Your favorite "bomb for score" systems?

[KAI]

Karous/Radirgy's bullet absorb field is the most gratifying scoring bomb ever created.
Followed by Ibara Arrange mode bomber used at max rank, both Hadougun and regular bomb are truly genius scoring tools.

[CloudyMusic]

One thing I don't like about some "bomb for score" systems is that saving up your bombs for the right time can be almost as restrictive on your bomb usage as not using them at all. If every bomb has a purpose and a "right place" to use it for score, using a bomb in the wrong place is still penalizing and you don't have any margin to work with. Still more fun in that you actually get the satisfaction of using those bombs, though.

Yeah, that's how I eventually came to feel about Garegga. It's fun to be able to use bombs "actively" for scoring, but once you get to a certain level of play, deviating from that plan (such as by survival bombing) will usually kill your run, so there's not much practical difference.

Maybe Pink Sweets had the right idea.

[Squire Grooktook]

RIP Rest in piss, bitches.

Come on. Not using the bombs is only the endgame here. Don't tell me you never use bombs in Cave games.

I kid, I kid, just shitposting v shitposting there. Though DDP in particular having such nice bombs but mercing your chain and max bonus has always been a sore spot for me~

Dangun you can "get away" with using a few bombs, since the scoring penalty isn't too bad, but it's still technically a very small loss in most cases.

One thing I don't like about some "bomb for score" systems is that saving up your bombs for the right time can be almost as restrictive on your bomb usage as not using them at all. If every bomb has a purpose and a "right place" to use it for score, using a bomb in the wrong place is still penalizing and you don't have any margin to work with. Still more fun in that you actually get the satisfaction of using those bombs, though.

It's fun to be able to use bombs "actively" for scoring, but once you get to a certain level of play, deviating from that plan (such as by survival bombing) will usually kill your run, so there's not much practical difference.

I think all this could pretty much be said about any scoring mechanism. High level scoring is all about playing a game "perfectly", so it's always going to be somewhat limiting in one way or another.

The reason I like bombing for score is not because it gives you more freedom or any such illusion, but because it gives you a risk/reward reason to use those flashy cool special weapons that are designed to be visceral and powerful feeling. Not shoving them away in a closet.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I kid, I kid, just shitposting v shitposting there. Though DDP in particular having such nice bombs but mercing your chain and max bonus has always been a sore spot for me~

The bombs in DDP really do look badass don't they, even in the first game Donpachi you had six different bomb animations depending on shot type and if it's a shot bomb or laser bomb. Doesn't Dodonpachi let you bomb without breaking a chain if you had a max bomb bonus or something? Still lose that max bonus though.

Actually it just occurred to me: there's one Dodonpachi game that specifically rewards bombing: Dodonpachi Maximum. Bombing the laserwheels repeatedly in stage 5 is crucial to getting a massive chain. But mobile game so nobody cares, lol

The reason I like bombing for score is not because it gives you more freedom or any such illusion, but because it gives you a risk/reward reason to use those flashy cool special weapons that are designed to be visceral and powerful feeling. Not shoving them away in a closet.

This is why Giga Wing is among my fave shmups - the reflect is incredibly satisfying to use. Looks, sounds, feels amazing. The bombs are nice to have as a backup for a stupid mistake (the only 1UP appears if you're doing very badly), but the reflect is even stronger than the bomb when used against a dense wave. You could argue it'd be a more "hardcore" game without bombs as backup, but they don't feel superfluous to me. Giga Wing can be played at a very high level no bombing going for end of stage bomb bonuses without feeling like you're missing out on any tools since the reflect is by far your strongest tool, while being a very approachable, beginner friendly game with the reflect and bombs as backup tools. It's like the best of all possible worlds.

[Squire Grooktook]

Giga Wing can be played at a very high level no bombing going for end of stage bomb bonuses without feeling like you're missing out on any tools since the reflect is by far your strongest tool, while being a very approachable, beginner friendly game with the reflect and bombs as backup tools. It's like the best of all possible worlds.

As much as I like reflecting mechanics, I'd still rather those nice flashy bombs (almost on par with ddp's) weren't phased out in optimal play~

Just occurred to me that that's another part of the issue: a mechanic which becomes "thou shalt not" entirely at a certain level of play also rubs me the wrong way in most contexts. But especially when it's something that looks / feels cool to use.

