ＴＨＥ ３００ＭＥＧＡ ＳＨＯＣＫ！
0Originally recorded: September 7, 2022
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I've done a lot of "one-hit wonders" in the past -- streams where I managed to complete a game in a single session. But this is... kinda different. What do you call it when you beat three games in a single stream? A "three-hit wonder"? That just doesn't sound right. Either way, when you remove the quarter-munching nature of an arcade game and you end up with something short. So cramming three games into one stream gives it a proper value proposition. Although, I still finished earlier than usual. It also calls my count into question: I'll just call this "Let's Play #104" and call it a day though.
First up was Twinkle Star Sprites, the original request. I'm familiar with the game, but I never actually played it the whole way through. The combination of competitive puzzle action with traditional shoot-'em-up controls was always fun. I just wish that SNK had done more with this franchise. There was a sequel/remake/enhanced port for the PS2, but that was exclusive to Japan. If SNK decides to dig a little deeper into their IP catalog, I'd love to see a third game.
Shock Troopers was next -- an extra bonus I added in, since the original requester decided to add the sequel to Twinkle Star Sprites when I informed him that he could add a second game, given how short TSS was. I'd never played either Shock Troopers game, so I figured playing the entire duology in one shot would be the best way to experience it. The original game was pretty fun, honestly. Sort of like a top-down Metal Slug and the dodge roll helps balance the difficulty significantly.
That brings us to the final game: Shock Troopers 2nd Squad. Hoo boy, what a decline. The dodge roll's been replaced with a funky jump that... kind of does the same thing? They added vehicles akin to Metal Slug that honestly weren't really much fun. And the game added lives... but balanced that by making every character a glass cannon in terms of their health bar. This game is just a step down in every conceivable category -- I was shocked to discover the dev team that worked on the first one made this one too.
I also decided to make a bit of a challenge to spice up the gameplay: after burning through the traditional "four credits" the AES versions of NeoGeo games, I'd begin tallying up all of the additional credits I used. And once I hit certain milestones, I'd give out a gift card to one lucky viewer... should they be the first one to answer a trivia question correctly. I included that bit in the recording, because I managed making it to 31 credits across all three games... so someone had the chance to win a $5 gift card. I've got another set of arcade games coming up later in the year, and honestly, I had so much of a blast doing this challenge, I'm definitely going to do it for those other arcade games. In fact, I may start doing more arcade games in general with this challenge in mind.