Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[BurlyHeart]

Probably a typo, it's on PS4 and Vita, not PS2.

Ah a typo, that makes sense.

Well then, yes I played the PS4 version and din't encounter any problems.

[Kiken]

After watching loads of con-goers at Magfest pump mad credits into my Prehistoric Isle 2 cart, I decided to sit back down with the game. I was never aware that the JP and US versions use completely different life systems (the JP version uses a 5 unit health bar while the US version has a more traditional one-hit-wonder with 3 lives format). It's like MD Contra all over again.

[Stevens]

Splitting time between Hyper Duel and Thunder Force IV.

My current best in TF is stage five. For a game with a lot going on (big stages, lot's of weapons) the whole thing is very intuitive. I've typically avoided games like this in the past.

Right now though..if there was another game for the "Go Play Mars Matrix" meme this is a very strong candidate.

[LordHypnos]

^Though I only played it a few times, the pacing in TFIV seemed pretty good for a console shooter of the early 90s. Also, that music \m/

I've made it to stage 6 a few times in R-Type, and have stage 6 routed pretty well. I don't think I have the stage 5 boss as consistent as the others though. Not because it's hard, but because I haven't figured out how to control it's movement so that it doesn't run me into a wall and kill me. When it moves the right way it's easy. Have not begun working on a route for stage 7 yet.

[Stevens]

Isn't the fifth boss that rock thing with the robot middle?

I played a lot of R Type on the SMS when it came out (still have it too:). Was never good at it then, but I did credit feed to the end once.

As a ten year old it was impressive. Continues were limited!

Last two Thunder Force IV runs have seen me reach stage six, and its boss. Need a solid route through six though. Got there with three or for lives, lost a few ships in succession ,and while I put up a good fight was done in by the claw.

The game is also generous with score extends AND 1 ups.

[LordHypnos]

Isn't the fifth boss that rock thing with the robot middle?

I played a lot of R Type on the SMS when it came out (still have it too:). Was never good at it then, but I did credit feed to the end once.

As a ten year old it was impressive. Continues were limited!

Last two Thunder Force IV runs have seen me reach stage six, and its boss. Need a solid route through six though. Got there with three or for lives, lost a few ships in succession ,and while I put up a good fight was done in by the claw.

The game is also generous with score extends AND 1 ups.

Yeah, the rock thing with the robot middle. Seems like the best way to take him on is to move to the bottom of the screen before he appears, charge shot him, and quickly get up in his grill (this is with pretty fast autofire, btw. Not sure if it would work with more reasonable autofire). Ideally he'll move back from you, or not move forward too much, but when I get the timing wrong he keeps moving toward you, and usually doesn't die before you're trapped. Sometimes I can manage to get out of the way and dodge the rocks and stuff, but not always.
I've heard that the SMS port is really good, actually.

Nice work on TFIV. I think I only ever made it to like stage 3 or something, but then again I never bothered trying to learn it, and there's at least some stuff you need to memorize in the first few stages. Then once you're powered down it gets harder, though there are games that have worse gradius syndrome (R-Type included)

[Stevens]

Power down isn't too bad in TF IV - it uses the "loses the weapon equipped" method. I lost a bunch quick more from (I think) just being unfamiliar with the level.

Rockin' soundtrack though \m/

[LordHypnos]

^Now that you mention it, I do remember that about weapon loss. Also, yeah, TFIV music is pretty untouchable. Really good shit.

Current progress on R-Type: have routes or safespots for all stages, and strats for all bosses. Stage 7 probably needs some refining, and most of the stages after 3 need a lot of practice, but I should theoretically be able to 1cc if I have a really good day, now. This really makes me realize how much easier games are to practice when you can play specific stages or other parts (through save states, in this case) as opposed to trying to practice Valkyrius or Tumiki Fighters which are probably much easier games, but I have to play through earlier stages to practice later stages. I should really try credit feeding them though. That way I can at least practice every stage every time. Pretty tedious though, by comparison.

Also been playing shmup skills test (360) a little. Helps me quantify how bad my skills are. lol.

[Stevens]

Crawling towards the top in TF IV. Stage eight.

Definitely need to clean up stage six boss - lost six ships there. That stage eight BGM though...drool.

[LordHypnos]

Still R-Type
Well, I tried playing for the 1cc quite a few times today, and it looks like there's just a lot of places that still need practice. One kind of interesting thing that I was thinking about is that this game really teaches you how to be conservative with your ship movement. Most of the time its way safer to just tap very slightly away from obstacles and such. Most of the places where I die a lot are places where I need to get from one part of the screen to another relatively quickly. Not a lot of slop in this game when it comes to positioning your ship.