[Shepardus]

IMO Crimzon Clover did it pretty well, with "bombing" being simply break mode activated when break mode's not ready yet. You're supposed to use break mode and use it a lot, but if you use it before it's charged up, then you get penalized for it. Even though top-level players will avoid bombing, it doesn't feel like a waste of a button or that the best way to use it is not to use it - a bomb is just a badly-used break in that sense.

One thing I don't like about some "bomb for score" systems is that saving up your bombs for the right time can be almost as restrictive on your bomb usage as not using them at all. If every bomb has a purpose and a "right place" to use it for score, using a bomb in the wrong place is still penalizing and you don't have any margin to work with. Still more fun in that you actually get the satisfaction of using those bombs, though.

It's fun to be able to use bombs "actively" for scoring, but once you get to a certain level of play, deviating from that plan (such as by survival bombing) will usually kill your run, so there's not much practical difference.

I think all this could pretty much be said about any scoring mechanism. High level scoring is all about playing a game "perfectly", so it's always going to be somewhat limiting in one way or another.

It's up to the game designer to determine what "perfect" is - not everything has to factor into scoring. If you want to give people freedom over how they use their bombs, don't reward or penalize them for it (easier said than done if your systems are very tightly interwoven). Or give them more bombs than they need to play "optimally."

[Squire Grooktook]

Mmm, definitely a valid point.

[M.Knight]

I have only played the game's demo so far and haven't gotten around to buying the full version yet, but doesn't the recently released Terra Feminarum have a rechargeable bomb that cancels all the bullets within its range into score items?

>Be Cave
>Put a ton of effort into drawing beautiful, stylish, visceral, and impactful bomb animations that leave the players going "WOW, AWESOME!!"
>Punish you for ever using them

Yeah, that's one of the things that bothers me with anti-bomb restrictive scoring systems. If as a designer, you create fun toys for people to use and experiment with, why would you forbid them to enjoy them the second they want to score? Is it because you want the scorers to stop using bombs and dying earlier as a result and putting coins in the arcade machine at a faster rate?
It also depends on how the scoring system exactly works, but I have the feeling bombing can give even more depth to scoring when correctly integrated. Dangun Feveron's new arrange mode spawning more discomen when you bomb makes you think about your bombs strategically. What are the spots where I should bomb for a big discomen gain? Am I confident in my dodging abilities to use all my bombs as a scoring resource and fight the crazy bosses without this safety net?

On a side note, it is kinda funny to see that the bomb penalties in CAVE games are not that much of an issue within the community whereas the same thing with Sine Mora is levelled as a problem. Well, I am sure that this is more of a testament to how good Cave games are and how terrible Sine Mora is, rather than anything else. Anyway, it also means that bomb penalties are not necessarily a deal-breaker.

[Stevens]

Bombs in Neo XYX can be used to push medals further up the screen allowing you to continue your chain.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

On a side note, it is kinda funny to see that the bomb penalties in CAVE games are not that much of an issue within the community whereas the same thing with Sine Mora is levelled as a problem.

That's because:

a) The bomb penalties within CAVE games are not necessarily all serious as stated above, and in the ones that do have restrictive penalties, the gameplay is polished enough that at high level play you have plenty of firepower at your disposal to make use of.

b) The big issue with Sine Mora's scoring isn't that its bombs penalize you (which is generally the norm in shmups), but rather that both its bombs AND its special attacks penalize your score, you know, the special attacks such as reflect and time slow which were ripped from Giga Wing and Espgaluda and completely stripped of their depth and scoring relevance. Literally the ideal scoring in Sine Mora boils down to grabbing an autofire controller and holding shot the entire game to speedkill things, never touch either bombs or special attacks. On top of the game design generally being sloppy garbage, the scoring system's blandness is also laughable.

I've played Giga Wing reflectless up to the TLB and 1CC'd Espgaluda without Kakusei - both are difficult and amusing to an extent, but mostly for an extra challenge once you've thoroughly played the games as intended, and clearly aren't as engaging to play as actively using their scoring mechanics as intended.

