Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

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XoPachi
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by XoPachi »

Playing Zero Ranger. This game is....hard.
I feel cultured in being able to catch most of even the less obvious STG homages though. :]
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EmperorIng
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by EmperorIng »

Been playing a lot of G.Rev the last few weeks. Mostly Strania, struggling with the game's frustrating moments (the weapon changing system, scoring, and boss ai). I did get a 1cc finally after 10+ days of banging my head against the wall.

I downloaded RCPS3 and got a working rom of Mamorukun Curse so I tested that tonight and find it pretty charming! It is hard to tell where to dodge at times, but that familiarity may come with time.

I guess I am glad I can finally play it and stably on a working emulator - this will never come to PC and it is great I can finally play a game I've wanted to try for many, many years.
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XoPachi
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by XoPachi »

And there goes my save file.




:c
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EmperorIng
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by EmperorIng »

get rekt son

if it makes you feel any better, mine was deleted two or three times before I cleared. It's not great that you are thrust into a situation where you don't know what to do (touch the boss) with some pretty hefty consequences.
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Herr Schatten
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Herr Schatten »

I've been playing some Cotton Rock'n'Roll lately. I'm close to beating the final boss, but haven't quite managed it yet.

I'm still experimenting with the stage order to find out which one might give me the smoothest difficulty curve. Some stages become really harsh when played with higher rank levels while others seem to remain largely unchanged and only increase the bullet speed of some enemies. Overall, I enjoy the game quite a lot, even though it has some ugly visibility issues in certain spots. More than half of my deaths seem to hit me out of the blue. Maybe I should stop playing in handheld mode and give the game a proper go on a bigger screen.

What I don't really enjoy is playing the game for score. There are simply too many variables that are factors in determining your scoring potential, such as choice of character, stage selection an stage order. The only reason why I try to score at all are the score-based extends.

Is there a way to lower rank, by the way? Suiciding doesn't seem to have any effects on the rank slider.
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EmperorIng
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by EmperorIng »

Herr Schatten wrote: What I don't really enjoy is playing the game for score. There are simply too many variables that are factors in determining your scoring potential, such as choice of character, stage selection an stage order. The only reason why I try to score at all are the score-based extends.
This doesn't really matter since every character has their own leaderboard. Each character is treated equally. As for stage order, it is more up to you but a lot of players tend to put stages like F or C towards the start, because they tend to be harder and they have less bullets to score. As you unlock the console exclusive stages, you can swap these harder stages out with stages that give huge amounts of score (like I, the Cotton 1 tribute stage).

For me, scoring is a huge reason TO play Cotton Rock n' Roll. It's addicting, each character plays in a unique fashion, and the act of unleashing bells all over the screen is satisfying. If you are playing well, half of your score can come from the last two stages alone, so don't worry too much about the proper scoring route. Instead try to move from 1cc, to say, 50 million, to 80, to 100m, etc. The reason the game throws so many lives at you is because lives themselves are a resource for scoring (for many characters it is to refill their bomb/magic stock to keep the bells coming).

And I would recommend trying the game on the big screen, I am sure it will be a little easier. :wink:
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Herr Schatten
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Herr Schatten »

EmperorIng wrote:a lot of players tend to put stages like F or C towards the start, because they tend to be harder and they have less bullets to score.
I don't find F particularly difficult except for the boss, those damn twin snakes. B and C seem to be the stages with the biggest increase in difficulty at higher rank, but while B st least gains some scoring opportunities in the process, C just gets more annoying.
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XoPachi
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by XoPachi »

I really don't like the gimmick of this orb boss in Zero Ranger. That shit is so annoying. I get what skill it's calling back to, but I don't like it as a boss mechanic. Particularly before a much longer two phase battle which is admittedly much easier, but it takes forever.
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EmperorIng
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by EmperorIng »

pull off the quick kill of the final phase when the three orbs come out.
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Mykaizer
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Mykaizer »

It's about time! Just beat it tonight!

It was the shittiest run too. Some of the most stupid deaths yet I still win. :D

https://i.imgur.com/0N7mrqI.png
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BIL
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BIL »

Good going, Rayforce is tough!
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XoPachi
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by XoPachi »

Went back to Super XYX and it's hitting me how horny this game is. I love this art style and character design.
And I'll take this horniness over the more prevalent horniness we see in a lot of these games.

