Don't hate on easy shmups

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Ive just been playing Twinkle Tale for the mega drive. Its like pocky and rocky but very easy. A good game for when you're feeling lazy and just want to relax with an easy game. There an english patch for it which is worth using as it has a story to it.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

After taking my Thunder Force III Normal 1CC and failing at a Hard 1CC, I proceeded to ragequit and never play again because it took me a week or 2 to 1CC Normal while everyone else can do it on their first or second try.

If I recall correctly, it took me close to a month to finally 1CC Thunderforce III on Normal, mainly because I am generally not that good at horizontal shooters with maze-like stage layouts. When I was learning the game there are some seemingly cheap hits. Anyway, losing a ship on Hard difficulty is much worse than when playing on Normal because that takes away all the weapons except for the twin shot and back shot, while on Normal only the current weapon in use is lost.

So while it is true that Thunderforce III is an easy 1CC, especially when compared to Thunderforce IV and even moreso when compared to Thunderforce II, it still has a learning curve that will vary from player to player in terms of how long it takes to learn the game well enough to 1CC it.

[oli_lar]

Reading back through this thread it strikes me how different people find different games easy/hard. I've 1cc'd a handful of games, a couple mentioned in this thread, but some I've done are considered 'medium' difficulty - like Layer Section.

As has been mentioned in the thread by others I'll play a game a fair bit for a few days, get quite good and the 1cc is in sight (will get to the final stage or last boss), then my attention will wander and I'll start playing something else. Still have fun though, as the 1cc isn't the be all and end all, just a bonus. I can then return to these games later knowing that I've still got a challenge there, something to aim for.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I think allot of it is just down to gamers having different preferences in shmups, for example a gamer who mostly plays cave games might have difficulty with gradius nes, a megadrive shmupper might have difficulty with bullet hells and a touhou player might have difficulty with any shmup that doesnt give a hundred extends or have the slowdown permanently turned on

[the.borg]

OH wow, I would never put Super Aleste (sfc) in the list simply because depending on game modes (which aren't simply difficulty levels)
it varies from easy to pure inferno.
For instance I challenge anyone to beat Lunatic mode in the Japanese version (even in Short Game). Farthest I reached was stage3 and I can beat the full game in Hard (faster bullets) and Tricky(suicide bullets) and Wild (faster bullets + suicide).
Never heard or seen ANYONE beat lunatic period. (imagine gradius V loop ~3 with no safe spot !)

Second, I'd take out of this list Espgaluda since most people just stop playing the game when they see how brutal is the last boss compare to the rest of the game (It took me about two weeks at 2h a day to get to the last boss then simply abandoned - don't wanna play a month to beat that last boss heh)

[devilmanozzy]

I don't see anyone has brought up R-Type Final. It was a short and easy game. The only reason one would use cheats in that game is to cheat and leave the game on and get those darn ships. (101 ships....really?)

I beat that game as in saw all three paths plus 3.5 level in a day. And I suck at beating shmups too!

[Ed Oscuro]

I don't see anyone has brought up R-Type Final.

It does, however, have its own topic.

[PainAmplifier]

I don't see anyone has brought up R-Type Final. It was a short and easy game. The only reason one would use cheats in that game is to cheat and leave the game on and get those darn ships. (101 ships....really?)

I beat that game as in saw all three paths plus 3.5 level in a day. And I suck at beating shmups too!

A lot of the difficulty in Final, resides on the ship chosen as well as the difficulty level. For some of the ships, like the Stayer, the game is incredibly hard. Using ships like the Leo II however, the game is much easier.

I like to think R-Type Final is right in the middle of the difficulty curve. Probably easier if you have any experience with other games in the series, but overall it raises the difficulty at a reasonable rate. Granted, to a veteran player the difficulty probaly goes up too slow, but so far as it serves as both an introduction and ending to a great series I think it's above the label of 'easy'.

[ZacharyB]

Any of the ships with a strong force make the game significantly easier. The power from the Gallop force is something to be reckoned. It works off of your current speed. At red or blue's full concentration it can destroy bosses in seconds.

Another really strong weapon is the Standard Force's red laser level 2. Must be a design oversight.

[dunpeal2064]

Would the 360 arrange of Guwange be considered an easy shmup? I am just curious because I was able to 1cc to stage 6 within 2 tries.... and I am pretty bad at shmups methinks.

[BPzeBanshee]

Would the 360 arrange of Guwange be considered an easy shmup? I am just curious because I was able to 1cc to stage 6 within 2 tries.... and I am pretty bad at shmups methinks.

I'd say Yes, I'm just like you in the way I was able to 1CC it on my second try. Having said that I believe Guwange 360 Arrange is a no-brainer if survival alone is the main concern, but being able to score 200 million points like whoever the hell's on #1 XBLA leaderboard is a different story altogether. I call that a challenge so I've been thoroughly enjoying playing the game over and over again to better my scores.

I think allot of it is just down to gamers having different preferences in shmups, for example a gamer who mostly plays cave games might have difficulty with gradius nes, a megadrive shmupper might have difficulty with bullet hells and a touhou player might have difficulty with any shmup that doesnt give a hundred extends or have the slowdown permanently turned on

You got a good point there. I'm averagely bad at all of the game types (though I must confess I haven't tried any of the Touhous Ive tried some Cave games and Magical Broomstick Shooting), and I find the level of difficulty is refined to a specific part which I know how to better. Raizing games = rank control, Cave = weapon dynamics and dodging bullets, Seibu games = faster reaction time for me.

On another note, I'm glad Thunderforce III has been mentioned here, though I dont agree that Thunderforce II is an easy game. Again a matter of varying skills and aptitudes like what I said above here but I can't complete TF II for %^&*...but I still thoroughly enjoy it. AC is the easiest out of the lot though, no arguments there. Sever + CLAWS x First Level = Ownage.

[BuckoA51]

Cotton is considered easy? I'm always messing it up because of the size of the sprite

I tend to like easy shooters (as you can probably guess from my profile picture) because I flit from game to game too quickly to ever really master any one game. As long as it's fun what does the difficulty matter !

[qmish]

Is Chuka Taisen on Master System that much easy?

Someone gifted me Steam version recently, which i guess, is a port of original arcade version, and i fucking hate it. I don't think i ever reached even stage 1 boss... I know i'm awful at r-type and other "old memorizers", for example, but Monkey King / Cloud Master just annoys the hell out of me with it's powerups system and overall patterns and clunkyness.

p.s. also when i look for 1cc examples on youtube, it looks like people use autofire, or perhaps there were different revisions in regions, though, huh...