Arcade Love on Steam

For whatever reason, the Steam version of Arcade Love Plus Pengo doesn't have Pengo in the compilation and that makes the game less fun or something. I figure that it's due to licensing issues or something from Sega that Pengo has to be excluded in this compilation. The Xbox 360 version has Pengo although it lacks online Multiplayer support for a complete 8-Player experience in Pengo. There may be online leaderboards in other games Triangle Service had made as well as achievements which are synchronized online since your Steam/Xbox account is hybird-ish or some sort. The bigger problem with the arcade version of Arcade Love Plus Pengo is the lack of Aime support. You just start the game and realize that there isn't any prompt for starting the game with Aime card. The other ALL.NET Plus Multi games have that perhaps for saving player data or some kind but the cabinet-to-cabinet local linkage is one essential for 4-Player Pengo experience.
At the time the compilation game was developed, there was news saying that Sega was planning on remaking Pengo with HD widescreen for the arcades but then, that wouldn't be enough was the game would be too short and mini anyway so additional stuffs would be needed. Then came the familiar sound effects when completing the bonus stage in Single Player mode. It seemed that the game was being developed by Triangle Service as if Pengo is the only popular reason to play this compilation game once it came out in the arcades. Unfortunately, the game isn't that great when compared to other ALL.NET Plus Multi games in the arcades. The beat-em-up segment of Action Skills Test is kind of a mixed bag and so is the graphics throughout the entire compilation game although there are some graphical improvements in Shmups Skills Test. CombatZeal is one major disappointment to anyone's who played Trizeal and Exzeal and expected CombatZeal to be a new sequel and the compilation game is quite fun in Multiplayer as if the game's developed with that fun in mind.
The game is alright in the arcades but it's a little bit worse on consumer systems like it's lacking the online Multiplayer support and the Steam version has made things worse with the absence of Pengo that it's NOT even WORTH playing whatsoever! You're better off playing Arcade Love Plus Pengo in the arcades if that's the case.

