Somehow I ordered Castle of Shikigami 2 (of course it's a shmup) twice within a few days of each other. Also, amazon delivers on Sunday--I didn't know that. I was expecting this Tuesday 🤷♂️
Oh well, time to print out a return label.
Wanted: Dead has some very Yakuza/Like a Dragon goofiness to it, which I love. It doesn't do any of these things quite as good imo, but you can do Karoake (99 red balloons), a Ramen eating contest (works basically the same as karaoke), and a original shmup that I never really cared much about or really put any time into. Not that it's bad or anything. It's fine, but imo just a neat little addition to the overall game and not necessary in any way. Like the SEGA games added to LaD, but obviously they didn't have a back catalog to pull from, so they just made it.
They must have tweeked it because I swear the hitbox originally was your entire sprite, which is huge. I've been messing around with the Xbox version of Wanted: Dead and for whatever reason (I know there was a recent update that was supposed to retool some things, but this is literally the only thing I've noticed, ha). You don't have to do any of these side things. They're just come downs, or fun interludes between the actual missions. In-between the first few levels it forces you into one of these side things, but you can immediately back out if you don't want to play it.
Anyway, before the 3rd level it starts you into a run of this shmup. Once again, you can immediately quit and move into the actual level if you want. I decided to give it a quick go, and 15-20 minutes later it's rolling credits. Yeah, there's no way they didn't completely retool this. I've only tried it 3-4 times and never even seen the 4th level out of 7, yet now I walk through it like I've played it a hundred times? I just thought that was crazy. Unless there was some strange glitch, there's no way I'm that good. Maybe the Playstation version is harder for some reason? I don't know, but thanks for the rare achievement Microsoft, I guess?
Oh, it was on Hard mode as well. There's no way they didn't make this easier with the update.
Mikado's announced another Shooters Fes event for 2024—ICYMI, these are STG-centric live gathering that bring together active commercial STG devs to reveal or talk about their new/upcoming projects, sell merch, etc. I wanna say last year's event got turned into a series of panels at TGMS or some other con, so this is their first dedicated event in a minute.
The schedule on the website lists a lot of familiar participants: Taito, Granzella, City Connection, M2, Success, etc. I guess the biggest surprise is that some of the Bitwave folk from Sweden are going to be there, talking about their Toaplan Steam ports.
There are still a few as-yet-unrevealed slots on the schedule, but City Connection's kicking off with the announcement of a new game, and Happymeal (makers of Final Exerion) are hosting a "Final Series" panel, so I expect they'll reveal their next Jaleco IP revival game. I also expect Granzella to informally announce something, because Kujo informally announces things any time he appears in public.
It'll be streamed on Mikado's channel, and I fully expect the Mikado manager's dad-rock VGM band to play a tune or two.
schedule:
12:00: City Connection (new title...!)
13:00: bad arcade company (one of their games already leaked, Air Gallet)
14:00: Bushiroad (Macross Shooting Insight)
15:00: Neotro (NeverAwake, and they're teasing something... might be connected to a loop lever/spinner controller)
16:00: Pyramid (Alice Gear Aegis... probably just demoing their customary April Fools caravan minigame)
17:00: Granzella (R-Type Final 2/3/Tactics 1+2, plus whatever else Kujo feels like mentioning)
18:00: Taito (Ray'z Arcade Chronology Strahl aka the DVD concert release, and maybe something else...?)
19:00: M2 (DOJ Rinne Tensei, and maybe more...?)
20:00: Hamster (probably just demoing already-released/announced stuff, but who knows)
21:00: Bitwave (Toaplan PC ports, and probably a date/drop for the final batch)
22:00~23:00: ending (might just be chat, might also be dad rock)
@Streetmagik 1 hr ago
Maybe M2 will talk more about Ubusuna or their original Aleste game? 🤞🤞
The little hints I've been given suggest it might be another Taito collab... and as I'm typing this, I just remembered that they already announced a Night Striker reissue way back when, so I guess they'll formally reveal that project
that or more Toaplan stuff, they're long overdue on some of those (but like, what aren't they overdue on)
Razion EX (Switch). Horizontal Shmup from NGDEV Team. Took forever to ship, but it eventually made it. Now if they'd hurry up and ship my copy of Gunvein.