Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

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

Post by pulsemod »

my experience with the first GG aleste is that if you can make it past stage 3, you can clear the whole game. even on special mode, which is somewhat harder but fun. GG aleste 3 special mode is definitely my favourite of the bunch though!
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Compile are incredible. I think I like everything I've ever played by them. What they accomplished on the hardware they worked on back in the day was always leading edge.

Aleste is not quite random bs flying at you, though I understand the sentiment. Compile shooters improbably had fairly sophisticated rank. So what it's throwing at you is related to your power level, performance...I know Zanac held your shot count against you.

Between Musha, Spriggan and Super Aleste they went on a hell of a run of library-defining shmups there. You can toss Blazing Lazers, Power Strike II, Zanac & Gun-Nac into that category too. Whether they're your speed or not, you kind of can't have a "best of" list on any 8 or 16-bit platform they worked on without at least discussing them.

Plus Alien Crush rules.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Steven »

I started kind of playing ESP Ra.De.. I kind of hated this game when I first got it, but I have started to like it a lot. Too bad the scoring in this game is really stupid. Apparently you have to kill things with your shot and then intentionally not kill other things with your other shot because you want to shoot them with the one shot first and then kill them with the other shot and then collect the gold cubes (that they gold) or something and never ever use your shield thingy because you lose like 75% of the possible score in the entire game if you dare to do it even once or something like that. Also there is apparently chaining.

Basically, this has everything that I don't like about CAVE games/bullet hell in general all at once. Fuck playing this overdesigned mess for score. What was wrong with "blow shit up and don't die?" Oh yeah, that's right: nothing. The game is very cool otherwise.
Sengoku Strider wrote:Compile are incredible.
So far the only thing about Compile that I would call incredible is their complete inability to have actual stage design instead of a mess of randomly placed non-threatening enemies. Maybe their other games are better, but I don't know. The bosses are pretty interesting and quite large for the Mark III, though, and to the extent that they had to kill the backgrounds to actually get the bosses to work. That's pretty cool. I like it when devs push the hardware to its limits like that.

Maybe their other games are better. I have an XE-1AP, so I'll get around to playing Musha Aleste eventually, and some of their other stuff as well. It's just... holy shit how did we go from random jumble of things to Mahou Daisakusen? These guys certainly improved by a lot. Even GG Aleste 1 is a big step up over Mark III Aleste and Master System Power Strike II, so I'll probably try GG Aleste 2 here eventually and see how it is. I'm not saying Compile is bad or whatever, just that maybe I'm playing the wrong stuff or something. I know Despatche considers Musha Aleste to be on par with or worse than Deep Blue on the PC Engine, but who knows.
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Herr Schatten
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Herr Schatten »

Kollision wrote:
Herr Schatten wrote:I mean, look at this shit.
When I played this game I always went for the third undeground area first since it's the hardest one.
It's better to fail at the beginning of the run than at the end, after all the suffering you have to go through to get there. :roll:
That’s good advice, but I think I have to play the second underground stage before the third one, because that’s the only one where I can get out with more bombs than I entered.

Steven wrote:The bosses are pretty interesting and quite large for the Mark III, though, and to the extent that they had to kill the backgrounds to actually get the bosses to work. That's pretty cool. I like it when devs push the hardware to its limits like that.
Technically, the bosses are background, otherwise you’d have more flicker than you can imagine. It’s kind of neat how they used sprites like the clouds at the first boss to create the illusion of scrolling background that way. Loading the required new background tiles into video memory while the game is running to make the transition from stage to boss seamless is quite a feat too, as it requires careful timing. Power Strike II is pushing the SMS hardware pretty much as far as possible.
Steven wrote:Even GG Aleste 1 is a big step up over Mark III Aleste and Master System Power Strike II, so I'll probably try GG Aleste 2 here eventually and see how it is.
SMS Power Strike II was released two years after GG Aleste, around the same time GG Aleste II came out. Speaking of GG Aleste II, it’s good fun, but also repetitive and glitchy, and it feels rushed and unfinished. It’s got a bit of a caravan vibe to it, so if that’s your thing you might like it.

Compile are an acquired taste, you either like them or you don’t. I like most of their games, but even I have to admit that their balance is off more often than not. You’re constantly oscillating between "Yay, I’m invincible!" and chain-dying from being underpowered with not much middle ground between those poles. Technically, their games indisputably rank among the best on their respective systems, though
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Kollision
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Kollision »

the best thing to have ever come out of Compile is Milestone.