Gyroshooter for Windows 10 and Steam

It's unbelievable that Triangle Service had been going on both common and non-common routes and it might be the same for Treasure in which certain games were released for the less popular gaming platforms at the time like Sega Saturn and Dreamcast although they have sufficient amount of games. It's just the major difference between them and their rivals and certain games released on them were quite popular enough that they would get ported to rival and modern systems as well like Radiant Silvergun on Xbox 360 as the modern release with Ikaruga on rival console, Gamecube and other modern gaming platforms. This is the same case for Triangle Service starting with Trizeal although not all Dreamcast shmup games are sufficient momentum when compared to some of the best Dreamcast shmup games like Ikaruga. Needless to say, Triangle Service was already on the verge of going under unless Trizeal on Dreamcast was sold well.
Then came the Xbox 360 releases of tons of shmup games. Many of them originated from the arcades and certain of them were also released on Dreamcast in addition to Xbox 360. The Playstation 3 still had yet to catch up but the bigger problem was the least amount of popularity of Xbox series of consoles in Japan. The Xbox 360 did better than its predecessor due to sufficient amount of Japanese games released for it there. Like those popular Dreamcast games, certain Japanese games on Xbox 360 were also released on rival systems at the time like Namco's Idolmaster for instance with future Idolmaster games being on Playstation 3 and 4.
Next is the Windows Phone platform which is less popular and somehow, one of Cave's shmup games was released for it before getting an IOS release. At future points, Cave's already managing the modern mobile games on IOS & Android with sufficient success with Gothic is Magical Maidens/Gothic wa Mahou Otome, followed by Steam releases of their games in which even Triangle Service was going on that same route.
Recently, it looked like Triangle Service made a new gaming experiment in game development which was basically a shooter game that uses gyroscope technology. There's a Galaga game on 3DS that does the same thing although it may remind you more of Starblade and Galaxian 3 than Galaga since that game is a rail shooter. Speaking of rail shooter, Gyroshooter uses the gyroscope technology which is way before VR gaming became popular recently. Sure, you can also use the mouse, keyboard and gamepad for this but I still recommend that you use the gyroscope feature. Needless to say, the game is aimed towards Windows tablets and Windows 10 Mobile is still not popular. At this rate, it looks like nobody cares for Windows Phone or Windows 10 Mobile stuff nowadays when you're more interested in new stuffs to use for IOS/Android or both.
Gyroshooter is the rail shooter game consisting of three modes, Arcade, Planet and Minus Zero. The Arcade Mode is more or less an experimental Time Attack Mode and it's kind of short if you ask me although Minus Zero may last longer if you're good enough at it. The Planet Mode is like a VR version of Space Harrier but I highly doubt that it is made without Sega's knowledge. You just tilt your tablet and turn your head and body around as if this whole thing is like an earlier VR gaming experience. How do you shoot at things in this game since you're using the tablet? Well, the only button is the Reset button on the top-right and the game does the instant shooting for you when you aim at the target with the crosshair.
It's a recent shame that Triangle Service made such a game like this with Windows 10 tablets in mind when they could make one for the VR platforms like HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Playstation VR, etc. instead. Plus, the VR gaming may or may not have superseded the gyroscope gaming or some sort when it comes to rail shooters, FPS and even action games that use first-person/third-person or both perspectives. At least the last good opportunity for the arcade platform was Arcade Love Plus Pengo which is still not that great in my opinion. There may be graphical improvements in Shmups Skills Test a little bit but the graphics are still one era behind at the time if you ask me. Some parts of Action Skills Test are like hit or miss in terms of gameplay and the game's quite fun with Multiplayer although it is lacking the online Multiplayer feature which is essential for full 8-Player support.
So, what are the flaws of Gyroshooter? Hmm, I guess the game may seem to be quite short overall after you try out all three modes but I'm not sure about the length of Planet Mode to be honest as I tried out the demo version on Steam which consists of Arcade Mode as the only playable mode. Sure, there's enough momentum for previous Triangle Service games but that surely took time for them to gain sufficiency. Gyroshooter, well, I don't know as it was made with gyroscope in mind. Plus, not all IOS & Android devices support gyroscope and that is one thing to keep in mind of.
To tell you the truth, the graphics have new textures, explosions and particles or whatnot for both Arcade and Planet Mode although the Planet Mode has like low-poly objects and Minus Zero improves a little graphically. Man, talk about asset flipping but then, Triangle Service should learn to get additional resources while ensuring that those resources can be used commercially.
For system requirements, the minimum is probably the Intel Atom-based CPUs and it seems that Windows 10 is required. The same requirements can be found on Steam version as well and indeed, there are also videos of Triangle Service testing their games on devices with such CPUs.

Homerun Baseball - 2nd attempt

Going to Homerun Baseball was a better opportunity but I sort of went there due to the fact that it's going to close soon in 12 August. The reason for that closure is that they have to relocate elsewhere according to the official news on social media.
It was a long walk there after arriving at Jurong East train station and of course, the improvement wasn't enough despite having gone there for the second time. I'm still terrible at sports but at least I learnt the proper way of holding and swinging the baseball bat and even then, I can barely hit the ball with that. There's also the pitching area which I made it harder because in the real baseball game, the distance between you and the batter is large so the result was that I couldn't get the ball that easily and I sucked so bad at pitching. It's all a shame as the baseball scene is like popular elsewhere but I was told that there are baseball lessons somewhere at Bishan.
There was a man coaching some young students in baseball and he taught me the proper way of swinging the bat as well as told me that even boys play softball as well in addition to baseball which is a traditional kind to me.
It was a little bit annoying enough to me that I decided to go to Homerun Baseball which was two days after the start of the Rev Up Stomp Out gig at Blu Jaz Cafe I went to where I had a talk with various DJs after the gig although I went back home much later than the first time I went clubbing. Problem is, even if I talked to them, I still have yet sign up for DJ pool stuff as well as to prepare the DJ business card. Perhaps, my philosophy on what to attend had gotten stronger temporary for a month or some sort.

Beatmania IIDX Cannon Ballers First Play

About the disturbing player name that I mentioned in some previous Beatmania IIDX related blog post, it turns out that the Terms & Conditions against inappropriate player names HAVE BEEN THERE in many Bemani games although the shameful thing is that they're not translated to English in many Bemani games and this is one of them so it's a shame on me for not knowing the Terms & Conditions earlier. They're there in Beatmania IIDX but they aren't translated whatsoever. And by the way, turning off the machine or disconnecting it from the network as a way of ragequitting or mischievous act is one sure way to get you banned from or kicked out of the arcade. It doesn't matter which genre you're playing but I'm sure that this warning has been there against such misbehaviors.
Good thing is that the camera option has been turned off by default but even then, I still have yet to figure out some of the patterns in the notechart so that I can do things usually like other players do. However, I still have to figure out the balance to get my timing right like 2.20 of Hi-Speed for 170-190 BPM or something for instance.

