June 2023 HSC: Kuuga/Vapor Trail

[Steven Pendleton]

Alright, time for this game, I guess.

 

Settings:

Level = easy (there is no normal, so let's use this since this is the default)

Player = 3

 

Nice and simple.

 

This is a port of an arcade game that you have probably never played. I haven't played it either. I don't know much about this game other than that it has a cool music track. By that I mean it has exactly 1 BGM track for the entire game, so I hope you like it. I think this game ends once you finish the final stage and does not loop.

 

I think we can drop player name since I'm being lazy and there are so few of us now, so let's go with

 

SCORE - STAGE - SHIP

 

There are 3 ships to choose from in this game. I am not sure if any are any better or worse than the others, so who knows how it will turn out.

 

Also, the next 2 games are Darius Extra Version and Twinkle Tale. I've never played Twinkle Tale, but I do have Darius Extra Version and it is really good; it's probably one of the best shooting games on the system and is an extremely good conversion of the original arcade version, minus the two extra screens.

 

I'll have to look into Darius, though, as there are two separate releases of the game. The first is on the Mega Drive Mini and the second is a real cartridge. I think they added some stuff to the cartridge release (and were too cheap to retain the save feature from the MD Mini to save your high scores after turning the game off, which is sadly gone in the cartridge), but I need to check.

[Madwindoman]

Had time for a quick game. Not a great game. Not terrible. It’s hard to grab your score. The second it’s game over the score goes to zero. Made it to stage 3. Grabbed a pic when I saw the writing on the wall

[Steven Pendleton]

Yeah, maybe I should have suggested a different/better game lol. Two ultra great games to choose from for next month, though. Hopefully that makes up for this one.

[+jgkspsx]

Hey, I like Vapor Trail. I just hit pause over and over again. Vapor Trail. Vapor Trail. Vapor Trail.

 

Will get a score in before it's over.

[zylon]

no chance of getting a score pic, but did get to the last spot to shoot on stage 2 boss. Dollar General Raiden knockoff, lol. 

[+jgkspsx]

It’s a Toaplan homage generally and a Slap Fight homage in particular and while I enjoy it a lot playing its inspirations more has made it seem a little dollar store in comparison.

 

Still, a good time. Multiple playthroughs with all of the different ships and I ended up on the default one as I usually do.

 

 

205200 (really 215xxx) - stage 2 - Silph

[+jgkspsx]

I like the music. It doesn’t really get old.

[Steven Pendleton]

I don't think I'm going to get to play this game at all. I've been too busy with work recently to play pretty much anything, and when I do it's something relaxing, which pretty much means not shooting.

 

Darius Extra looks like it's going to take the win effortlessly, which makes me pretty happy because that's one of the best games on the system. Hopefully I'll be able to actually get to play that one.

[Zoyous]

Hi, I just noticed this HSC so I hope you don't mind if I join in. My availability is usually really unreliable but maybe since it's summer I'll be able to stick with it for a while!

264,350 - I feel like this is one of those games where some of the power-ups really seem like you want to avoid them because they slow down your rate of fire even if each shot is more powerful, or they're not intuitive and hard to aim. I ended up stuck with one that was creating circling shots and it was powerful but I didn't feel like I was controlling it well. Also, missed opportunity: there are no vapor trails. 😄 I do like the music, though!

Really seems like it's a bug that never got addressed, the way your score goes to zero after you lose your last life. I just started recording a video once I got to my last life to catch it.  😅

Edited June 29, 2023 by Zoyous

[Zoyous]

307,050 - I managed to get a little bit further. Man, this game is tough.