Muchi Muchi Pork! & Pink Sweets [February 24, 2011, JP X360] REGION FREE

[Special World]

EOJ, are you sure the initials at the end aren't just version specific? For example, I usually get V01 (vol) because I play 1.01. I just now got FES (festival) from playing Matsuri.

[EOJ]

Ah, that's probably it. Thanks for the tip, I'll update my review.

[EOJ]

Switched over to Shasta (the points from her lasers are pretty sweet, as is the constant stream), and finally beat that third boss after some credits. Game over'd pretty fast in stage 4 with 2.7m. How's PS 1.01 treating you guys?

Try Lace. I just did a 6.8mil run (up to Stage 6) with her in 1.01, and with some practice I can see 1CCing the game with her. I do wish they decreased the 1UP drop rate from 2500 destructible enemies/bullets to 2000 in 1.01. Pretty neat that you can change this value to anything you like in the Training mode.

[Dave_K.]

This is disappointing, they're not giving Yagawa much respect really.

No kidding, Yagawa is not even listed in the credits!  WTF!?

[Tain]

Nice review!

I'm curious about the part where you said that it's literally impossible to clear the harder Pink Sweets modes in the port's 1.0. What happens that requires infinite lives?

[EOJ]

I'm curious about the part where you said that it's literally impossible to clear the harder Pink Sweets modes in the port's 1.0. What happens that requires infinite lives?

Crazy high rank at the start of the second loop in Extended that cannot be lowered (keep in mind the first loop is HARDER than the Normal course). A few years ago one Japanese guy was determined to try and 2-ALL it without the infinite lives trick but when he got to 2-1 the rank was so insane, he couldn't even get past the midboss. He did a no medalling, low rank first loop in the run. Same deal with Harder mode. Just try it out and you'll see what I mean.

@Dave K: Yagawa is listed in the end credits when you complete either game, as they are the same credit rolls as in the PCBs. The "credits" list in the option menu only lists the people who programmed the port (Ichimura and Inoue).

[Dave_K.]

Thanks EOJ, I was gonna say that was crazy that it wasn't listed.  

[EOJ]

Do note he isn't listed in the DFK BL X360 end credits, even though he programmed the arcade game.  

[EOJ]

Watching YOS.K's 4.7mil Pink Sweets Arcade 1.00 run (ending in the Stage 3 midboss) on the leaderboards was epic. 1+ million on stage 1!   He does so many things I never thought of, and maxes out rank near the beginning of stage 3. This is like getting a short glimpse of his 20+mil WR score on the Arcade version. I'm just hoping he'll put up a killer 1CC run eventually (best he did in the Arcade version without the infinite lives trick was 16mil). At the very least, in S.ATTACK mode.

[Bartlebooth]

Hi everyone

Thank you for the great review and the brilliant strategy guides.
I am posting here because I am very intrigued about the graphical accuracy of those ports, especially on MMP's side.
I am running the game on an HD TV (not totally true, its native and max resolution is 1366x768...) through VGA cable and a slg 3000, turning the 360 on 640x480, the game's smoothing option off and playing in TATE.
I had the chance of playing the game on PCB a few weeks ago and can't find any configuration where I can get anywhere close to what I had in mind.
I don't want to say anything wrong since I had very few opportunities to play the game before, but I can't find anything about that anywhere, except the fact that you said it was kind of made in Guwange's XBLA port manner.
Guwange, under the configuration I mentionned before, seems to be way much more precise and accurate graphically speaking than MMP, not mentionning Galuda 2 for instance when we talk about the SD backgrounds.

What is it exactly that they'v done with this port, and does anyone have a configuration where the game stands to its arcade beauty (H?las, I don't have an arcade cabinet at home, but I'v read here and there that even on it it was complicated to obtain something good) ?
Do you think that all the problems you pointed out about the arcade port's inaccuracy and all the graphical issue are strong enough matters to release a patch someday ?

Sorry if anything inaccurate was said, and thank you in advance for your answer !

[skykid]

This is disappointing, they're not giving Yagawa much respect really. I feel the pain for the big fans of these games (Plasmo and Icarus particularly.)
I'm glad I didn't bother buying on release now, I'll pick a used copy one day to give PS a spin.

They better get Akai Katana right.

You're missing out.  It's still absolutely worth owning.

I totally agree!! Aside from the issues, both games are a lot of fun to play and worth having in your collection!

I'm sure they are, but I'm in no rush. I've got MMP on PCB so I can always play that while this drops to bargain bin prices and grab one then (I'm still stuck on DFKBL atm anyway.)

[brentsg]

The graphical presentation is what it is and they will not likely address that.  The best you could do is find a way to play on a CRT.

Really though, if they were not going to redo the game in HD then anything in-game (even scan lines) would just be a band-aid.  

[Plasmo]

Watching YOS.K's 4.7mil Pink Sweets Arcade 1.00 run (ending in the Stage 3 midboss) on the leaderboards was epic. 1+ million on stage 1!  Shocked He does so many things I never thought of, and maxes out rank near the beginning of stage 3. This is like getting a short glimpse of his 20+mil WR score on the Arcade version. I'm just hoping he'll put up a killer 1CC run eventually (best he did in the Arcade version without the infinite lives trick was 16mil). At the very least, in S.ATTACK mode.

Any chance anyone could upload that somewhere? Would love to see it!

[EOJ]

I'm sure they are, but I'm in no rush. I've got MMP on PCB so I can always play that while this drops to bargain bin prices and grab one then (I'm still stuck on DFKBL atm anyway.)

You risk missing out on the superb DLC-only Matsuri version of MMP if you wait too long. Also, I doubt this will get significantly cheaper in the long run.

