Last Resort: THe more I play it, the more I love it

powerflower

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5 x 2 = 10. That's how SNK saw it...

Like Gradius x 99 = smth? At the time I was a little bit disappointed b/c more stages = more fun.

Fun fact is the only shooters that have to be short are Danmakus. Cave chief stated it would be impossible to concentrate on such madness for too long time.

Pulstar has the right length for a "puzzle shooter".
 

oliverclaude

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I don't know... long can be a pain in the ass sometimes. Ever had an MS3 last level transcendental experience? Last Resort is tailor-made if you play it for score. It doubles the length.
 

Luciano

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When you start playing for 1cc you will be happy if a shooter doesnt have 8 levels ;)
 

powerflower

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It depends as I said. Puzzle shmups like Gradius 3 with 10 levels is ok. Like an adventure. One level in DoDon Saido can cause serious brain damage ;)

The thing is a long shmup has to be versatile to keep going... like Pulstar.

For 500 bucks back in the day Last Resort was clearly too short. At least for me.
 

oliverclaude

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But "back in the day" you also paid for incredibly high production values and the minor fact that you could play not a port, but a real arcade game right at home. I didn't think about the length, was too busy convincing myself I wasn't dreaming about what I saw: 45 Megs of heaven.
 

Atro

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But "back in the day" you also paid for incredibly high production values and the minor fact that you could play not a port, but a real arcade game right at home. I didn't think about the length, was too busy convincing myself I wasn't dreaming about what I saw: 45 Megs of heaven.

I just pretended this was facebook for a minute an pressed the like button.
Last Resort > Pulstar.
 

Liquid Snake

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It depends as I said. Puzzle shmups like Gradius 3 with 10 levels is ok. Like an adventure. One level in DoDon Saido can cause serious brain damage ;)

The thing is a long shmup has to be versatile to keep going... like Pulstar.

For 500 bucks back in the day Last Resort was clearly too short. At least for me.

$199 when it first release
 

powerflower

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But "back in the day" you also paid for incredibly high production values and the minor fact that you could play not a port, but a real arcade game right at home. I didn't think about the length, was too busy convincing myself I wasn't dreaming about what I saw: 45 Megs of heaven.
Nope. 500 Deutsch Mark = 500 todays Euro = todays 600 $.

How do I know? Well Maro (official Neo distributor of Europe was around the/my corner). This shop was crazy with all that Daytonas, Virtua Fighters, MVS's, Neos and stuff. Oh and my first Neo with Raguy was like 449 only for Raguy. There never was a time were here in EU a Neo game was released under 4/500 bucks.




My first PCB was Image Fight. I knew what a proper arcade game has to be like. Granted I played all the games in the arcades till I was kicked out (like 16/17 years old). Just a reminder Top Players Golf has over 60MBits when it was released with the Neo. I was disappointed, really. Too short.

Things like Thunder Force 3 and especially 4 showed how it is done. Technically TF4 is even better than LResort. What makes me love LR is atmosphere and soundtrack. Gameplay is ok but lightyears apart from R-Type1.
 

powerflower

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Edit @ Liquid Snake

Forgot that $'s were more worth in Deutschmark at that time. So yeah you might be right from an American viewpoint.
 

oliverclaude

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Nope. 500 Deutsch Mark = 500 todays Euro = todays 600 $. My first PCB was Image Fight. I knew what a proper arcade game has to be like. Things like Thunder Force 3 and especially 4 showed how it is done. Technically TF4 is even better than LResort. What makes me love LR is atmosphere and soundtrack. Gameplay is ok but lightyears apart from R-Type1.

I went the extra mile and scanned a dynatex ad from an ancient german video games mag called... Videogames. It's from April/Mai 1992. As you can clearly see, Last Resort was available for purchase for 329 DM. That was about $275 in 1992, according to this converter.

Spoiler:
VG-2-92-01.jpg


Regarding your your TFIII & IV comparison, well, one can't really compare arcade games with home console ones. Two clearly different concepts. An arcade game can't be much longer than 30 minutes, but this half an hour has to be murder. On a home console games can and tend to be longer, there's a user friendly difficulty level, free continues and overall a different pacing.

Though Last Resort's length was maybe not well suited for home usage, it was most certainly ideal for arcades. The problem was, that people still played it like a home console game, hence so many misunderstandings. This mistake has it's legacy in morons, who'll tell you even today, how easy Blazing Star is. Hilarious.

Last but not least, yes, R-Type's gameplay remains unbeaten, but it would not have taken much for LR to catch up.
 

bello

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Great game,graphics are beautiful(finely detailed) especially the bosses are wonderfully realised.
Quality shooter!
 

Gamefan

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This game is a fucking masterpiece. I really need to get this game back into my life!
 

Atro

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The Neo Geo is very underrated for shmups.

Last Resort is my favorite Hori shooter on the system. Blazing Star comes close.

The "verizontals" such as Strikers 1945 Plus and Aero Fighters 2 are good enough to put the Neo at high stake.
Sure there's no Toaplan'ish or Raizing shooters on it, but the Neo is imho very solid on shooters.

The first stage alone of Last Resort is a wonder. Tremendous atmosphere.
 

Gamefan

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Someone sell this to me for a reasonable price NOW!
 

oliverclaude

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Tremendous atmosphere.

The color choices were quite radical for '92. Dark & moody with bloody red flashes in between those cold midnight blues & dirty rotten russets, weathered and terminally rusty. Reminds me of Wicked City, a dive into the Black World as a Black Guard...


neversayneveragain1983part2.0116.jpg


...but this time in a sleek and easy cutting TZ/YS-024 fighter, that has the looks of a cruise missile from a Bond flick. Japanese pop-culture designs at their best.
 

ColdWolf35

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About 2-3 years ago, I had the opportunity to buy this game and Viewpoint at a high-end video game store, but blew my money on Top Hunter for the AES and some other games.

I regret not going for broke and buying this game. Didn't care for it at first, but it was definitely one that grew on me.
 

Gamefan

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According to Mike's price guide, around $250 - $275 depending on region.

Last Resort (ENG) - $250
Last Resort (JP) - $275
 

wyo

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If you can find a nice English AES copy for under $300 you're doing well. JP version generally goes for a lot more in my experience.
 
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