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Rohga: Armor Force (Evercade): COMPLETED!

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This is a bit of weird one. It’s mainly a side-scrolling shooter, only your big mech (or mecha? I can never remember the difference) can’t fly and at times you can move in and out of the screen which has a similar effect to flying because it’s all on a 2D plane. That’s not the only unusual thing though, as you can “build” your own robot from various parts for different weapons and legs and stuff before you play, and then you collect people (?!) which act as sort of drones. Then there’s the thing where if you get hit too many times you lose your robot for a bit and have to hoof it mech-less.

I played it in co-op which mainly caused the screen to be filled to an also chaotic level, but we had a good time. A bit of an oddity.

Metal Slug (Evercade): COMPLETED!

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Yes, yes. We’ve all played Metal Slug before and own it on various compilations a hundred times over but that doesn’t stop it being good. And! This time I completed it in co-op with my daughter, which I’ve never done before.

It has horrible slowdown, which I don’t remember from any other version but apparently even in the arcade it did that. Not what you’d expect from what was, at the time, the most powerful gaming device in the world. Probably.

Doesn’t matter though because it’s great and silly and why isn’t Metal Slug 2 (or 3/4/5/6/7/8/9/X) on the Evercade yet, eh? Ridiculous.

Oh yeah, and I know the screenshot that accompanies this post is rubbish but – again – you can’t take screenshots on an Evercade so it’s from the Evercade website.

Ironclad (Evercade): COMPLETED!

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Ironclad is a pretty standard side-scrolling shooter, originally for the NeoGeo but I played it on the NeoGeo Arcade Evercade cartridge. I found it a lot easier than most games in the genre, which is especially odd for an arcade game, but I’m not going to complain!

It’s got a nice weapon upgrade system, a floaty drone thingy and some interesting bosses (like a big train), but the biggest draw is the graphics. Backgrounds seem to be pre-rendered, and remind me a bit of something like OverTop. Sprites are pretty decent too, and they feel a bit like Metal Slug in art style, just zoomed out.

So yeah, it’s OK, nothing incredible but perfectly playable.

95: Bother Me Anatomically

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Unforeseen circumstances, and definitely not Podcast Apathy, resulted in just deKay and Kendrick bringing you this episode, but don’t worry! As a bonus to make up for the cast shortfall, Episode 95 is slightly shorter, so you’ve less to endure! Rejoice.

This time around, your heroes discuss the general meh-ness of recent gaming news, the Switch 2 having no games, a new Lego Batman (and Batman in general), and Ys X Proud Nordics. With, naturally, many deviations and diversions. Plus, all these games:

  • Otto’s Galactic Groove
  • Lies of P
  • Bloodborne
  • Gradius Origins
  • Lego Horizon Adventures
  • Horizon: Zero Dawn
  • Steam’s Heart and Advanced VG Remaster
  • Phantasy Star Online 1+2 Plus

And the usual stuff and nonsense that you have come to expect, nay, demand from us.

(Direct link here)

Intro music credits: “Blue Slushie” by Rupert Cole from the Otto’s Galactic Groove soundtrack.

Don’t forget, if you want to contact us with questions or comments for or about the show, you can email podcast@ugvm.org.uk or publicly shame us https://mas.to/@ugvmpodcast on the Mastodons.

Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp: blasting through

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AW1+2RC is a compilation of the first two Advance Wars games (not the first games in the series, mind – Famicom Wars and Game Boy Wars hold that honour) with new graphics, the war room separated out into a combined section, and a few niceties added to make the game run a bit smoother. It also has a ‘casual’ mode which I seem to have been enrolled on, even though I answered “no” when asked if this was my first time playing Advance Wars.

As a result I am powering through the levels, getting S and the occasional A rank. The most difficult level I’ve found so far was against Kanbei, when his heavy units were obliterating my army; I realised a few turns too late that he had left the South of the map undefended, which is where his HQ was; it took me a couple of turns to send an infantry unit along and capture it, meaning I won the level but with a much reduced score.