[Sumez]

Yeah, that's one of the things that bothers me with anti-bomb restrictive scoring systems. If as a designer, you create fun toys for people to use and experiment with, why would you forbid them to enjoy them the second they want to score?

Seriously, in what way is a last second desperation survival move a "fun toy"?
Cave style bombs serve as a really nice mechanic to soften the game's difficulty curve and allow more individual approaches to a survival run. I don't have to tell anyone here, but bombs work really well in counter-acting the often very rigid perfection required to survive a shooting game. Having trouble with a boss? Bomb it until you figure out its pattern and get to save the bomb for a later purpose. Screwed up and got yourself trapped? Bomb your way out, good thing you saved that resource! They are useful, but I don't see how they are particularly fun to use. They are just a mechanically functional part of the game design.

Kakusei in EspGaluda is a perfect example of a feature that is a fun toy, and which can be used for both survival and scoring purposes, effectively encouraging its use no matter what your end goal is. Also Ibara bombs are fun because of the way they are used in scoring, I see that as a completely different thing.

[M.Knight]

BareKnuckleRoo: Fair points!
Cave games that do have special weapons do not penalize you for using them and that's a big difference. Even without the bombs, there's plenty of fun stuff to do.

Sumez : I don't think those bombs are necessarily last resort moves. They can be seen as such in CAVE shmups because of the penalties that exist around them.
Despite their simplicity, I still think of them as fun toys because of their flashiness, their explosive impact and destructive power. The secondary weapon-based subsytems are also another set of "fun toys" and even if they positively affect the scoring in much more involved ways than the bombs, that doesn't mean bombs should lose their fun value.

I agree that shmups like Ibara interweave their bombs and their scoring systems much better, but sometimes, just seeing a big explosion ripping a boss' lifebar can be fun to me. In Thunder Dragon 2 for example, there isn't any multiplier or complex scoring system that you could influence with bombs, but you naturally tend to use them to kill the waves more quickly, spawn the following ones faster, and they also deal a lot of damage on bosses. Using them is fun and enjoyable despite initially acting as nothing more than lifesavers.

Of course, given how varied CAVE's scoring systems are, I am not sure bombs could always be prefectly well integrated with the actual systems in place. A bomb ruining an scoring set-up with lots of bulelts to be cancelled in ESP Galuda doesn't seem jarring to me because the bomb directly destroys the bullets you were supposed to cancel with your shot. It kinda makes sense in context. In contrast, bombing arbitrarily destroying your counter in Mushihimesama makes much less sense.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Sumez : I don't think those bombs are necessarily last resort moves. They can be seen as such in CAVE shmups because of the penalties that exist around them.

No, they are seen as last resort moves because that is how they were designed to be. The penalties are not intended to discourage players from using them so much as they're intended to reward experts who can get through the game without using them. They are very obviously intended for last-ditch survival purposes as they provide immediately invulnerability on use, and are very powerful, allowing you to bypass a difficult wave you may be having trouble with. As Sumez says, they are there to smooth out the difficulty of the game instead of having a game where if you encounter a section you're unfamiliar with or you have trouble with, your only option is to try harder or die.

They aren't even like the bombs in the Raiden games where there's a delay between bombing and the actual bomb protecting you, and the scoring systems are not tied to being rewarded for bombing (which they clearly could have been, as seen with games where bombs are tied to scoring), so there's no reason to assume the bombs in CAVE's style of games aren't to be seen as emergency countermeasures.

It's true that there are certain instances where bombs can even be used for score such as speedkilling, or in Deathsmiles where bombs can be used for a scoring purpose, but having one or two instances in the game like that doesn't suddenly mean the game is about bombing for score. Indeed, even in Deathsmiles, bombs are primarily important for emergency survival use for most players, and using them for rapid PowerUp recharges is very high level play with them that requires planning and skill.

Where did the idea that emergency survival bombs somehow are "not fun" even start? I think it's amazingly satisfying bombing at the last second before disaster strikes, only to unleash a massive counterattack. In some ways it seems like it'd be even more enjoyable than simply bombing constantly, thus rendering the bombs mundane and "normal" rather than being a special, sexy, invulnerable evasive manuever.

