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I did an unboxing of the Aleste Collection with the GG Micro White
Only for spanish but tou can activate the autotranslated subtitles

Also this video

Has a review and translation some of the Japanese menus.

Yay! Just got the one credit clear in GG Aleste 3. Absolutely fantastic game, brilliantly designed and a real joy to play. Probably the best 8-bit shooter I've ever played. It's very impressive to see all the little details and some of the effects are quite spectacular. The (emulated) hardware is really struggling sometimes, though. There's a ton of slowdown and quite excessive flicker.

Kagesan wrote

Yay! Just got the one credit clear in GG Aleste 3. Absolutely fantastic game, brilliantly designed and a real joy to play. Probably the best 8-bit shooter I've ever played. It's very impressive to see all the little details and some of the effects are quite spectacular. The (emulated) hardware is really struggling sometimes, though. There's a ton of slowdown and quite excessive flicker.

Congratulations, that's quite an achievement! I'm still nowhere near beating it.

Did you accomplish this on PS4, Switch, or Micro? Or have you secretly got it running on original hardware?

I played it on the Switch. I don't have a Game Gear, so even if an original cart existed, playing it in my Mega SG would be the closest I could get to experiencing it on original hardware.

Kagesan, I saw you in the Ranking :) I am around #140 right now slowly climbing my way up.

I can reach boss 7 in one credit so far. I never used continues so I'm also playing with Ranking in mind, and without savestates, and it's been an incredibly fun experience. I agree that the game is incredibly well designed, lots of little details adding up nicely.

The Options menu has an overclock mode that remove slow-down and sprite flickering, but I my experience it also makes the game much harder without the slow-down (I started playing this way and was quite struggling my way up to level 4-5 then I realized that disabling this overclock actually made things much easier :)

I am also playing on Switch.

Overclock mode is just brutal. I'm pretty sure the game is designed around the slowdown anyway.

I think the final boss is actually one of the easier ones in the game, not least because the game allows you to re-build a lot of your strength during the weird snake tile scene just before it. I just recommend switching to the R weapon for the final form, as it's a good idea to always stay off-center there, and R is most effective then. (I use C almost exclusively for the rest of the game.)

My major chokepoints are elsewhere:

- The rotating diamonds attack of the stage 5 boss. I can usually one-life the game until this point, and I do have a good strategy for leading the diamonds, so the gaps in the patterns get big enough to squeeze through, but there appears to be a bit of randomness involved that can sometimes throw me off, and once the pattern's out of hand, things get ugly fast.

- The laser-whip midboss in stage 6. If I can destroy the turrets left and right quickly, I'm usually doing okay, but it can get cramped nevertheless. Nice nod to the first of the two final bosses from GG Aleste 2, though.

- The second form of the stage 6 boss. I've had those randomly appearing things materialize right on top of me several times. If that happens, my run is almost guaranteed to end soon, as it's nearly impossible, to get through the first part of stage 7 if not powered up enough.

What I really like about the game is that it forgives the occasional mistake, as it mostly gives you a fair chance to re-build your power, but it punishes you hard if you're just flailing about and don't know what you're doing.

There's a nice article about GG Aleste 3 on Eurogamer, talking to M2 about the development of the game:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-02-20-how-m2-went-back-to-the-game-gear-for-its-magnum-opus

Very interesting read. I didn't know that the main programmer is the guy who made Blade Buster. I did notice the similarities between parts of stage 3 of GGA3 and his proof-of-concept video "Musha Aleste score attack on the Mark III" from his youtube channel, though.

Author	Message
law81 Joined: 21 Oct 2015 Posts: 304	Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2021 6:50 pm
law81 Joined: 21 Oct 2015 Posts: 304	I did an unboxing of the Aleste Collection with the GG Micro White Only for spanish but tou can activate the autotranslated subtitles

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8708 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:30 am
	Also this video Has a review and translation some of the Japanese menus.

Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 895	Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2021 5:35 pm
Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 895	Yay! Just got the one credit clear in GG Aleste 3. Absolutely fantastic game, brilliantly designed and a real joy to play. Probably the best 8-bit shooter I've ever played. It's very impressive to see all the little details and some of the effects are quite spectacular. The (emulated) hardware is really struggling sometimes, though. There's a ton of slowdown and quite excessive flicker.

bsittler Joined: 22 Apr 2018 Posts: 535	Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2021 8:29 pm
bsittler Joined: 22 Apr 2018 Posts: 535	Kagesan wrote Yay! Just got the one credit clear in GG Aleste 3. Absolutely fantastic game, brilliantly designed and a real joy to play. Probably the best 8-bit shooter I've ever played. It's very impressive to see all the little details and some of the effects are quite spectacular. The (emulated) hardware is really struggling sometimes, though. There's a ton of slowdown and quite excessive flicker. Congratulations, that's quite an achievement! I'm still nowhere near beating it. Did you accomplish this on PS4, Switch, or Micro? Or have you secretly got it running on original hardware?

Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 895	Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2021 6:44 am
Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 895	I played it on the Switch. I don't have a Game Gear, so even if an original cart existed, playing it in my Mega SG would be the closest I could get to experiencing it on original hardware.

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8708 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 9:43 am
	Kagesan, I saw you in the Ranking :) I am around #140 right now slowly climbing my way up. I can reach boss 7 in one credit so far. I never used continues so I'm also playing with Ranking in mind, and without savestates, and it's been an incredibly fun experience. I agree that the game is incredibly well designed, lots of little details adding up nicely. The Options menu has an overclock mode that remove slow-down and sprite flickering, but I my experience it also makes the game much harder without the slow-down (I started playing this way and was quite struggling my way up to level 4-5 then I realized that disabling this overclock actually made things much easier :) I am also playing on Switch.

Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 895	Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:15 am
Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 895	Overclock mode is just brutal. I'm pretty sure the game is designed around the slowdown anyway. I think the final boss is actually one of the easier ones in the game, not least because the game allows you to re-build a lot of your strength during the weird snake tile scene just before it. I just recommend switching to the R weapon for the final form, as it's a good idea to always stay off-center there, and R is most effective then. (I use C almost exclusively for the rest of the game.) My major chokepoints are elsewhere: - The rotating diamonds attack of the stage 5 boss. I can usually one-life the game until this point, and I do have a good strategy for leading the diamonds, so the gaps in the patterns get big enough to squeeze through, but there appears to be a bit of randomness involved that can sometimes throw me off, and once the pattern's out of hand, things get ugly fast. - The laser-whip midboss in stage 6. If I can destroy the turrets left and right quickly, I'm usually doing okay, but it can get cramped nevertheless. Nice nod to the first of the two final bosses from GG Aleste 2, though. - The second form of the stage 6 boss. I've had those randomly appearing things materialize right on top of me several times. If that happens, my run is almost guaranteed to end soon, as it's nearly impossible, to get through the first part of stage 7 if not powered up enough. What I really like about the game is that it forgives the occasional mistake, as it mostly gives you a fair chance to re-build your power, but it punishes you hard if you're just flailing about and don't know what you're doing.

Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 895	Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2021 7:38 am
Kagesan Joined: 01 Feb 2014 Posts: 895	There's a nice article about GG Aleste 3 on Eurogamer, talking to M2 about the development of the game: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-02-20-how-m2-went-back-to-the-game-gear-for-its-magnum-opus Very interesting read. I didn't know that the main programmer is the guy who made Blade Buster. I did notice the similarities between parts of stage 3 of GGA3 and his proof-of-concept video "Musha Aleste score attack on the Mark III" from his youtube channel, though.

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