@sethmelton

Salamander

I very much enjoyed the MSX version of Salamander; it's notably different from the Lifeforce version that was released for the NES.
I recommend using this patch set https://github.com/bladeba/MSX/tree/master/Enhanced%20Games/Salamander%20-%20enhanced which adds smooth scroll, SCC voice sample support, additional colour schemes. Play online here: https://www.file-hunter.com/MSX/?id=salamander-enhanced

Vampire Killer

Vampire Killer also has significantly different gameplay than its Castlevania version for the NES. While it has fixed screens rather than smooth scrolling, it adds more of an adventure element to it, with needing to find skeleton keys to advance to the next levels, and bronze keys to open chests, and a couple of weapon changes.
(Though there's a fan-made patch that turns VK more into a Castlevania experience: https://www.msx.org/news/en/vampire-killer-to-castlevania-msx2-patch)
There are a couple of community patches for this one too, such as SCC sound chip support, smoother gameplay JoySNES support, etc. You can play a fully patched version of it here: https://www.file-hunter.com/MSX/?id=vampirekillerscc
Various other patched versions can be found here: https://download.file-hunter.com/Games/MSX2/ROM/

Other games

I'm running out of time for more in-depth recommendations; might edit them in later, but here are a couple of quick ones:

• Castle Excellent
• Eggbert (mostly just because it's what Toki Tori is based on; created by some of Two Tribes' original members)
• Eggerland Mystery and Eggerland 2; early titles in the Adventures of Lolo series.
• F1-Spirit a classic Konami race game
• Frantic a homebrew puzzle platformer
• Girly Block assemble your mech and battle other mechs as you go through the arenas, unlocking new mech parts.
• Gorby's Pipeline Tetris meets pipemaze?
• Guardic
• Illusion City Complete Japanese to English localization of a cyberpunk RPG.
• Knightmare vertical medieval shmup by Konami
• Knightmare II - Maze of Galious puzzle platformer maze by Konami on the same series as Knightmare.
• Metal Gear the original by Kojima and it's sequel Metal Gear II: Solid Snake
• Monkey Academy edutainment title by Konami; solve the math equation by picking up and delivering the right number scroll.
• Nemesis/Gradius III - Eve of Destruction while in the same series, not to be confused with Gradius 3 for the SNES.
• Space Manbow another Konami shmup, though one I don't think has had releases on other platforms.
• Nosh homebrew puzzle maze.
• Penguin Adventure early game Kojima worked on.
• Pennant Race 2 pretty good baseball game for its time.
• Pleasure Hearts Japanese bullet hell shmup.
• Quarth close rectangles by shooting blocks before they get too close to you.
• Rollerball enjoyable pinball
• Runemaster the first in a dice-rolling boardgame-like adventure series.
• SD Snatcher excellent Japanese to English localisation of Konami's classic super deform cyberpunk adventure.
• Strategic Mars strategic shmup, for lack of a better description.
• Sweet Acorn
• The Treasure of Usas
• Troxx Trailblazer-inspired game. Full playthrough: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL152B62952BEC0151
• Undeadline
• Xak, Xak 2 classic Microcabin adventure rpgs
• YS and YS 2 classic Falcom adventure RPGs.
• Zanac Ex Compile shmup.

#FiXatoRecommends #MSX #MSX2 #games #gaming

@Seirdy Heilung's live performance of Hamrer Hippyer is the first thing that comes to mind, but might have too little variation in rhythm for you, and perhaps has too long of a build-up to the variation at 5 minutes in?
When I did semi-regular runs, it was great to get me going again if I was starting to feel tired.
Miracle of Sound's "Hell To Pay" aka DOOM song is also pretty great.

#FiXatoRecommends #MusicFiXatoListensTo