Last Hope Shipping Now! (at last)

**Christuserloeser** · February 10th, 2007, 21:57

Originally Posted by DanPotter

I'd love to be proven wrong on the credit thing, and honestly I don't have a copy here myself, so I am going on what someone else told me. He said he didn't see anything though. Their site doesn't say anything that I can find.

Last Hope is a really great game and everything with it seemed to be perfect. There just had to be something that went wrong somewhere. >_<

I copied the files to my HDD and checked the 1st_read.bin. It's obviously made with KOS (and the CDI for the pressing factory has been created with SBInducer),

The game itself is a straight port of the NeoGeo game. Nothing has been touched, except that they added two new intro screens showing the redspotgames and ngdevteam logos. The game then goes straight to the title screen of the NeoGeo version.

The credits in the manual are basicly just copied from the NeoGeo version. Except maybe for the Publishing notes I don't see any changes to the credits from the NeoGeo version (as posted on their website two years ago).

I assume that if they mentioned KOS then they'd have done that in the ending sequence. However as the game isn't easy I can't confirm that... I haven't yet beaten the Stage 2 boss. I'll let you know when I beat the game (could take a while though)...

***Darksaviour69*** · February 10th, 2007, 23:17

i thought they made an easy mode for the dc version, after feed back from the Neo Geo version said it was too hard

**Christuserloeser** · February 11th, 2007, 01:14

There's a Dreamcast mode, yeah, and they changed quite a bit. But even in the original NeoGeo mode (which is also included) the game is never unfair. You just really gotta learn how the game works. You need to know exactly where each and every single enemy comes from, its move patterns, how it will react and how you could beat it: Are rockets enough or do you need to use a different position of your satellite? Do you actually need the laser beam or should you be using the satellite as a shield?

Once you know what you're doing you can beat game without ever getting shot down. As mentioned I now manage to get to the second boss without getting hit.

I can understand why people call it 'too hard', but personally I think the game just isn't easy.

Edit - I've posted my first impressions at Dreamcast-Scene.com:

I've been playing it for about three hours yesterday and I got to the second boss (I'm playing on Very Easy in Dreamcast mode - with unlimited credits).

It's a great game with fantastic sound and graphics. The attention to detail is insane! One example on this topic: If you save the game at the stage you've been playing, the game will change the title screen's background theme to display the graphics from your saved game.

The controls are very accurate. The standard button mapping is (A) for shooting and charging your blue Laser Beam, (Y) for rapid fire, (X) or (L) for rotating your satellite clockwise and (B) or (R) for rotating into the opposite direction. The Dreamcast-exclusive L/R-Trigger support for rotating your satellite is gold and makes the game feel like it's been made with the Dreamcast's controller in mind. The only thing I missed was rumble support.

For it beeing a straight 1:1 NeoGeo port the graphics are absolutely mind blowing IMHO. I did a quick comparision with Pulstar and graphics are a lot more detailed in Last Hope. As mentioned in the Daddelkingz review, boss animations is the only department were Pulstar seems to be more advanced.

I've played the game via RGB on a large tube TV and my stereo. It's obvious that it's been made for that setup. Playing via VGA box still does the game justice as you will be able to see all the little details much better.

The game is exactly as hard as Last Resort, Pulstar or ThunderForce IV so you need to know the excact position where each and every single enemy will be spawned to actually beat a level. If you loose a life you'll also loose all weapon upgrades (satellite, etc.) and you'll be taken to the most recent restart point a few screen lenghts back. To actually be able to beat the game however, you need the full weapon upgrades. Only if you master the game you'll be able to really enjoy the graphics and music. As the game never seems to be unfair, this adds a lot to the replay value.

The game's packaging looks very nice and professional. It came with spine card and a Last Hope sticker. The manual sketches are hand drawn and look as great as the cover artwork.

