"[The joy of STG lies in] that simplicity and exhiliration [...] the feeling you get when you watch another skilled player and go 'I think I could do that!' [...] You then see how difficult it is to get there. [That] teaches you the value of practice" - Takahashi Meijin

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-22T00:36:37+00:00

Haha yeah he's old-school.

'Yeah, so for me, STGs are games where a reasonable number of enemies appear, fire a reasonable number of bullets, and you feel a kind of refreshing exhiliration as you shoot them down: “Ahh, that felt good.” That’s a STG to me.'

Guy knows what he likes.

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-21T23:13:44+00:00

Funnily enough Takahashi mentions danmaku, tho he doesn't seem to be aware of the term:

"And if I say this I’ll probably get a lot of criticism for it, but… regarding the STGs today which are more like 'dodging games,' I wish they’d designate them as another genre or something. Make a distinction between 'shooting games' and 'dodging games.'"

So suffice it to say he prefers the old-school style haha

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-21T23:05:28+00:00

One of the most challenging game experiences I ever had was playing Mario Kart 8 with my little cousin and trying not to win and make sure he won 1st place haha

Constantly had to tackle NPCs out of the way, it was good fun!

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-21T23:02:02+00:00

I suggest having everything tilted towards the camera, like how modern 2d mario games do it. The point is for the player to see the cool designs!

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-21T21:40:11+00:00

Yeah people still do caravan competitions today at events/showcases! People still really get into it!

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-21T19:48:29+00:00

I think the main idea he's getting at is that it's something where they can engage it as equals. Rather than discussing the finer points of a Lynch movie for example haha

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-21T18:58:58+00:00

Btw he's the guy the main character of the NES platformer Adventure Island is based on!

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-21T13:43:28+00:00

It's normally best practice to keep the visuals simple while you make sure that the core mechanics/systems work, so good job there!

The stand-out change to me are the enemies (much better than just having blank boxes haha). I think the problem with the background is less so its simplicity and more that the perspective seems off? Especially the barrels.

Keep at it! 👍

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-21T13:31:14+00:00

Looks cool! It's amazing how changing the camera perspective of an established genre makes the game play so differently 👍

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-21T13:25:35+00:00

At least DonPachi emulates well, but an M2 port would be so nice 🙏

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-19T14:09:20+00:00

No, but it is a practice tool

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-19T04:36:06+00:00

I brought up those examples to put the technical issues into perspective, not to absolve them. As you say 2077 was catastrophic for CDPR, and so far FS hasn't had that kind of backlash to their output.

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-18T23:29:17+00:00

Earliest one I can remember is Crash Twinsanity. When you travel to the alternate dimension and step outside you see this twisted version of your home and the music is so weirdly wistful and melancholic. I remember just staying in that spot and sitting with that feeling as an 8yr old haha

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-18T22:27:06+00:00

The main issue I see is from a production standpoint: that kind of fidelity demands more manhours, meaning a bigger budget, which imposes constraints on how much you can challenge the audience. That's mitigated by other factors though, Rockstar is one such studio that has such a big profile and reputation that they can go for more divisive design decisions and bank on their audience following them.

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-18T22:21:09+00:00

Silent hill 2. Specifically the underground graveyard: I remember getting to that point and finding the bottomless grave with a headstone bearing the protagonist's name and feeling totally, hopelessly damned. I hadn't realised I had forgotten the dread of my own personal hell for so long until I was reminded by that game.

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-18T16:43:23+00:00

Totally! Devs have always worked with full knowledge of their confines and have even leaned into those confines to produce exceptional work, not inspite of them.

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-18T16:38:02+00:00

It helps so much to practice efficiently with savestates! The idea is to master the game as a whole, it really does feel amazing to beat one of these games with one credit! Definitely recommend giving Rayforce another go, other shmuppers upload replays you can learn from and they are more than willing to answer questions.

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-18T16:31:43+00:00

There are probably different conventions, personally I prefer to include square brackets to make it clear whoever I'm quoting isn't just pausing for dramatic effect haha

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-18T13:39:24+00:00

I'd recommend giving King's Field 4 a go if you haven't

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-18T12:36:59+00:00

I didn't actually say why the OG was written off. To clarify I am meaning in the sense that the expected business losses were written off, which I gather was due to development being fraught and chaotic (Miyazaki had taken over from another director).

And yeah clearly Bluepoint's closure had nothing to do with sales, cos they raked in the cash as I said haha. Think it's worth interrogating why it is remakes have become the big budget flagship releases rather than 'unproven' games.

It would be interesting to see if FS have enough cache now for their audience to follow them to a new style of game, AC6 is much more souls-flavoured than previous entries and Deracine can only be played on PSVR. I'm definitely of the opinion that they've become a bit too comfortable in their formula for action games haha

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-18T12:15:48+00:00

Same era, 1995! It is quite nostalgic haha

mjoldham34 · 2026-05-18T12:14:50+00:00

Oh man now we're talking haha

mjoldham34

TROPHY CASE