[LordHypnos]

Dangun Feveron bomb probably penalizes your score, but it also freezes the discomen, which could conceivably help you keep your chain going. At least, if I'm remembering things correctly.

[M.Knight]

I am not advocating that bombs should always be directly integrated into the scoring, and most CAVE bombs clearly were intended to be used for survival first and foremost, I agree. But because of their destructive effect, they interact with the game in ways that could be perceived as helpful or not scoring-wise, depending on the penalties in place. Those little opportunities and tricks here and there where a bomb can help you score more are a nice touch and they could probably be a bit more numerous if bombing didn't ruin counters/multipliers/etc.

Survival bombs are fun. Saving yourself at the last moment with a well-timed bomb is enjoyable and feels rewarding. What I do not find fun is having my scoring opportunities nuked just because I used one.

LordHypnos : You remembered it well! The score penalty isn't that big but it exists. Nonetheless, a bomb is always better than letting a discomen go.

[Squire Grooktook]

Without wading too far into an armchair game design debate (I wasn't hoping for debate on the design philosophy itself, just some examples of interest and perhaps a celebration of the ones that do it well. My fault for shitposting, I suppose~), I will say that I pretty much agree with M.Knight. Bombs - at least, the ones that are done well - are visceral and explosive, everything an STG should be. Depending on the type of bomb and how it's applied, their usage may not have the highest skill ceiling, but none the less I think that unleashing them to destroy enemies has an immense feeling of gratification and that overall they have an important role in making the player feel powerful and flashy.

Bullet cancelling mechanics in general, I think, have a subtle psychological edge to them. When you spend all your time concentrating on defense (dodging), a weapon that lets you nullify your enemies power once in a while goes a long way to making the player feel strong (example: beam katana in Kamui). And when that weapon shakes the screen with lovingly animated hellfire, carefully chosen impactful sfx, and rains down near total destruction on enemies...well, that goes very far toward making the player character feel empowered. The fact that bombs are so limited and rare (bombing for score need not be "all the time"/constantly) also contributes to making their destructiveness feel special.

"smoothing out the difficulty curve" is all well and good, but once the difficulty curve has been succesfully smoothed by memorization and/or upgrades in skill...where do you go from there? The mechanic becomes a dead end, and all those beautiful audiovisuals and feelings of empowerment are phased out of the game. I don't like that on principal, and I also don't like the feeling that when I unleash this flashy special attack, the game is actually frowning at me in displeasure. That's why I think that going from defensive bomb use at low level play to offensive bomb use at high level play is the ideal re-purposing of the mechanic. In fact, I feel that going from "Please, I just want to live!" to "I am the one will judge you all, perish in a rain of fire!" shuddering defense to risky but confident offense is the ideal transition of mastery for most action game mechanics.

Toaplan said that they hoped bombs would be used for offensive purposes, and that they were surprised when players ended up valuing them for their defensive capabilities more then offensive. I find myself feeling the same way about offense/defense. I think it's much more fun to crush enemies by sacrificing your safety net then it is to save yourself at the last minute.

Of course, that's just me personally~

[MathU]

I love bombing for score in Gradius Rebirth.

[Sumez]

I also don't like the feeling that when I unleash this flashy special attack, the game is actually frowning at me in displeasure.

I pretty much already wrote exactly this, but I think this is really the core of the issue. For some reason you insist on seeing bombs as a "flashy special attack", and the attention you put into the animations and visual feedback obviously backs this up. To be honest, aside from the Tatsujin skull I don't think I'd be able to tell you what the bombs in -any- shooter really look like. I don't care, and I don't pay attention to it, I just want to not die.
That matter of fact is that the regular shot of most Cave games make you feel more powerful and flashy than most bombs from any other game.

Considering how well I know you appreciate all different sorts of game design, it's surprising to me that you have such a single focused idea on what shooters should be, even if it's just a subjective viewpoint. I like shooters that make you feel destructive and powerful, but a cornerstone in the genre is also the fact that everything is out to kill you, and I definitely don't mind a design that emphasizes that idea either. I also appreciate high powered dodge-em-ups as much as I enjoy the slow, methotical memorizer, and Cave games have traditionally had some of the best designed scoring systems of the entire genre. It's easy to be an armchair developer and judge how their bombs should be used, but most of the tim there are very deliberate thoughts behind it.