8)
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Lethe
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Lethe »

Steven wrote:Apparently you have to kill things with your shot and then intentionally not kill other things with your other shot because you want to shoot them with the one shot first and then kill them with the other shot and then collect the gold cubes (that they gold) or something and never ever use your shield thingy because you lose like 75% of the possible score in the entire game if you dare to do it even once or something like that. Also there is apparently chaining.
ACKSTUALLY, you'll need to refill the barrier meter three times for maximum score and there are points where using the barrier to kill things is much more directly profitable too. And it's not like a couple of survival bombs will turbofuck your score forever like in a DonPachi game.

E: If you don't want to engage with the scoring but want a bit more of a game, the difficulty dipswitch works.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Steven »

Herr Schatten wrote:Technically, the bosses are background, otherwise you’d have more flicker than you can imagine. It’s kind of neat how they used sprites like the clouds at the first boss to create the illusion of scrolling background that way. Loading the required new background tiles into video memory while the game is running to make the transition from stage to boss seamless is quite a feat too, as it requires careful timing. Power Strike II is pushing the SMS hardware pretty much as far as possible.
Oh that's cool. Sega did the same thing on the same system with Golden Axe, where they built like the entire game using nothing but the background, but that didn't turn out very good at all lol. It's all choppy and stuff. Good that Compile managed to do it and have it turn out so good!
Herr Schatten wrote:SMS Power Strike II was released two years after GG Aleste, around the same time GG Aleste II came out. Speaking of GG Aleste II, it’s good fun, but also repetitive and glitchy, and it feels rushed and unfinished. It’s got a bit of a caravan vibe to it, so if that’s your thing you might like it.

Compile are an acquired taste, you either like them or you don’t. I like most of their games, but even I have to admit that their balance is off more often than not. You’re constantly oscillating between "Yay, I’m invincible!" and chain-dying from being underpowered with not much middle ground between those poles. Technically, their games indisputably rank among the best on their respective systems, though
So I guess Compile was wildly inconsistent, then. Some of the stuff is good or whatever, but it's like they didn't really manage to put it all together properly, like somehow managing to assemble a jigsaw puzzle with like 2/3 of the pieces in the wrong places. Don't ask how that's possible... or do and I will point to Mark III Aleste because that is basically what that game is.
Kollision wrote:the best thing to have ever come out of Compile is Milestone.

8)
Wait WTF Compile people made Milestone? That's interesting. The only Milestone game that I have played is Karous on the Dreamcast. That's another one of those games where I have no clue what I am doing at all. I am guessing it involves using the sword a lot, which I definitely do not do. Awful sound balance in that game from what I remember, too.
Lethe wrote:
Steven wrote:Apparently you have to kill things with your shot and then intentionally not kill other things with your other shot because you want to shoot them with the one shot first and then kill them with the other shot and then collect the gold cubes (that they gold) or something and never ever use your shield thingy because you lose like 75% of the possible score in the entire game if you dare to do it even once or something like that. Also there is apparently chaining.
ACKSTUALLY, you'll need to refill the barrier meter three times for maximum score and there are points where using the barrier to kill things is much more directly profitable too. And it's not like a couple of survival bombs will turbofuck your score forever like in a DonPachi game.

E: If you don't want to engage with the scoring but want a bit more of a game, the difficulty dipswitch works.
lol great, it's even worse. Apparently you also have to play it on 2P side because fuck being 1P for unknown reasons. ESP Ra.De. is a very cool game with a ridiculous scoring system. I don't know. I will play it for a while and see if I get a clear and if I do I'll mess with the DIP switches and see what I get out of it.

Maybe I am wrong and I am still working on stuff like what character to play as and what game mode I should be playing (yes, I am playing Psi, so I have arcade, arcade plus, and all of that) and not actually routing the stages yet, but this game doesn't seem that hard for survival compared to some of CAVE's other stuff. Like I'd say this game is significantly easier than Dangun Feveron, which usually completely destroys me on stage 2 with the crazy fast bullets that game has, but it's too early to tell as of right now.
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Nahar
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Nahar »

Kollision wrote:the best thing to have ever come out of Compile is Milestone.

8)
MUSHA would like to have a word with you.
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XoPachi
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by XoPachi »

The best thing from Compile is



puyo :^)
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To Far Away Times
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by To Far Away Times »

MUSHA is their best work I think. I like that game quite a bit.

Spriggan is damn good too. One of the few games I've gone back to clear over and over again.

