天下制覇

Because what the world needed was a crossbreed between Ice Climbers and Smash Bros.

Another Comiket come and gone. I still haven’t worked my way through the RPGs. Sappheiros is simultaneously very nicely done, but is full of that specific brand of RPG frustration where you’re fully expected to lose every boss battle at least once just to learn what the boss is and how it attacks. Then possibly grind out a half dozen levels anyway. That gets… frustrating quickly. After BMW and years upon years of Battle Fantasia and Aquaplus’ SRW parody shorts, the Touhou SRW clone is also rather underwhelming. There are a few twists to the engine, but… eh. I’ll get around to the other two eventually, although ten minutes into either and they haven’t really impressed me. And I’m sure there’s other stuff that hasn’t caught my eye yet. After a few slow Comikets for games though, this one was excellent, and there are still a number of promising things to come from groups that sat this one out, especially EasyGameStation and AQLoop.

If I had to pick my favorite game so far, I think it’d have to go to Sanae Challenge Fusion. I wrote it off a bit as just a minor expansion of its prequel, and it really is, but the addition of bosses and better level design adds that ephemeral and important thing called reasonable difficulty. The first time I got to Hatate, she wrecked me with her damn camera. Plus, most of the unlockable wallpapers as you progress through the game are simply adorable. New Super Marisa Land can be a close runner up for its music and great presentation all around, but the loose controls have made me quit entirely too many times for it to be the champion.

And of course… the parking lot. At some point, some businessman is going to wake up and realize that they’re going to have Shuffle painted on a company car forever. I’m DQing the Black Rock Shooter cars from being the flyest car because it looks like they spent more money on them than on their OVA. Plus, the Black Rock Bike is just gratuitous. Therefore, I’m giving the Official Seiha Flyest Ride^TM Award to the Minatsumobile. Yes, I am very obviously biased.

Photos shamelessly stolen from here, here, and here.