Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
ZPF finally hit Steam and consoles recently but there's more going on here than people realize, at least for the Steam version. In this video, I explain how this new Sega Genesis game went about things the right way, unlike Earthion so far.
ZPF on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3095410/ZPF
eShop:
nintendo.com/us/store/products/zpf-switch/?srsltid=AfmBOor-8xxIUZX8TkXDaT8v8XDoa-rTyIpQOUmSl-zmRtOqLCuANccb
00:00 ZPF Is Finally Out Digitally!
01:15 They Got The Cartridge Out First!
02:51 DRM Free ROM With The Steam Release!
ZPF finally hit Steam and consoles recently but there's more going on here than people realize, at least for the Steam version. In this video, I explain how this new Sega Genesis game went about things the right way, unlike Earthion so far.
ZPF on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3095410/ZPF
eShop:
nintendo.com/us/store/products/zpf-switch/?srsltid=AfmBOor-8xxIUZX8TkXDaT8v8XDoa-rTyIpQOUmSl-zmRtOqLCuANccb
00:00 ZPF Is Finally Out Digitally!
01:15 They Got The Cartridge Out First!
02:51 DRM Free ROM With The Steam Release!
![Ridge Racer 64 [N64] - Screamin Eagle 1st Place Car Attack](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HWqpbBE-MHs/mqdefault.jpg "Ridge Racer 64 [N64] - Screamin Eagle 1st Place Car Attack
Ridge Racer 64 has some hard races later in the game, but the hardest one of them all is probably Screamin Eagles Car Attack race. Its not the biggest difficulty spike as Lizard Nightmare precedes it and takes that crown, but Screamin Eagle requires better execution as you cannot block Screamin Eagle as easily as Lizard Nightmare. You have to be almost perfect with your driving in this case. I only hit the barriers twice after Lap 2 and even then, Screamin Eagle was almost on my bumper as I crossed the finish line after six laps of nearly perfect execution. An absolutely insane race and one of the hardest in any N64 racing game.
Played in Simple64 using my Qanba Crystal mixbox setup.
00:00 Intro
00:23 Race
03:33 Results")
![Noiz2sa [PC] - Endless Extreme Mode 6,359,050 pts (Free Doujin Bullet Hell Shmup)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HqBbsYo0ATk/mqdefault.jpg "Noiz2sa [PC] - Endless Extreme Mode 6,359,050 pts (Free Doujin Bullet Hell Shmup)
One of the best doujin bullet hell/danmaku shmups of all time. Noiz2sa features 10 individual stages you can play separately as well as four different endless modes. It is known for its minimalist graphic style that surprisingly few games have taken inspiration from over the years, as well as being a free, open source game from Kenta Cho, who is also known for rRootage.
This is Endless Extreme mode, which is the second hardest of these modes. The only thing that distinguishes this mode from the hardest one, Endless Insane, is that this one still has some slowdown in it. Its still pretty hard to last longer than 2 minutes in this mode, as the bullet density gets higher and higher. The simplicity of this game is what makes it excellent.
Played on Linux via WINE using the 64-bit version created by IoriBranford:
https://github.com/IoriBranford/noiz2sdl2/releases/tag/0.1.1")
![Raiden [Playstation 1] - General/Hard mode First Loop 1CC 2,970,810 pts (The Raiden Project)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/I68HTIrTz18/mqdefault.jpg "Raiden [Playstation 1] - General/Hard mode First Loop 1CC 2,970,810 pts (The Raiden Project)
0:00 Intro
0:12 Stage 1-1
3:12 Stage 1-2
7:11 Stage 1-3
10:53 Stage 1-4
15:05 Stage 1-5
19:12 Stage 1-6
24:10 Stage 1-7
28:19 Stage 1-8
32:12 Stage 1-8 Boss Safe Spot
35:23 Stage 2-1
The Sega Saturn may have been the shmup king of Generation 5, but one thing the Playstation had that the Saturn did not was excellent ports of the Raiden series like The Raiden Project. The Raiden Project features Raiden I and II in nearly arcade perfect ports and was also a launch title for the PS1 in the states. For each of the two games featured, there are four difficulties, including a General mode which is the highest one and harder than the arcade originals, which is the difficulty this run of Raiden was played.
The original Raiden is one of the most successful shmups of all time. While it was derivative of Toaplan in a lot of ways, its level of polish and presentation, as well as punishing difficulty, blew gamers away back in 1990 and was even a big hit in North America.
The key is playing Raiden well comes down to routing. Not only do you need to lead the fast, aimed bullets properly while avoiding the occasional static patterns, you also need to time your item pickups well at the same time. If you move around without a purpose, you will die quickly. While youre on top of the world since youre very strong youre fully powered up, one small mistake can kill an entire run because its extremely difficult to recover from getting hit in most cases, especially in later stages.
