The review you didn't ask for, but will receive anyway. Plus this subforum needs a post and this is like literally the only tourney a year I play now since February is awful and I need something to occupy me.
First, the skinny...I had never dropped a credit into 14 of the 20 games in this tournament before so typically my goal when that happens is to try to average about 20 points per sub during the tourney. I'll be over that on familiar games and under it on games that everyone and their brother seems to know everything about but somehow I've never played (Donpachi and Black Tiger in this one for example). But generally speaking, 400 points is where I like to sit when it's all over. Somehow I managed to be under 20 on only 2 games which was nice, especially when my wife was still able to watch shows with me at night and go out on weekends, etc. I usually fill out a spreadsheet marking what I'm going to play on what day so that I cover all 20 to at least some degree, even if it's just for a few hours after work on a weekday or something. Anyway, enough about that...onto the games!
Armed Police BatriderThe shmup forum had a guide that made this seem like the most complex video game ever conceived. I waited until the final week to try it (and Donpachi), figuring I'd just throw together an average score by brute force like I typically do with games like this. I asked Jry for help in figuring out the game menus, GGMaximo provided detail about ranking it down and I pretty much ignored the extremely detailed stuff since I had time constraints (and it left me knackered to even read the thing). Anyways, I credit fed through to the end just to see what I was up against and then watched a replay to figure out where to bomb for medals. On my 3rd credit (or maybe 4th), I managed to not drop any medals until The Highway (playing on normal course/ranked down) and the bosses in this game at least on the first 4 stages were easy enough to just dodge and panic bomb my way through them. Ended up somehow with a 10th place finish which was surprising and helpful to counteract assumed Donpachi blowups.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 3.5 Suns/5
Black Tiger: Oof. I knew this was gonna be a problem going in as I've never played it and there's a bunch of hidden stuff, shops, clunky GnG type jumping and 1 hit kill falling rocks. I saved this for a weekend day as I figured I'd need the time (and I'm typically tired after work on a weekday). Watched a replay or 2 and figured I'd need to first memorize where all the hidden stuff was and then just start playing through it. I decided it was better to just create my own paths rather than try to mimic any replays and besides I was just hoping for some ok-ish points. After an afternoon I was regularly getting to Stage 6 so figured most of the other scores above that finished the game so not much point in knowing the last few stages for just a few extra team points when I had other stuff to get to. Did enjoy this overall though, even with hidden stuff, felt less memorization heavy than GnG and more "fair" even with the rocks. Fk them! Still was my weakest game of tourney but with everyone knowing it, I figured that would happen. Still reasonably enjoyable to learn.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 3.0 Suns/5
Blazing StarBBH gave us some good advices on this one and we had 5 people in the Top 10 at the end so...thank. This one, much like batrider seemed to be about not missing medals or whatever they are and with the crazy amount of leeching you can do on the Stage 3 boss, that seemed to be the ticket to getting a decent score in a limited amount of learning time. I credit fed to the end, realized the last few stages are batshit and set about maxing out the medals on Stage 3. Much like batrider I was able to do so after a few credits and while I wanted to go back and learn the last few stages, it just didn't afford me the time (plus again the team points were minimal) to be worth doing. Was pretty fun and clip arty though!
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 3.5 Suns/5
BubblesProbably my most disliked game in tourney, mostly due to controls. Concept was ok but man, just couldn't get used to the controls. Used a stick on gamepad and that was ok-ish but still. Me_not_like. Spent a bulk of my time cursing up a storm, eventually wife suggested I just stop playing it which was good advices. Managed an ok score but had zero fun doing so.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 0 Suns/5
DonpachiI figured this would be one of my weaker games since again, everyone seems to know it and I was going in blind. I'm also not huge on chaining games like this and feel like the ship moves as fast as Albert Pujols but I digress. I actually didn't terribly mind this. I credit fed to the end to see what I was up against and figured getting to last stage would be decent enough-ish. Managed to eventually do that but Stage 4 as folks mentioned in our Discord was a pretty heavy ramp up in difficulty. Still not terribly un-fun. I think I spent like 4 or 5 credits on this.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 2.5 Suns/5
Final FightWe've played this before. It's a beat em up. I figured I'd just get past samurai and take my average-y score. Which I did. It's a good beat em up though.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 3 Suns/5
FroggerHave a PB of like 120k so was happy to finish just shy of that. Did like a 95k or something on first day and figured that might hold up reasonably well but folks really put the time into Frogger it seems. Why, I have no idea. So I had to play it again late in the tourney. Managed a 2nd place finish which was around where I thought I'd be going in. Played it a bit on the last day to try for a first but couldn't get anything going. Lots of Frogger hate in the main Discord which was enjoyable.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 2.5 Suns/5
GradiusThis was frustrating but pretty satisfying to clear a loop of. Did so and by that point I was regularly getting to final stage on one life and BBH mentioned a leeching tactic that would help score. I tried this but kept missing the safe spot. Still increased my score greatly more than just completing a loop. Don't think I would really want to play this much again though.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 2.5 Suns/5
GyrussQuite familiar with this classic. Played it when it first came out as it was a game much like Galaga that I could make a quarter last on. 5 lives made it more challenging though. Great video game.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 4.5 Suns/5
Hishou ZameThis game when I watched it, reminded me of Twin Cobra in that I could just play through it without knowing too much which is my kind of shmup. Pretty high difficulty level though especially starting on the 2nd loop. I found myself wanting to play more games of this though so it was one of my favorite tourney games. I would play this casually if an arcade had it.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 4.5 Suns/5
Money Idol ExchangerI really had no designs on playing this at all but then the wife said I had to at least try every game. And then....it got slightly addicting lol. Pretty much around the 17-19 level it just got too fast for me to handle so it became all about maxing my points before it sped up beyond my comprehension. For that reason I can't really say I enjoyed it terribly but I didn't hate it? Not sure how much I'd play it if it was around here but it was better than I thought it would be.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 3.0 Suns/5
Mr. DrillerDefinitely the highlight of the tourney for me. I got severely addicted to this game that I actually helped a friend load MAME onto his PC just so he could try it. (He eventually ended up 1cc'ing as well and our scores were pretty close every few days). I definitely played this game the most of all tourney games and I was very happy to 1cc it as nights of frustration finally were lifted. Really, really good game. Frustrating at times, but I kept coming back for more punishment so...
