Solo Shmup League Week #1 - Gunbird 2 (Closed)

[Zengeku3]

First credit!

| SSL| 417,600 | screenshot | 1-5 | Tavia | ShmupMame 4.2

Didn't notice this was going on before today. I'll see how much of this game i can learn in the given time, i've pretty much never played it before so sorry for sucking :3

[heisenbergman]

Updated the OP for the scores of the 14 participants.

Trying at least just get to 1-4, but... blah.

[saucykobold]

| SSL | 1,166,700 | Screenshot | 2-1 | Tavia | MAME

[Zengeku3]

| SSL | 758,400 | Screenshot | 1-7 | Tavia | ShmupMame 4.2

This is the best I can manage today. My wrist is tired and i've got places to be tomorrow.
I'll 1-all this on my own time sooner or later, if only i'd noticed this thing going on earlier

[Pinehed]

This took me a good chunk of two evenings but I finally broke the 400k barrier. Brilliant game, but the 1-4 boss is just too dificult for me atm. Panic bombed almost every pattern of it's second form.

| SSL | 404,400 | http://postimg.org/image/ozhlutd4d/ | 1-5 | Tavia | shmupmame3b

[heisenbergman]

This took me a good chunk of two evenings but I finally broke the 400k barrier.

I'll probably spend a good chunk of this evening to try and break the 300k barrier

I've already cleared 1-3 finally. Just haven't posted it yet.

[chum]

| SSL | 1,427,000 | screenie | 2-2 | Tavia | shmupmame 4.2

Embarrassing as it is, this is a new high score for me

[heisenbergman]

Updated the OP to now indicate the scores of the 17 participants so far.

Around 13.5 hours left for this.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Nice to see some more entrants. Even if it did push me right down the table

[VHS-porn]

Maybe I shouldn't post if I'm not participating but I just wanted to bitch about this game.
I don't know how you guys do it but from my point of view this is the most unfair game I've ever seen.
I'm okay with Cave games but Psikyo... Can't even complete the stage 4 on a regular basis, this game makes me want to scream after every run. If this is open to everyone and I happend to try a few more runs tonight I might get back with a score around 500 000, but just thinking about it feel so damn pathetic...

[heisenbergman]

^ Yeah, go for it and submit a score and participate in the future installments of this League as well.

A 500K score or anything close to that seems pretty decent, tbh.

[VHS-porn]

How long do I have to submit a score ? I'm curious as to wheter or not playing for competition would make a difference compared to just playing for fun :) I've never taken part in something like this before.

[Eno]

Maybe I shouldn't post if I'm not participating but I just wanted to bitch about this game.
I don't know how you guys do it but from my point of view this is the most unfair game I've ever seen.
I'm okay with Cave games but Psikyo... Can't even complete the stage 4 on a regular basis, this game makes me want to scream after every run. If this is open to everyone and I happend to try a few more runs tonight I might get back with a score around 500 000, but just thinking about it feel so damn pathetic...

Feel you on the stage 4, have been struggling to do it consistently for more than a year now. But unfair? Nah, this game is top fun, when you don't screw up at least(which hasn't been happening ever since I posted my first submission).

How long do I have to submit a score ? I'm curious as to wheter or not playing for competition would make a difference compared to just playing for fun I've never taken part in something like this before.

First post has the submission deadline aswell as a time converter to see what it is on your timezone.

[VHS-porn]

Feel you on the stage 4, have been struggling to do it consistently for more than a year now. But unfair? Nah, this game is top fun, when you don't screw up at least(which hasn't been happening ever since I posted my first submission).

Well my problem isn't just the stage 4, it just happens to be the most I've been able to reach, but even the stages 2 and 3 usually kick my ass. What I don't get is why 3 bullets on screen manage to destroy me, and the frustration that losing a life on stage 2 brings has no end. I don't get if its supposed to be 100% pure knowledge of the game, where exact spot to go and when etc.. or if dodging stuff just takes time to get used to, but however I try to play Psikyo games its just not fun at all.
But watching superplay for these is awesome, so its a bit confusing, and that I've made no progress at all in like 6 month is proof that I'm doing it the wrong way

[Eno]

Feel you on the stage 4, have been struggling to do it consistently for more than a year now. But unfair? Nah, this game is top fun, when you don't screw up at least(which hasn't been happening ever since I posted my first submission).