One aspect that I think has been very surprisingly avoiding discussion here is the difference in how your Bomb stock is deployed. There's the model that Cave also adapted for most of their games, where your stock is reset every time you die, accentuating their function as manual "extra lives" and not much else (and let's not get into auto-bombs :S), while the traditional Yagawa game has you stock up on a ton of bombs to be used as your scoring tools, leaving losing a ship as a mere resource in the ecquation, rather than the representation of pure failure. The difference in design here goes much deeper than just the utility of the bomb. Sure, you can use a bomb to save your life in Futari, and it will hurt your score, but that's nothing compared to what would happen if you didn't.

[Shepardus]

Just give players a shield system that takes care of their defense so they can focus on offense without worrying about a single stray bullet wrecking them. Toaplan found out that their offensive bombs were being used for defensive purposes; give players defensive tools and it may very well be what they need to play more confidently and aggressively. There you go, difficulty curve smoothed out, thank me later.

One aspect that I think has been very surprisingly avoiding discussion here is the difference in how your Bomb stock is deployed.

I was thinking about this earlier but you phrased it better than what was in my head. The fact that you don't lose your existing bombs when you die in a Yagawa game (except in Battle Bakraid) reduces the frustration a lot for me since you don't get those situations where you hoarded a ton of bombs and lost them all to a single slip-up. Games where bomb stock recharges quickly but the maximum bomb stock is low are less susceptible to the item hoarding mentality I think.

Another system worth mentioning is Parodius's bell powers. Many of them work essentially as bombs (one is literally a screen-filling explosion, and nearly all of them give you invulnerability or bullet cancelling in some form). What sets it apart from most other games, though, is that you start with none and you have to go for them by juggling bells. Makes it more skillful and satisfying to pull out a bell power to save yourself in the nick of time, even if the powers themselves don't take all that much skill to use and would probably be overpowered if they just gave you several when you spawned (though that would make recovery less frustrating...).

Shield systems like Gradius's (and Parodius by extension, of course) or TwinBee's exhibit a similar "opt-in" characteristic, where the power is offset by the fact that you have to get it in the first place (particularly in TwinBee). Indeed, the problem with DFK 1.5's autobombs may not be the autobomb itself but that the game just gives you all those bombs when you spawn.

[Squire Grooktook]

I also don't like the feeling that when I unleash this flashy special attack, the game is actually frowning at me in displeasure.

for some reason you insist on seeing bombs as a "flashy special attack", and the attention you put into the animations and visual feedback obviously backs this up. To be honest, aside from the Tatsujin skull I don't think I'd be able to tell you what the bombs in -any- shooter really look like. I don't care, and I don't pay attention to it, I just want to not die.

Difference in taste, I suppose. I like things that feel murder-y. Maybe it's the fighting game influence, heh. Personally I can't fathom taking a look at Miyamoto's blade storm, Imalice's "fuck you laser", or Gun Frontiers cataclysmic screen warping inferno and not say "Damn, that shit's hype. I wanna do that some more!"

But yeah, I can probably remember most of the notable bombs in games I've played and rate them in terms of audiovisual feedback and satisfaction to use. Stuff like that - a little bit of spice every now and then - is very important to me. Not just in this genre, but in most others. I'm always looking for things that make an experience feel more visceral and characterful.

I do think it's hard to deny that "flashy special attack" is an easy way to describe a bomb though.

>Flashy audiovisuals, at least in many cases
>Can only be used once in a while, IE "special"
>It's definitely, definitely an attack!

To be honest, I think that something "brute" like bombs exist on a different wave length from mechanics like Galuda's awakening or Guwange's familiar, but that both very much have their place and a special appeal.

Considering how well I know you appreciate all different sorts of game design, it's surprising to me that you have such a single focused idea on what shooters should be...It's easy to be an armchair developer and judge how their bombs should be used, but most of the tim there are very deliberate thoughts behind it.

Oh believe me, I think Cave is great...although for a long time I've realized that they simply have a very different style from what I prefer (and this is in regards to larger aspects of design like pattern/dodging style, scoring systems, etc.). Like I said, I was just shitpostin`a little there.

I will always treasure Dangun Feveron and Guwange regardless. But even in Dangun, where the penalty for bombing is very, very minor...I still dislike that an aspect of the game becomes more or less phased out at the ideal play level. To me, it's just a waste of a good button, when it won't endure and find a use as the game grows.

One aspect that I think has been very surprisingly avoiding discussion here is the difference in how your Bomb stock is deployed.

Suiciding for more bombs :kreygasm:

Riding on inferno's edge.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Suiciding for more bombs :kreygasm:

Bombs as in plural? lol, no

Yagawa's a stingy asshole, you don't even get a whole bomb refilled in Garegga, you just get half a bomb stock, hell, you don't even start with a full bomb. Bakraid and Batrider start you with a bomb and a half, but in Bakraid you don't "gain" bombs by suiciding, you're reset to bomb and a half. Bombs are integral for scoring but can't even be quickly refilled with a suicide, you have to scrounge them up in piddly single pieces at a time to build a complete bomb? Lame! ;D

Do the Psikyo games where there's a bonus for killing the boss when it exposes its weakpoint count? For characters that can fire a bomb and then manuever in close during the bomb to score the pointblank bonus that's a specific example.

Omega Fighter's got those collectable items too - they're not bombs, but rather single use slowdown items akin to Espgaluda. You can hold 2 at a time, and they act like a shield for your ship, or you can use them, and during the slowdown take advantage of it to get x10 pointblank multipliers. No flashy explosion effects or anything though, but they're a limited item you're rewarded for not hoarding for safety so...

To be honest, I think that something "brute" like bombs exist on a different wave length from mechanics like Galuda's awakening or Guwange's familiar

whoops, okay, guess Omega Fighter's a bad example

[Shepardus]

Do the Psikyo games where there's a bonus for killing the boss when it exposes its weakpoint count? For characters that can fire a bomb and then manuever in close during the bomb to score the pointblank bonus that's a specific example.

I wouldn't count those since the tech bonuses are perfectly doable without bombs too.

[Special World]

I love cool bombs. I also think they get relied on too much as a thing every shooter needs to have. Mars Matrix and Eschatos have really cool, unique workarounds to a traditional bombing system, and I really appreciate that. But I also love bombs that rain down a shitton of points items. But only when that makes sense! Like, when there's a limited circular bomb radius, and it turns enemies or shots in its radius into point items. It's not as fun when oh hey, suddenly the whole screen is point items. I also really appreciate a lack of stinginess with bombs and lives. It's really nice to work towards extra extends and bombs, so you have that feeling that if you just survive a little longer you can survive a little longer.

Also yeah, I don't like Cave's approach to bombs (love Cave tho) but the gulf between that and Sine More is... enormous. "damn, these bombs hurt my score" vs "everything that makes this game's mechanics unique hurts my score." Sine Mora gets some exaggerated hate, but that alone is simply an unpardonable gaming sin. You don't do that. You don't purposefully make the game more boring the higher level you play. That's something that's supposed to be an unhappy accident.

--random thoughts--

[LordHypnos]

But I also love bombs that rain down a shitton of points items. But only when that makes sense! Like, when there's a limited circular bomb radius, and it turns enemies or shots in its radius into point items.

Good point! I hadn't thought about that kind of bombing for score. Marion in Gunbird 2 has a bomb that does this. Turns bullets into candy that you can pick up for points. Aine's bomb might do the same thing with the roses, I can't quite remember.

[Despatche]

One would think the phrase "flashy special attack" implies something that's meant to attract new players to the game, and something that's not really meant to be a part of high-level play.

[Stevens]

I think it's much more fun to crush enemies by sacrificing your safety net then it is to save yourself at the last minute.

Great post all around SG, but I especially agree with you here.

When the flying tanks spawn in Under Defeat I deploy a bomb as soon as the reach the sky but before they fire. During invincibility I drop my option right in his face and point blank him. By the time the smoke clears he is finished. Well not technically, he usually has enough HP left to move to the top middle, but then he is done.

Very satisfying to do. Wish I had some more examples like that.