[finisherr]

Playing some Pork. Think I want the 1-ALL on this now.

[LordHypnos]

More R-Type.
Actually made it all the way to stage 7 in one credit, but then died clumsily almost immediately. Still pretty far from that clear, I guess. Would have had it like a week ago if not for the recoveries though. Pretty hard to even get through an 18 minute game without making a single mistake.

[Obscura]

Played a shmup for the first time in a bit over a year with some Dariusburst AC.

Cleared top route easily on my first try, but biting it repeatedly on Ancient Barrage is kind of embarrassing Not being able to time the counterburst on his swinging lasers isn't helping things.

[Blinge]

It's amazing how fast the rust can creep in.
I couldn't get past Ikaruga ST3 in the few credits i played the other week.

[Weak Boson]

Not played anything for a while but I was looking through my steam library and the answer came right at the end with Zenohell and Zenodyne R! Hoping to push a bit further into these fun games

[copy-paster]

Mushi Futari BL Original.

First time playing it w/ credit feed, first credit until stage 3 boss, took 2 credits to beat fourth stage and 4-6 credits on final stage. I guess this would be my second Cave clear with proper practice.

[Stevens]

More R-Type.
Actually made it all the way to stage 7 in one credit, but then died clumsily almost immediately. Still pretty far from that clear, I guess. Would have had it like a week ago if not for the recoveries though. Pretty hard to even get through an 18 minute game without making a single mistake.

You'll get it.

Picked up a SNES mini over the weekend while on holiday. My buddy loaded it with 200 games. R Type III is AMAZING. Had a chance to put a little time over the weekend and got to the third boss. I suggest you give it a shot after you put down the original.

[LordHypnos]

I still can't make it through R-Type without mistakes, yet, but I have refined a few of my routes to be more specific and therefore more effective. I'll definitely check out R-Type III at some point.

[Obscura]

[...]biting it repeatedly on Ancient Barrage is kind of embarrassing

Scrubby solution -- don't power up all the way, stick to lasers. It drastically limits how much he can entrap you with "that" pattern.

[LordHypnos]

So I ended up playing some Triggerheart Exelica and a little Mushihimesama Futari today for a change. Actually managed to improve my THE score a little bit on my second or third try which is pretty wild because I didn't really remember much of my routes. I did, however, make it to the stage 3 boss. I also tried practicing stage 2 a bit to see if I could come up with a route, but most of my subsequent play after the one good run was pretty lame. Are there any autoswing off replays of this game?

As for Futari, I just did a run or two of arcade original. I think I might have also made it to the stage 3 boss here and improved my top score a little, which is always a good feeling after not having played something for a long time. Makes me feel like my general skills have improved. I also did a run of novice ultra which was easy and fun. Also managed to slightly improve that score.

As for R-Type progress, I keep on getting different stage 5 boss patterns than I'm expecting (not unlike in Mars Matrix), so that's giving me problems. Is this RNG, or am I just moving ever so slightly differently? When I do make it past there, I have been dying in stage 7, mostly, it seems, and usually because I forgot about something. Probably also died in stage 6 a few times, given that that is probably the hardest stage in the game. Also lots of earlier deaths due to bumping into walls and shit. grr >_<
Still feels like the 1cc is pretty close. Just gotta pull it all together into one run.

[Squire Grooktook]

Is this RNG, or am I just moving ever so slightly differently?

Developer interview confirms it's rng, yup yup.

[LordHypnos]

Is this RNG, or am I just moving ever so slightly differently?

Developer interview confirms it's rng, yup yup.

Ah. Well at least I'm not crazy
I guess I need to either figure out how to beat it in a non-cheesy way or pray to the RNG gods to pull off that run. Funny that the only noticeable RNG in both R-Type and Mars Matrix is the stage 5 boss. Just a weird coincedence. Apparently stage 5 bosses hate me.

[Stevens]

Got back to TF IV after a week hiatus. Made it to stage eight and then practiced stage eight.

Edit - Have a route that doesn't suck and made the boss. The sphere and generators aren't a problem, but need to work on the power ranger, snake, and boss before I'll be comfortable to say I can make stage nine no problem.

That said I only died once on the claw so I'm making progress.

[LordHypnos]

Played some Triggerheart Exelica today. Trying to drill out a route for stage 2. For some reason I seem to get worse at this game the more that I play it. Also, it seems like there's a lot of bullet pattern variability depending on your ship placement in a lot of places, or maybe it's just plain RNG, but it kinda seems like it might not be.

