Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[CloudyMusic]

CCWI Time Attack. I don't have much experience with caravan-style modes, but it's been fun so far because it's hard to get too upset at a blown run: just restart and try it again. The short length also lets you really delve into the minutiae of routing. The leaderboards seem like pretty stiff competition, though, so we'll see how far I can make it before tapping out.

[Wolfexer]

Crimzon clover world ignition.

It's really fun.
I almost had my first 1cc on the novice mode but i died on the last boss when it had like 1/10 of it's hp .

[copy-paster]

DaiOuJou black label. This time I want to take down my bitch, wish me luck bois.

Also gonna take CCWI a shot again someday, it is sure really fun game.

[Stevens]

Three runs yesterday -

The good
- 1 LC of the first loop twice!
- Made 2-3 despite losing both ships on 1-5. Again:D

The bad(ish)
- Failed to access loop two on both 1 LC's

Still having a lot of fun playing though. I've reached every goal I have set for myself in UD. Six million is next.

[mycophobia]

DaiOuJou black label. This time I want to take down my bitch, wish me luck bois.

Going for 1-ALL?

[copy-paster]

Going for 1-ALL?

Yes.

I have played this game for years and still haven't got 1-all, wish me luck bois.

[mycophobia]

best of luck to you

[LordHypnos]

Also was trying to learn gunnerSTG's quick kill strat for the stage 3 boss of Mars Matrix (you can see it in this twitch VOD). Took a few tries, but I did manage to do it eventually. should add a few seconds to my time bonus. Probably will take quite a few more practices to get consistent. Getting more consistent at the ACR stage 2 boss milk, tho.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Tons and tons of "Monolith". Seriously it's great and you guys need to play this.

Got several videos recorded, very pleased about Fraps' recording quality and ease of use. About the only thing I haven't done yet is S-ranked Hard Mode for the super secret ending, as well as beaten three of the modes on Sudden Death lethality.

[LordHypnos]

Decided to try a couple of full runs. Got a 3cc with around 4.3 million exp, which is cool. No other good runs, though. My first game over was in stage 4, and I actually ended up getting 1.2 trillion on my second credit, which is kind of funny. Just from building up a good multiplier and some points from stage 4 plus all of stage 5 and some of stage 6.

[STG]

Also was trying to learn gunnerSTG's quick kill strat for the stage 3 boss of Mars Matrix (you can see it in this twitch VOD). Took a few tries, but I did manage to do it eventually. should add a few seconds to my time bonus. Probably will take quite a few more practices to get consistent. Getting more consistent at the ACR stage 2 boss milk, tho.

Nice man, yeah you should probably pick that strat up pretty quickly with your level of experience with the game, certainly makes short work of him lol!

[mycophobia]

Truxton 2. It owns

[LordHypnos]

Also was trying to learn gunnerSTG's quick kill strat for the stage 3 boss of Mars Matrix (you can see it in this twitch VOD). Took a few tries, but I did manage to do it eventually. should add a few seconds to my time bonus. Probably will take quite a few more practices to get consistent. Getting more consistent at the ACR stage 2 boss milk, tho.

Nice man, yeah you should probably pick that strat up pretty quickly with your level of experience with the game, certainly makes short work of him lol!

Well, the weird thing is that I can't seem to bypass the purple bubbles phase like you do. Or perhaps you just kill it quickly enough that it might as well have been bypassed. I can get a similar effect by moving over to attack one of the things that shoots the purple bubbles (kind of similar to how I do using my previous strat), but the purple bubble attack when both sides are active is pretty dangerous. Also I can't seem to get quite as quick of a time, so yeah. Pretty sure I'm just not doing as much damage for some reason. Will probably keep experimenting.

[STG]

Well, the weird thing is that I can't seem to bypass the purple bubbles phase like you do. Or perhaps you just kill it quickly enough that it might as well have been bypassed. I can get a similar effect by moving over to attack one of the things that shoots the purple bubbles (kind of similar to how I do using my previous strat), but the purple bubble attack when both sides are active is pretty dangerous. Also I can't seem to get quite as quick of a time, so yeah. Pretty sure I'm just not doing as much damage for some reason. Will probably keep experimenting.