And Super Aleste is one of the best shmups on the SNES.

I think Compile rules.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Marc »

Slap Fight, or Alcon as my Evercade xart calls it.
It's.... interesting. Only weapon that doesn't seem gimped in dome way is lvl 2 homing, the rest just don't seem to offer enough to make the size trade off worth it, never mind the lvl 3 stuff!
Amazing bearing in mind it's age, if a tad frustrating. Made area 50 after an hour, so I'll keep at it for now.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Steven »

Slap Fight is fucking amazing. I play it every few days for that exact reason. This is easily the #3 best game Toaplan ever made after Out Zone and Hishouzame, and could be considered to be the great-grandfather of bullet hell if you think about its relationship to Tatsujin and V-V and whatever.

At first it's really weird because you have no idea what the hell you are supposed to do, but it's actually really simple: kill things, change weapons, find secrets to increase your score, don't die. There are lots of secrets in the game and I keep finding new ones. Apparently you can get some extra points for keeping the helper alive at a certain point, or by killing the second boss with a specific weapon, although I forgot what weapon that is, but I think it's shot. Many of the weapons seem useless, but they are not and you'll need all of them to maximize your score. If you know what you are doing and have fast autofire or can mash the button at a ridiculous rate, shot gives you a shitload of points if you use it in specific ways...

Eventually once you reach like loop 6, 7, or 8 the bullet speed becomes like Same! Same! Same! 1P version, so don't die if you get that far. If you do die at any point and have no stars, though, hold up+right+A+B and the game will respawn you with a star so you can immediately take a speed up. You can do this at the beginning of the game to start the game with a star, as well.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by sunnshiner »

Raiden IV. If you notice a bad smell, that'd be me stinking the place up :lol:
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Kiken »

Been steadily hammering away at Rezon since it got released on the Switch. With the reverse-movement firing options this feels similar to how the Force unit functions in Last Resort or the I/O units in Pulstar. That said, routing this game has been kinda insane. There are several instances where going for the dangerous/risky play seems to be the most consistent tactic for me. This all sorta falls apart at the stage 4 boss as dealing with the reversing asteroids and the hellishly annoying boss options often creates situations where I get trapped in a crossfire and the massive hitbox doesn't grant any leniency.
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Nahar
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Nahar »

I'm still having a lot of fun with Einhänder, but I feel that 1CC far from me.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Marc »

Messing Around with Toaplan Arcade 2 on Evercade. I'm fucking useless at Toaplan games.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Steven »

It's really too bad they only put the international versions on the Evercade and left out the Japanese versions; that's why I didn't get it. Kyuukyoku Tiger is so much better than Twin Cobra and they play very differently.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Sengoku Strider »

To Far Away Times wrote:MUSHA is their best work I think. I like that game quite a bit.

Spriggan is damn good too. One of the few games I've gone back to clear over and over again.
Spriggan was a revelation. It's not a title that gets talked about a lot compared to its peers, but the longer I played it the more I liked it. And the caravan mode is sheer madness that I don't think I've seen anything else quite match. I still have a few notable ones to play (Gun-Nac, Spriggan mark 2, Dennin Aleste), but it might end up beating out Super Aleste for my favourite Compile shooter.

------

I've been playing PCE Gradius II all month...I've been stymied by the mid-boss of the final stage. Every video I've seen uses safe spots with multiple options targeting its weak point to beat it. The problem is, there just aren't quite enough powerups on the stage to get that powerful by that point, so unless you made it through from the previous stage you can't use those strats. I'm sure I can beat it straight up, but those fast red lasers are hard to see, never mind how tough it is just to get that far consistently. This really is a different kind of beast if you're not crutching it on a platform with save states.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Steven »

I am soooooooooooooo close to Kyuukyoku Tiger PCB no auto clear. I would have gotten it last night if I hadn't stupidly gotten killed by the stage 9 boss just before it timed out. Might get it today or tomorrow. That would be nice. Time to play the game and see what happens.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by cfx »

Re: ESP Ra.De. OT but search never works for me and I'm sure the game has a thread but it's not in the first few pages. A one post answer should do:
Steven wrote:lol great, it's even worse. Apparently you also have to play it on 2P side because fuck being 1P for unknown reasons. ESP Ra.De. is a very cool game with a ridiculous scoring system. I don't know. I will play it for a while and see if I get a clear and if I do I'll mess with the DIP switches and see what I get out of it.

