STG of the Month (September 2012) - Gradius III!

[Volteccer_Jack]

OMG this game is the reason I play shmups in the first place!

EDIT: ignore this lame score



Just played one credit, ran into a wall, too embarassed to keep playing. I'll try to beat stage 3 in a bit.

[shmuppyLove]

Stage 3 will kick your dog.



AND EAT YOUR BABIES

[Volteccer_Jack]

Wanted to get past that effing boss, but this score looks okay for today.

311,290 & VBG & 1-3 & D

Stage 3 will kick your dog.



AND EAT YOUR BABIES

I like having my babies eaten.

[ciox]

lmfao I'm playing this for the first time and am literally laughing because I actually cannot believe how shitty this game is

Same here, dying once and seeing the ship lose all weapons and like 90% of its movement speed is all it took. I know that's what R-Type is like too but somehow this feels worse.

[RNGmaster]

The loss of powerups isn't really something to be complaining about in a Gradius game. However, I can't excuse how the missile explosions are on the top sprite layer. ABOVE THE BULLETS AND ENEMY SPRITES.

That along with the hitboxes is the worst 1-2 punch. Fucking evil game...

[trap15]

*does fairly decently into st.2*
*blows up shit like a boss*
*goes to grab powerup*
*hits constantly-moving ceiling and dies*
FUCK THIS GAME.

[RNGmaster]

*does fairly decently into st.2*
*blows up shit like a boss*
*goes to grab powerup*
*hits constantly-moving ceiling and dies*
FUCK THIS GAME.

I did that in four consecutive runs. Not a fun way to die at all.

[Ed Oscuro]

p.s. stop selecting cut-offs for high score threads so my old ones fall out of the list, thx!

By the way, you might want to update your Change Air Blade hiscore board - there's some ancient scores still not entered there, mine included. Tinotormed even suggested sending you a pm to some dude, but we know you aren't really into that pm business, right?

OK, thanks for bringing that to my attention!

p.s. PMs are fine, just not PMs with PMS

[Despatche]

what i want to know is how many deaths you guys are getting in stage 1 versus stage 2. former should be much higher.

Same here, dying once and seeing the ship lose all weapons and like 90% of its movement speed is all it took. I know that's what R-Type is like too but somehow this feels worse.

this is called the "bandwagon effect", and it is an evil thing

However, I can't excuse how the missile explosions are on the top sprite layer. ABOVE THE BULLETS AND ENEMY SPRITES.

spread bombs are indeed so cruel; they have this behavior in ii as well. i actually edit just so i can use regular missiles instead... in fact, i should probably start using upper missiles

[O. Van Bruce]

DAMM THOSE FUCKING LIONS... I CAN'T EVEN REACH THE FIRST STAGE BOSS

My hate for every -ius game it's eternal

[Ed Oscuro]

Line up your shots with the lions, or use bombs. One option will help; you can even take out all the sand dragons but maybe one with ease. Not difficult.

Strange to see so many scores with standard types...what's wrong with Edit? I wish more of the weapons were useful but they gave us an out; might as well use it.

[Deca]

I inexplicably find myself still playing a credit here and there. Mame likes to ignore diagonals half the time on this game depending on the sequence in which I hit/release the arrow keys. Any advice on that?

[Despatche]

Sounds like a keyboard problem. Not very helpful, I know.

[CptRansom]

Wanted to get past that effing boss, but this score looks okay for today.

311,290 & VBG & 1-3 & D

How in the fucking hell did you manage to milk so many points from 1-3 that you beat Aquas's 1-*5* score by 40k? That seems... wrong.

Updated (minus VBG's score until I get an explanation - sorry, man, but that's just out there).

[Deca]

Sounds like a keyboard problem.

I agree, it does, but it's happening on two different keyboards (and two different computers for that matter) that have never given me any sort of trouble along those lines with any other game.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Strange to see so many scores with standard types...what's wrong with Edit? I wish more of the weapons were useful but they gave us an out; might as well use it.

Quite a lot actually. The game is beatable with Edit, but it's just not optimal compared to most of the standard types. I would actually suggest Edit if it weren't for the fact that Edit's version of spread bomb shoots backwards instead of forward, but because of that one thing, I'd say Type B is the way to go if you're serious.

[Aquas]

Wanted to get past that effing boss, but this score looks okay for today.

311,290 & VBG & 1-3 & D

How in the fucking hell did you manage to milk so many points from 1-3 that you beat Aquas's 1-*5* score by 40k? That seems... wrong.

Updated (minus VBG's score until I get an explanation - sorry, man, but that's just out there).