Ah, if you watch my replay again, I specifically focus on shooting the claws with the regular shot after I fire my first reflect shot at the start of that boss (which I also aim at the claws), once you take those out you'll skip the whole next phase and go into the one where the boss is about to use his burst lightning attack. The thing about those purple lightning round shots is that it's a fixed pattern, so if you move from right (starting directly under the right claw) to left the way I do you'll evade that attack perfectly every time. After that, he's had enough damage that one final reflect shot will finish him off. Hopefully that helps!

[LordHypnos]

Ah, if you watch my replay again, I specifically focus on shooting the claws with the regular shot after I fire my first reflect shot at the start of that boss (which I also aim at the claws), once you take those out you'll skip the whole next phase and go into the one where the boss is about to use his burst lightning attack. The thing about those purple lightning round shots is that it's a fixed pattern, so if you move from right (starting directly under the right claw) to left the way I do you'll evade that attack perfectly every time. After that, he's had enough damage that one final reflect shot will finish him off. Hopefully that helps!

Actually, I ended up figuring it out shortly after posting that. hahaha. I was trying to use the piercing cannon and that does not actually do the trick. The notes about moving from left to right though might help get it more consistent, so thanks for that.

[STG]

Actually, I ended up figuring it out shortly after posting that. hahaha. I was trying to use the piercing cannon and that does not actually do the trick. The notes about moving from left to right though might help get it more consistent, so thanks for that.

Very cool, and no problem!

[mycophobia]

I really like the powerup system in Truxton 2 over the original. also ALL of the weapons seem useful and I don't feel like I'm dead because I accidentally picked up green or whatever, but I've only made it up to mid(late?)-stage 2 so far so my opinion might change on this of course.

graphics and sound are top-notch, obviously. I listened to the OST a lot before I started really playing this and it's become quite possibly my favorite STG soundtrack.

[mycophobia]

hit the stage 2 boss for the first time just now, what a rush! love this game. lol @ the fact that my credit lasted nearly 20 minutes and I only hit the end of the second stage.

also lol @ autofire being a dipswitch. the arcade operator who unsets that must be one mean s.o.b.

[Stevens]

The good -

- I finally put a run together where I started 2-5 with over 5 million points.

- Started 2-5 with no lives or bombs. Engaged the two behemoth tanks and killed them quick. Fought my way through the 8-10 medium tanks (accompanied by zako helicopters) and then the two heavy copters and got a bomb back.

- Made it all the way to the last form of the boss, had about 1/3 health left.

- New PB of 5,639,100

The could have been better -

Botched the 2-4 boss. Costed me two bombs instead of 0-1. If I had an extra bomb I probably would have cleared it again.

In spite of not getting the clear it was a great run.

[OmKol]

DOJ WL, serious practice for the first time

12 days of practicing, now I can do 2-2 no miss 50/50, also I did my first 2-3 no miss. Only practice, I don't want to start runs before fully practiced second loop.

[copy-paster]

Impressive, man! Hope you can tackle this evil game.

[mycophobia]

ok I hit my first total bullshit checkpoint of Truxton 2, the one right before the boss on stage 3 with the big lines of ships coming in from either side. died once and then I couldn't even credit feed past it, you're just way too underpowered. how tf are you supposed to do that. discouraging

[Shepardus]

ok I hit my first total bullshit checkpoint of Truxton 2, the one right before the boss on stage 3 with the big lines of ships coming in from either side. died once and then I couldn't even credit feed past it, you're just way too underpowered. how tf are you supposed to do that. discouraging

It's doable with bombs, but everything moves too erratically and takes too long to kill for a recovery without bombs to be very practical. I personally find the stage 2 checkpoints in the open-air section with the blueish background to be worse (I will never understand how those popcorn enemies fly around), but mainly because you have to make your bombs last longer.

[mycophobia]

It's doable with bombs, but everything moves too erratically and takes too long to kill for a recovery without bombs to be very practical. I personally find the stage 2 checkpoints in the open-air section with the blueish background to be worse, but mainly because you have to make your bombs last longer.

those stage 2 checkpoints are tough but I could get past them with some precise tap dodging and well-timed bombing, but that doesn't seem to help me out on that stage 3 checkpoint. of course I was trying to credit feed past it and was getting really frustrated too, and that hardly contributes well to forming a good strategy. good to hear it's not flat out impossible though.