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 6 Suns/5
Out ZoneI am a huge fan of top down runners like Commando, Gun.Smoke, etc so I figured I would dig this. And I did! I must say though, those tiny platforms tho! I got laughed at by the wife when I tried to move along the tiny platform just to double back for some small extra bomb bonus and fell losing all powerups, she laughed and said "Greedy". Lol. If I didn't have to learn a bunch of new games, I would have definitely spent more time on this at least getting the 1cc.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 4 Suns/5
Pac Man TurboI overestimated the scores on this. Figured there'd be a bunch of kill screens but didn't realize how hard it was to stay totally on pattern given the speed of the turns. When I got 984k it really annoyed me I didn't roll it so I dropped another credit a few days ago. I got 986k and was so frustrated I didn't even submit it and just deleted the rom instead. Some bullshit.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 1 Suns/5 (Hey, it's better than regular Pac-Man)
PangHaving enjoyed Super Pang a few tourneys back I figured I'd like this as well. I found it to be worse than Super Pang though. Gun was underpowered and the stages weren't as interesting as SP. Felt clunkier as well. Plus that scoring glitch late in the game was
. In any event, still I'll rep a Pang game.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 3 Suns/5
Button 2 ArrangementI own a Rally-X t-shirt and I do not apologize. Anyway, who knew Terrance on our team would uncover one of the greatest finds of our generation! BUTTON mfkin 2! Basically he said, "guys, check out my replay, no idea what's happening". It looked like a
Pengo replay. The cars all ran away. Crazy. In any event, I had a couple of times I no missed to the final stage only to be "rocked" by RNG. Still got the 1cc but with only 2 remain. I don't care, I still enjoy this game greatly.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 4.5 Suns/5
Street Fighter III: Third StrikeI might be one of the few old fks in CAG that likes fighting games. My mall arcade was open from 1980-2000 so I saw it all and enjoyed it all. Played lots of stuff in the 90's there so maybe there's still nostalgia for the SF series. Anyway, played a few credits of this, took BBH's suggestion of using Chun (S3) and cheesed out Gil to a not great score, 1cc. I imagine this game would be a lot more fun PvP.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 3.5 Suns/5
Strikers 1945 IIThere's another one of these? I found this to be the toughest of all the shmups to just brute through. Definitely have to learn the bosses, lots of shit on the screen at almost all times. Much respect to the 1cc'ers on this. I generally just like to pick up and play these types of games but this one was really tough to do on. I basically panic bombed my way to an ok score. I can't say it was quite enjoyable.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun: 2.5 Suns/5
WillowThough I'm not a fan of the mechanic of shot-charging (feels weird to me/tough to get used to releasing a button instead of tapping it), I didn't mind this game. I didn't spend much time on it when it became clear most people weren't going to put a lot of time into it so I figured in the interest of time and since like a 1cc would only net me like 3 more points, lol, I just stopped playing it after I got to Stage 4. Surprised at how little subs this got. It's not a terrible video game but I tend to think people migrated more to Black Tiger and Out Zone for their platforming fix than this. I kind of liked it overall, has some unique qualities.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun:3 Suns/5
Zoo KeeperI first played this game in 1985 when my brother worked at a boardwalk arcade in Asbury Park and 9 year old me remembers thinking that no one could ever pass the lion stage, lol. Fast forward to 2020 and my 2nd coin drop was 7.5m which I figured since I wasn't beating Ross, was going to hold 2nd so didn't bother playing it again. But I would play this game any day of the week and 2x on Sunday. One of the greatest classic arcade games ever made. Early 80's Taito for lyfe.
TSF's Ranking of Game Fun:Infinity Suns/5
That about sums it up. Huge thanks to JohnBart for an awesome site and the technical help so that I could get some info over to Jry to attempt to help get his tremendous spreadsheets automated. Speaking of which, huge ups to Jry for making time to do all that even with lots o' IRL stuff going on. I always enjoy watching the metrics as they happen during tourney and your efforts are appreciated. Thx sir. Also, thanks to Barra for being such a great host and listening to and then ignoring any whinging which is the traditional Yolympics hosting protocol.
Congrats to everyone on their great scores. I marvel at your skills. Specific other things I enjoyed during this:
- Noticing early on that BBH vs Chum was gonna be a great finish, those 2 balled out. Great show guys.
- The_Pro's late night Mr. Driller streams. So good. Arguably better than actually playing the games myself.
- Receiving some locker room material about halfway through the tourney that made me want to play more/better.
- Wan saying in Discord that she was listening to music to help her get better scores but that "Cry for Help" by Rick Astley came on and that might be a bad sign. Literal lol.
- Greatly enjoyed the teamwork on HH. Everyone was pulling for each other and every game on Discord was populated with some type of tips or help/advice. As well as folks posting about their latest achievement. I love the team Yolo events for this reason.
Hope to see all of you again next year.
- TSF
