We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you the December 2019 edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we will announce our first Community Playtrough games of the new year, unveil the next game for our site shoot 'em up club, and of course, thank those members who sent in submissions to our site and registered approvals last month. Thanks for keeping it on Channel 3!     

REMEMBER: If you have any news about upcoming events or topics that you think the site needs to hear about, please PM singlebanana and put "RFG Site News" in the subject line.  Who knows, maybe your news will make our front page!



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Man, where did 2019 go?? It seems like only yesterday when we were ringing in the new year. You will definitely want to join us on the next episode of the Playcast, to be released in January, where we will be joined by a few guests to discuss our favorite playthrough titles of last season...and maybe even make a few picks outside of the box. 

As we always do in January, we will kick off the year with another classic series by playing a few games in the Star Fox franchise. We will begin with 1993's premier on the Super Nintendo, Star Fox, as we guide Fox McCloud across the Lylat System to fend off the evil scientist, Andross. We will be joined by a unique cast of anthropomorhic characters, Peppy Hare, Slippy Toad, and Falco Lombardi as we pilot our Arwings in search of justice. 

In our second pick, Star Fox 64, we are once again joined by our reliable wingmen to thwart the plans of Andross this time with some added maneuvers and employing a ground unit known as the Landmaster.  This game has added mercenary factions and even multiple paths which dictate your ending. 

Participants in January's playtrough are also encouraged to challenge the previously unreleased version of Star Fox 2.  Though not a part of the actual playthrough, this game will be discussed on the upcoming episode of the Playcast. 

So get ready for barrel-rolling action in the new year as we play Star Fox and Star Fox 64. If you're playing along, be sure to join our forum HERE and chat with us about these games.

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In modern gaming vernacular, those who aren't familiar with shoot-em-up conventions often refer to them all as "bullet hell" games. However, the term has a much more narrow scope than all of scrolling shooters. Some consider Toaplan's swansong Batsugun to be the genesis of the genre, and games developed by companies whose staff was formerly of Toaplan, such as Raizing, Takumi, and Cave, have frequently been given that label. However, one developer stands tall in the crowd, and has worn the danmaku, or "bullet hell" crown proudly. Japanese studio Cave, with development often led by Shinobu Yagawa, has produced some of the most well recognized and respected games in the genre, and certainly continued to wave the flag for shmups, well after their commercial viability as a genre had been called into question. Though they haven't released a new shooting game for several years now, as the shmup genre is celebrating somewhat of a renaissance, they remain relevant as the go-to for many hardcore players, because their games are considered to be of the highest quality.

January 2020 marks the first Cave game explored by the RF Generation Shmup Club, and our debut look at their catalog begins with none other than Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi. Released in arcades in 2003, the game took the familiar military trappings of Cave's previous DoDonPachi series of games, but took the game in a different direction, mechanically, and in terms of the specifics for scoring. With a greater emphasis on point blanking enemies, and a limited range focus laser weapon with lock-on capabilities, Ketsui has a different feel than Cave's previous military-themed shooters, and that makes it fairly unique in the Cave canon. A special boss rush version was made for the Nintendo DS in 2008, called Ketsui Death Label. The game received an Xbox 360 release in Japan in 2010, and saw release on the PS3 in 2013. In 2018, prolific studio M2 ported the game for their ShotTriggers line, to the PlayStation 4. Not only did they bring the arcade version fully intact, but also included the IKD 2007 soundtrack, and a new mix by famed composer Virt, aka Jake Kaufman. In addition, they created a new mode for the game, titled "Deathtiny" that changes the mechanics and scoring. It gives the game play another dimension, and provides even more replay value to this already impressive game. Come join the RF Generation Shmup Club in January 2020, as we explore Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi!

We're also starting a new tradition in 2020, as our January title will also be our year-long score focus! We'll continue to play a different game each month, and will tally scores at the end, so that aspect remains. But because of the complexity of a game like Ketsui, which will take players longer to acclimate to, and longer to master, we want to make sure that everyone has plenty of time to get good at the game, and allow for participants to really maximize their ability to score well in the game. Throughout the year, we encourage everyone who is playing the game to continue to post score progress, share strategies, and talk about the game. We hope this will be a fun way to keep everyone engaged throughout the year, and that more people will join in the fun!
 
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In November, site members contributed a total of 1,590 submissions to our database. Of these additions, 1,511 were game submissions and 79 were related to hardware items. Of this total, 645 contributions were new images and 627 of these images were game submissions. A big thanks to all who submitted items to our database and to those who reviewed them all for the month of November! We appreciate your efforts in making our database and community a great tool for our users.

Our top submitters (those with a minimum of 50) for November 2019 were:

amprice5474                       322
Schlibby                               289
Bear78                                 208
ugr                                       131
blcklblskt                               89
Fleabitten                              79
ApolloBoy                              62
Razor Knuckles                     49*

Thanks for another great month! 

Top approvers for the month included:

Schlibby                                512
Raidou                                  147
Fleabitten                               75
ApolloBoy                               45
 
Great work everyone! 

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