mikeszekely

Working for a major videogame retailer, I can tell you I've played most of the GBA games to be released. Some have been good, some bad, and some not too bad but overly generic, ala most of the SNES's lineup. But here's the short list of must-have games for the GBA- Megaman Zero Megaman Zero 2 (I love all Megaman games, but for non-Mega fans, the Zero series is simply the best) Metroid Fusion (call it linear if you must, it was still fun) Metroid Zero Mission Castlevania: Circle of the Moon Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (All three are excellent, but Aria was the closest to Symphony, and the GBA Castlevania I reccomend the highest) Wario Ware Inc: Micro Mega Game$ Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past w/ Four Swords Sonic Advance 2 Aside from those, I'd also suggest Yu-Gi-Oh! World Wide Edition: Stairway to Destined Duel if you at all familiar with the card game. It doesn't really have anything to do with the plot from the anime/manga. It's basically just the card game, with the official rules. As far as link cables go, I say pick up third party after market cables, maybe even used ones, and only after you find games that need them. I mean, I got a GBA to GBA cable for free, but I've yet to use it, even after I got a second SP for my wife. I got a GBA to GC link cable after I got Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion, and I did use it to unlock original Metroid and the Fusion suit in Metroid Prime. And that was the end of it. I did not use it to take Chao from my Chao gardens in the Sonic Adventure games and put them in Sonic Advance 2, because I didn't bother with the Chao is Sonic Adventure 2, and because even if I did, the Tiny Chao Garden in Sonic Adventure 2 is a waste. And despite all Nintendo's hype, I can't think of a single (useful) case of GBA to GC connectivity beyond unlocking stuff in Metroid Prime (which I could have done with an Action Replay, in any case). Oh, and before anyone says anything about Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, let me just point out that FFCC is a mediocre game at best that isn't really even a Final Fantasy game... SquareEnix just slapped the FF name on it because they know ravenous fanboys and fangirls would buy it up for the name alone that way.

A damn fine question, as I'd definately like to see one that has X1-X6. For the bonus games, Megaman Soccer and Megaman Battle and Chase. Then all I'd need is a US port of Super Adventure Rockman and Rockboard.

I think that's GameCube. If I missed something and it IS multi-platform, make sure your PS2 is modded. Rumor is that Sony will no longer license 2D games for US release AT ALL, so it'll likely be a japan-only release. It's PS2 and Gamecube, and it's being developed by Capcom of America. All the Japanese are getting so far is a box set that has their older PSone remakes of Rockman 1-6 with Rockman X7, meaning that the collection we're getting is by far better. As for that no more 2D games on Sony consoles, that rumor's been flying around since the original PlayStation was just a baby. I, for one, would take it with a grain of salt. Viewtiful Joe (2D gameplay, however they rendered the graphics) was one of the best-selling GC games in 2003, and retro-gaming is very in. Sony has already allowed a new Intellivsion collection and Midway's Arcade Treasures to be published for PS2. I'm confident PS2 owners will get their Megaman. Speaking of, go reserve the Anniversary Collection at Gamestop! If you do, you'll get a slick T-shirt that has a pic of 8-bit Megaman jumping, surrounded by the bosses from Megaman 2. Underneath, it says "I Beat the 8 Master Robots." I'll try to get a pic for you guys later.