[Special World]

Man, Pink Sweets Arrange is extremely fun. I look forward to pulling all sorts of crazy shit to keep chains going. How exactly do you get rose hips in this, though? I don't really notice myself picking up any powerups, and they seem crucial to finishing bosses with a x64.

I'm enjoying the hell out of this release, it may be my second favorite after Futari.

[lam47]

Is there any chance of Mutsuri being downloadable?

[Van_Artic]

Is there any chance of Mutsuri being downloadable?

it's prolly going to be like any other limited DLC card, zero chances

[moozooh]

100% chance if you have the card, 0% chance if you don't.

[EOJ]

It's also not just an unlock key - it's 12MB in size.

[TheSoundofRed]

Sorta sad that there hasn't been any new MMP & PS video footage uploaded to the interwebz. My copy is sitting in NYC until tomorrow. I wonder how fast EMS Speedpost ships within the US.

Anyway, how have folks been finding the MMP Arrange? Do the bullets turn to Pork Gold during Fever after killing an enemy with lard attack? I wonder if bombing while in Fever is going to be a major strategy after splitting blue bullets with lard. Man, can't wait to get my hands on the game.

Is anyone able to give a rundown of PS Arrange? Initial impressions? I'm really excited for MMP Arrange but haven't seen much of PS Arrange.

[EOJ]

MMP Arrange is pretty blah. I've tried to like it, but so far it's just not doing anything for me. Japanese top scorer SIN recently posted on his blog how he is really disappointed with MMP Arrange too.

PS Arrange is pretty rad. There's a 390mil ALL clear on the leaderboards you should check out when your copy arrives.

[Special World]

I haven't really spent enough time with Pink Sweets arrange to give you a rundown, but here's the basic gist:

- You now have a laser if you hold down the shot button
- Rose cracker is now set to a different button than shot
- You use the rose cracker to cancel normal bullets into points items
- Your rose cracker will give you a combo multiplier when it kills enemies, I think you need to kill 6 or 7 with one rose cracker to get it to x64
- As long as you're killing enemies, the rose cracker multiplier will stay at x64
- As long as a rose cracker is onscreen, your multiplier will not run out
- It runs out rather quickly if you're not killing anything and you don't have a rose cracker deployed
- If you press A+B, you'll deploy your rose hips (I believe) into a sort of "super rose cracker," which seems to function the same as a normal rose cracker except that it lasts much, much longer. I think these have the same properties across characters. For instance, Shasta's is a circle instead of a line, IIRC.
- There doesn't seem to be rank.

I think that's the gist of it. I might have left some things out, and I may have been incorrect about a few points which relate to vanilla Pink Sweets, since I haven't played too much of it. I hope that helps, I think it's a fantastic mode when played for score, but not much for survival.

[TheSoundofRed]

MMP Arrange is pretty blah. I've tried to like it, but so far it's just not doing anything for me. Japanese top scorer SIN recently posted on his blog how he is really disappointed with MMP Arrange too.

PS Arrange is pretty rad. There's a 390mil ALL clear on the leaderboards you should check out when your copy arrives.

Ahhh man... I was really looking forward to MMP Arrange after seeing the screen full of bullets and shiny gold. I've been following both games for quite some time but never played MMP arcade or PS. I'm a big fan of Ibara and Battle Garegga, even though I'm pretty bad at both hah. I really like Yagawa style medal scoring and boss milking. Interested to see how boss milking is incorporated in PS Arrange. Thanks for all the info EOJ and Special. Hope you don't get too annoyed by my pestering  .

[Chempop]

Been playing like crazy all weekend.  Never played PCB's so the inaccuracies don't bother me much.  I'm thoroughly enjoying both 1.01 and arrange modes.  Not sure why folks aren't digging Pork Arrange, it's maybe a bit over the top, but there are some nifty mechanics and seems fun to me.  Still though I'll be sticking to 1.01 for a while.  Can get to stage 4 in both games but then things get ridiculous!

Quick question on Pink Sweets: I've read Plasmo's guide and he says avoid using Rose Crackers,... But how do I shield withought having to pop it off after?  Or do I only let the shield grow so much as to not let the Cracker blow?

[Dave_K.]

Pressing A+B together changes the ship's speed, and voids the shield without setting it off.

[bcass]

Would have been nice if they had added a button for that.  It's not like the 360 controller is short of buttons.

[EOJ]

Some more observations on PS 1.01:

Rank does increase slower, and it doesn't seem to affect enemy hit points at all. Bosses all go down pretty quickly even at high rank. I got to the Stage 4 boss with a no miss and four lives in tow, with full 10K medals since Stage 1 and a special power up since Stage 1, and it was a breeze to beat it without dying. Rank does increase the firepower of enemies, and no missing to Stage 5 and beyond with a few 1UPs collected and full medalling creates a lot of bullets on the screen (still not as bad as 1.00 though).

[supabok]

So, in your opinion, would you say that PS 1.01 is more balanced in terms of rank(and harshness compared with 1.00?
Just curious cuz i never had the chance to play the PCB and I'm starting to think that Cave prolly focused more on the 1.01 version than the 1.00...
cheers

[Dave_K.]

Would have been nice if they had added a button for that.  It's not like the 360 controller is short of buttons.

I agree they could have done that in v1.01, since that mode was made easier specifically to cater to console players.

[EOJ]

So, in your opinion, would you say that PS 1.01 is more balanced in terms of rank(and harshness compared with 1.00?

Absolutely. But it's still really tough - I haven't been able to get to the last stage yet, let alone 1CC it. They really should have released this version in the arcades.