Maybe I am wrong and I am still working on stuff like what character to play as and what game mode I should be playing (yes, I am playing Psi, so I have arcade, arcade plus, and all of that) and not actually routing the stages yet, but this game doesn't seem that hard for survival compared to some of CAVE's other stuff. Like I'd say this game is significantly easier than Dangun Feveron, which usually completely destroys me on stage 2 with the crazy fast bullets that game has, but it's too early to tell as of right now.
I'm not a big fan of Cave or bullet hell in general as I've written elsewhere, but I stumbled onto some videos of this game and thought it looked like something I may like; the patterns seem less like what I think of as typical Cave that I really dislike (Dodonpachi) and the screen isn't filled with huge numbers and other nonsense that obscures everything and the bullets aren't huge and cover the entire screen, most of the time.

However, I suck and will always suck to some degree. Normal here is still hard enough I'll likely never clear it, or at the very least will have to work up to it over time, but M2's Super Easy looks a little too tame at least early on and the patterns don't exactly look like they'd really teach the game. I found the online manual so realize it has difficulty settings beyond that, but I don't know how well they work so I guess that's what I'm asking. Also, I like Deathsmiles, Ibara, probalby Pink Sweets, and all Raizing games, does that imply that I will like, or hate, this? Scoring system isn't a high priority for me since survival is hard enough.

For now I can still get the PS4 disc.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Steven »

cfx wrote:Re: ESP Ra.De. OT but search never works for me and I'm sure the game has a thread but it's not in the first few pages. A one post answer should do:
Steven wrote:lol great, it's even worse. Apparently you also have to play it on 2P side because fuck being 1P for unknown reasons. ESP Ra.De. is a very cool game with a ridiculous scoring system. I don't know. I will play it for a while and see if I get a clear and if I do I'll mess with the DIP switches and see what I get out of it.

Maybe I am wrong and I am still working on stuff like what character to play as and what game mode I should be playing (yes, I am playing Psi, so I have arcade, arcade plus, and all of that) and not actually routing the stages yet, but this game doesn't seem that hard for survival compared to some of CAVE's other stuff. Like I'd say this game is significantly easier than Dangun Feveron, which usually completely destroys me on stage 2 with the crazy fast bullets that game has, but it's too early to tell as of right now.
I'm not a big fan of Cave or bullet hell in general as I've written elsewhere, but I stumbled onto some videos of this game and thought it looked like something I may like; the patterns seem less like what I think of as typical Cave that I really dislike (Dodonpachi) and the screen isn't filled with huge numbers and other nonsense that obscures everything and the bullets aren't huge and cover the entire screen, most of the time.

However, I suck and will always suck to some degree. Normal here is still hard enough I'll likely never clear it, or at the very least will have to work up to it over time, but M2's Super Easy looks a little too tame at least early on and the patterns don't exactly look like they'd really teach the game. I found the online manual so realize it has difficulty settings beyond that, but I don't know how well they work so I guess that's what I'm asking. Also, I like Deathsmiles, Ibara, probalby Pink Sweets, and all Raizing games, does that imply that I will like, or hate, this? Scoring system isn't a high priority for me since survival is hard enough.

For now I can still get the PS4 disc.
Get the 1CC in Super Easy mode and then you can use Alice in Arcade Plus. She's really good at blowing shit up, so I don't think a normal difficulty Arcade Plus clear with her would be too difficult. Game's a lot of fun, so might as well try it, I think.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by cfx »

Thank you. :D
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Marc »

Zero Wing. It's.... meh. Toaplan never really nsiled the hori stuff did they? Can also feel quite Euro on occasion.

Gunvein, which is bastard awesome. Loving the emphasis on bombing to generate more shards to collect more bombs.... it's finally cured the hoarder in me.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Toaplan never really nailed the hori stuff did they?
I don't know about their hori shmups, but they made some really good hori orientation games like Teki Paki and GetStar. Give those a whirl. :V
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Steven »

And also Horror Story (Ver.B), the one that starts in the USA section, which is probably the second best horizontal game they ever made after Teki-Paki. You specifically want the B version, not the A version, which is also what the PC Engine version is. I do like Get Star, though. Why? I don't know. I just like it. I don't really have a reason. Guardian is super fucked, but Get Star is cool.

I have been playing Hellfire a bit recently and I've taken a liking to it; it's better than Zero Wing for sure. It's almost like Zero Wing was a training project for newly hired developers, most of them probably fresh out of university and having never made a game before, and the game was never actually supposed to get released at all or something like that~ Give Hellfire 1P version a try.