Kinda old news in the Megaman community, but I thought I'd share it here for those that cared (especially since Megaman Zero 2 was the best Megaman game and one of the best GBA games in 2003). Capcom announced Rockman Zero 3, for a late April release. That hopefully means that we'll get it as Megaman Zero 3 in the US in the fall... and means that like last year, 2004 will see a ton of new Megaman games ranging from good to bad to mysterious. As of right now, we can expect the following: Megaman Battle Chip Challenge (GBA, March) - Not looking so hot Megaman Anniversary Collection (PS2, GC, May) - An EXCELLENT collection, Megaman 1-8 plus the two arcade games, with lots of bonuses for fans of the series. Megaman Mania (GBA, May) - I'm hearing that they might just call this one Megaman Anniversary Collection as well. This one is a collection of the old Gameboy Megaman I-V, in their original form as well as a cool recolored version that makes them look more like NES games. Megaman Battle Network 4 (GBA, Summer) - Like 3, this one comes in two flavors, Tournament Red Sun and Tournament Blue Moon. I've heard that Capcom has actually reworked a lot of the gameplay in BN4. Hopefully it'll be more fun than the last one. Megaman X Command Mission (PS2, GC, Summer) - A turn-based Megaman RPG featuring X, Zero, Axl, and a handful of new characters. Looks and sounds very interesting, but the director of CM is the same director that's been screwing up the X series lately... Megaman Zero 3 (GBA, not officially announced for US, but you can bet your sweet bippy we'll see it sooner or later) - Zero's getting a new weapon and some new abilities in the third of series that's given us the best Megaman games since X4.

What is this "Anaheim Journal?" Worth looking for?

Hopefully someone has dropped Animeigo a helpful email regarding this then. they can stop the stores in the usa/canda form selling them. but it will be hard to stop their imports trough other means. They can, and HG might, but Animeigo? Probably not. Just like Bandai hasn't really done anything about the HK boots of R1 Gundam W, G Gundam, or Stardust Memory.

Right, there's 117 planes you can fly, over nine pilots.

Okay, this will be the post for the official list of planes in Airforce Delta Strike. This is everything I have unlocked at the moment, and yes, I did use an Action Replay to unlock some that I shouldn't have yet. If you unlocked any planes that are not on this list, please send me a PM so I can update this post and give you credit. As stated before, these are the names as they are written in the game. Any innaccuracies, blame Konami, not me. This is also the number order as they are found in the game, not necessarily best to worst or vice versa. 1. F-5E Tiger II 2. MiG-21bis Fishbed N 3. Su-20 Fitter C 4. X-29A 5. MiG-29SMT Fulcrum C 6. Su-27LL-UV(PS) 7. YF-17 Cobra 8. 9. 10. X-32A 11. 12. F/A-22 Raptor 13. Hunter FGA9 14. 15. Su-24M Fencer D 16. F5D-1 Skylancer 17. Jian-Ji 8 II M Finback B 18. F-20 Tigershark 19. HiMAT 20. 21. F/A-18C Hornet 22. 23. 24. 25. Su-35 Flanker E 26. YF-23A Black Widow II 27. 28. 29. Su-7BMbis Fitter A 30. F-106A Delta Dart 31. F-4E Phantom II 32. FC-1 Fighter China 33. MiG-23ML Flogger G 34. 35. X-31A 36. F-16C Block 50 Fighting Falcon 37. F-15C Eagle 38. 39. 40. S-37 Berkut 41. 42. 43. P-38L Lightning 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. Lightning F-6 49. Jian-Ji 6 Jin 50. YF-12A 51. F-104G Starfighter 52. 53. 54. MiG-27K Flogger J 55. F-111F 56. 57. 58. Su-37 59. 60. 61. 62. T-58VD Flagon B 63. Yak-38 Forger A 64. 65. Jian-Ji 7 MG 66. F-5A Freedom Fighter 67. A-5A Vigilante 68. 69. AV-8B Harrier II 70. 71. Yak-141 Freestyle 72. X-32 B 73. F/A-35B 74. 75. 76. F-105D Thunderchief 77. Su-25A Frogfoot 78. 79. A-10A Thunderbolt II 80. F-117A Nighthawk 81. Jaguar GR1 82. 83. Tornado GR1 84. 85. 86. 87. A-7B Corsair II 88. A-4M Skyhawk 89. Buccaneer S2D 90. 91. 92. 93. F-1 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118. RF-4C Phantom II 119. P-3C 120. SH-3H Sea King 121. KA-52 Hokum B 122. Mi-35 Hind E 123. AC-130H Spectre 124. B-1B Lancer 125. B-2 Spirit 126. C-5B Galaxy 127. SR-71A Blackbird 128. U-2A 129. E-2C Hawkeye 130. E-3C Sentry 131. YAL-1 ABL 132. Tu-160 Blackjack 133. M-17 Mystic 134. A-50 Mainstay

