Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[XoPachi]

Natsuki Chronicles is looking like another of those "beyond me" STG's. I still have not cleared this but I've been really throwing myself at it. :/

[XoPachi]

I GOT TO THE LAST BOSS.
ALMOST HAD HIM!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

back to Giga Wing! looking forward to this screen being legit soon!

Good luck! I know you can do it!

I'm ashamed to saw I haven't been playing any shmups lately. I've just kind of taken a hiatus and been playing other stuff that's been on my backlog. I haven't streamed in ages either, last time I tried my ISP was having issues and it was very distracting dealing with how choppy it was getting. As much as I enjoy streaming to chat with other folks into similar games and showcasing games I enjoy, it's a lot of effort and paying attention to the chat is pretty distracting when I'm trying to work on a tough clear...

[mycophobia]

sengoku ace. It's Fun

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Bouncing around between several games.

Battle Garegga - finally learning stage 5, and managed to even beat Black Heart and get a run into stage 6. Phenomenal game, unsurprisingly - the stage design is masterful, the bosses are excellent. I feel like I'm 90% of the way to finally internalizing its "invisible bullets", which are still a bit of a pain, but aren't walling me off the way they initially did.

Stage 5 has a fantastic aesthetic (both the visuals and audio) but I am the tiniest bit put off by its repetitive opening bit. I don't mind it being easy - it ends up being the hardest stage up to that point in the game, anyway, between the chaotic Mad Ball 2 and Black Heart - but the fight through all those airships is a bit sparse compared to how dense the rest of the game, even stage 1, has been until then. (Mad Ball 2 in particular might be overall the scariest part of the first five stages, actually. Not very confident in getting through him without having accumulated bomb stock.)

Still having trouble deciding whether I should mainly focus on Miyamoto or Golden Bat. Miyamoto was the one I breached into stage 6 with - his speed makes unplanned dodging and especially medal chain saves more reliable - but Bat's firepower does make the game's scariest boss fights more reliable.

Gunsmoke - this game's chaotic, dynamic popcorn enemy combat is truly singular. Never played any other shooters like this. Ninja and Cutter are both scary boss fights, but Pig Joe is my current wall; my best runs have gotten up to him and disintegrated. I can't seem to get the hang of the sprite limit strategy that leaves his window snipers alive, though, and haven't been able to take control of it in a real run.

[BIL]

I find it really helps to use Pig Joe's leap/shoot rhythm as the mental primer for a dodge. If he fires, I move - if not, reset the clock. He can't shoot, otherwise, a small weakness in a very nasty attack.

The other critical thing is to always let him fire, then move - there's a really nasty (read: brilliant ) semi-random offset to his blasts, that can punishing second-guessing harshly.

On the off chance you've not checked my ST, a shameless plug <3

Tough game, but coming in from more of a run/gun background, I instantly fell in love with its tactical strafing. Glad you're liking it! Stage 6's marathon will seem like hell initially, but it's a decided downslope from there until the last stage, which is really just Stage 3: Hell Label. If you can master Ninja's stage, you'll be in good shape for everything after.

[NuclearPotato]

Playing a couple different games right now:

Last Alert: This is the main game I’ve been focusing on getting a clear for, and it feels weird, because there is a ton for me to like about this game, being a R-Type-style game with lenient checkpoints, weapons that feel quite powerful, and a banging OST, yet I find that sitting down to practice it seems more difficult than it should be for me. I think there’s a fair chance this is just me being a little burnt out on actively learning new games, and mostly sticking to old favorites, like:

Darius Gaiden: Last week I managed to get my first 1LC in the game, and thus a PB at 7.9 mil. I’m starting to actively think about learning the strats for midboss captures, since I can only get the first two with any real consistency right now. I’m also looking into learning Zones C and E, since those tend to set up the highest scoring routes.

