Xposting from the eShop thread:
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VASARA COLLECTION
Well, first I want to say that I'm not complaining per se, the value of this release for its price (and the current preorder price is simply ridiculously low) and the fact these games are seeing a release out of Arcades for the first time ever is GREAT.
That being said I'm just a bit disappointed that so many features are half-assed while if implemented competently it'd make a big difference. This collection is just missing that last step to be awesome and earn a recommendation to... anyone who might like STGs, so hopefully they'll fix some of these:
•No controls customization
•No controller orientation, so there's no way to play it in horizontal scrolling mode nor in portrait (TATE) mode while on handheld mode but only tabletop mode
•No (optional) scanlines but only a sharp option and a blur filter
•Leaderboards are USELESS since it's only a top10, no way to see scores below the top10 and you can't even check yourself out unless you are one of those 10 (I'm currently 7th), no friends table at all.
On top of that there's no proper ranking mode and no set switches to qualify your score: you can change lives stock, smartbombs, all difficulties are lamped together so you can see someone on top who has maybe played at EASY while others below him could have scored on HARDEST mode, but that's not enough: you can keep continuing because it won't disqualify you (just add a +1 to your score).
I haven't checked but I hope at least the local highscores table isn't busted like that because it'd mean your scores achieved by credit feeding will delete the ones you might get by 1CCing the game.
So yeah, just the last example: why go all the way to set up leaderboards only to run them like that.
Every feature - that many similarly priced it even much higher priced STGs don't include (and besides R-Type Dimensions there's nothing close in terms of value per cost) - is there but missing that polish to make it good, like half-assed tate, filters missing scanlines, broken and useless online leaderboards, can't rebind controls.
I'm pretty sure most would've preferred having all of the above instead of VASARA Timless, the new exclusive VASARA game (in 2.5d and widescreen a.r.) made by the brazilian team handling dev duties.
Still, it's an essential purchase for its price, but I do hope they at least fix the non-customization for the controls and introduce controller orientation. I don't have much hope for the leaderboards....
I really don't like the "here's a screen full of arcade Rom options lol you balance it yourself" styles of options, at least Vasara only has like 3 that affect gameplay (although I don't know what "Vasara Style" means).
And there's no way to automatically go to the defaults for score entry... but I can't seem to figure out how to enter score.
I'd be really disappointed in this if it didn't feel so good to play. It's like if 1945 was actually interesting to play: close calls, melee charge, and touching enemies (which I appreciate isn't a stock but rather pushes you back) all make good use of the rumble.
VASARA STYLE means that on Vasara 1 especially the vasara super melee will automatically deploy the next time you execute the melee attack when fully charged .
TIMELESS STYLE makes it so that you'll have a separate button (Y) to fire Vasaras.
So yeah, I defo recommend using timeless mode.