Pick the fastest plane you have, fly to a wheelie thing, slow down, and approach from the front so the wheelie is on your left. Switch targets until the orange target (I guess it's the wheelie's bridge) is highlighted, then fire four missles right at it. Jet off as fast as you can to the next, and repeat. Don't waste time with any of the other targets. I've figured out by myself, that you just need to shoot the bridge of each wheelie. I've been using the F-105, which is pretty fast. I have it armed with the air to surface missiles, which lock-on at longer range than regular missiles and seem to do more damage. The problem is, I still can't kill all the wheelies before one of them makes it off the map, there are just too many of them. I don't know how many there are, I'm guessing at least 12 (4 groups of 3?). Seems like some of the planes don't have afterburner. SU-25 Frogfoot and the F-8 or is it an A-7 (I always mix up the two)? Also found that if you time the release right, the Frogfoot's FAE bombs can be quite effective against the wheelies. Starting to get frustrated. Graham Man, I wish I could remember what plane I used. What element(s) can you pick from? That might help me narrow it down. But let me tell you, if you think that mission is frustrating, wait until you get past it and do some really frustrating missions. And David, sorry, I didn't pay attention to the F-4. I may not even have bothered to fly it. As for the F-14, I don't think I unlocked it. Personally, I wouldn't count on any high degree of realism that gave a stealth rating of 3 (highest in the game) to the Boeing X-32. (Not to mention that the X-32 turns much faster in AFDS than the F/A-22.)

Exactly. The Simpson's is still probably the only show worth watching on TV anymore. Of course, by the time the movie comes out, I'll be playing with a PS3.

Pick the fastest plane you have, fly to a wheelie thing, slow down, and approach from the front so the wheelie is on your left. Switch targets until the orange target (I guess it's the wheelie's bridge) is highlighted, then fire four missles right at it. Jet off as fast as you can to the next, and repeat. Don't waste time with any of the other targets. Right now, I'm stuck on a mission where you have to fly into these underground bunkers. Problem is, the mission objective targets only show up when you're underground, so I find myself accidentally going back into bunkers I already took out, getting lost, and running out of time. I'm working on a list of all the planes in the game. I have a fair number of them listed already, but it seems that there's an unlockable ninth pilot, with his/her own specific set of planes. Maybe I'll just post what I have sometime, and edit it as I unlock more planes.

The F/A-22 will be able to beat the Eurofighter, Gripen and Rafale, but the Eurofighter is supposed to be better than the Gripen and Rafale and any older planes the US has, including the F-15, F-16 and F/A-18. Graham Well, I don't really have any info who was supposed to be able to beat who, and I meant no disrespect to the Eurofighter by catagorizing it with the others. My point was simply that the F/A-22 is supposed to beat all the other fighters in or going into service. If it wasn't... say it beat the Gripen and the Rafale, but not the Eurofighter, then the YF-23 would have won.

I think Mike meant that it's vastly superior compared to any other fighter in or near service, not the YF-23. Exactly. In my original post, I compared the F/A-22 to other fighters "in or going into service" to deliberate exclude the YF-23. I'm certainly willing to concede the YF-23 could be superior in lord knows how many ways, since so much of the info is still classified. The USAF would only have settled for the lesser fighter providing they felt that their fighter was still better than everyone elses. By that, I meant that the F/A-22 is expected to beat the Eurofighter, the Gripen, the Rafale, the Super Flankers, etc. BTW, I heard that in the end, the YF-22 won the ATF competition not because they felt that it outperformed the YF-23 in any catagory. Rather, the YF-22 was picked because it was expected that a carrier variant could have been made to replace the F-14, whereas the YF-23 would have simply been too big.

