Image Fight & X-Multiply

LoneSage

A Broken Man
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I'm having a blast with these two on my Saturn; before I bought them, I had forgotten they were made by Irem. Really classic-styled shmup gameplay, and pretty damn frustrating at some points.

Image Fight is swank (fucking hard too), but X-Multiply is swankier. It's like R-Type, except without memorization and smoother gameplay. Right now, I'm having a tough time deciding whether I like R-Type 2 or X more, because X is has such an amazing atmosphere with some of the weirdest backgrounds I've seen in a shmup. I can't believe I've been missing out on these two; lots better than some of the more modern stuff, like DDP ;)

Besides the R-Type series and the the two games I've mentioned, what other shmups has Irem gone on to develop? It makes me sad Irem went out with R-Type Final as their final shmup.
 

Jedah Doma

Chroma Ma' Doma!,
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9,902
LoneSage said:
I'm having a blast with these two on my Saturn; before I bought them, I had forgotten they were made by Irem. Really classic-styled shmup gameplay, and pretty damn frustrating at some points.

Image Fight is swank (fucking hard too), but X-Multiply is swankier. It's like R-Type, except without memorization and smoother gameplay. Right now, I'm having a tough time deciding whether I like R-Type 2 or X more, because X is has such an amazing atmosphere with some of the weirdest backgrounds I've seen in a shmup. I can't believe I've been missing out on these two; lots better than some of the more modern stuff, like DDP ;)

Besides the R-Type series and the the two games I've mentioned, what other shmups has Irem gone on to develop? It makes me sad Irem went out with R-Type Final as their final shmup.

Well of course In The Hunt was made by Irem. I'm not sure if you would call it a pure shmup, but it's a shmup in my books. It's got great gameplay and is a blast with 2 players. I remember playing this with a friend of mine when we discovered it at a pool hall. We were blown away. Good times.
 

LoneSage

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Oh yeah, In the Hunt is definitely the shit. But I've never got a clear answer as to who REALLY made it -- Irem or Nazca (guys who did Gunforce 2, the first Metal Slug, etc.). Or maybe Nazca was just a core team in Irem?

In the Hunt still holds up incredibly well today; the graphics, surprisingly, still make me stop shooting shit and just enoy the scenery. The attention-to-detail is simply retarded, and that level where a giant monster from the depths comes after you for half a stage...wicked stuff going on.
 

Shibusawa

Quiz Detective
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From what I've seen In the Hunt looks like one of the prettiest 2d games outside Metal Slug (imo). Hope I can find it at a decent price some day.

Dunno about the Irem /Nazca relation but am very interested to hear more. Their designs from that time period sure have a lot in common.

There was a thread on digitpress.com some months back about Irem and listed many of it's games incl. screens. Search for Irem in the thread title, very nice read, and some great 'forgotten' games.
 

Vincere

No longer Tristesse
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Shibusawa said:
Dunno about the Irem /Nazca relation but am very interested to hear more. Their designs from that time period sure have a lot in common.

Nazca is born from some Irem members leaving the staff to create a independant society. So Nazca is made of former Irem employees.
 

MNK

King's Dry Cleaner
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In the Hunt designers : Akio, Susumu, Tomohiro, Ken Kui, Kozo, Takeshi
Metal Slug designers : Akio, Susumu, Max.D, Tomohiro, T. Okui, Kozo

In the Hunt is really great. Like LoneSage said, the attention to details is just stunning. Games like that arn't made anymore :crying: .
 

Steve

The Wonder Years,
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Mar 4, 2001
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IN THE HUNT AKA KAITEI DAISENSOU freaking rocks. The 3rd stage boss monster that chases you throughout the stage... I have never seen such creativity or ingenuity from a shooter stage quite like that before. And I love the other bosses in this game, including the kick-ass mini boss GIANT EEL in the later levels. Fucking hard game too... I can only beat the JP version which allows free play... that last boss has some serious ammo!
 

roninbuddha

Big Bang Pro Wrestler
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^well, to add to that, i think In The Hunt is prolly only game to use SUBMARINES as its theme, in a SHMUP too for that matter (well, there was deep fighter for DC, which was crap, and not a shmup)...
 

LoneSage

A Broken Man
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Don't forget about Sqoon.


Awesome to see so many other fans of In the Hunt; I remember a year ago there were a bunch of people writing it off as meh-ish, glad to see the game's getting its due.
 

LoneSage

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For the past three days I've been tackling X-Multiply after giving up on it maybe 2 years ago.

It's a somewhat easy shooter (I mean, by Irem standards) up until the last level; there are absolutely no checkpoints and there's just a ton of crazy shit going on, and unless you're quick to destroy some indestructible enemy ball spawners, you're fucked. You've got to 1-life the last level.

And then the boss, holy shit, just getting to the boss was difficult, and it took me many, many times just to beat it...AND then a second boss appears, and it takes forever for me to figure that one out -- there are four embryos that make synchronized movements around while shooting. It's madness.

Anyways, I finally beat it after spending 2 hours on a three minute level, and I haven't felt this elated and...proud about beating a game since forever. The ending was very satisfying too. I even took two pictures of it (not sure why, maybe proof?), yeah, I'm a dork.

Anyhoo


X-Multiply is absolutely incredible, and I leave you with this screenshot:
xmul02.png

You know the volcanos in Gradius that shoot up rocks? Well this is exactly like that except they shoot up EYEBALLS
 
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