Ah man knew it. I knew the piloting lessons were always about him flying away to space.
Good luck Drew! It'll be weird not having you around as I missed the very earliest days so you've been a mainstay for the entirety of the Giantbomb experience. Now the Flight Club is down to one.
You could tell because you can do that infinite life repeated jump on a turtle move I think in like the first stage (the one that is walking back and forth on some bricks in the air between two unbreakable blocks.
I tried playing through Contra solo the other day because of this feature. After a few hours I had to give up and use the Konami code. Let me ASSURE you 2 player Contra is far easier than single player Contra(except maybe for the couple stages that are more about platforming than shooting).
The enemies split their focus, giving you opportunities to fire without worrying about dodging(i.e. you can bait turrets while your partner takes it down). You can fire in 2 directions at once taking down double the soldiers in the same amount of time(taking down the spiked snowplow things by yourself is very very hard, you just can't fire fast enough, 2 of your 3 lives gone unless you have the spread gun). Most importantly, you have double the lives.
There's a large amount of unavoidable bullshit in singleplayer Contra that is mitigated by having a partner. Watching Vinny or Dan slowly lose their minds grinding out a singleplayer run would just be frustrating.
IDK, I haven't watched all of this, but most of that singleplayer stuff can be mitigated, admittedly by never losing that Spread gun you get in the first level. I find two players get distracting and there are death traps in the energy level and hangar that are designed to mess with two players. Like that pit where your spawn point is set so if you are aggressive you will just drop into that pit. I think bosses are helped with two guns going, and maybe the base levels, but yeah I've died enough times with a partner that scrolled the screen too much to know it takes a lot more coordination in a duo than solo.
I'm not sure how they did here, but like with spiked trucks on the ice level, that boss is best beaten by getting RIGHT on him and learning his attack pattern. You can get many more shots off per "cycle" by being close and not being limited by how many shots the NES can put on screen.
@bisonhero: I think its the last fight of Underworld. Classic elder vampire vs lesser creatures fight from the World of Darkness. Won by the rule of cool, or that face slide. Was there a major development in a CG special effects company around this time?
Hah! That was great. I really thought my email was way too dry, long, and esoteric and wasn't intending for my signoff to be a challenge. I would have probably given it another pass for oral readability had I seriously thought it was would get read...by Ryckert no less.
Love y'all and Viva La Beastcast in '17.
EDIT - In re: huser, no official pronunciation given or exists.
Oh man I played the crap outta this game. Always turned on the Konami code, but got to the point of regularly getting to the Energy Zone without dying (and still with the Spread from the 1st level). There it was 50/50 if some energy beam or Hangar claw nonsense killed me, but then a straight shot to the end usually dying once to the Heart because I couldn't be bothered to jump over everything by that point.
Was not expecting a Quill18 mention, but like any good thrill ride, Austin once again surprises with the drops.
EDIT - And in regards to that Spector quote. I am all in. It's pretty much what I've mentioned wanting in previous settings, even in Hitman specific threads of 47 prowling a high rise (hotel, office, apartment, whatever).
I've grown a bit bored with bigger settings covering more cities that is the typical progression of open world games. It just means more hassle getting around or fast traveling which defeats the point. Trying to shoot for interesting scenarios in a much more denser (and heck, vertical when not just in service of climbing a tower) setting would be very interesting.
@dougfunk15: Strangely I think if Dan were less of a fan of Mario he might have been more lenient on it. Mario holds such a high level in his brain anything less than a stellar outing is a disappointment. Fandom can be a double edged sword I guess.
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