I'm very curious about everyone's thoughts on Image Fight

[rag-time4]

I've been playing Image Fight a lot lately during my lunch breaks... and I've been having a blast with it. I work graveyard, and the game definitely keeps me awake!

I've really had a tough time getting through it! I love the way that the game sets you back a bit when you die... some of the restart points are brutal to escape from alive without any special weapons! But it seems like it can always be done. It's taken me about a week to finally kill the level 5 boss... which I just did for the first time this morning.

One interesting thing that really got me into it was that it seems to be held in high esteem in Japan. Hiroshi Iuchi, the producer of a much more recent shooter: Radiant Silvergun, said that his main inspiration was Image Fight. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiant_Silvergun

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else has played Image Fight, and if so, what you think of it!

[Keranu]

I always get this game confused with Terra Cresta, so I can't really remember what this game was like at the moment! I want to say that I didn't like it much personally, but I might be thinking of Terra Cresta instead.

[rag-time4]

I always get this game confused with Terra Cresta, so I can't really remember what this game was like at the moment! I want to say that I didn't like it much personally, but I might be thinking of Terra Cresta instead.

I just checked out Terra Cresta for MAME (i've never played the game before)

Other than the fact that they're both vertical shooters, they seem quite different.... Image Fight has those awesome red pods that face the opposite direction of your movement...

Similar to the tentacles in another Irem shooter, the side-scroller X-Multiply. The tentacles move opposite of the player's movement. Image Fight is the game where that dynamic first appeared, as far as I know.

It seems like a very overlooked and underrated PCE game on this forum... I find very little mention of it by searching.

[nat]

I seem to remember playing Image Fight one time a long time ago and thinking it looked and played like an NES game and turning it off.

I'm not trashing the NES or anything here, but I'm kind of a graphics junky. When I'm in the mood for Turbo games I'm usually in the mood for something pretty to look at. Of course this a gross generalization, but you get the idea. And I should mention again it was years ago that I tried playing Image Fight so my memory may be somewhat off.

Terra Cresta II on the other hand, is f*cking awesome. Especially after you play into it a little bit. Graphics are above average to great, the music is sweet, and the powerup system is unique. You can design your own flight formation before play. There is some top-notch multi-layered scrolling that actually serves a purpose in places. The "instruments" used in the musical score sound to me like what you would get if you crossed an NES sound chip with the Genesis sound chip. A lot of the audio sounds unlike your typical Turbo chip sound. If we're talking about underrated games, I think Terra Cresta II definitely classifies. There's hardly ever a passing mention of it made here.

Sorry to derail your Image Fight thread. I'll give it another go someday before I write it off forever.... Mostly because I'm curious just how accurate my memory is.

[awack]

Since you like image fight so much i should point out that image fight 2 was also released on the pc engine (super cd), it has far better graphics and sound but is very difficult.

[ParanoiaDragon]

And I'll point out, that you should try the NES & Turbo versions of Image Fight side by side to see & hear the difference!

[Tatsujin]

image fight is the r-type in vertical. it's not a bad port, alltough i like to play the original on the PSone in tate mode.the game also came for the FC (NES) and believe me, it looked quite different to what you can see on the PCE

[ccovell]

Image Fight is brutal.  I actually found IF2 to be a bit more forgiving.  But perhaps I was more motivated as I had actually spent my hard-earned cash on IF2.   

[Tatsujin]

spent my hard-earned cash on IF2.   

i thought that's more for stuff like tsûshin-boosters and such kind of things

[lkermel]

I quite like Image Fight, I only wished it wasn't that hard... some of the last stages are just crazy.
By the way, I finished it on an emulator and the game crashed right after the last boss... I don't think I'll ever be able to finish the real game, but if someone does, I'd be interested to know if the problem is coming from the dumped Rom (or the emulator), or from the actual game...

By the way, I've also played the Famicom and original arcade versions. The Famicom game, if not as nice as the PC Engine conversion, is surprisingly really good. And the arcade is *of course*overall much better than those conversions, and easier too I think.

[ccovell]

spent my hard-earned cash on IF2.   

i thought that's more for stuff like tsûshin-boosters and such kind of things

Yeah, but this was back in 1995, when I had much less hard-earned cash.

[WoodyXP]

Uggghhh... Image Fight is ASS on FC.

FC (NES) and believe me, it looked quite different to what you can see on the PCE

[Tatsujin]

never said anything against the FC image fight, just it looks clearly better on the PCE, but still far from the arcade pendant

[rag-time4]

Since you like image fight so much i should point out that image fight 2 was also released on the pc engine (super cd), it has far better graphics and sound but is very difficult.

Image Fight 2 is definitely on my want list.... There was one recently at play-asia with the spine for about 80 bucks. I should have bought it.

Toshi of Dream-stars-japan on ebay has a sealed copy for $144, but I don't like to pay extra for sealed games that I'm gonna pop open, unless there are inserts/maps involved that are hard to find.

[rag-time4]

I seem to remember playing Image Fight one time a long time ago and thinking it looked and played like an NES game and turning it off.

I'm not trashing the NES or anything here, but I'm kind of a graphics junky. When I'm in the mood for Turbo games I'm usually in the mood for something pretty to look at. Of course this a gross generalization, but you get the idea. And I should mention again it was years ago that I tried playing Image Fight so my memory may be somewhat off.

Terra Cresta II on the other hand, is f*cking awesome. Especially after you play into it a little bit. Graphics are above average to great, the music is sweet, and the powerup system is unique. You can design your own flight formation before play. There is some top-notch multi-layered scrolling that actually serves a purpose in places. The "instruments" used in the musical score sound to me like what you would get if you crossed an NES sound chip with the Genesis sound chip. A lot of the audio sounds unlike your typical Turbo chip sound. If we're talking about underrated games, I think Terra Cresta II definitely classifies. There's hardly ever a passing mention of it made here.

Sorry to derail your Image Fight thread. I'll give it another go someday before I write it off forever.... Mostly because I'm curious just how accurate my memory is.

Nat, I agree with you that Image Fight is definitely not all about eye-candy, but the PCE version of Image Fight is way better looking than the NES version, I think.

The music, at least for the first couple stages, is better on the PCE than the arcade version, in my opinion...

But what really does it for me with Image Fight is the gameplay and the difficulty level. Before I figured out how to beat the level 5 boss, I kept failing to kill it in time and kept getting sent to the penalty area about halfway through my lunchbreak. I've never successfully played through the penalty area. My lunch always ends before I can finish it, since I die so often  :oops: