"Non-Shooting" Shmups

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sjewkestheloon
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Post by sjewkestheloon »

i may have a go on vulgus as a no shooting thing later. i think it'd be fun for a blast to try and shoot nothing at all until the boss and got for a limited points loop.
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Ed Oscuro
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Post by Ed Oscuro »

Hmm, this is something that interests me as well (it seems a lot of us have had this idea of a shooter where you can play a no-shooting mode; I wish more actually put some focus on the idea while still having some classic gameplay). I wonder if this can be done for run-and-gun games, too...
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benj
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Post by benj »

Ed Oscuro wrote:I wonder if this can be done for run-and-gun games, too...
Wouldn´t that be just a Jump'n'Run?
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Ed Oscuro
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Post by Ed Oscuro »

benj wrote:
Ed Oscuro wrote:I wonder if this can be done for run-and-gun games, too...
Wouldn´t that be just a Jump'n'Run?
Yes, it seems pretty unwieldly. But I might attempt it for some games. Ha, maybe Chelnov can be mostly played by jumping only (I'm pretty sure you can't beat bosses by jumping on them, though).

It would definitely work better for something like Commando or FixEight/OutZone.
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dai jou bu
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Post by dai jou bu »

This is about as non-shooting as it can get.

I mean, you're just trying to take pictures for crying out loud. Then again, the game's name itself could imply that you're "shooting" a picture of the bullet patterns :?

The camera cursor feels like ZUN took a page from the Ray series though.
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Ed Oscuro
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Post by Ed Oscuro »

dai jou bu wrote:This is about as non-shooting as it can get.

I mean, you're just trying to take pictures for crying out loud. Then again, the game's name itself could imply that you're "shooting" a picture of the bullet patterns :?

The camera cursor feels like ZUN took a page from the Ray series though.
Well, interesting, but what game is that? Would like to know before I download a large(ish) MPG.
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dai jou bu
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Post by dai jou bu »

The game's name is displayed in the main menu of the video (Shoot the Bullet).

The game's about a character from the Touhou series documenting information about other characters in the series to publish in her newspaper (mostly bosses from what I've seen so far). You can't kill the bosses like you do in traditional shmups; you finish them off by taking pictures of them a certain number of times, which is the only thing you can do in the game, actually. Your camera's flash covers a small portion of the playing field, and is able to eliminate all bullets fired from the bosses. However, you can't use your camera until it's 100% charged like in Mars Matrix, where the % is displayed on your character. You can charge it up faster by first holding the slow button (makes you move slower for tighter bullet patterns and reveals your hitbox), and then pressing the fire button, but doing this makes you move REALLY slow. You also can't use your camera while you're in slow mode; you have to release the slow button in order to use it, so a lot of timing is involved in this game as well.

When you play the game, you'll also notice a crosshair floating around your character and moving around depending on where you move and what buttons you press. That's your camera cursor. It points in the general direction of the boss in slow mode, and moves around like the free range weapon in Thunder Force 5, but it'll never detach itself from your character until you decide to fire it. That cursor determines where the center of the flash area when you fire your camera.When you begin to take a picture, you can move the camera cursor manuall by holding the fire button down, with everything going into bullet time when you do this. However, for each microsecond that you do this, your camera area gets smaller and smaller, and automatically doesn't fire once it reaches a certain size. It also places your charge to 50%.

As for scoring, it's pretty intuitive. Basically, the more danger you place yourself in, the more bullets you catch with your camera flash, the closer you are to the boss (higher score for catching the boss dead center), and if you catch yourself within the camera's flash, you'll get a really high score. Also, if you catch the pentagram that occasionally closes in on them (usually happens at the most dangerous points of their bullet patterns), you'll also get another multiplier.

Oh, did I mention that one of the reasons for this game's difficultly comes from the fact that you essentially have to 1-life the bosses or else you start over from the beginning of their bullet patterns?

More information about it can be found here, if uou don't want to read my hasty explanation of it as well as seeing screenshots of the game.

If you want to play it, go get it from himeyasoft or paletweb, the latter shop I'd recommend to you if you can use paypal.
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TerminasluT
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Post by TerminasluT »

Shoot the Bullet, gets my vote.
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zinger
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Post by zinger »

Blazing Star (Aryustailm)
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Minzoku
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Post by Minzoku »

dai jou bu wrote:This is about as non-shooting as it can get.

I mean, you're just trying to take pictures for crying out loud. Then again, the game's name itself could imply that you're "shooting" a picture of the bullet patterns :?
Well, since the photo physically destroys/captures the bullets, it's technically a kind of proximity bomb. Cute all the same :)
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Frederik
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Post by Frederik »

Personally I don`t think that shooting (in the sense of a firing weapon with huge firepower) will disappear - I think this whole "pacifist playing"-style is just a new trendy thing that will soon loose its appeal. After playing an extended session of Psyvariar I was DELIGHTED to burst all over the screen with ridiculously oversized laser in DoDonpachi.

As much as many modern shmups seem to multiply their amount of bullets, they should not forget that the player needs to feel strong too, to counter that onslought with huge weapons. For instance, I always felt that I would like the Touhou games much more if my weapons weren`t that transparent, a bit more exaggerating - shooting that I can clearly SEE. And throwing huge knifes or burning arrows in Guwange shows to me how much the whole idea of "shooting things" is necessary when I still want to be motivated to "dodge things".

Attack and Counterattack - one reason why I HATED Metal Slug 3, after each death you start with your ridiculous pea shooter while fighting against a giant crab in the size of a house. How on earth should I get the feeling that such a watergun could ever scratch such a enormous enemy?

And thinking about Radiant Silvergun with its 7 extremely varied weapons, I doubt that "No shooting in shoot em ups" will last very long. The player needs to feel mighty too.
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captain ahar
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Post by captain ahar »

oh, but the best thing about pacifist play is to take it where its not supposed to be...

like no-firing gunbird 2. :D

kikens replays of gigawing 2 were quite amazing as well. :)
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danielrigano
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Post by danielrigano »

Great thread!
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