[wgogh]

Played some Triggerheart Exelica today. Trying to drill out a route for stage 2. For some reason I seem to get worse at this game the more that I play it. Also, it seems like there's a lot of bullet pattern variability depending on your ship placement in a lot of places, or maybe it's just plain RNG, but it kinda seems like it might not be.

I always felt like the ship was too sensible on the Enhanced version for the Playstation 2. You think that the one that you're playing is the same? Or how do you handle that?

[LordHypnos]

I always felt like the ship was too sensible on the Enhanced version for the Playstation 2. You think that the one that you're playing is the same? Or how do you handle that?

What do you mean by too sensible? I'm playing the X360 version, FWIW. My understanding is that the 360 version is different in several ways (These might include pattern speed, but definitely some aspects of scoring, though I don't know the details), the Dreamcast version is basically arcade perfect, and the PS2 version has a lot of unintentional slowdown compared to the DC/Naomi versions.

[wgogh]

I always felt like the ship was too sensible on the Enhanced version for the Playstation 2. You think that the one that you're playing is the same? Or how do you handle that?

What do you mean by too sensible? I'm playing the X360 version, FWIW. My understanding is that the 360 version is different in several ways (These might include pattern speed, but definitely some aspects of scoring, though I don't know the details), the Dreamcast version is basically arcade perfect, and the PS2 version has a lot of unintentional slowdown compared to the DC/Naomi versions.

Exactly, i felt a lot of slowdowns. I could not be sure if it was intentional, but it didnt seemed like it was. By sensible, I meant that with just a click of the stick the ship moves way too much. Sensible movement. Could be just a case of getting used too, idk. I could try the 360 version, since I have the console, but its not a game that I currently would bother much. That said, I wouldnt even notice those aspects of scoring, as I've played very superficially until now.

[LordHypnos]

Exactly, i felt a lot of slowdowns. I could not be sure if it was intentional, but it didnt seemed like it was. By sensible, I meant that with just a click of the stick the ship moves way too much. Sensible movement. Could be just a case of getting used too, idk. I could try the 360 version, since I have the console, but its not a game that I currently would bother much. That said, I wouldnt even notice those aspects of scoring, as I've played very superficially until now.

Well, one thing to consider as far as ship speed goes in THE is that Exelica moves slower than Crueltear, and the game actually does have a focused movement mode that is activated by anchoring onto enemies (it might even work just so long as you're holding the anchor button, but I'm not sure). A lot of the enemies with trickier patterns are ground based and therefore you can anchor onto them and move slower to micrododge a little more effectively.

Based on what little I've played, it's a pretty fun game, but definitely has a bit of a learning curve, and you can occasionally end up in bad situations due to not absorbing as many bullets as you expected to with enemies or bouncing off of enemies into bullets. Gotta love the bounce style enemy collisions.

[wgogh]

That makes sense, thx. I'll later put more time on it, for sure.

[M.Knight]

Macross 2
I played a few credits of it a few months ago when I realized it was an NMK game but didn't make a lot of progress so I sorta gave up. Given the positive reactions to it during the Trap STGT, I decided to play it a bit more seriously with the 2P character and came to appreciate the game a lot more.

It defintely feels like a caravan hori Thunder Dragon 2, with the bonuses and medals everywhere. Having the score threshold be the criteria for clearing a stage is not something you often find in shmups but here it works rather well and forces you to learn efficient ways to dispose of the enemies and get all the score bonuses.

I can reach the final stage in beginner mode but even though I kill the boss, I still have a few hundred thousand points to get to fulfill the clear conditions, which has me stumped for now.

There's still a few things I am not too fond of and I believe those minor flaws make Macross 2 slightly less enjoyable than TD2 :
-The switch between Gerwalk and Fighter forms could have used two seperate shot buttons instead of having to rely on distracting floating powerups. Not only would it be less confusing, you also wouldn't have to learn by heart what powerup you have to take for each section.
-Speaking of powerups, it is not hard to feel overhelmed in the later stages after getting hit once as your power level is reset. Given the score-oriented mechanics and the infinite lives, it makes sense to punish the player for each hit they take, but I think it is a bit too strong a punishment.
-Playing as the girl penalizes you with a slower ship.
-Hoarding bombs instead of using them to score more is encouraged by the end-stage bonuses.
-The telegraphing on some of the boss/mid-bosses is not great.
-Enemies coming from behind can immediatly damage you, unlike the majority of TD2's enemies that do that.