This run was not a No-Miss of the first loop, as I had a couple of dumb deaths near the end of Stage 1-4 as well as the beginning of the final boss in 1-8. However, I got lucky in Stage 4 because I had a max power up and missiles waiting for me to pick up without much resistance. The bullets get faster the further you go into the game, even faster than the original arcade game which is saying something. The scroll offset, which prevent the entire stage from being on screen at one time, is actually your biggest friend for survival because if an enemy is not on screen, it cannot fire at you.
The best main weapon is by far the wide shot in this game. While there are parts where the blue laser is decent, it is very clear that the wide shot (red powerups) is the most useful in most situations. Also, while a lot of people prefer the homing missiles, I prefer the nuclear missiles in many situations because it does a lot more damage per shot, making them incredible when point-blanking. This is ideal for speed-killing bosses.")
![F-Zero Maximum Velocity [GBA] - All 1st Place Queen Cup Master Difficulty (The Stingray)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/I6ip31nFAzY/mqdefault.jpg "F-Zero Maximum Velocity [GBA] - All 1st Place Queen Cup Master Difficulty (The Stingray)
00:34. Crater Land - Loop Circuit
02:49. Tenth Zone East - Plummet Circuit
06:01. Empyrean Colony - Twist Circuit
08:28. Fire Field - Land Mine Circuit
11:20. Fire Field - Warrior Circuit
13:54. Summary
F-Zero Maximum Velocity was one of the launch titles for the GBA when it was released in the Summer of 2001. It was notable for taking place 25 years after the events of the original F-Zero and having new pilots and vehicles as a result. It was also the first game by the current Mario Party devs, NDCube. Maximum Velocity, while featuring a different cast of characters, plays very similarly to the original F-Zero on SNES. The boost works the same instead of using a bar like F-Zero X, but the handling is more refined here. The graphics here are pretty similar as well, though the vehicles appear to be pre-rendered 3D.
The actual driving takes quite a bit of time to get used to. The key to taking turns is to tap the accelerator to keep your grip. Of course, it helps to use L and R to help slide the car left or right during sharper turns. With certain cars, you can utilize those shoulder buttons to drift instead of turning with the D-Pad as some cars are very slide-prone, but I do not use that technique much if any. I didnt need it to be honest.
The vehicles themselves have different attributes, but the attributes themselves are a bit different than in previous games and may be a bit confusing in some regards. While the boost is very similar to the original game, it is measured in two ways instead of just a letter. It has a top speed but also, each vehicle has a unique boost duration. Some cars get more boost time than others, but some have higher top speeds than others. Turning is measured in two different ways: performance and balance. Its confusing but from my experience, performance is how easy the car turns while balance has more to do with grip. Body strength is measured from 0 to 100 instead of a letter. Top speed is measured by km/h, and there is also a graph showing acceleration and top speed.
There is also some hidden attributes, and one is speed retention. Some machines decelerate slower than others after finishing a boost or from taking a hit. Fighting Comet in particular has amazing speed retention, despite a terrible top speed outside of boosting, making it one of the best in the game, thanks to that and its excellent boost that is powerful and reasonably long. One more hidden attribute is hang-time on jumps, which means some cars hang in the air during jumps longer than others.
As I mentioned before, my vehicle for this run was The Stingray, piloted by Alexander ONeill, an ex American football player. There are a few big advantages for it. One, it has the second highest non-boost top speed at 460 km/h. Two, its boost lasts a whopping 12 seconds. On a lot of courses, thats more than half a lap, and you get a boost for each lap after the first one so thats a lot of time boosting. It hardly matters that its boost top speed is the worst in the game when youre spending more than half a lap in your boost, and your top speed outside of that is great. The last big advantage is hang-time. It can glide in the air for longer than most cars and can jump far, especially with a boost. I actually failed to leverage this on my run in the second course because there is a shortcut I missed by not doing so, but it didnt matter much in the end. It also helps that the car has a strong body at 86/100, but thats a minor positive.
The only real disadvantages besides the low boost speeds are acceleration and grip. It takes a little while for The Stingray to get up to speed at the beginning of a race. Also, its a bit tougher to handle than other cars at times because it does not have the best turning or grip.
The Queen Cup is the last cup in the game. Its not as hard as the final cup in some other F-Zero games, as the first two stages are surprisingly easy. The difficulty does ramp up after that, with the last three courses. Twist Circuit is notorious for its twist pads, which can turn your car around if you pass over one, but its a really fun high speed course once you learn how to avoid them. Land Mine Circuit is to me the hardest, as some of the turns early on along with the mines are annoying and gave The Stingray some trouble. The Warrior Circuit at the end has one annoying are, particularly where the motion strip is, as exiting that strip the wrong way can cost you time and position.