Anyway, it's finally Batsugun time, I guess. I was playing Tatsujin, but now Batsugun is here and now I'm like WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I PLAY? I DON'T KNOW AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

or something like that. It's going to get worse in just under 2 months when Zero Fire gets here and then I'll have 2 versions of both Zero Wing and Hellfire and also 2 versions of the awesome Horror Story.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Guardian is extremely messed up. Classic meddling with the North American release like how Konami tended to screw with the defaults for such versions. It tells you everything you need to know when the first boss's attack that deals no damage and just pushes you back is made to now damage you. It's not telegraphed in any way so it feels entirely down to luck whether or not you'll take damage.

I've not played Horror Story before! That one's slipped my radar, I'll definitely check it out.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Nahar »

Dropped Einhänder, I wasn't really enjoying the game that much. Don't get me wrong, art and music is awesome, but I feel the gameplay is not as responsive an well thought.

I'm dabbling on some ESPGaluda 2 but not decided yet on my next 1CC. Kind of at a slog at work and want to clear IRL things first before commiting to another game.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

I was fortunate enough to score a PCB of Omega Fighter and I've been putting some serious time into learning the game. It's a lot of fun! I'm edging towards beating the first loop, and I can consistently no miss into Stage 7, but then I get absolutely destroyed. It's a huge difficulty spike it seems with all the damn turrets, that or I haven't got a good route yet, but I've only made it into Stage 8 once so far. Chaindeathing tends to happen quickly, though suiciding yourself to make use of the insanely damaging explosions you generate (that instantly kill pretty much everything including bosses) can be handy if you're worried you'll get hit...

It's also an EXTREMELY GAY game. If you're scoring well, it's basically nonstop x10 rainbows! :D

shoutout to this for ez pz for the rainbow text https://www.stuffbydavid.com/textcolorizer <3
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BIL »

One of those games that genuinely feels like it's from the goddamn SPACE SHOOTING FUTURE. Image Buzz scoring, time manipulation, and roaring chainsaw autofire in one 1989 STG, which adroitly takes the still-quite-new Huge Battleship Stage to its logical X-TREEEM: Huge Battleship Game. Those times where you shear a hulking section of hull off, and half the screen falls away to reveal the cosmos screaming past at 9000MPH, battle raging on without missing a beat, holy fuck they still look formidable even next to the cream of the 90s/00s golden age.

EDIT: BANGING CHOONS TOO. Enviable balance of the chibi-cute n' cuddly to the stone-facedly murdercore. Blast off! Lookit the moon flying past! But remember: Die, and Earth dies with you. Image That st1 boss BGM is fuckin HAWT Image Image Image A sense of hitting the bastards so hard they don't have time to mount a response, then spending the rest of the game with all hell at your heels.

UPL were some precious weird cats. I'm glad they got a second lease on life via ACA. Omega Fighter and Ninja-kun II would've been killer MD carts, but reference-standard modern ports (all three revs of both games, even) patches that up nicely. (well, Omega Fighter's third rev isn't "rev" per se, it's a developer PCB... but even that one is basically a third gametype, with the always-on x16 bonus enabling almost Bakraidesque suicide chaining. pretty fuckin nuts, again, downright futuristic)
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Oh yeah, the fact that it's an old game that has full autofire, properly fleshed out scoring mechanics, and special abilities before Espgaluda was ever a thing is insanely cool. The board is gigantic, feels like I've got an antique on my hands, but it's in mint condition (thanks, Tops!).

I absolutely love how dedicated it is to its giant spaceship raid aesthetic, and yeah, there's something fantastic about the way parts of the battleship shear off with these jagged lines. Even the game over screen is brutal yet entertaining, watching Earth get absolutely pummeled by shots. :lol: The transition to the second loop is great too, with the sheer hopelessness of seeing the ship go down only for a billion more to appear in its place. Rarely have games managed to really communicate the scale of such hopeless odds for one poor, lone ship against a massive fleet!

It's also really fun in cooperative play; the screen doesn't shift left and right as you move like it does in many shmups which makes for disorienting co-op, and the relatively thin weapons means both players get to feel like they can really contribute and cover the screen helpfully. More carrying capacity for the cubes is nice too, and you can even split things up where one player goes SUPER WIDE and the other powers up the focused shot.

I haven't tried messing with the Special option that puts it into a debug kind of state (every kill adds to the x10 meter and you can skip levels by holding a button as it's presenting the battleship diagram for the next level) but that'd be fun to use as an Easy mode for parties. :P
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