Deep Blue - Hardcore Gaming 101

[Gentlegamer]

Pack-In-Video made this game!  Pack-In-Video is a developer you've probably never heard of, though if you played video games in the 80s and 90s you're definitely familiar with their work. They're responsible for developing Predator, Die Hard, Terminator 2, Rambo, and Knight Rider for the NES. Pack-In-Video is the developer that ported Minesweeper to the PC Engine CD, a system for which one can use a mouse, and opted not to program mouse support into Minesweeper, a game designed to be played with a mouse. Basically, anyone who knows Pack-In-Video by name knows them only because over their fifteen years of existence, they were responsible for some of the most infamously horrible games of all time.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/kusoge/kusoge-deepblue.htm

I've never played Deep Blue, but it certainly looks like a game even OBEYers never talk about or recommend.

Any Deep Blue apologists out there?

Edit:

The best part of Deep Blue, however, is its legacy.  It's a horrible game, everyone who's played it for even five seconds knows it. And yet, you can go onto Amazon as of the time of this article's writing and purchase a new copy for $99.99!

Seriously?

[madboom0522]

Game is kind of like a version of solider blade with fish....Not too bad, however not too good either... At least to me anyways.

[HailingTheThings]

Game is kind of like a version of solider blade with fish....Not too bad, however not too good either... At least to me anyways.

Nuh-uh. Soldier Blade is amazing. Deep Blue is kinda... uhhh... idk ish? Like whenever I play it... feels like I'm getting a headache after about 10 mins. Sometimes I really hate myself and go "All in." Seriously though, I wish it was a little more forgiving. I would like to beat it someday, somehow, gonna make it alright, but not right now... what was I talking about again?

#DamnItChad

[cr8zykuban0]

deep blue is not bad. soldier blade is awesome though.

[esteban]

Deep Blue, as some folks have pointed out (a long time ago), is not to be played in the traditional manner.

If you do, you will immediately become frustrated. As I did (when I miraculously made it pretty far playing the game "wrong", only to be frustrated when the swarms of enemies never stopped).

So, while I don't like Deep Blue, it's because I have only approached it and tried to play it as a generic shootemup.


Believe me, it has all the trappings of a generic shootemup, with a DARIUS-inspired theme.

But it's not.

For example, I thought the trick to the game was figuring out when to use/not use auto fire. Maybe occasional moments of dodging. I was thinking about trying to destroy lots of enemies for a high score.

But that's not it.

Not at all.

The point of the game is survival...that's it. And you can supposedly recharge your life meter, too (I have never played this way, so I'm just passing on what folks have told me).

The only reason I'm bothering to post this is because _____________ is not here to do so himself.  Or was it majors? Or _________? Or __________? Anyway, someone once unlocked the Key to Deep Blue. Now, you, too, are  responsible for passing this knowledge on. I am serious.

[Arkhan Asylum]

how are we comparing Soldier Blade and Deep Blue right now

One is vertical and one is horizontal.

[CrackTiger]

how are we comparing Soldier Blade and Deep Blue right now

One is vertical and one is horizontal.

They're both plane games.

Only in one your plane is a fish.

[bust3dstr8]

how are we comparing Soldier Blade and Deep Blue right now

One is vertical and one is horizontal.

How are we not comparing Deep Blue to a bamboo under the fingernails, that is the real question.

[seieienbu]

I've got some mixed feelings about Deep Blue.  It is a bad game, to be sure.  That being said, I always liked how the game looked.  The fish are often pretty interesting looking and I liked the use of foreground objects, at least aesthetically.

Sound was kinda a mixed bag ranging from the "okay I guess" early stage music to the "this is terrible" midstage song.  Not much to be said about sound effects.

The real problem is, obviously, the actual gameplay.  Endless hordes of enemies come forever and it seems to serve essentially no purpose to actually kill them.  I'm of the opinion that without a speed boost the game is absolutely miserable.  With a speed boost however, the game at least kinda feels like a shooter.  You can rate how annoying the enemies are by how much vertical motion they have.  After you get a speed boost, enemies that move straight at you seem totally fair.  Fish that move slightly up or down are okay.  The guys with slight sinusoidal paths are a pain, and the ones with major sinusoidal paths seem bullshit.  Meanwhile, the guys that drop from the ceiling are straight up unfair.  Yeah, you can regenerate health, but you may as well give up if you lose your speed boost and are in a long section of enemies dropping from the low (due to letterboxing) ceiling.  This is particularly bad when pillars are completely blocking your view from some incoming starfish or whatever.

Why is a guy in a submarine murdering fish, anyway?  I never owned the game so I haven't read the manual and the game itself sure doesn't tell me much.  Did the dudes making this game not bother to play it, ever?  They HAD to know the ship was too slow to start off with.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Deep Blue isn't a bad game.

It's an interesting experiment that almost worked well.    It's a shooter that encourages you to not shoot.

thematically, it's also uncommon

WE'VE ONLY GOT 3 FISH GAMES

Deep Brue
Darius
Atlantean

I don't think there are any others.

[seieienbu]

I'll give you interesting experiment, but it fails simply due to the fact that you can't control your Submarine well enough to avoid things meaning the only way you can avoid shooting is by exploiting the quite bad enemy AI that seems to not want to send many fish at you if you're at the top or the bottom of the screen. 