Master difficulty is the highest one as usual, but it isnt as hard as it is in X and GX. The AI does follow you very closely, waiting for a mistake to capitalize, but are not perfect by any means. That being said, theyre still no pushover.
Still one of my favorite games on the GBA. I got this with my GBA back in 2001 and still have it.
Played using the VBA-M core in RetroArch with the DDT shader.
#fzero #gameboyadvance #racinggames #nintendo")
![Silver Bullet [PC] - 1CC/Full Game Playthrough 10,502,391 pts](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JHSEqVGt2rE/mqdefault.jpg "Silver Bullet [PC] - 1CC/Full Game Playthrough 10,502,391 pts
Silver Bullet is a recent gallery shooter/shmup created by 1CC Games, the makers of Space Moth Lunar Edition and Star Hunter DX. Unlike previous games, its not a conventional shmup but is instead a bullet hell take on Cabal or Wild Guns. Ill be doing a review of this one at some point, but heres the playthrough for now.
Ive got quite a few discussion videos related to different games coming up. Its just going to take some time to get them ready because Youtube is not my main gig.
00:00 Intro + Prelude Stage
00:39 Stage 1
03:01 Bonus Stage 1
04:02 Stage 2
07:39 Bonus Stage 2
08:54 Stage 3
14:40 Bonus Stage 3
16:01 Stage 4
20:45 Bonus Stage 4
21:45 Stage 5
27:08 Bonus Stage 5
29:37 Final Stage
32:40 Final Boss
34:55 Ending")
![Asterix [Sega Master System] - 1CC Full Playthrough 235,400 pts (All Asterix after Stage 1-1)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/L4KV08cR_rk/mqdefault.jpg "Asterix [Sega Master System] - 1CC Full Playthrough 235,400 pts (All Asterix after Stage 1-1)
0:57. Stage 1-1
4:35. Stage 2-1
6:19. Stage 2-2
7:43. Stage 2-3
10:49. Stage 3-1
12:32. Stage 3-2
14:24. Stage 3-3
16:40. Stage 4-1
20:53. Stage 4-2
21:52. Stage 4-3
25:21. Stage 5-1
27:07. Stage 5-2
31:42. Stage 5-3
36:37. Stage 6-1
39:11. Bonus Stage 1
40:24. Stage 6-2
45:26. Stage 6-3
46:54. Stage 7-1
50:58. Stage 7-2
54:36. Bonus Stage 2
55:49. Stage 7-3
1:00:15. Stage 8-1 (Final Stage)
1:01:24. Ending
Asterix is without a doubt my favorite game on the Sega Master System. In my opinion, it is the best platformer of the 8-bit era that is not Super Mario Bros 3, which is a very high compliment because SMB3 is among my favorite games of all time. It is based on a famous French comic book series that was especially popular in Europe. Unfortunately, this game only came out in PAL regions.
Its a brilliant game from the graphics and sound down to the level design, gameplay, and presentation. It even has replay value as the game gives you variations of levels based on whether you choose Asterix or Obelix. It does possess some sharp difficulty spikes at times, but the perfect controls make those tough moments doable with practice.
As far as this run goes, I did chain together some deaths in 4-1 on a tricky jump, 6-2, and 7-3, but overall had a pretty solid run despite missing some easy 1-Ups early on and the RNG on some of the jars not going my way. I had some other deaths here and there but overall, Im happy with the run.")
![Zanac [NES] - 1CC Full Game Playthrough](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/L9_eIovQJTo/mqdefault.jpg "Zanac [NES] - 1CC Full Game Playthrough
Zanac was originally created by Compile for the MSX but was eventually ported over to the Famicom in 1986 before making its way to the NES overseas the next year. This game is known for having one of the most intricate rank systems seen in a shmup up to that point and performing extremely well for an NES shmup, featuring little to no slowdown.
This is a game Ive played on and off for many years but after beating Gun Frontier on one credit, I figured Id come back to this one since it also has quite the rank system. I think that was a good choice, because this game seemed to click with me a lot better this time around than before.
This run went pretty well overall. I had another 1CC recorded prior for this game, but there was significant stuttering early on in the recording so I did another run. While I failed to keep my main shot powered up to the max for long periods of time and had some deaths here and there, I finished with plenty of lives to spare.
00:00 Intro + Stage 1
04:39 Stage 2
07:10 Stage 3
11:38 Stage 4
17:21 Stage 5
22:21 Stage 6
27:38 Stage 7
31:41 Stage 8
37:13 Stage 9
44:17 Stage 10
50:42 Stage 11
57:41 Stage 12
01:00:03 Final Boss + Ending")