Also they really nailed the classic vibe of that boss theme.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

this will never come to PC and it is great I can finally play a game I've wanted to try for many, many years.

Yeah, this is the big glaring hole in my g.rex exposure (as I was too broke around the time of release to get into the whole 360 import scene). Although, I'm not as pessimistic about the possibility of a port. G.rev has done ports before, they were just colossal failures. Which may be why they're hesitant to run that road again. But they still exist and are active, so anything is possible.

Anyway, I've been playing, a bunch actually:

-Progear (every time I think I'm solid on the first couple of stages, I put it aside for a few days, come back to it, and it's like I've never played it before in my life. Man, this game is hard)

-Space Invaders Extreme (just trying to top my old scores. If I had to pick best 'nu' incarnation of an old IP, I'd be hard pressed picking between this and Tempest 2k)

-'nu' Gridrunner (although, this would be up there too)

PLUS I got a second Switch which I hooked up to my rotating cpu monitor. So I've been hitting some neglected vert titles

-Gunbird 2 (the Dreamcast version doesn't support vga. So I've been missing this one. I'm very out of practice...)

-Samurai Aces (I played a lot of Tengai on the Psikyo comp, but haven't really touched this. I like it more than Tengai)

-Esp.Ra.De (Okay, I've only put in around 40 minutes or so, but this feels like one of those titles where I pretty much love everything except the gameplay. Whereas Progear likes interlocking bullet patterns, this game LOVES them. To the point where it starts to feel a little cheap. At the very least, it kind of takes your twitch game off the table, as you have to memorize the 'safe' lanes through patterns. And the more memorization, the less I like. But, as I said, I haven't spent that much time with it. And any game that has you destroy a shopping mall can't be completely dismissed...)
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BIL
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BIL »

Latest ACA release, Namco's Pistol Daimyou no Bouken (1990). Had never heard of this one - pleasantly surprised. It actually reminds me a lot of the PC Engine's later "colourful character STG" niche - Coryoon, Hana Taka Daka, PC Denjin, etc. Big yet smartly-proportioned sprites, and simple, snappily responsive action. You've got a straight rapid shot, and a lobbing charge mortar with two levels, serving as both heavy bombardier and anti-air counter.

As is Hamster's wont, the ACA version makes a small but keenly insightful addition: autofire L1 charge shots. This really improves the game, imo, effectively giving you a dedicated second attack button, and freeing up braintime to focus on dodging.

Difficulty seems mild-to-moderate, in the five initially-available stages. Clear three to unlock the last, just seeing about that now. Ala Darius, lower=harder, with the fifth's raid on GAIJIN TOWNE boasting some superbly tight foot-to-floor action. ala Metal Black's second stage, or R-Type Delta's fifth, while there's no terrain per se, the smart use of juggernauting obstacles fills in more than adequately.

Image

Tonally, fans of Ganbare Goemon (particularly the second SFC game) and Keio Yuugekitai will love this. Pretty sure I took out a Moby Dick-riding Cap'n Ahab en-route to the source of the Black Ships. Closer to Nihon, lots of kappas and youkais to put down hard. Apparently the player character was originally a boss character in Beraboh Man, which I've never played (something it wouldn't surprise me to see ACA address). I'm surprised he never got any followup attention, given the obvious production values and talent behind this game.

A quality simpler hori, worth a punt if you dig its colourful niche. Here's hoping some more under-repped early 90s Namco STGs will show up! Metal Hawk, Fighter/Attacker and NebulasRay would be good...
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by EmperorIng »

I tried it once on mame ages ago and couldn't get a handle on it. Maybe it's better than I remember. I was just playing some arcade Phelios and was blown away by how quality the production values were. Every sense of the word "epic." Autofire seems to trivialize some of the bosses, and Easy lives up to its name, I think (I was surprised at how many lives I had!), but what a fun time. I have 1cc'd the Genesis/MD game in the past but while that's plenty fun it can't compare to the gorgeous arcade game.