Especially without the speed boost, it's not like you can weave in and out dodging things mid-screen until you get your health back.

[esteban]

I've got some mixed feelings about Deep Blue.  It is a bad game, to be sure.  That being said, I always liked how the game looked.  The fish are often pretty interesting looking and I liked the use of foreground objects, at least aesthetically.

Sound was kinda a mixed bag ranging from the "okay I guess" early stage music to the "this is terrible" midstage song.  Not much to be said about sound effects.

The real problem is, obviously, the actual gameplay.  Endless hordes of enemies come forever and it seems to serve essentially no purpose to actually kill them.  I'm of the opinion that without a speed boost the game is absolutely miserable.  With a speed boost however, the game at least kinda feels like a shooter.  You can rate how annoying the enemies are by how much vertical motion they have.  After you get a speed boost, enemies that move straight at you seem totally fair.  Fish that move slightly up or down are okay.  The guys with slight sinusoidal paths are a pain, and the ones with major sinusoidal paths seem bullshit.  Meanwhile, the guys that drop from the ceiling are straight up unfair.  Yeah, you can regenerate health, but you may as well give up if you lose your speed boost and are in a long section of enemies dropping from the low (due to letterboxing) ceiling.  This is particularly bad when pillars are completely blocking your view from some incoming starfish or whatever.

Why is a guy in a submarine murdering fish, anyway?  I never owned the game so I haven't read the manual and the game itself sure doesn't tell me much.  Did the dudes making this game not bother to play it, ever?  They HAD to know the ship was too slow to start off with.

You pilot A.N.G.E.L.

 

That is all.

[HailingTheThings]

You pilot A.N.G.E.L.

 

Anal Ninja Grabbing Everything Loosely?

Can I pilot?

[Arkhan Asylum]

I'll give you interesting experiment, but it fails simply due to the fact that you can't control your Submarine well enough to avoid things meaning the only way you can avoid shooting is by exploiting the quite bad enemy AI that seems to not want to send many fish at you if you're at the top or the bottom of the screen. 

Especially without the speed boost, it's not like you can weave in and out dodging things mid-screen until you get your health back.

You only have to not shoot if you suck and get hit a lot.

Deep Blue requires alot of accuracy to survive. 

We're kind of conditioned by shit like Gradius to just get a power up and 32 options and then you just have to avoid the scenery because the enemies never really get anywhere.

[imparanoic]

Deep Blue isn't a bad game.

It's an interesting experiment that almost worked well.    It's a shooter that encourages you to not shoot.

thematically, it's also uncommon

WE'VE ONLY GOT 3 FISH GAMES

Deep Brue
Darius
Atlantean

I don't think there are any others.

1990's metal black arcade game ( same company who done the darius series) has fish based enemies

[Psycho Punch]

Arkhan's observations on Deep Blue makes me want to play it. I'll have to check it out again, I really didn't give this game a chance since the only time I've played it, years ago.

[jordan_hillman]

I definitely consider myself a Deep Blue apologist. 

Is it the best shooter on the TG/PCE? Absolutely not, however, I do enjoy and appreciate that the game requires a dodge first, shoot second strategy in order to be successful.

Deep Blue is a great example of having to figure out a successful strategy instead of having it spelled out for the player through "sweet spots," tons of power ups, etc.

[esteban]

I definitely consider myself a Deep Blue apologist. 

Is it the best shooter on the TG/PCE? Absolutely not, however, I do enjoy and appreciate that the game requires a dodge first, shoot second strategy in order to be successful.

Deep Blue is a great example of having to figure out a successful strategy instead of having it spelled out for the player through "sweet spots," tons of power ups, etc.

I hear you. One day I may actually feel this way about Deep Blue.

Right now, it is just a "theory" in my mind. Hahahahahshashs.

[Gredler]

So what I am gathering from this thread, and from this quote on the HCG101 article,


" You would think a horizontally scrolling shooter on a system with tons of competing shooters would have to be pretty good to stand out. Nope. Deep Blue is not only the worst one available on the TurboGrafx-16, but possibly the worst of any to be released on a major game system. "


is that I should avoid this game until I am looking for something new to play and have played many other shooters. I currently only have Dragon Spirit on TG16, and someone had suggested I get Deep Blue - but now I am suspicious it was sarcasm ;)

[esteban]

So what I am gathering from this thread, and from this quote on the HCG101 article,


" You would think a horizontally scrolling shooter on a system with tons of competing shooters would have to be pretty good to stand out. Nope. Deep Blue is not only the worst one available on the TurboGrafx-16, but possibly the worst of any to be released on a major game system. "


is that I should avoid this game until I am looking for something new to play and have played many other shooters. I currently only have Dragon Spirit on TG16, and someone had suggested I get Deep Blue - but now I am suspicious it was sarcasm ;)

Correct. There are tons of great Shootemups to try before Deep Blue.

List of shootemups here (you can sort by horizontal/vertical and more):

https://archives.tg-16.com/complete_list_of_tg16_pce_shooters.htm

[NecroPhile]

I'm not a big fan of Deep Blue, but it's not even close to being the worst shewty ever.