Lastly, I picked up M2’s Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli collection today on Switch, and had a blast credit-feeding through the PCE port of Kyukyoku Tiger. No real goals to achieve, just plain old school shooting fun here.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Gunsmoke - this game's chaotic, dynamic popcorn enemy combat is truly singular. Never played any other shooters like this.

This is why I always say, even if you don't like playing it (and there seems to many that absolutely hate it). you have to give credit where it's due, there's really nothing like it.

[Lethe]

Ninja and Cutter are both scary boss fights, but Pig Joe is my current wall; my best runs have gotten up to him and disintegrated. I can't seem to get the hang of the sprite limit strategy that leaves his window snipers alive, though, and haven't been able to take control of it in a real run.

Joe's firing arc is limited. If you can hit him with left-shooting, he can't hit you back. The key is not to get blindsided by the few grey dudes that still run in during the sprite limit trick, elsewise you can just stay in his blind spot.

[Fenrir]

Got sucked back into Deathsmiles. I don't even know why, but it is addictive.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

I find it really helps to use Pig Joe's leap/shoot rhythm as the mental primer for a dodge. If he fires, I move - if not, reset the clock. He can't shoot, otherwise, a small weakness in a very nasty attack.

The other critical thing is to always let him fire, then move - there's a really nasty (read: brilliant ) semi-random offset to his blasts, that can punishing second-guessing harshly.

On the off chance you've not checked my ST, a shameless plug <3

Tough game, but coming in from more of a run/gun background, I instantly fell in love with its tactical strafing. Glad you're liking it! Stage 6's marathon will seem like hell initially, but it's a decided downslope from there until the last stage, which is really just Stage 3: Hell Label. If you can master Ninja's stage, you'll be in good shape for everything after.

Joe's firing arc is limited. If you can hit him with left-shooting, he can't hit you back. The key is not to get blindsided by the few grey dudes that still run in during the sprite limit trick, elsewise you can just stay in his blind spot.

I've been glancing at that! It's a great resource, and the addendum to it is where I learned the sprite limit trick for Pig Joe. I'm still wavering on whether I want to go with that sprite limit strategy, since currently my success rate for the boss is about the same either way. I've loved how dynamic each of these bosses are, though stage 3, 4, and 5's have all been particularly intimidating.

[Kretinou]

Terra Force !

[Comico]

Finally started playing Ikaruga (switch), I've always been fascinated by it but never dared try due to the legendary difficulty.
3 hours in, getting mauled while having a great time

[m.sniffles.esq]

Dreamcast = Under Defeat
(I actually had an urge to play Strania, but I'll wait for a sale since I already bought it twice. UD will do for now. It's a game I know I'll never 1cc yet I still thoroughly enjoy it)

PC = Raiden Legacy
(Another game I've purchased multiple times, but it finally went on sale. Mostly been playing Fighters 1)

Switch = Cotton Reboot
(I guess my copy of 'Rock and Roll' will ship with the Pocky and Rocky reboot, and I'm really looking forward to it. In the meantime, this is a whole lot of fun and plays well undocked. So it's what I've been banging on during my commute. Roommates seem to enjoy it too.)

Other = Very much looking forward to Tempest 4K coming out on the Switch next week. I've been playing Polybius on PC here and there and I may like it even more than Moose Life (!!). I'm not sure what led me to believe it was some VR rhythm thing like Thumper, but it's just a straight ahead tube shooter, and pretty fantastic one at that.

[Gamer707b]

Took a couple weeks off shmups, but had a good session of GG Aleste 3 last night. Love this gem!!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

GG Aleste 3 is a fantastic game. It's such a wonderful gem and a great addition to the series. I spent the past few days playing through the collection on Switch too.

Aleste is quite tough until you get a feel for the weapons. Several of the weapons are highly questionable given that ammo is limited and bullet cancelling is extremely helpful. Weapon 4 for instance is guaranteed to run out in later stages where weapon pods no longer show up on the ground, forcing you to rely only on the random item carriers. I ended up getting the 1CC after discovering you can hold Weapon 2's charge in front of you for approximately FOREVER and get very reliable frontal bullet cancelling. The damage is also decent for piercing the turret bosses, and quite damaging if you use the shield to pointblank the colour-changing minibosses.