[Shepardus]

I think none of the checkpoints are flat-out impossible (at least with bombs...), but some of the ones on stage 5 get really ridiculous... (I've only credit-fed to around the end of stage 5)

There's plenty of multi-loop replays on YouTube, and owarabi has streamed the game a bunch on Twitch, so you may be able to find some good strategies in those.

btw have fun with the stage 3 boss

[mycophobia]

Oh nice, thanks. I hadn't heard of owarabi before.

[Shepardus]

I'm currently out of town and not playing any shmups at the moment, so I thought I'd take some time to write about what I have been playing, since on other days I'd rather play the games than write about them.

My current obsession is Cambria Sword. I posted about the demo earlier but I bought the full version afterwards and it's become one of my favorite shmups. Thanks to kane for mentioning it in the Top 25 shmups discussion thread and piquing my interest, this is possibly the most valuable thing I've gotten out of the top 25 votes in all the years I've participated. I definitely intend to create a dedicated thread for it when I have more time. It's obviously not a scoring-focused game (the developer says that himself and even says in the production notes that he considered not having score at all; score is useful enough as a way of tracking your progress but would quickly get mindnumbing when optimized for competitive purposes), and it's far too long for me to have much hope at a full clear (3-4 hours!), but simply playing through the stages, even credit-feeding and through practice mode, is immensely enjoyable, and a 1cc isn't entirely out of the question (skipping stages can bring the length down to 1-1.5 hours). The sheer immensity of this game with all its cool setpieces, dozens of bosses, scores of weapons, and so on makes every other shmup I've played seem unambitious and watered-down in comparison. The amount of love and dedication poured into it is staggering, too, giving it quality beyond its sheer quantity. The stages are surprisingly varied (though don't expect them to be as concise as your typical arcade shmup aims to be), the weapons have really satisfying sound and visual effects and also feel distinct with their own strengths and weaknesses, the soundtrack is great (and is also included with the game!), and the story of ever-escalating proportions is strangely compelling despite (or perhaps due to?) its absurdity. It's absolutely insane that this game has flown so far under the radar. It's still too early to say for sure but I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that even with the imperfections I can think of, this game is one of the best I've ever played.

Also recently stumbled across a freeware shooter from 2007 called MinishoterRS ⊿. I found a couple mentions of it on the forum through the search, but not much, which is kind of baffling as it's quite a charming little game. I found out about this one through a YouTube recommendation, which is one of the few times YouTube recommendations has led me to something good. It's easy to pick up and play but has a surprising amount of secrets and stuff to discover that may warrant a Strategy thread (there's two versions of each of stages 2-8, and which one you get depends on fulfilling certain criteria, and there's also a bunch of unlockable characters). The stages are short but fast-paced and quite varied, encompassing a lot of familiar sci-fi shmup tropes but in a rapid-fire miniature form. It would be a short game overall but the final boss and TLB seem to be like a third of the total length of the game by themselves. You'll want to set up an autofire button for this unless you like tapping, since it uses the "hold for one attack and tap for the other attack" control scheme, but fortunately I was able to get an AutoHotkey script working with it. Anyway if you haven't heard of this game (surely I'm not the only one who missed this?) I recommend checking it out, it's freeware so it's not like you have to invest much anyway.

I picked up Stellavanity at the same time as Cambria Sword since it was 90% off at the time. I hadn't tried it until now because I had passed it off as some sort of over-complicated CAVE+Touhou clone with a ludicrous maximum difficulty and no translation. I still think those impressions hold true, but what I didn't know is how much there is to make the game accessible and enjoyable for a very wide range of skill levels. The Type-C mode gives the game much more approachable mechanics than the complicated Type-S, and while it's less unique than Type-S, it's still high-quality and satisfying. Pandemonium difficulty is ridiculous but there are six(!) different difficulties ranging all the way down to the very easy, and rank levels on top of that to vary the difficulty even for a single difficulty selection. Some things aren't very well-explained but I found more info than I expected (e.g. about the rank and TLB qualification conditions) in the manual, on the game's site, and in the forum thread. I've been playing mostly Type-C and will probably try for a Hard level clear at some point - I got to stage 7 but considering how long that stage is I still have some way to go. The game's only about $7 on the English DLsite which is cheaper than I thought it was, great value for any danmaku fan even when it's not 90% off.

