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

[rag-time4]

Image Fight simply rox but it's very annoying if you don't want to spend quite some time to get into the game. You have to remember a lot of enemy pattern by heart, else you don't stand a chance, just like R-Type.

Elnino,

After playing level 6, I now have to agree with you about remembering enemy patterns.

I'm stuck on level 6! 

Since the game crashes after level 5 on my TurboExpress, I brought Blazing Lazers to work today and played that one at lunch.

I missed my red pods!!!! 

[runinruder]

I'm late on this.  Sorry.

Just played and beat it for the first time tonight (on recruit class, with quite a few continues).  I'll play it again tomorrow (I still need to see the infamous penalty zone) and type up a useless mini-review, but for now I just wanted to say great game, and much credit to rag-time for bringing all this attention to it lately. 

[rag-time4]

I'm late on this.  Sorry.

Just played and beat it for the first time tonight (on recruit class, with quite a few continues).  I'll play it again tomorrow (I still need to see the infamous penalty zone) and type up a useless mini-review, but for now I just wanted to say great game, and much credit to rag-time for bringing all this attention to it lately. 

You beat the whole game already?!?! 

Man, I'm impressed!

[Keranu]

Yeah I also want to comment on this game since ragtime was kind enough to send me it (which arrived on my birthday!). This game is totally awesome and it's amazing how this game isn't talked about more! I think the opening of the game with the first stage might throw a lot of people off into thinking it's some generic shooter, but far from it. Lots of fast-paced intense action!

By the way, ragtime, I made it to the penalty stage and that level is hilariously frustrating! I didn't beat it, but I believe I made it to the last check point and just gave up after a lot of tries. Is there a boss in that level?

[rag-time4]

Yeah I also want to comment on this game since ragtime was kind enough to send me it (which arrived on my birthday!). This game is totally awesome and it's amazing how this game isn't talked about more! I think the opening of the game with the first stage might throw a lot of people off into thinking it's some generic shooter, but far from it. Lots of fast-paced intense action!

By the way, ragtime, I made it to the penalty stage and that level is hilariously frustrating! I didn't beat it, but I believe I made it to the last check point and just gave up after a lot of tries. Is there a boss in that level?

HAHA I've never cleared the penalty zone myself, so your guess is as good as mine as to whether or not there is a boss. For know, I think both of us have no choice to file it under "games that have beaten you" ... although I haven't given up all hope!

When I get my games set up again I'll give it another go.

[rolins]

I'm late on this.  Sorry.

Just played and beat it for the first time tonight (on recruit class, with quite a few continues).  I'll play it again tomorrow (I still need to see the infamous penalty zone) and type up a useless mini-review, but for now I just wanted to say great game, and much credit to rag-time for bringing all this attention to it lately. 

I'm surprised you beat it on your first try. Props to ya mate!

It been a couple months since I last played, but I'm stuck in stage 6. No hints please, I tend to finish it one of these days.

[rag-time4]

Any chance of some competition in the Image Fight high score thread?

Nat and I are awful lonely over there.

It's lonely at the top...

[elnino]

Enter elnino, I'll post my high score this evening

[rag-time4]

Enter elnino, I'll post my high score this evening

UH-OH... I think my reign is about over...

[Sinistron]

In my opinion one of the top five best overhead hucard shooters.

[runinruder]

Any chance of some competition in the Image Fight high score thread?

Nat and I are awful lonely over there.

It's lonely at the top...

I should, but my stack of unplayed games is starting to get out of hand.     You and Keranu have convinced me that I need to see the penalty zone, though, so I might get back to IF sooner rather than later.  I did check the high-score thread when I was playing it, and you did have me beaten, rag-time.   

I'll post a few more IF thoughts in the meantime!

-Smart move by Irem making the option pods change from blue to red and back again before you pick them up.  You never feel compelled to grab a pod of a particular color when you'd prefer another.  Of course, you still have to hold off the enemies while you wait for the change in shade, which can make for some hectic situations!

-The ability to change your ship speed actually comes in handy mid-game.  With most shooters, I just pick the speed I'm comfortable with as soon as I start the game, and don't give it another thought from then on.  But in IF, it's advantageous at times to switch gears.  In one stage, there are two paths you can take: one leads to the boss, the other to a dead-end where there are a bunch of power-ups.  I love to take the daredevil approach, cranking up my speed, grabbing the icons, and zooming back to the correct path before the screen scrolls too far up. 

