I do remember heaing about a shooter that could be finished by jamming your ship in one corner and never letting go of the fire trigger to beat it. But I'm sure that one wasn't a SNES game.

Most shooter you will die if you apply the rule of "going as low on the screen as possible"

That would rule out Darius Twin, Darius Force, Gradius III, Axelay, Super R-Type, R-Type III, Contra, Super Aleste, Parodius, Pop 'n' Twinbee.

That leaves Super Strike Gunner, Earth Defense Force or Phalanx I think. Plus a few really crap shooters which no one has ever played or heard of, for some reason the SNES version of Raiden springs to mind

[youtoo]

wow, you're quite an expert! I didn't realize that "side smup" means both vertical and horitzontal.

Sorry, but I haven't more info about the shooter they're talkin' about. If I can find out the exactly name, then I can't put it in my tesis.

But, btw, if you know other example (don't mind if isn't for SNES) I supose great also for my work.

Thanks!!!

PD: sorry if my english is a little clumsy!

[S3M]

wow, you're quite an expert! I didn't realize that "side smup" means both vertical and horitzontal.

No, I said it 'could' mean both as some people tend to label all the old 2D shooters under one brush these days.

I would advise you try out some of the mentioned shooters yourself and make up your own mind.

One point I will raise is that if your good enough you can finish quite a few shooters on one life. There was however a major change in 2D shooters when Batsugun arrived as they greatly increased in difficulty from then on and became nearly impossible to finish on one life.

If you've played Batsugun you will know it's a none stop bullet arena, compared to the older shooters which are generally a more laided back affair.

[youtoo]

well, the point isn't to finish the game in one life. Actually I want to give an example of a game with dominant startegies (that's strategies that always worths taking and therefore ruins the gameplay (player don't have to choose anything, they already know that this strategy is the winning one))

[zipper]

There will always be weak and strong strategies. (Ryu over Zangief etc. etc.)

If there was one stupidly strong strategy, then the gamer has the choice to avoid it. E.g. Shooters and modern arcade compliations all have a credit / continue systems - using continues (especially if infinate) is a sure way to finish a game - but many people choose not to use them because it makes the game to easy and finishable in the 1st sitting - i.e. no fun at all. Is this an example of bad game design? Or giving the user choice?

I think it would be incredibly sad to have the mentality to always go for the easiest strategy through a game - this is the kind of 'cheat culture' that exists in modern gaming, where completion (winning) is everything and the actual experience means nothing. I mean.. what is the actual point of playing a shooter by hugging the bottom of the screen for 30+ mins, avoiding all comtact with enemies, just to complete it?

Weak strategies are often more fun and give more pleasure.

For what it's worth, I think they may have been referring to the crazy powerful melon-sized, yellow homing balls in Phalanx which, once powered up, are all consuming. But i'm pretty sure you can't complete the game as described.

Try an mail the author of the book to find out which they were referring to... I think they may have been talking bollards.

[vertigo]

(Ryu over Zangief etc. etc.)

Depends how you play and which version you're playing. A strong Zangief player can batter a medium Ryu player, for example, or can easily hold their own against a strong Ryu player. Such is why I love Super Turbo over all, it's so balanced

Aaaaaaaanyway... it may well be Phalanx, because that game's a piece of piss, but don't quote me. Maybe it'll be easier to just bust out an emulator and try the suggestions here out, because some of those games I know for a fact are much harder than others mentioned. Anything with aimed bullets is an obvious no-go, for example, so you can easily play the first bit of those and see if bullets are aimed or in a set pattern and eliminate them that way. Alternatively, it may well be that you 'heard' something from someone who just made it up.

[babs]

Depends how you play and which version you're playing. A strong Zangief player can batter a medium Ryu player, for example, or can easily hold their own against a strong Ryu player. Such is why I love Super Turbo over all, it's so balanced

I think he's talking about vs CPU. In the original SF2 you could win any match against Zangief with either shoto (or near enough any character) by continuously jumping and pressing hard kick when Zangief walked near enough.