Bishi Bashi Channel First Play

Like other new games in the arcades that recently came out, this will cost 15 virtual tokens for 4 coins which may be equal to a credit. For games like this, things will be costly since I have never played any Bishi Bashi games before in my life and this is more or less the first one. Shame that I had no idea on the fishing mini-game as if I grabbed on the cheap ones without any problems. The bigger problem on my first attempt has been my timing. It has been half-ass when it comes to playing Beatmania IIDX ever since several years ago even with the balance strategy to keep my timing right and I STILL have a hard time in keeping my timing right with the silent intro and outro portions of the songs.
I guess that if I don't make any mistakes, I won't get penalized in Bishi Bashi games when it comes to further parts of it but then, I eventually visited the DJ gig venue by the name of Rev Up Stomp Out yesterday after this. Of course, the change from Museca to Bishi Bashi Channel may be a good news for me but it's not the same for those who have played Museca. So, the options for the operators are:

1. Get the offline kit for the Museca machine and install it so people can play it.
2. Upgrade the cabinet which involves changing the game from Museca to Bishi Bashi Channel.

It's a shame that the machine's offline but I still got to play the game anyway to experience the Bishi Bashi series for the first time. Unfortunately, I look like a sucker at the series although the concept seems to be interesting at best but I can probably say the same for when I had played Beatmania IIDX for the first time. Not to mention the button mashing method is different as the buttons are large that I need to find a way to mash the buttons at higher speed.
The Attract Mode is full of Demo Mode as indicated from one of the gameplay videos on YouTube and the only to see the Title Screen will be to insert the coins. *Sigh* I don't know what the game's intro is like.

Groove Coaster 4 First Play

Well, that's that. There's still no English Dub for the other two default navigation characters from Groove Coaster 3 EX and 4 but this is going to be more than the first time play of Groove Coaster 4.
So I made a visit to Century Square as it had made a recent return after a long time of renovation although there are tons of stores related to house stuffs like those for kitchens and bedrooms to name a few. The arcade there had made a return as well although the Beatmania IIDX machine was located elsewhere. The other rhythm games that remained there were probably Maimai, Sound Voltex, Jubeat, Drummania and of course, Groove Coaster. I believe that Dance Evolution Arcade machine was already relocated to other location in the past in favor of more active arcade games but there are other arcade games that happen to be placed in that arcade center such as Tsum Tsum Arcade version along with Initial D Zero which runs on the newest Sega arcade system.
One serious downside of this move from Virtualand is that although the arcade center in Century Square has the same card and card reader for inserting coins as the one in Bugis+, you can't use the card from the other arcade center for inserting coins in the arcade center you're currently in. It's ridiculous not to make the quarter-insertion card universal when compared to the past times where you can use the same card in the other arcades run by the same company. As I had the card that was for Bugis+ arcade center, that would throw me an error when inserting that card in the reader as if it isn't compatible. So, I was supposed to use the card that was for the Century Square arcade center as a result since I was at that arcade center. Sure, things were still working fine for other people despite having inserted the card supposed to be for the other location that threw me some error like the reader showed me some garbage on display. Have you ever seen an arcade center where only tokens/coins/cards for credit insertion are acceptable there but not other locations despite the fact that all those locations are run by the same company? From what I saw in the revitalized arcades in the US, even the Round 1 arcades there are using the card reader stuff as the replacement for coin slot for inserting coins. Question is, I don't know if the same card is acceptable through multiple Round 1 arcade locations there.
Then, about the machines' conditions. The one on the left has some technical problem regarding one of the booster buttons. Someone already reported that to the staff and the staff eventually covered the card reader for inserting coins with something made out of paper to indicate that something is wrong with that machine. What an useful indication but there should be a plastic cover or some sort. The one on the right as I played on had some kind of delay as it took time to initialize some stuffs.
Needless to say, I had already attempted the song, Echo, on the other rhythm game before this one but I forgot that I did that in the past. At that time, I didn't know much about that song until the recent time, I discovered a Virtual YouTuber cover of it. The song originally came out like several years ago and it is one of the Vocaloid songs to make use of English language entirely. Unfortunately, from the music structure, it's not easy to put the song in rhythm games without screwing it up.