It's great to have a new horizontal shmup of this quality on Dreamcast! - Thanks to everyone involved in making this possible

Btw, I found a little "bug" that can be exploited to play your current level with the title screen music: Play your game with sound turned on. When you ran out of lives and the game asks you 'Continue? - Yes/No', choose 'No' and save your game to VMU. Now deactivate the BGM in options and start the game. When it asks you to continue your saved game choose 'Yes' and you'll be playing with the title screen's music.

**Rick_Son** · February 11th, 2007, 17:16

This game is Pretty Difficult!

I hope when you beat the game, they give you a Invincible mode so you wont get touched.

**beetroot bertie** · February 13th, 2007, 17:45

Is it really as good as it sounds? From what I've seen of it (not played it), I thought it looked like a second rate R-Type clone with 16 bit bitty graphics.

I guess what I mean is that is there anything new on offer. Kind of looks a bit homebrew-ish to me. I can excuse retro graphics if the gameplay is cool, so does it play well then? Or have a 2 player mode etc.

**JKKDARK** · February 13th, 2007, 18:09

Originally Posted by beetroot bertie

Is it really as good as it sounds? From what I've seen of it (not played it), I thought it looked like a second rate R-Type clone with 16 bit bitty graphics.

I guess what I mean is that is there anything new on offer. Kind of looks a bit homebrew-ish to me. I can excuse retro graphics if the gameplay is cool, so does it play well then? Or have a 2 player mode etc.

Good graphics or not, the gameplay is good. And don't forget it's an unofficial game. The developers did a good job making this game, it's not easy.
Maybe you can do a commercial 3D hit, right?

**Christuserloeser** · February 13th, 2007, 18:23

Originally Posted by beetroot bertie

Is it really as good as it sounds? From what I've seen of it (not played it), I thought it looked like a second rate R-Type clone with 16 bit bitty graphics.

It's no Rez or Panzer Dragoon Orta, sure. But if you like 16-bit games than this one is made for you

Originally Posted by beetroot bertie

I guess what I mean is that is there anything new on offer. Kind of looks a bit homebrew-ish to me. I can excuse retro graphics if the gameplay is cool, so does it play well then? Or have a 2 player mode etc.

"Is there anything new that this game could offer to the genre?"
- No, this is as old-school as possible.

"Kind of looks a bit homebrew-ish to me."
- Well, it is a semi-professional game (it's ngdev-team's first release) but it does looks like a third-party NeoGeo game, made in 2006.

"...so does it play well then?"
- Yeah, it does

"Or have a 2 player mode etc."
- No.

**beetroot bertie** · February 13th, 2007, 19:48

Originally Posted by JKKDARK

Good graphics or not, the gameplay is good. And don't forget it's an unofficial game. The developers did a good job making this game, it's not easy.
Maybe you can do a commercial 3D hit, right?

No of course I can't, and nor to do profess to be able to but it doesn't mean I can't be critical. I think on a platform such as the DC which has had some very accomplished shooters, namely Ikaruga, Border Down, Zero Gunner 2, Psyvarier 2 etc a new release would have a lot to compete against and would have to good to warrant me purchasing it. I've been a bit disappointed with Radirgy and I'm a little wary of splashing out on these new releases. Perhaps I've been over critical based on my first reaction.

I'm considering getting it and the comments here are very positive, it's good to hear such a good response. I know I should be grateful for any DC release whether it's commercial, semi-pro or homebrew and credit to the programmers for releasing it at such a late stage in the DC's lifespan. I just want to be sure it's worth importing.

PS. Anyone know what the status of Drill, as that looked very good to me.

**JKKDARK** · February 13th, 2007, 21:16

Originally Posted by beetroot bertie

No of course I can't, and nor to do profess to be able to but it doesn't mean I can't be critical. I think on a platform such as the DC which has had some very accomplished shooters, namely Ikaruga, Border Down, Zero Gunner 2, Psyvarier 2 etc a new release would have a lot to compete against and would have to good to warrant me purchasing it. I've been a bit disappointed with Radirgy and I'm a little wary of splashing out on these new releases. Perhaps I've been over critical based on my first reaction.

The games you said are official releases (licensed by Sega). Last Hope is an unofficial game.