PCEngineFans.com - The PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16 Community Forum
NEC PC-Engine/SuperGrafx => PC Engine/SuperGrafx Discussion => Topic started by: SaturdayMorningRobots on April 04, 2011, 04:55:16 PM
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Today I got in a bunch of games, Among them were Spriggan and Spriggan Mk 2. Now Spriggan is as cool as everybody says (I was already a big fan of Compile's NES shooters) But Mk 2 is the game that is really capturing my interest (after a bumpy start). Why doesn't anyone really seem to like this game?
The gameplay is very original and strategic for a shoot em up, and I've never really played a game like it. Takes a little bit from Sidearms, and the assault suits series.
At first I was very taken aback by the so called demo mode that kept popping up freezing the game to feed you story (like V Gundam on super famicom) until I figured out I could turn it off then I really got into the gameplay though. I do wonder if that turned off all the cutscenes too?
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I like Spriggan Mk 2!
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Spriggan (either one) is one of the games that I read about during the mid 90's, and was very highly considered by whatever magazine it was. Since then, I've always wanted to play it, and it even popped up when I was talking to my girlfriend. Apparantly a Spriggan is a Cornish goblin of some kind.
But yeah, that's on my list of games to get!
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One of my top ten games on the pc engine, i like it a bit more than the original.
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I love the mecha design of this game. The battle ships are enormous and nicely drawn.
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Spriggan Mark 2 is an awesome game. I love the progression of the levels and the variety of them. They game isn't hard, but isn't specifically super easy either. But the harder modes are rewarding. Each mode has it's own ending (which might be something as minor as 1 or 2 more pics at the end credits). You have the beat the game on hard to find the real last boss, but that's more for story than anything else.
I love the strategy of the game too. You start off with a limited number of ammo for each weapon and it's up to you to figure out how you want to waste it through out the stage. I like the button employment of the sub/special weapons too. Since there's already auto fire, single tap (on -off- on again) works great for micro managing the sub weapon stock. Then when you need all out sub weapon auto along with normal weapon, you just flip up the turbo switch. Real PCE/Duo controllers are awesome ;)
I'd discussion my love for the levels in more detail, but I don't want to spoil anything for you if you haven't gotten that far or beaten the game. Also, love the music in the game. The explosions are also great (love the randomness of how they explode as well as the style/look of the explosions - some of my favorite in the 16bit era). The game is quite unique IMO. While I like the first game, I love the this way more. Scrolls, great explosions, cool bosses and in game sprites (battle ships, mechs, pods, etc), perfect length. A trick if you have the voice intermission enable for the level, if you need to quick skip it - you can pause and go to item select screen, the back out. It'll convert the voiced intermission to button fastfoward voiceless mode. After having beat the game the first few times, I started leaving the voice over in level intermissions on. Just something else to experience once you've seen/experienced the meat of the game.
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The explosions are also great (love the randomness of how they explode as well as the style/look of the explosions
Oh hell yes, i love that, some of it seems like they were going for environmental influences...great particle effects on some of the explosions.
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I like the game quite a bit. People pan it for not being as good as the first one, and I can see where they're coming from, but I personally enjoy it a lot.
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Seirei Senshi Spriggan vs. Spriggan mk2 is like comparing apples and oranges. Two very different games which barely have more in common than its names.
Personally i like Seirei Senshi Spriggan much more, because it's like an awesome hardcore action packed arcade title.
But Spriggan mk 2 is still great because it is quite different to other shooties. It is well made, has a cracking sound track (compile jam) and it feels like being in a 2D war. The graphx is quite top and the action solid. Some heavy flickers here and there. though. Not so compile like.
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If Mk2 had a caravan mode I would probably rate it higher :D
I like both still though. Mk2 is one of the better horizontal shooters.
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You have the beat the game on hard to find the real last boss, but that's more for story than anything else.
Wow! I didn't know that!
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Some heavy flickers here and there. though. Not so compile like.
More Naxat like? :)
I love the music too and I love that it has a Sound effect and music playback mode. Very nice!
The cutscenes are really exquisite art wise. I wonder if the mecha designer was a known name... looks a LOT like Mika Akitaka's Nadesico designs from 4 years later.
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Still remember I bought this game brand new from Japan Video Games ............:)
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Spriggan Mk 2 is indeed an awesome game for the PCE :)
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Can a dev confirm that there is some rotation from time to time in this game (such as robts' arms, etc...)?
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Yeah they rotate, but just as a simple animation :)
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I'm not sure, that's why I was asking.
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Yeah they rotate, but just as a simple animation :)
I'm not so sure. The arms on the first level robots and boss do look rather like rotated sprites.
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So what else could it be then? :-k
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The graphic cells themselves, or rather the 16x16 section/sprite, are pre-rendered. But the actual rotation is real time. Because larger objects are made of connecting 16x16 sprites. And those objects are jointed into an even larger object. And the larger object rotates as well. So while the frames of the small pieces might be pre-rendered, the rotation of the parent objects and child objects are definitely realtime rotation. It would take up too much memory to render all that out as simple table of frames. The cells that make up the larger graphics are sprites. And the graphic cells themselves are symmetrical. So you only need to store 1/4 the prerendered rotated cell in vram. The rest can be achieved by sprite X/Y flipping.
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When I was at Anime Expo in Southern Cali a couple years back, I found a Spriggan Mark 2 toy! However, it was one of those things, where, you don't know for sure which toy you are getting. Maybe there was 10 different toys(including I think from Gradius, Star Soldier, & others that I don't recall), & there could've been a bunch of the same toy for all I know, so, I didn't try n' buy any. There may have been another PCE related toy in the bunch, I don't quite recall, but, I deffinitly remember the Spriggan Mark 2 figure!
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The Shooting Game historia line?
http://mugentoys.stores.yahoo.net/90479096771.html
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That link helped alot, cuz once I saw those, I knew it was similar, so I did a search & found these links:
http://www.hlj.com/product/YUJ97437
Bigger picture of Mark 2, the one in the back right corner:
(http://toyboxdx.com/phorum/file.php?1,file=7785)
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i have only opa opa of those. i hoped to get the mk2 though :(
but i know where they were sold, might go pick up some more at time :)