I'm guessing he did what I did, recovering on stage 3, but he used a couple more lives recovering there. Which can net about 40k. I didn't get many more points for the half of st. 5 I did, anyway.

[Volteccer_Jack]

How in the fucking hell did you manage to milk so many points from 1-3 that you beat Aquas's 1-*5* score by 40k? That seems... wrong.

Updated (minus VBG's score until I get an explanation - sorry, man, but that's just out there).

I'm guessing he did what I did, recovering on stage 3, but he used a couple more lives recovering there. Which can net about 40k. I didn't get many more points for the half of st. 5 I did, anyway.

^^This. The endless popcorn + rock dudes bit right before the stage 3 boss is worth a crapload of points. And the boss's laser net kept &$!#ing killing me, so I spent all my lives flying through that bit over and over again, including the 2 extends I got in the process. Then I looked at my score, looked at the scores in this thread, and went

[CptRansom]

Word, I'll update. Thanks for understanding and thanks to Aquas for jumping in as well. =)

...If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna find some popcorn to milk. >.>

[Seahawk]

Seahawk - 616,550 - 1-9 - Type B
I'm assuming it's okay to play on very hard setting?
I do have a replay if there is somewhere to upload.

Would be a lot higher, but I totally forgot my strategy for crystal stage recovery, so many lives wasted. Could have been over 700k maybe.

[ED-057]

159,830 & ED-057 & 1-3 & C

Ooooooookay. That`s enough of that, lol.

[CHI]

CHI & 168,420 & 1-3 & D

First couple of credits, will get back into this game

Edit: changed 1-3 from stage3

[Yazphier]

This game hates me, but then, I don't give it that much love either..

a few new credits.. slight improvement :/
Yazphier & 65960 & 1-2 & B

but there will be more before this month is over..

[CptRansom]

All updated!

[shmuppyLove]

All updated!

Except for mine

[CptRansom]

NOW all updated! Sorry!

[saucykobold]

saucykobold & 657,860 & 2-2 & B

[Master O]

Seahawk - 616,550 - 1-9 - Type B
I'm assuming it's okay to play on very hard setting?
I do have a replay if there is somewhere to upload.

Would be a lot higher, but I totally forgot my strategy for crystal stage recovery, so many lives wasted. Could have been over 700k maybe.

Given about 75% of the top scores are all on 1-3 or less right now, I don't think it really matters what difficulty you play it on, Seahawk, since you personally could probably beat this game blindfolded while being pursued by rabid alligators and US Embassy protesters.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Seahawk could probably put it on Normal and destroy everyone.

But I don't think the cube rush is affected by the difficulty.

[Seahawk]

Given about 75% of the top scores are all on 1-3 or less right now, I don't think it really matters what difficulty you play it on, Seahawk, since you personally could probably beat this game blindfolded while being pursued by rabid alligators and US Embassy protesters.

No way, I may be good but it took me a year of full time play, close to 1000 attempts just to clear the game once. The crystal stage is chiefly responsible for that, mainly because it takes around 30-40 minutes to get there, just for around 9-14 attempts depending on how well you can farm points on each life there to keep getting more.

And if you die before getting there, your time is wasted since recovery is nigh impossible everywhere else.

Seahawk could probably put it on Normal and destroy everyone.

But I don't think the cube rush is affected by the difficulty.

Nah, very hard has a higher rank compared to normal, which means more enemy spawns from hatches, endless moai rings on the moai stage, and more fireballs on the fire stage (fire stage is a very lucrative points spot).

The cube rush is affected by rank, but very minorly. It is more affected by switching the game to "easy" difficulty, then you get ~33 slow cubes instead of 100 fast random cubes, if I remember right.

The only difference between 'normal' and 'very hard' is a +4 rank up for the latter, but late in the game it won't matter because the rank is capped to 16 (out of 32) for the first loop, and between the stage rank and your fully powered up ship you will hit this limit.

Normal difficulty:
2 (normal difficulty) + 8 (crystal stage) + 1 (missile) + 3 (laser) (2 for double) + 4 (options x4, 1 per option) + 4 (force field/shield) = 22

V. Hard difficulty:
6 (v.hard difficulty) + 8 (crystal stage) + 1 (missile) + 3 (laser) (2 for double) + 4 (options x4, 1 per option) + 4 (force field/shield) = 26

In both cases the rank will be taken down to 16 on the first loop.

The difference in difficulty beforehand is pretty minor and manageable. Either way you still pretty much have to play no miss style, because recovery is difficult no matter what you do.

The second loop will present huge differences between the difficulties when the rank limiter is released, but if you're getting that far you know what you're doing enough to not care .

...I should probably make a full write up on the rank system for the strategy section.