3 Konami Shmups on the NES - a video response to Zagroseckt

[PSI236]

What would be the best way to try Gradius? Preferably on my systems, but I have emulators too.

[markvergeer]

@PSI236 Sorry for not responding any sooner. I remember reading your comment on my phone but not being able to respond right away.

Gradius Arcade will be a very good experience although you need to use two buttons to shoot the bombs and specials separately. On the home consoles the TG16/PCEngine versions are rated very highly. Especially Gradius II on the PCEngine CD-rom.

The ports on PS2, Xbox are pretty much arcade perfect ports (perhaps even emulated versions).

[TrevHead10]

3 great NES games that I really need to make the time to play, as Gradius NES is the only Konami game apart from JPN Xexex that ive spent a decent amount of time playing. Crisis Force is one of the best NES shooters there is, I had no idea it was a Konami game, I thought it was a compile shmup.

BTW how does the NES version of Parodius play like? is it as good as the SNES / Arcade version? Does it have the same difficulty? (while i can 1LifeClear Gradius NES I totally suck at parodius)

[markvergeer]

@TrevHead10 Thanks. I can understand where you're coming from, the game mechanics are very much like compile shooters in this one.

The Nes Parodius game plays great, on my NTSC Toploader it plays the best though as it is designed to run at 60Hz and slows down a little when played on the original PAL-NES.

I think Parodius is a little easier than Gradius. But that could all be very personal. :P

]

[janporra]

CrisisForce looks insane adrhenaline

[markvergeer]

@janporra Crisis Force is an excellent shmup and indeed it really releases quite a bit of adrenaline whilst playing it. A good reason to import a Japanese game I'd say.

[janporra]

8:20 wtf a Cat-Ship. and it does meow

[markvergeer]

@janporra Indeed, quite weird it all is. And there's more weirdness later on in the game. :P

[MintythecatIsABeast]

I pretty much missed out Gradius as a kid. I started to play Gradius 2 on the famicom and the PCE. I feel both are challenging but the famicom version feels harder to me.

Crisis Force is a fantastic game and most certainly on my 'To Buy' list :)

Do you own Recca Mark?

[markvergeer]

@MintythecatIsABeast The Famicom Gradius II game is tough as nails. I do love what they push the machine to though. It really has to work hard to get everything on the screen at once but very much worth playing.

I know Recca and in fact own a copy of it which is not in the best working order. It is actually just the board that survived some sort of accident where the plastic casing was shattered. Someone sold me the board which I have since placed inside a 'pirate' famicom shell.

Crisis Force

[markvergeer]

@MintythecatIsABeast ... Crisis force has a very similar feeling to Recca actually. I feel Naxat took a bit of inspiration from Konami's Crisis Force game.

[AlfredRusselWallace]

I love how parodius is like a happy gradius

[markvergeer]

@AlfredRusselWallace LOL Happy happy joy joy, happy happy joy!

[takigan]

Gradius and Parodius are both familiar games, having played the former myself at one point. 

Crysis Force is a new one to me though. It reminds me of the popular SNES game, Aerofighters. But the music here is awesome, the graphics are in their prime for the Famicom, there's an obvious anime theme here and the battles really seem to have an interesting feel...almost like its dancing to the music. Makes me want to play it.

[markvergeer]

@takigan Thanks. It really is weird why Konami opted not to release this game in the west. I guess the fact that the Superfamicom/Snes was released just prior to it made Konami drop the US and European release of the game that was supposed to be in the works.

It plays well on a Toploader or Toaster with the NES10 chip disabled with help of a 60->72 pin converter I own. It is also possible to use a Gyromite heavy 5 screw cart with built-in Famicom adapter for this.

[rowdyrob3d]

I was actually impressed with the Gradius footage. It actually looks very good, graphically, for an 8-bit game! I don't recall it looking so good!

[markvergeer]

@rowdyrob3d Considering the release dates of these Konami games shown here they all came out pretty late in the NES/Famicom lifespan and the machine really is being pushed to its limits here. It is a very good looking game in my opinion and for an 8bit release is amazing. Of course the TG16/PCEngine releases are counted among the best of them.

[Zagroseckt]

Ugg it took me literely all day to uplaod this response it was a tad over 600Meg raw video from the camra (MP4 H2somthing somthing) i wanted to see the diffrence from this and the fmpeg encoding tubeshack uses...

[markvergeer]

@Zagroseckt Encoding a video can be pure hellish. And YouTube always downgrades the quality by encoding the video yet again at various settings (they can be pretty fast at it) but uploading can be SLOW...

Thanks for making a video response!

[narox]

Cool gameplay footage, makes me want to get into shmups again. And nice techromancer1 shirt you got.

[markvergeer]

@narox Thanks. Yep that Adidas sweater seems to have Techromancer1 all over it! :)

[Bakemon13]

I don't like "SHMUPS"

Run and gunners for the win!

[markvergeer]

@Bakemon13 Well everybody has their favorite genres. Yours aren't shmups so as it happens to be. I consider run and gunners to be a variant of shmups/shooters anyways they are in between FPS and Shmups.

[atarileaf]

I wonder if I should do a video response to your video response of a video response. :)

I love the cartoon style of Parodius. And I noticed something and maybe its just me but the pirate ship at 6:40 looks like the one on the third stage of "Popeye".

[markvergeer]

@atarileaf LOL Well if you do you're back to making videos all of a sudden. LOL

But you could very well be absolutely right about that 'Popeye' Pirate ship as Konami did put references to all sorts of games and game characters in their Parodius games :)

[burr1aj]

@atarileaf Do a video, period! Your videos were amongst the best on youtube!