My Strania: The Stella Machina adventures continue and hit a high point tonight where I finally got my goal, of max weapon ranking for all 9 weapons, or 9 DAN
Image

I am playing this for a twitch relay this weekend, which I recommend checking out (my run is on Sunday)
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BIL
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BIL »

Aww sheeit - totally forgot Phelios! :o Another I'd love to see - IIRC, it shares its System 2 board with Mirai Ninja, so I could easily see it popping up. The MD cart's only a mid-carder at best, but it deserves minor credit for yelling at the player to stop mashing the buttons to skip the indulgently overlong ending cutscene. :mrgreen:

Just finished Pistol Daimyou's unlockable sixth stage, which I suspected might be A Trip To Hell, given the considerable upped intensity of the lower two routes. But nope, it's just a moderately demanding miniboss rush, and a last boss who isn't much either. Started over sans autofire - I think I might try for a first 1CC this way, actually. The auto L1 shot is great for a training wheels run, illuminating exactly how powerful you are; manual fire can appear worryingly under-egged, at first, when you don't know to keep chuckin' those small bombs at the oncoming crowd. But its relentless, frame-perfect stream of bouncing mortar death really is a huge leg up.

(pre-ACA, Pistol already bore the HG101 "WAHHH ITS IMPOSSIBRU" - read: "This is notably substantial!" - seal of approval. I know better than to think it'd have received a more realistic appraisal, had the scoundrels been rocking ACA's AutoL1 - but it should've! Image)

This said, AutoL1 is a lot of fun, enabling much cockier play than regular autofire - less the typical brute DPS supercharge, more of a "driver's assist." It's a naturally entertaining weapon, with its beaning trajectory and bubblewrap *PON* feedback - innately satisfying to nail bastards with, whether from across the screen, or pointblank right up their jaffers. Going without it, I find myself using the rapid and L2 attacks more spontaneously, even if L1 barrages are basically as doable by hand.

Manual bussin VS Automatic bussin Image
Spoiler
Image Image


TLDR: if you know your ass from a hole in the ground WRT STGs, expect AutoL1 to see the 1CC off in a couple evenings at most. If that's a kiss of death (for shame! :O), consider going with plain [rapid shot] for a significantly tougher (though still relatively easy) time. Otherwise, enjoy the violence. Image Image Image
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by atro_city »

Played Daisenpuu/Twin Hawk for the first time on PC Engine and had a nice time. I like the unique mechanic of having a squadron of planes instead of bombs, even if it is a bit morbid.

"Hey, I need you guys to tank this boss's spread pattern and then kamikaze right into them"
"Sure thing, boss"

Then I played Kyuukyoku Tiger (also on PCE) and had the usual guessing game of which one of the thousand waves of helicopters was going to sneak in a point-blank snipe this time. Thankfully the bomb in this version is very good which makes recovery after death easier (i.e. more possible). Then I got to the final boss (Stage 10) and the game let me know how it feels about people who try to 1CC it. Needless to say, I died and got sent back to the impossible checkpoint, and a dozen lives later I was staring at the continue screen.

So yeah, just a standard game of Kyuukyoku Tiger I guess.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BrianC »

EmperorIng wrote:I was just playing some arcade Phelios and was blown away by how quality the production values were. Every sense of the word "epic."
The MD version almost looks like an NES version in comparison (though I do like what I have played of it). I certainly wouldn't expect an arcade perfect port, but production values of the MD version even lack compared to other 1990 games.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Rastan78 »

If you like Phelios, don't sleep on Dragon Saber. It doesn't have quite the grandeur of Phelios, but it has an awesome soundtrack by Shinji Hosoe. Actually 2 soundtracks as you can access a hidden Dragon Spirit arrange by inputting a special command.

Here's a sample: https://youtu.be/X_ig24ieMPE

And the first boss is 100% certified dick stock worthy.
Shinji Hosoe, Namco Sound Programmer

It all began rather simply: I wanted to see how it would sound if I took Dragon Spirit’s music data and played it on the system II hardware. There were some aspects of the FM sounds that had a different quality, and some details weren’t properly replicated, but overall it seemed OK.

