Game of the Month: June 2023 - Sinistron

[geise]

SINISTRON

A shooter again. Been a long time since I've cleared this one. Trying to remember if I actually did clear it. It can be kind of slow, but I do enjoy the game. I have been wanting to give it a go again. Being late as usual and busy I wanted to keep it simple. I hope others will be able to get into this one. Enjoy all.

[gex]

Very Very hard game. Got stuck after the asteroid level and never picked it up again.

[majors]

It's not my go-to stg but it's been a long while since I put time into it. I sold it years ago and never replaced it with Violent Soldier. Time to revisit it!

[Necromancer]

I've tried a few times to get somewhere in this shewty, but it's kinda hard with my meager skillz.  I enjoy the attempts, though, so I'll happily give it a few runs this month.  Let's see how far the goober can get!

[Necromancer]

I'm still struggling to beat the 3rd stage boss.  The first form ain't bad, but the second part Fs me right in the A.

It doesn't help that this is more or less a 1 life only game.  When you die and respawn at a checkpoint, you're too weak to be much of a threat any more.

For giggles, I checked out Violent Soldier to see how it's differs.  It seems pretty close to the same, though maybe a tad easier.  Outside of enemies taking more damage (which I freely admit might be in my head), the main differences I've noticed are different attack patterns for the first stage laser twin mid boss and nice lightning in the red backgrounds of stage two; neither change in the US version is for the better.

[seieienbu]

The first time I played Sinistron was when I was downloading roms from classicgaming's "The Dump" early in college.  I remember thinking it was cool that a game as old as it had gotten ported to the Turbo.  I loaded it up and was surprised that no, it Wasn't Sinistar but was in fact a side scrolling more similar to Gradius than the old Williams classic.  My second impression was something along the lines of how the ship looks like it had a duck's bill attached to it's nose cone for some unknown reason. 

The game is hard, everyone knows that.  It's also pretty good looking.  Lots of nice parallax scrolling and some pretty cool enemies.  With that said, I won't be playing this one.  When I finally bought a copy a decade or so ago, I gave it another go and remember thinking it was too flashy for me (the second stage springs to mind here) so I put it back on the shelf and haven't touched it since.

[Necromancer]

The cycling red/black backgrounds with flashy clouds, eh?  Violent Soldier adds lightning bolts to that, making them even more seizure inducing.  They look nice to me (better with lightning) but I can see it being a problem.

I've managed to beat the 3rd stage a few times now, but I've only made it about halfway through the asteroid madness of the 4th stage.  It's not a terribly fancy looking stage (plain star strewn background and repetitive rocks flying your way) but it sure is a fun but tough ride.

[majors]

Being a good upstanding forum member, I was playing a few rounds of GotM earlier this week and my buddy that was staying at my house immediately said it was Life Force They were not very familiar with TG/PCE so I can let the travesty pass without incident. I can see where they were coming from with the "organic" themes in the levels.

[seieienbu]

How anyone could confuse the giant nosecone on Sinistron with the Vic Viper is beyond me!

...wasn't sure so I just googled, yeah Life Force has you playing the Vic Viper as 1p.  As 2p though?  You're "Lord Brittish."  Learn something new everyday, I suppose.

[Necromancer]

Heh.  Care for a spot of tea, gov'nah?

I never did any better, but I managed to beat level 3 many times and get half way through the asteroid level, and that's far better than I've ever done before.  I'm counting it as a success.   

[_joshuaTurbo]

How anyone could confuse the giant nosecone on Sinistron with the Vic Viper is beyond me!

...wasn't sure so I just googled, yeah Life Force has you playing the Vic Viper as 1p.  As 2p though?  You're "Lord Brittish."  Learn something new everyday, I suppose.

Life Force merges the world of Ultima and Gradius.  Confirmed.