But that's the whole point... it's not a jack-of-all trades. It can carry a larger payload and has a greater range than the F-16, and that was first and foremost what it was supposed to replace (David can tell you better than I how it stacks up to the F/A-18 and the Harrier). The Navy and the USAF have the Super Hornets, Raptors, and upgraded F-15s for other roles. Only the Marines want to use it in heavier, close-combat role, and they can mount all sorts of external weapons on it, as they're less concerned with stealth.

I heard the same story. The USAF brass thought black planes were more badass so F117s are black instead of a more low-viz purple or blue. Actually, if I recall correctly, the USAF brass didn't believe that a stealth aircraft would work, so they had it painted black so that it only would fly at night. Now they're probably changing their minds since the stealth concept has been validated.

What happens if a Valkyrie gets both of its legs blown off? It would lose both reactors, wouldn't it?

As noble as that might sound.... it would be hard to take 2 stablished franchises and simply fuse them together. Remember, Abombz, that you're talking about the company that fused Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada and got away with it for this long. Considering how little attention Southern Cross gets, and how seperate MOSPEADA and Macross are, I would say you are incorrect. Look at how many continuity questions are constantly brought up by Robotech fans. Harmony Gold did a horrid job. I never said they did it well or correctly. I'm saying they did it, and got away with it for this long.

As noble as that might sound.... it would be hard to take 2 stablished franchises and simply fuse them together. Remember, Abombz, that you're talking about the company that fused Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada and got away with it for this long.

Not really, we're too busy watching the most feverent Macross fans go ballistic over finally getting some proper Macross toys, with the original spellings, characters, and colours... and then complaining about it. I can't speak for the others, but the majority the posts in this thread have simply made me laugh harder than I have in weeks. "Whining: The Official Sport of Macrossworld" indeed. At least HG/Toynami are putting the effort to make little nods and caveates towards the original shows and their fans. These DYRL superposables. The special edition SPs in the SDCC. The Mospeada-style Legioss fighters. Personally, I think this is a great thing for Toynami to be doing. That's like giving nods to the shady guy on the corner selling fake Rolex watches out of his trenchcoat. I mean, first, you shouldn't praise someone for illegal activities, and second, you can't try to sell an inferior product and expect your market to be happy about it when they know damn well there's better to be had.

The Marines and Royal Navy will get the STOVL version. The Navy version isn't STOVL, but is supposed to have the ability to be easily converted to STOVL. Where the forward lift fan is on the STOVL version, the Air Force and Navy versions will have an extra fuel tank.

