New PCB: Ketsui - Cave 2002 (again!)

This is a game I should have probably never sold, but - thanks to Dave - its back in my stable! This PCB was originally MrMonkeyMan's on which he set the western record, which is a cool plus, but really, I'm just so stoked to have a Ketsui PCB back in the house!

It's fun playing this in MAME, but its justy not the same as playing it on a cab. It's such a fun game and my Saturn pad, while awesome for some shmups, just doesn't work for me on Ketsui.

Its pretty cool that my first post on this very blog was about first getting this PCB (http://suicidebullets.blogspot.com/2008/01/ketsui-arrives.html) and I feel just as stoked to own it again.

I hope to laydown a new high score soon and see just how far my skill set has come in the last few years since owning this beauty. I think I have the skills to finally nail the 1CC with some work. I was amazed when I got MAME to work with Ketsui just how much I remembered in terms of enemy placement and timing.

I'm ver happy to have this back in the stable and it's going to take quite a lot to get me to part with it again! Thanks, Dave.

Thunder Dragon 2 high score #2

Well, I'm back to playing this mess. For some reason, I cannot stop playing it - and I don't even think its that great a game. I tried explaining why I like to play it to gunbird18 tonight, and I couldn't come up with a good reason, I think its because its hard and badly designed - I play because I want to find out where the patterns and fluidity are in this thing.

For whatever reason, I would like to 1cc this, but I don't think it'll happen any time soon. The rank can get brutal and I have no rank management strategies at all. For now, It's a good game to waste my time with while I take a break from DP and DDP, before my new pcb acquisition arrives next week...

Ketsuipachi - Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label Ketsui Arrange - Stages 1 & 2 - XBox 360

If you haven't been paying attention, Cave, somehow, for some awesome reason, decided to release a stand alone disc release of Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label Arrange mode, which players are referring to as Ketsuipachi. It's a mix of DFK and Ketsui, using the a-type ship with 6 (!) options, an arrange soundtrack and 1/2/3/4/5/10 chips though the same mechanics as Ketsui.

Unbelieveable.

I have been putting off getting a Japanese XBox 360, but it's time to pony up and go for it. This game looks damn near orgasmic.

New PCB: Dodonpachi Daioujou pcb + arts, Cave 2002

Not exactly a new pcb, but I finally got the art work for the game from Dave and shot this photo as I am currently looking to swap my vanilla pcb and arts for a Black Label one. It just looked too nice to not post it up!

I did get a chance to check out Black Label as it is now fully emulated in MAME (along with Ketsui and Espgaluda) - which seems totally bananas. It is a lot of fun, very, very similar to the original but the frequency of hypers does make it quite a bit more fun. The 1 or 2 loop choice is very cool, as is the option of choosing Black Label or the original version when you power up the pcb.

Now that I have 1cc'd Donpachi and Dodonpachi, maybe this one is next...