I've also been playing some ring^-27 again, which makes me one of probably two or three people on this forum to play this game in the past five years. Back when this game was new there was a good deal of struggling to understand how to play the game, but it's actually simpler than you might expect. I detailed the scoring system back in Dec. 2016 and earlier posts explained the basic mechanics. The game itself and its manual actually explain much of it but it's in Japanese. The game can get quite silly especially as you drive up rank, but it's also quite fun and has a lot of varied ways to play it. The only problem I have with it is that the limited color palette and very low resolution can sometimes be bad for visibility. It's on the English DLsite and it's only about $5, which is a steal if you ask me. Just note that the version on DLsite is v1.1 while the latest version is actually v1.1a - the updater can be downloaded on the developer's blog but I think the changes are quite minimal, unlike v1.0 to v1.1.

As far as arcade games go, I've mostly been dabbling in Battlantis and Tatsujin Ou. Both of them have me questioning my sanity a bit, as they're both brutal and unforgiving for sometimes the wrong reasons. Tatsujin Ou is the type of game that lulls you into a false sense of security with its serene pacing and the almost dance-like movements of its enemies, then lashes out at you if you dare make a mistake, or at the bosses even if you don't make a mistake. Then when you're trying to recover, the game reminds you how little you matter to it as its enemies continue to dance around the screen to the cheery music and quite possibly ram into you with their erratic movement as you struggle to kill even the weakest enemies with your unpowered gun. I find it fairly enjoyable outside of the checkpoint recoveries and the loathsome bosses, though I don't really like how the powerup system forces you to either max out your speed or sacrifice a lot of score, and thus extends (I have the same complaint about the first Tatsujin/Truxton).

Battlantis, on the other hand, just murders you from the start. It may not seem that way if you just watch a video, but the game gives you just barely enough capabilities (movement speed, hitbox size, firing rate, powerups) to make it through the stages, and even the slightest mistake will often leave you dead; even a single missed shot may leave an enemy alive that you can't get to in time. There are plenty of places where you need to plan ahead, for example destroying a section of wall at the beginning of the stage so you can fire through it later when an enemy spawns above it. Despite the game's unforgiving nature, though, the checkpoint system is remarkably forgiving. You don't really lose any upgrades because there aren't any in the first place, and while some things do reset, not everything does so you don't feel like your previous life was a waste. That combined with the short, distinct stages makes the strictness of the game almost refreshing to me, like the game's really tightly put together. Could really use a faster movement speed though.

That took me way longer to write than I was expecting, but it should cover what I'm playing for a good while.

[Squire Grooktook]

I hear a lot of love for Cambria Sword. I honestly just cannot help but balk at the length, but I feel like I should give it a try none the less.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

How does Cambria Sword work, anyways? I've watched video, and I can't figure out what the blue bar is for, or how the weapon system works at all. The number on the top row bar appears to be bombs but otherwise I'm not sure, it looks like you can fire a main weapon and sub gunpods separately?

[LordHypnos]

@Shepardus: I thought the run down was pretty interesting, actually. Do you think you could direct me to where on the page the actual download link for Minishooter RS is? Also which weapon do you play Ringˉ²⁷ with? It actually seemed like a really interesting game to me, but I eventually gave up on it because even on easy it got way too hard, and there were no replays I could look at using anchor shot.

This morning I went for a full run of Mars Matrix, and it started really strong with no deaths in stages 1-3, and an amazing stage 3 run where I managed to chain all the way to the end of the stage with a +2100 chain. Then I died almost immediately in stage 4. I was like "okay, this is fine, I didn't actually even break a chain here, I can still do it." Then I proceeded to break the chain right around the end of the second battleship, and then went on to lose all of my lives before even stage 5. I did get a pretty decent gold cube fountain chain, though IIRC. I can't remember where my experience was. Kind of frustrating, though, on the whole.