Viewpoint 2064 (N64)

[jon]

I’m just wondering out of curiosity Quick_Man, what were you’re highest rated Neo Geo games? And what non fighters did you have up there higher than Viewpoint?

[Quick_Man]

https://videogamecritic.com/forums/view ... 93&t=22720

I actually decided to just make a thread with the complete ranking list, but my top three that were the only games to score a 10 [unsurprisingly, two of them are fighting games] were KOF 98, Neo Turf Masters and Samurai Shodown 2.

[jon]

Just the fact that it was the N64 that the 3d Viewpoint sequel was going to be on makes me respect Nintendo more. It’s sort of a Neo Geo meets N64.

Edit: I’m motivated by this conversation and I’m dusting off my Viewpoint cartridge seeing if I can beat it on MVS.

[DrLitch]

Giving Viewpoint a shot again. This game is friggin hard. I played some bullet hells in my time, such as Ikaruga and Mushihimesama, but Viewpoint is a special kind of difficulty. Not cheap, just quarter munchingly hard.

[jon]

Giving Viewpoint a shot again. This game is friggin hard. I played some bullet hells in my time, such as Ikaruga and Mushihimesama, but Viewpoint is a special kind of difficulty. Not cheap, just quarter munchingly hard.

That’s a great point that it’s never cheap. It just takes a long time getting used to the stages and memorizing patterns. The cheat codes and/or memory card makes things so much easier. It’s the bosses on levels 4-6 that really make things a nightmare.

[DrLitch]

It’s the bosses on levels 4-6 that really make things a nightmare.

Level 4 boss I am stuck on. I will get through it eventually but part of me is now considering that perhaps emulation is the issue here (along with me needing to git gud). I think I was within five frames of movement from being able to weave through some of the attacks. My controller has 11ms latency. Emulation certainly will do in a pinch but Viewpoint is very punishing regarding precise movements. Input lag is a factor here (to be clear, my lack of skill would be a more significant factor but I somewhat convinced that if I had those 5 or 6 frames I would have bagged that boss by now).

Conundrum though is this:
https://www.pricecharting.com/game/neo- ... /viewpoint
https://www.pricecharting.com/game/neo- ... geo-system

Yeah not cheap.

[jon]

It’s the bosses on levels 4-6 that really make things a nightmare.

Level 4 boss I am stuck on. I will get through it eventually but part of me is now considering that perhaps emulation is the issue here (along with me needing to git gud). I think I was within five frames of movement from being able to weave through some of the attacks. My controller has 11ms latency. Emulation certainly will do in a pinch but Viewpoint is very punishing regarding precise movements. Input lag is a factor here (to be clear, my lack of skill would be a more significant factor but I somewhat convinced that if I had those 5 or 6 frames I would have bagged that boss by now).

Conundrum though is this:
https://www.pricecharting.com/game/neo- ... /viewpoint
https://www.pricecharting.com/game/neo- ... geo-system

Yeah not cheap.

Inspired by this thread I played it for the first time in years and first time ever on MVS difficulty, and after several days got to the 4th boss a couple times without dying. I literally turned the game off at that point bc I know it’ll take a long time to get good enough to beat that boss. Even on easy most of the times I beat the 4th boss was bc after 5 minutes or so all the bosses self destruct. Only a few times did I kill it with enough firepower before the self destruct. But for an even greater challenge, the 5th boss is like a bullet hell shmup with barely any room to evade the assault of oncoming bullets. I’m almost more scared of that than the 6th boss.

[DrLitch]

Inspired by this thread I played it for the first time in years and first time ever on MVS difficulty, and after several days got to the 4th boss a couple times without dying.

This game is what I like to call arcade hard. Difficult enough you have to git gud but challenging in a way that is addictive and fair, making you feel you can overcome it. The isometric viewpoint makes this game quite unique, my usual method of imagining dead zones in a horizontal or vertical shooter required geometric reinterpretation. Quite a brilliant shooter this one, probably in my top 5 shooters of all time, I am glad you brought it up. I made it to level 5 boss now and this one is a major challenge. The game is a third of the way to being a bullet hell but it is not as gimmicky.

[jon]

Inspired by this thread I played it for the first time in years and first time ever on MVS difficulty, and after several days got to the 4th boss a couple times without dying.

This game is what I like to call arcade hard. Difficult enough you have to git gud but challenging in a way that is addictive and fair, making you feel you can overcome it. The isometric viewpoint makes this game quite unique, my usual method of imagining dead zones in a horizontal or vertical shooter required geometric reinterpretation. Quite a brilliant shooter this one, probably in my top 5 shooters of all time, I am glad you brought it up. I made it to level 5 boss now and this one is a major challenge. The game is a third of the way to being a bullet hell but it is not as gimmicky.

I never really could come up with a plan for the 5th boss, which I think is considered the toughest part. On easy I just hung out to the right and had saved up specials which I used. The 6th and final boss is almost less daunting. That last boss is not hard to only get killed 1 time, whereas things can spiral out of control on the 5th. I think I read that one guy who beat it on MVS on 1 credit used the memory card a lot. That’s what I’m going to do with my not so cheap memory card. Because you can turn the game on and start at one of the later levels. After a while the first 2 levels are really easy and the 3rd not far behind.

Will I 1cc if on MVS, I’m certainly going to try. I keep thinking about how good Viewpoint 2064 for the N64 is going to be. The one guy who had a lot of experience with the original gave Viewpoint 2064 a really good review and said he’d played it a lot. Some other reviewers had no idea what they were talking about who criticized it, with no experience with the original.

[DrLitch]

I never really could come up with a plan for the 5th boss, which I think is considered the toughest part.

This is as far as I have got. I will get back to this when I have more time. Maybe a 3 or 4 hour session, a beer or two, and a bag of Cheetos. Experiencing it's difficulty and knowing I am not the only one will keep me at the low sweat stage but away from a rage quit. Should be a good time.