I added sampled drums to it piece by piece, and was pretty satisfied with the sound. After that the development team spoke with me about adding it the game itself, since I’d done it already. How do you hear these songs in the game? Well, you all probably know already, but you need to insert a coin, and then hold button 1 and 2 down when you press start.
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BIL
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BIL »

Dragon Saber, including the Dragon Spirit AST, is one of the most highly-concentrated sources of killer BGM across the entire genre. More spectacular than any collection with two lava stage BGMs named "Volcano" has any right to be. Those spiralling leads that glide on forever over panoramically rumbling primal hellscapes, god damn! As apropos to draconically earth-razing STG action as could possibly be. That said, lately I've started to enjoy Saber's contemplatively eerie st3/xenohive BGM, and Spirit's punkily no-nonsense st4/Graveyard BGM. A sizzling call/response riff and a soaring refrain, all you need when they're this good.
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Herr Schatten
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Herr Schatten »

BrianC wrote:The MD version almost looks like an NES version in comparison (though I do like what I have played of it). I certainly wouldn't expect an arcade perfect port, but production values of the MD version even lack compared to other 1990 games.
Absolutely. It starts out fine, but gets progressively worse. Maybe the guys who ported this didn't think anyone would actually see the later stages? The last stage looks like stuff my 12-year old self doodled in DPaint.

Also, that final boss is so much more difficult than the rest of the game combined, it's not funny. You've got to practically ride him while spamming charge shots. If you mistime one of those just slightly, you're screwed. Finally beating him was one of my proudest achievements, and one I never wish to repeat. I'm not familiar with the arcade version. Is it like that, too?
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Mykaizer
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Mykaizer »

Dogyuun.

The recent hype of the Toaplan documentary got me all excited for Toaplan games. Never really played any before.

That changes tonight. :)

https://i.imgur.com/ukl3l6s.jpg
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BIL
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BIL »

YEEEE I DONE IT wait fuck

Image

I've loved this game ever since picking up its (aesthetically bare but mechanically impressive) MD conversion (which goes by "Fire Mustang," as opposed to the AC's "USAAF Mustang"). I just wish its bullet visibility wasn't so patchy, on the whole. The strobing B/Ws could work in slower context, ala its predecessor, P47 Thunderbolt (another great game, nearer in pace to Scramble, with its steep terrain and precision bombing)... but Mustang moves fast as all hell. Far from unplayable, but distinctly sub-optimal. Other than that though, it's a wonderfully bracing foot-to-the-floor shredshotter.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Eyvah_Ehyeh »

Just realized that there's a demo for Blue Wish Desire, a game I didn't even know was in the making, so now I'm playing that. It's an x_x game, basically - a nice lil ride on the regular difficulty (no nightmare/ultra stuff so far).
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by mycophobia »

BIL wrote:YEEEE I DONE IT wait fuck

Image
lol
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BIL
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BIL »

mycophobia wrote:
BIL wrote:YEEEE I DONE IT wait fuck

Image
lol
Image

1990, horizontal STGs goin MAD 4 MONTEH (◎w◎;)
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Udderdude »

Space Battle by Hoei was just added to MAME. Doesn't get much more obscure than this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otisqSVr3QIa

I tried it out. It's pretty unique for a 1980 game, has voice samples and even autofire. Just hold down the fire button, unlike almost every other 80's shooter. I'm not sure about how the player's ship slowly drifts upward. There's seemingly no control over it. Anyway, pretty good shooter for the time period. And very fast-paced.
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Queen Charlene
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Queen Charlene »

back to Giga Wing! i've been hopping around a few games the last couple months doing little bits and pieces of practice when taking breaks from work, but i'm getting closer and closer to finally cashing in that clear! hopefully i can actually get at least ONE clear in before Shmup Slam 5 :oops:

Image

finally got off my ass and spent a couple hours setting up savestates and practicing no-misses in all the stages. looking forward to this screen being legit soon! :D
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mycophobia
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by mycophobia »

axelay is cool. the twin shot weapon owns
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Eyvah_Ehyeh »

LinearShooter Remixed, get frustrated with trying to graze stuff. I actually don't enjoy grazing mechanics in ANY other game besides Psyvariar, which is all about grazing, because me trying to graze stuff is a sure way for me to die and get frustrated very often. Thank God Danmaku Unlimited has two modes, one where you graze, and one where you just turn the bullets into items when killing enemies. But yeah, still enjoy my time with LinearShooter Remixed, when I stop focusing on grazing, and instead focus on killing as many enemies as possible - thankfully I don't have a big enough score on hard to necessitate focus on both. :D
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