Weapon 1 is also super useful when maxed out as it's quite strong, cancels bullets, and has decent coverage. The problem is you can't strafe with it, and it always fires in the direction you move unless you're standing still, which makes it tricky to use. Weapon 3 and Weapon 7 are also quite decent though you have to use them sparingly enough to make them last until the item carrier cycles through to drop the one you want. Weapon icons floating upward makes this incredibly frustrating as grabbing weapons is always a risky endeavor unless you can grab a P powerup and make use of the invulnerability to nab the weapon.

Power Strike II SMS is amazing and it shames me not to have played it for so long. Strange that such a great game came out as a PAL exclusive, the charge shot that charges as you fire your normal shot allowing you a bullet cancelling spray when you need it has a very good feel, like using Giga Wing's shield to deflect stuff quickly or charge longer for a more damaging burst.

Sadly all the places that have the soundtrack online I could find recorded it at the incorrect 60 FPS speed instead of 50 FPS, which is a darn shame given it's an amazing OST. However, I eventually found a video where the person posted a link in their comment section, for which I am incredibly grateful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipM-E_oDmSw

[TransatlanticFoe]

Weapon 2 in Aleste does have a limit - after a certain time of charging it'll release anyway, which can be quite a rough surprise. One of the gadgets in the Aleste Collection tracks it, which is very handy. Once you get to stage 6 though yeah, you need something with plenty of ammo and/or ability to use it sparingly. Weapon 1 is handy for that but it's also weak next to 2 and 3, and stage 6 has those awful minibosses that creep down the screen towards you - only this time there are enemies on screen all the time and those background tile traps. Speed kill those fuckers or die!

On the Power Strike II OST....

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/ ... m-of-music

I can only assume it was Sega driving Power Strike II as a PAL SMS exclusive. There's also the story of Sagaia - where we got the SMS version but not the MD version. I think at the time Sega was trying to push out SMS exclusives because the system had a large install base, and only dropped it in '94 with the Saturn coming up for release.

I like the charge burst in Power Strike II - one of the weapons in Super Aleste does a similar thing.

[To Far Away Times]

The Aleste and Powerstrike games are rad. i like 'em all, but I'd agree GG Aleste 3 is probably the best of the bunch.

Currently playing G Darius HD. I beat the PS1 port ages ago, but figured I'd revisit it since the HD port has tons of sweet bells and whistles. A perfect port in every way possible. Its immaculate with save and load states, gadgets, and replays.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Currently playing G Darius HD. I beat the PS1 port ages ago, but figured I'd revisit it since the HD port has tons of sweet bells and whistles. A perfect port in every way possible. Its immaculate with save and load states, gadgets, and replays.

I agree, as a fan the port/HD upscaling is pretty much everything I could have asked for. The only reason it's hasn't got more play from me is purely personal, in that the nostalgia dopamine hit it provides also sort of bums me out.

The PS1 version came out at the time in my life where me and a couple of friends would spend the evening happily passing the bowl and controller, and played the hell out of that title in particular. So playing it now sort of reinforces the whole 'you can't go home again' thing. It's weird, because it was certainly that last thing I was expecting to feel when I bought it. But alas...

[XoPachi]

I hooked up my 360 again to play SaiDaiOujou. I think I'm gonna stick with B-Shot. I can't get comfortable with the other two. Not that I'm doing...good at all, but I do *better* at least.

[Sengoku Strider]

GG Aleste 3 is a fantastic game. It's such a wonderful gem and a great addition to the series. I spent the past few days playing through the collection on Switch too.