-I'm glad it has a Ninja-Spirit-style audio test mode, because the soundtrack is really interesting.  I wouldn't say it's one of the PCE's best or anything, but it struck me as atypical and definitely good overall.  I can't decide whether I love or hate the drum sounds. 

In my opinion one of the top five best overhead hucard shooters.

Hmm, it's certainly a very cool game, but it has a lot of tough competition!  Off the top of my head, I'd say I prefer Blazing Lazers, Soldier Blade, Final Soldier, and Cyber Core.  If Salamander counts, I'd toss that in as well.  But if IF doesn't make the top 5, it's at least on the very cusp. 

[nat]

Hmm, it's certainly a very cool game, but it has a lot of tough competition!  Off the top of my head, I'd say I prefer Blazing Lazers, Soldier Blade, Final Soldier, and Cyber Core.  If Salamander counts, I'd toss that in as well.  But if IF doesn't make the top 5, it's at least on the very cusp. 

That's kind of how I feel.

I played the game once years ago sometime during the 90's and wrote it off at the time because I thought it was hard and the graphics sucked. I panned the game for years afterwards as having NES-like graphics.

Rag-time inspired me to pick it up again a few months ago and at that point I really discovered it for the gem that it is. I'm a better player now than I was then, too, and it doesn't seem so tough anymore. I still think a lot of the graphics are not up to par with what the system can do, but that's OK because the gameplay is so good.

I still need to pick it up and finish it. I really only sat down with it once since I got it, and that was the day I posted the high score up in rag-time's thread.

[rag-time4]

I should, but my stack of unplayed games is starting to get out of hand.     You and Keranu have convinced me that I need to see the penalty zone, though, so I might get back to IF sooner rather than later.  I did check the high-score thread when I was playing it, and you did have me beaten, rag-time.   

I'll post a few more IF thoughts in the meantime!

-Smart move by Irem making the option pods change from blue to red and back again before you pick them up.  You never feel compelled to grab a pod of a particular color when you'd prefer another.  Of course, you still have to hold off the enemies while you wait for the change in shade, which can make for some hectic situations!

-The ability to change your ship speed actually comes in handy mid-game.  With most shooters, I just pick the speed I'm comfortable with as soon as I start the game, and don't give it another thought from then on.  But in IF, it's advantageous at times to switch gears.  In one stage, there are two paths you can take: one leads to the boss, the other to a dead-end where there are a bunch of power-ups.  I love to take the daredevil approach, cranking up my speed, grabbing the icons, and zooming back to the correct path before the screen scrolls too far up. 

-I'm glad it has a Ninja-Spirit-style audio test mode, because the soundtrack is really interesting.  I wouldn't say it's one of the PCE's best or anything, but it struck me as atypical and definitely good overall.  I can't decide whether I love or hate the drum sounds. 

In my opinion one of the top five best overhead hucard shooters.

Hmm, it's certainly a very cool game, but it has a lot of tough competition!  Off the top of my head, I'd say I prefer Blazing Lazers, Soldier Blade, Final Soldier, and Cyber Core.  If Salamander counts, I'd toss that in as well.  But if IF doesn't make the top 5, it's at least on the very cusp. 

Waiting for the pods to change colors is probably the source of at least 75% of my deaths in Image Fight!! Waiting for the color you want (usually red ) does indeed make for some tight squeezes and tough challenges.

I don't find myself changing speeds that much, but I should experiment with it. I usually just set it to 4 and leave it. I also do the daredevil move in level 6 if I need the pods.

Runinruder, if you ever try the arcade version or check out a you'll see what Ccovell was talking about a few weeks ago with regards to the musical instrumentation used by Irem in the arcades. The tunes are the same but the instrumentation in the Arcade version is very unusual.

I prefer Image Fight to the Soldier series, but I certainly recognize that the Soldier games have much more colorful graphics, and even faster pacing a lot of times. I just love the red pods in Image Fight though and they way they respond to your movement. The soldier games and Salamander don't feel as dynamic to me as Image Fight because you're always shooting in the same direction.

I finally sat down and played the first level of Image Fight 2 yesterday, I'll start a thread on it since you asked me to do so.

EDIT- I just noticed that the youtube poster who put those Image Fight Arcade videos on youtube has only three videos posted, and they're all Image Fight! How sweet is that?