[Felix]

Eurogamer has a glowing review up: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-13-super-time-force-review (so glowing that they mostly actionbutton editorialized rather than justifying the numerical score but who cares)

I think this is the first of several planned 2014 releases that have been in development forever at this point (see: The Witness, Iconoclasts), so I'm expecting good things...

actually really looking forward to this; it's a fine reason to hook up my friend's 360 which I've still failed to give away.

[Amish Chipmunk]

I'm pretty excited for Super Time Force, but I was more excited for the possibility of something Burger Time related.

That would be a fantastic mash-up.
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[Mikey]

So no PC port of this then, eh?

[EU03]

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/08/below-super-time-force-will-be-multi-platform-after-a-period-o/
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[Talbain]

[jodeaux]

did anyone else read the kotaku review? i glossed over it earlier and saw the reviewer comparing it to a jackson pollack painting. literally made my toes curl up when i read it...the less said, the better

on the other hand, the game is a pretty great refinement of the friction of early treasure/bangai o spirits gunplay with some pretty slick sprite work. i tweeted chris piotrowski on that and he retweeted it, so treasure is definitely what they were going after and the feel is definitely palpable. the only thing that bugs me is that its tone panders a bit to the brandon boyer crowd, which is perfectly fine but just not for me is all.

[Felix]

that's a pretty good first post, unless that's your second or third post

(I'm glad I did not read said kotaku review)

I think it's actually tonally okay. way less at odds with what it's seemingly trying to do than sworcery was. occasionally I find myself wishing the dialogue would calm the fuck down but it makes me chuckle as often as not.

my main problem with it so far is that it doesn't really motivate playing well (I'm three worlds in at this point). I dig what they were doing with the respawns (particularly when you're able to pick up your fallen teammates' weapons; really nice shades of gunstar heroes) but due to the way the game is designed you can pretty much die constantly and keep on trucking.

still, this is one of the only games I've yet seen where rewinding is actually an interesting and dynamic mechanic rather than just a somewhat narratively justified way of compensating for mistakes (other than that one part of Braid)

[jodeaux]

yes! i've been very cautiously posting so far, very carefully..don't quite have a handle on the vibe here yet

i too was thinking about sworcery and agree that Capy has always been very vigilant in making sure the art never surpasses its game mechanics, and show pretty admirable discernment in that restraint. Curious though considering the dialogue and tone of their stuff is like 5 years behind those sensibilities. In other words, the folks who laughed unironically at super meat boy will STILL find this sort of tone flattering. It's a little disappointing for me personally, because I'm counting on studios like Capy to get over the hump and legitimize "indie" projects as something that assumes you've read books and engage with things outside the sphere of gaming culture. I'm not so sure we're there yet though.

im not really motivated to marathon the game or anything either, party because i already know how to beat it. like you said, die enough times and the game's safety net just sort of muddies the beautiful pollack painting with a little too much visual interest.

[Felix]

Gunstar itself was more fun than challenging until the endgame too, but co-op helps in that regard.

I do dig this game's design but the boss fights early on feel more like mobile RTS games than shmups, and the regular levels have a few too many abrupt spawns and spongey enemies when they obviously don't want you playing cautiously. I'm far from sour on it and I still love the concept but it is a little inelegant judged as a shmup.

obviously a huge part of the interesting mechanics and overall fun factor come from the respawns but the game would probably feel tighter if they gave you half as many lives for the regular levels (and a third to a quarter as many for the bosses)

[Talbain]

Is Gunstar Heroes (and by extension, Super Time Force) considered a shmup and not an action-platformer like in the vein of Contra?
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[Felix]

I personally consider Contra a shmup, and probably the original platonic ideal of a dude-on-ground shmup (which I've seen called "run and gun" before though people also use that to indicate other titles that are action platformers more broadly, eg Megaman).

Metal Slug is an(ultimately superior)other example of this sub-genre. The original Gunstar is actually more borderline due to its handling of health and the ability to touch (and throw) enemies without dying but the game flows enough like a shmup at a time when the genre was sufficiently cluttered that it seems reasonable to call that unobserved innovation rather than insufficient conformity to genre standards.

STF is similarly borderline but not quite as successful as a pure shmup as the others.

[8128]

[jodeaux]

[Felix]

I'll be honest, the fact that Warren Burger Time Force starts up with a Microsoft Studios logo probably not so subtly informs my position on its presentation vs. its mechanics

[Amish Chipmunk]

[Glam Grimfire]

i like the usgamer review of this more, i'm so in love with what the game's original concept was that i almost don't want to play this
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##SKELETON PARTY (new article as of 04/26/14)Grim

[jodeaux]

I suppose it would have helped to narrow down my concern about what I see "games culture" is. For instance, I think it's embarrassing that we're just now having a frank conversation about issues like homosexuality and gender norms in games. Books and movies have been addressing this in their criticism and content for ages. That's all I'm going to say about it really, because this thread is about STF and I don't want to bore everyone.

[Rud31]

You'd think the tutorial wouldn't make me feel miserable enough that I quit during demo before I even got to do anything.
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My Hawt Blog Vita Games

THERE ARE DEFINITELY WORSE VIDEO GAME PODCASTS

[Ronnoc]

I thought this game looked really cool, but I'm having a really hard time playing it. I die a lot to stuff that I can't see very well, but, on the other hand, I thought it was funny that I saved a guy by stopped 6 bullets with 6 different bodies

[Felix]

yeah, they needed to make your hitbox smaller and the enemies weaker and give you fewer lives if they were serious about it. I don't really like the way it came out either.