Aleste is quite tough until you get a feel for the weapons. Several of the weapons are highly questionable given that ammo is limited and bullet cancelling is extremely helpful. Weapon 4 for instance is guaranteed to run out in later stages where weapon pods no longer show up on the ground, forcing you to rely only on the random item carriers. I ended up getting the 1CC after discovering you can hold Weapon 2's charge in front of you for approximately FOREVER and get very reliable frontal bullet cancelling. The damage is also decent for piercing the turret bosses, and quite damaging if you use the shield to pointblank the colour-changing minibosses.

Weapon 1 is also super useful when maxed out as it's quite strong, cancels bullets, and has decent coverage. The problem is you can't strafe with it, and it always fires in the direction you move unless you're standing still, which makes it tricky to use. Weapon 3 and Weapon 7 are also quite decent though you have to use them sparingly enough to make them last until the item carrier cycles through to drop the one you want. Weapon icons floating upward makes this incredibly frustrating as grabbing weapons is always a risky endeavor unless you can grab a P powerup and make use of the invulnerability to nab the weapon.

Power Strike II SMS is amazing and it shames me not to have played it for so long. Strange that such a great game came out as a PAL exclusive, the charge shot that charges as you fire your normal shot allowing you a bullet cancelling spray when you need it has a very good feel, like using Giga Wing's shield to deflect stuff quickly or charge longer for a more damaging burst.

Sadly all the places that have the soundtrack online I could find recorded it at the incorrect 60 FPS speed instead of 50 FPS, which is a darn shame given it's an amazing OST. However, I eventually found a video where the person posted a link in their comment section, for which I am incredibly grateful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipM-E_oDmSw

That whole collection is fantastic. The closest it comes to a negative is how much of a pushover the first GG Aleste is, but then the Game Gear was very much aimed at kids in Japan.

1CCing the first Aleste is a pretty nice feather to have in your cap, imo. I can hit gold on every stage in the challenge mode, but that's aided greatly by the fact that it starts you off powered up. It really is one of those games you pretty much have to no-miss.

Power Strike II is a weird one. It came out in 1993. In Japan, Sega had dropped the Mark III/Master System like a rock before the Mega Drive even came out. The MD launched Oct. 29th 1988, and the Mark III only saw two releases after Oct. 15th of 1988 - Cyborg Hunter as the lone holiday title in December, and then Bomber Raid somehow trickled out in February.

This whole period of Sega history in Japan is kind of wild. But specifically with the Master System, it's kind of shocking for anyone with a sense of its Western timeline to see the Mark III barely lasted 3 years there. In fact the Japanese Master System (released as a minor hardware upgrade to the Mk. III in Japan) only lasted about a year after being launched there in 1987.

Titles that get looked back upon as major or notable SMS releases like R-Type, Shinobi, Double Dragon, Spellcaster, Golvellius, Ys, Thunderblade, etc. only made it out in the system's very last 3-4 months, they weren't really defining of it in Japan during its lifespan.
And other major system-defining games like Wonder Boy III, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, Rastan or Sonic never saw any kind of Japanese release at all.

In North America, they'd tried to revive the system with the low-priced Master System II in 1990, along with the Power Base converter that let Genesis owners play Master System games, but it didn't take. The Master System was sunset in North America in 1991, only seeing 7 releases that year.

The Master System had changed distributors a couple of times in Europe and would have died off even sooner than its North American counterpart, had Sega not lucked out and been picked up by Virgin, who knew what they were doing. Initially the only real competition in its price bracket in the UK were by-then ancient home computers like the Spectrum, which it technologically mopped the floor with. This gave the system a second life there, which is why it lasted all the way until 1995 in Europe despite having been long dead in its home country. As a somewhat remarkable aside, '94 was the year the Saturn launched in Japan, and '95 was the Mega Drive's final year there.