I think the main thing that changed the speed agility equation was when an in service Soviet fighter tiped it's nose up and flew backwards at the Paris Air show. In hindsight it was just an air show stunt with little tactical value, but it sure had people sh*ting bricks at the time. So while the F-22 had some changes to the wing sweep (along with changes to all the other leading edges to maintain stealth) and the it's cockpit moved foreward; all the YF-23 needed was a new fuselage. IIRC a YF-22 with GE120s would beat a YF-23 with PW119s by a couple of mach points. I thought I read that in Bill Swaetman's book but I can't find it right now. The YF-23 was the faster aircraft though (at least according to Northrup's estimates), but the difference was quite small when using the 119. This doesn't make sense, nearly all the sources I have say that the F-22 only has RAM applied to it's leading edges and other critical areas, it seems strange that it would be covering the entire underside of the plane. From your description it sounds more like maintnence on the deeply buried engines of the F-117. The plane sits that low for a reason. Almost all of the access panels are at chest hight for ease of maintnence. There's no need for a specialised "pit" for loading or maintnence, weapons are loaded with the same standard loader that the Air force is curently using. Basic history of aviation: nothing spectacular ever comes of slow, steady progress. Be risky, take leaps and bounds. B-47, 747, F-4, F-14, SR-71, B-2----the really good stuff is always very different from what comes before, not just an improved version. Well the F-22 is hardly an incremental improvement. Maybe not as huge of a leap as the YF-23 (I'd argue it is, just in a different direction) but still quite huge. Exactly... even the strongest supporters of the YF-23 grudgingly admit that the F/A-22 is still probably the most superior of all the air superiority fighters in or going into service. It has a distinct advantage in BVR combat, and equal or better in a dogfight. All that, despite Knight26's concerns about the compromises of a passive stealth design... As for the JSF, we really can't keep using the fighters we've been using since the 70's. Especially since the F/A-22's production orders keep dropping and since the Navy decided to use Super Hornets instead of buying a new fighter to replace the F-14. And while the F-35 might not blow people away with its performance, the end result of the program was a fighter that's more than capable of replacing Harriers for the Marines and the Royal Navy in its STOVL configuration, and a fighter that can perform equal to or better than the F-16, but with a much greater range and payload, and again that distinct advantage in BVR combat. It's true that the F-35 is at a disadvantage when dogfighting against fighters like the Dassault Rafale (not to single out the French, but they are a little more liberal when deciding who to sell fighters too), but that's not the F-35's job. That's for the F/A-22 and the F-15E. Stealth, passive or active, is a reasonable focus for American fighters for the time being (as long as we can maintain air superiority in WVR combat, which the F/A-22 does), because Americans are the only ones focusing on stealth right now. That gives us a major advantage in BVR combat, and that helps minimize American casualties. Unmanned recon is okay, but unmanned fighters are a bad idea. There's no substitute for the human element. Worse, without the threat of loss of life, war becomes a game.

Whoa, hold up guys... while a lot of people feel that Northrop was robbed, and while the F/A-22's cost soars... I didn't think anyone was sorry that the F-35 won the JSF competition? Buddhafabio... are you saying you actually prefered the X-32? Because the F-35 is actually a relatively low-cost fighter, and the X-32's design is... well...

Well, it's a little Gundam-esque... Apparently, there are people living in orbital space colonies. They form a group called the Orbital Citizen's Community (OCC). For whatever reason, the OCC became more technologically advanced than the Earth, and decided they wanted to take over. After getting their butts whooped for awhile, the remaining nations on Earth formed the Earth Defense Aliance Force (EDAF). Desperate for manpower, the EDAF will take anyone who's willing to fight. Some of the most troublesome are put together in one squadron, codenamed Delta. You basically play as eight of the nine Delta pilots (I have no idea why you can't play as Pedro), and you're fighting the battle to beat the OCC. Actually, one of the gripes I have is the fact that the OCC are really nasty facists. One of the things the Gundam series have always done well, and to a lesser extent Ace Combat 4, was show that there are good and bad people on both sides. It's just unrealistic that every enemy ace you meet in AFDS is a nasty pr*ck... well, then again, so are half of the Deltas...

Actually, that's basically what they do in Macross. That's why in fighter mode, for most VFs, the head lasers point behind the aircraft.

I've heard that case, too. Another one I've heard is that the 119 would be cheaper to build and maintain. I think the case between the engines and the case between the fighters are very similar... there are a lot of excuses flying around, but the bottom line is they picked the more conventional fighter, and they picked the more conventional engine. I'd say changing mentality with the powers that be are forcing a "play it safe" approach. You see that same mentality in the flight controls on the F/A-22... it limits the angle of attack to 60 degrees, although the fighter could in theory do better. A big part of that mentality is that during the Cold War, people felt they needed to do whatever it took to stay ahead of the Soviet Union. But after the Cold War ended, suddenly people are looking at the military's budget and saying "No way are we spending $86 billion on this thing!" They're cutting funding and cutting the production orders for the F/A-22 like nobody's business already. If they had something as unconventional as the YF-23 with the 120 engines, they might have eliminated the program altogether.