A is for Arly

This is a Japanese Twinkle Star Sprites match between 503(Sprites) and Kattachiyo(Really Till). For those unawares, Twinkle Star Sprites is one of the first versus shooter games ever made. It might even be the first. And if nothing else, it’s sickeningly cute.

A quick primer on the rules: You get two bombs, chargeable attacks, special attacks that can’t be killed like a typical enemy, and a Boss attack. You can either send the latter two by charging your super meter, or you can get a successful Reversal combo against the flashing fireball attacks.

A flashing fireball typically occurs like this: You fire off a 12 hit combo, sending three normal fireballs to your opponent. Your opponent manages to get a combo at the same time, and the area-effect explosions not only send three normal fireballs your way, but bounces back YOUR three fireballs at you. However, because they were yours in the first place, they now come back in a flashing state, which means if you bounce them back again, they reincarnate as un-counterable Special attacks, or as a Boss attack (depending on how many you hit in a combo).

Also, if a match takes too long, a cutesy version of Death appears, and his touch is an instant kill. The longer a match goes on, the harder he is to defeat, and the faster and more persistent he becomes.

Really Till, by the way, is a fairly low-tier character; her Charge attack has sucky range, sucky damage and no directional ability. It’s also fairly easy to dodge her Special attacks (those pudgy dragons) since they only travel in one direction and tend to appear ahead of you, not on top of you. However, she has a three-star(Max) agility rating, so she’s able to dodge just about anything.

Sprites, the transformed-with-bubz version of Ran, is a fairly basic character, if balanced. You can try the game out on GameTap (download their free client first), but for a true arcade experience, you’ll have to find a Neo Geo machine with the MVS cart installed.

And yes, this game is typically 2/3 rounds. However, most players aren’t good enough to survive for this long.

Links: Hardcore Gaming 101: Twinkle Star Sprites , GameTap (Play Twinkle for Free)

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