So in light of all that, it's perfectly understandable that Power Strike II was a PAL exclusive - there was no NTSC market to release it into. What is unusual is that it didn't get a Game Gear port. The GG & SMS sharing essentially the same hardware specs had greatly benefitted the Master System in Europe, and the two platforms had dozens upon dozens of games in common. I can only figure that Compile had specific ideas about what a portable shmup should involve, and that Power Strike II wouldn't read well on the GG's smaller resolution and blurry LCD.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Weapon 2 in Aleste does have a limit - after a certain time of charging it'll release anyway, which can be quite a rough surprise.

Fortunately by the time it auto fires from charging the heat death of the universe has nearly taken place. You can last a long time with a full clip, and it works just as well at low shot power as at max, which is a huge boon. It's definitely nice to have the charge meter showing in the Aleste Collection though, as yeah, firing it off unexpectedly at a bad moment would be a nuisance for sure!

That whole collection is fantastic. The closest it comes to a negative is how much of a pushover the first GG Aleste is, but then the Game Gear was very much aimed at kids in Japan.

Yeah, most of the weapons are incredibly powerful. Special Mode's still pretty manageable with the bullet cancelling weapons too. You can make it harder by using one of the thinner ones, namely the Laser, which is quite powerful but rather thin, making stages more challenging. The same applies to GG Aleste 2 to a lesser extend. The Napalm weapon is great for bullet cancelling, but you can get through Mania with the Delta or Rising Laser weapons for an extra challenge. The homing missiles in GG Aleste 2 are frankly bad and should be disregarded, though.

1CCing the first Aleste is a pretty nice feather to have in your cap, imo.

Haha, thanks, I was quite pleased, it took a good dozen attempts for me to get the feel of it. I don't think you quite have to no-miss, but chain deaths are very real and if you do die it's crucial to get a good defensive weapon that works well at low power. Grab weapon 2 or 7 and you can get back to blocking shots and levelling up your main weapon again. You are really badly depowered on a death though, it's quite jarring if you're used to the later Aleste games that aren't as evil about this!

[DMC]

Finally fixed an obnoxious squealing noise inside my Astro city, replaced the stick to a much nicer one, and inserted Dimahoo into the cab.
Will definitely keep this running for a while!

[BrianC]

The homing missiles in GG Aleste 2 are frankly bad and should be disregarded, though.

I was especially disappointed with that weapon because the homing missile weapon is Power Strike 2 SMS is surprisingly good.

[To Far Away Times]

Crapped out twice last night at Lightning Coronatus in G-Darius. So close...

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I was especially disappointed with that weapon because the homing missile weapon is Power Strike 2 SMS is surprisingly good.

The only weapon in Power Strike 2 (SMS) I thought was bad was the Shotgun weapon. It felt decent, but underwhelming. Even weapon 0 (where you have no subweapon and simply increase your main firing rate) was better. The Devastor missiles were also a bit iffy. They're good on air targets thanks to their piercing, but they don't seem to be as effective on ground turrets? GG Aleste 3's similar weapon also isn't that impressive, though the damage balance feels better.

[XoPachi]

Man Armed Police Unit Gallop is so much fun. This game has such a piping hot pace and so many neat mechanics.

[Gamer707b]

Just got Super Alleste and dabbled in in for an hour. So far, great game, just taking a break from shooters for a couple weeks. Can't wait to put proper time into this!

[sunnshine]

Raiden III (pc) and a bit of Radiant Silvergun on the 360. I kind of get RSG now, I absolutely hated it when I first played it and thought it was overrated bilge but it's growing on me.

[m.sniffles.esq]

I kind of get RSG now, I absolutely hated it when I first played it and thought it was overrated bilge but it's growing on me.

I like to say "a very well made, innovative game with a learning curve I unfortunately am unable to surmount"
A little more democratic than "overrated bilge"

Anyway, I woke up this morning with a jones for Border Down. And somehow, I always seem to forget how seriously great this game is.
I mean--sure--it gets lots of love, and you can buy and entire tablet to emulate it on (plus controller) for less than some are trying to get for an original disc. And yet...

At the very least, I would have guessed that the 'border' gimmick would have been ripped off 216 times at this point.