[Special World]

One would think the phrase "flashy special attack" implies something that's meant to attract new players to the game, and something that's not really meant to be a part of high-level play.

Why not? Do high level players not like feeling mastery over the game? Do they not like when their high-level play looks high level? Are they secretly after a game where interested gamers will turn off their WR run Twitch stream three seconds in because the game just looks boring?

I for one am overjoyed that scoring a full chain in Dodonpachi downgrades the graphics to Atari levels, and all the audio becomes incoherent static. Really cuts down on the flashiness.

I'm being snarky here, but nothing turns me off a game faster than seeing high-level play reduce a game's numerous options and appealing features to a very negligible pool of commands. God, imagine if Cave's signature laser shot was deemed "too flashy" so you were forced to go through the whole game with rapid fire. What a mess that would be.

[M.Knight]

Yeah, being flashy is not mutually exclusive with being relevant in high level-play.
If it looks good and appealing, why not let players of every skill level enjoy it?

Another "use bombs to score" mechanic I can think of is Shikigami no Shiro 3. In the SnS series, you gain a bomb when you win or lose a life, with bombs capped at 5 and lives at 3. In the first two games, bombs are mostly survival tools but they can be useful to help speedkill a boss. However, the third game introduces a new mechanic called "Hi-Tension max". To score in these games, you have to graze bullets while killing ennemies to apply a multiplier, but the HTM allows you to consume a bomb to get in a "hyper mode" of sorts, which gives you the max multiplier and additionnal score items from enemies for its entire duration.

The score gap between two extend thresholds has also been decreasing ever since the first game. In SnS3, you get extends (and thus bombs) pretty frequently but you can't hoard them due to the max bomb/life limitations, and you have this new subsystem to spend your bombs on and which boosts your score.

The end result is a game that feels Raizing-esque in its scoring : suicide to get more bombs > use them all on HTMs to kill enemies at x8 multiplier > gain extends and bombs > suicide those lives to get even more bombs > rinse and repeat.
Add the fact that waves have a caravan-esque spawning system that rewards you with more waves if you are faster, and you have a pretty good package overall!
The few low points that hinder the game IMO : very weak atmosphere in stage 3/4 (especially compard to SnS2 which nailed it) and stages 1 and 2 are a bit too lengthy.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I'm surprised Vasara 2 hasn't been mentioned. The first game has a much more "standard" limited scoring system with melee attacks, but the second game got rid of bombs in favour of a rechargeable up to 3 stock super melee attack that also works towards the scoring system (by acting as a super extended bomb version of the regular melee). The chaining's pretty cool in this, just started playing it recently.

[blossom]

As a personal preference, I'm not compelled to play any game for score which punishes bomb usage. I don't understand why a developer would provide resources that you must refrain from using to play optimally. When bombing isn't allowed for optimal play, there is only one way to play and improvising your own route during low level and mid level play leaves you with a feeling you're not playing by the game's rules, that you aren't doing it the correct way. When bombing is allowed and encouraged, on the other hand, low level and mid level play opens up to the extent you can "make the game your own." The way I reach 150 million can differ from the way you reach 150 million.

I'll throw out the warning this is rather anecdotal, considering the only game I've played for score until now is Eden's Aegis. I'm mostly burnt out on that game at this point, however I'm 95% convinced if I were stubborn enough that I could come rather close to Prinny's score with a different set of bombs. To me, the very possibility of that being true is much more exciting than something like Dodonpachi where, as far as I can tell, optimal play comes down to NMNB and full stage chaining. There's not any room for self expression in a game like that, rather you are playing by the game's rules. A game where you can bomb feels like a sandbox, whereas a game that forbids bombing feels like teaching yourself to play someone else's symphony.

To add a couple games into the list of examples: Neko Navy and Black Bird. I'll admit I've not yet played much of either one, however both of their bombing systems are fantastic. Neko Navy has you point blanking enemies to collect gems which refill your one and only bomb - use that bomb to cancel bullets which are converted to gems, and if you're lucky, you'll have another bomb ready in mere seconds. Black Bird has a multiplier which is increased for each time you kill an enemy - when that multiplier is at max value, use your bomb around a large cluster of enemies to cash out. (Too bad I can't stand this game's music.)