Bishi Bashi Channel

Sure, Museca isn't quite original in terms of cabinet design and gameplay that it is one of the controversial music games Konami had made for the arcades but there's an official news stating that it is going to be discontinued at the end of this month in favor of Bishi Bashi Channel which recently came out last week. I suppose that it's a good move this time for some reasons.

1. The controversy can be undone with the discontinuation of Museca although what cannot make the controversy undone is that there will be an offline version of the game. It's a similar fate to Future TomTom and Dance Evolution Arcade getting offline kits and licenses. Well, without them, the game will be useless at the end of the support period. You can't even start the game at all as it uses E-Amusement Participation service in which the game must be online and supported to start but the offline kits and licenses remove this requirement.
2. This marks the return of Bishi Bashi series ever since the last game that started in the arcades in Japan and Asia 9 years ago. Bomberman already made a comeback with a few recent Bomberman games and it's the same for Bishi Bashi series although Konami did the wrong thing with Metal Gear Survive which continues its franchise in a wrong way.
3. From what I've seen, Konami has done the right thing this time with Bishi Bashi Channel. The Bishi Bashi has some disturbing parts like the use of Otomedius characters but that's for the Japanese version. The Asian version uses Beatmania IIDX characters for that mini-game instead and even then, some mini-games like that are unspeakably stupid.

There might be English versions of the previous Bishi Bashi games in some Asian countries in the arcades as well as the European releases of the ones for consumer systems although the Asian arcade releases of some Bishi Bashi games are fully voiced when compared to English Playstation releases of Bishi Bashi Special series.
Those who have been playing Museca are likely to feel disappointed over its discontinuation but to cuss Konami over this without knowing that one other franchise is making a comeback is outright ignorant. Nostalgia for the arcades proved to be Keyboardmania's return and spiritual successor like a manageable game so it's another good move for me.
Some of the mini-games in Bishi Bashi Channel are direct references to various Bemani rhythm games and such appearances have been around ever since the previous Bishi Bashi games with DDR and Guitarfreaks mini-games. This has the mini-games based on Beatmania IIDX and Sound Voltex although the Sound Voltex one is more like something straight out of Sega's Ongeki than Sound Voltex itself until the end part. One funny mini-game is the one that makes the Somebody Scream meme official where you stack up multiple ice-creams while the music still goes. Unfortunately, the Beatmania IIDX related mini-game is shoehorned with the weird and stupid ch**r squad part but its in-game UI and Stage Result screens are quite good looking and even then, this is one thing that suits some BMS Players like Lunatic Rave 2 or something else better than the actual games as Beatmania IIDX is supposed to be a DJ-themed rhythm game where you expect some electronic music but no, you don't get that music in that mini-game.
Other mini-games are not quite new as they first appeared in previous Bishi Bashi games in addition to the new ones exclusive to Bishi Bashi Channel. There's also the grading system which changes depending on how well you do as well as the player-saving feature which I guess if you do well, you may have saved the other players who can't make it. Like the previous Bishi Bashi games, you must fulfill the stage objectives and there's no rule in outscoring other players like in The Bishi Bashi.
Lastly is the game's official art that has two hosts and the other characters on it. I guess that this kind of art brings you back to the time when Arcana Heart 3 Love Max came out in the arcades and on consoles and computers.
If there are flaws in the Bishi Bashi series, it will have to be regarding some mini-games that are unspeakably stupid. Plus, some of the mini-games don't end until you run out of mini-game lives. Maybe there should be a timer to make things quite fair or something. Another flaw of Bishi Bashi Channel is that there's only one E-Amusement Pass Reader and it can be confusing to know which player side belongs to who or some sort. Many other games have multiple E-Amusement Pass Readers for each player side but this one has ONE E-Amusement Pass Reader and FOUR-Player support. Perhaps, I can assume that Bishi Bashi Channel has like two flaws but it's still made the series a great return in the arcades.