Well my problem isn't just the stage 4, it just happens to be the most I've been able to reach, but even the stages 2 and 3 usually kick my ass. What I don't get is why 3 bullets on screen manage to destroy me, and the frustration that losing a life on stage 2 brings has no end. I don't get if its supposed to be 100% pure knowledge of the game, where exact spot to go and when etc.. or if dodging stuff just takes time to get used to, but however I try to play Psikyo games its just not fun at all.
But watching superplay for these is awesome, so its a bit confusing, and that I've made no progress at all in like 6 month is proof that I'm doing it the wrong way

It's Psykio, the bullets are quite fast and your hitbox is also a bit big(I'm not sure whether the bullet hitboxes are smaller than the bullets themselves), so even with lower bullet-count things get quite hard.
As for the root of the problem, it depends on what are you dying to. Psykio employs lots of medium-sized enemies that have to be killed ASAP or their patterns combined with the popcorn fire will make things unmanageable pretty fast, so if you're missing on that kind of situation you probably have some problems with your route; But if you're dying mostly to stray popcorn bullets then it's more a matter of getting used to them and when and where to expect them along your route, possibly tweaking some parts to avoid them. (or so I find, I'm pretty bad at this myself)

[heisenbergman]

| SSL | 279,400 | screenie| 1-4 | Tavia | shmupmame4

Hardly an improvement but at least I'm not the only one stuck at 1-3 anymore

[Eno]

SSL | 479,300 | Screenshot | 1-5 | Tavia | Shmupmame 4.2 + WINE 1.4.1

Glad I could get at least one run till 1-5 in time.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

What I don't get is why 3 bullets on screen manage to destroy me

I've found that my route involves quite a bit of point-blanking things and then moving on quickly, thing is some of the enemies (turrets mostly) seem to be perfectly positioned to snag you with a bullet as you're moving away. It's a sneaky move from the level designers and I've had to revise my route a few times because of it. I think the game makes it pretty clear where you're supposed to be going next with the popcorn enemies and so on but from time to time they throw something in deliberately to screw with you. If I die because of a couple of bullets it's usually because of that.

Also, the game encourages you to play aggresively but sometimes i'll find myself pushed down the screen and playing more defensively, working back up the screen is pretty risky for me and the absolute worst thing you can do in this game seems to be trying for the middle. You either have to be fully agressive of fully defensive, going into anything half-cocked will almost certainly kill you.

Well it kills me at least

[Hagane]

Three bullets on screen can kill you because they are aimed at you. Move away, be aggressive and speedkill mid/large enemies, manage your special bar correctly and don't waste it on trivial threats, etc.

[VHS-porn]

Didn't quite managed to reach 500 000 but it still a lot better than before, and I had tons of fun playing a game that usually pisses me off I'm quite happy, and the only reason I stopped playing is because my right hand hurts like shit.

VHS | 448,200 | http://i.imgur.com/PC1B26N.png | 1-5 | Marion | Mame Lagless

Guessing if I keep playing for a little while I could end up somewhere. This was so much fun than just playing on my own, funny how just a single thread can change my experience of a game to such degree.

How do you hide the url btw ?

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Okay final score, couldn't string together a decent enough run to clear 500,000 grrr.

SSL | 475,100 | http://postimg.org/image/ha13vakrr/ | 1-5 | Tavia | ShmupMAME 4.2

[VHS-porn]

Same here, I just did a 470 000 run, wish I could reach 500 000 (stage 5 is way too hard anyway, not like I have a chance to see the first extend)

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Same here, I just did a 470 000 run, wish I could reach 500 000 (stage 5 is way too hard anyway, not like I have a chance to see the first extend)

I was so close to taking down the stage 5 boss, so damn close! I don't know what the point value is on that thing but I imagine it would have pushed me over 500k

[VHS-porn]

I always die in the first 30 seconds of the fifth stage, but I'm doing horrible mistakes, pressing the wrong button when I need to bomb and always dying with like 5 bombs in stock :/
I'm a bit tired too, so I'll just take a break and carry on tomorrow, even if its over by then :)

VHS | 470,900 | http://i.imgur.com/8231Zge.png | 1-5 | Marion | Mame Lagless

[Hagane]

At the beginning of stage 5 you need to rush the big robots; build some meter and go whack them as soon as they appear with your melee attack.

[chum]

The most satisfying thing in the world is to wait for the leftmost robot to walk right next to the other robot, then u smack em both at the same time

fuck yea

[Jaimers]

You should really be watching a replay if you're trying to play a Psikyo game.

They're kind of unplayable if you don't.

[Hagane]

You don't have to. Once you figure out how you are supposed to play them the rest you can figure out no harder than in any other decent STG. It's cool that you manage to get that far with raw memorization, though!

[trout]

| SSL | 1,020,100 | Screenshot | 2-1 | Tavia | MAME

What are coins?

[heisenbergman]

So that's it! I'm about to prepare the final rankings for this week.

Also: I've gotten a PM that a new member - trout - just signed up roughly four hours ago to submit a score but couldn't since his post hasn't gotten approved yet.

But here's the screenshot, so I'll be adding it into the rankings with the assumption that his post will be approced sooner or later. If it doesn't, I can just recompute the rankings as necessary