List of shmups with noticeable differences when playing P2

[louisg]

All of them in the arcade because little children destroy the 1p stick and buttons.

Haha

[BPzeBanshee]

P2's ship speed is faster in XII Stag? Holy shit, I need to try it. Stage 3 always feels like a pain because it's so slow.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Same with Super SWIV (Firepower 2000), SWIV's sequel (official/unofficial? I don't know )

Technically, this is more an example of a shmup where 1P and 2P can't play the same type of ship, same as Futari, DFK, etc. You can switch whether the heli or the jeep is on 1P or 2P side (at least on the SNES version), and they function exactly the same regardless of whether the heli or jeep is 1P or 2P.

The differences between the two are quite large though (the heli actually sucks compared to the jeep due to limited homing/spread weapons, and how useful aiming is in conjunction with the stronger weapons like laser & pulse).

The jeep really switches things up, particularly in the last couple of levels where there are plenty of hazards to avoid and also the half-level of it being a boat, which introduces some inertia. I find it much harder to play than the heli, which moves faster and can only collide with aerial enemies (usually weaker than ground targets).

[saucykobold]

The red and blue ships have the same speed in Raiden II. Red starts with the inferior bomb type but gets more bombs (an extra six appear for each full repetition of the item sequence). Also, in the Japanese version, blue gets to enjoy checkpoint restarts. So whichever version you play, red scores more (surplus bombs are worth quite a lot) and has better life expectancy.

The player 2 ship definitely gets lower rank in Salamander 2. This is pretty noticeable if you try to milk the 1-3 boss. 2P can safely hold the necessary option formation but 1P is forced to break formation because certain popcorns will spawn early (before you can kill the boss parts that generate them). Alas, poor Vic.

[oboewan42]

Hope you guys don't mind the bump, but I just found a new one, LifeForce - the JP arcade version with the Gradius-style powerup bar... damn there are too many different versions of this game

P1's powerup bar goes Speed -> Missile -> Pulse -> Laser -> Multiple -> ? (Shield)
P2's powerup bar goes Missile -> Laser -> Multiple -> Pulse -> Speed -> ? (Shield)

Considering that this is possibly the only *dius game with a comfortable (possibly even preferable) default ship speed, P2 is IMO the clear winner here.

[CID]

Aero Fighters has the interesting trait of the second player having a unique set of aircrafts from P1. P2 is also forced to play the ship allocated to the nation chosen by P1.

[BPzeBanshee]

Okay, tested XII Stag. The speed is definitely faster, I believe in both vertical and horizontal movement, as well as appearance. No visual changes in weapons.

The same case is also there for G-Stream G2020. I set P1 and P2's controls to the same and made them both play, P2 ship outstretches P1 considerably and has different-coloured shots.

[Ed Oscuro]

I need to try P2 for G-Stream then, it might help keeping medal chains going.

[BPzeBanshee]

The main issue with using P2 in a fresh run though is that the highscore table is quite often buggy as a result. Note that medal chaining is not everything in the game either: getting those hidden 'DESTROYED AT A TIME'-like bonuses from destructable bullets and enemies in hidden segments of stages is more rewarding than optimising your existing run with medal collection.

[Edge]

In Raiden DX:

P1 has faster vertical movement, but slower horizontal movement.
P2 vice versa.

[oboewan42]

The difference here is more psychological than mechanical, but it still applies: any horizontal shmup with any sort of charge meter, scoring indicator, etc. that needs to be monitored, has an innate P2 advantage. Deathsmiles' item counter is probably the biggest example; other examples include Progear's gem color indicator, Akai Katana's phantom meter, and Metal Black's laser meter.

The reason is that, when playing as P2, your eyes are drawn towards the right side of the screen - and, by extension, incoming fire. Whereas when playing as P1, keeping an eye on the indicator means looking towards the left side of the screen - not exactly the best place to be looking.

[God]

Code: Select all

Raiden (lower rank)
Salamander 2 (lower rank)

Why would anyone make a game that does that on purpose?! I can't believe there are two.

[Patashu]

Code: Select all

Raiden (lower rank)
Salamander 2 (lower rank)

Why would anyone make a game that does that on purpose?! I can't believe there are two.

Do you have evidence that it's on purpose rather than being an oversight? If most of the testing/programming was done with player 1 in mind, then it's feasible that some rank related mechanic could be overlooked when hooking player 2 up.

[God]

Me? Evedence? Hell no. Actually, I half suspect it's just people being superstitious about it. It's not like it's easy to tell what rank is

[ACSeraph]

Me? Evedence? Hell no. Actually, I half suspect it's just people being superstitious about it. It's not like it's easy to tell what rank is

->

The player 2 ship definitely gets lower rank in Salamander 2. This is pretty noticeable if you try to milk the 1-3 boss. 2P can safely hold the necessary option formation but 1P is forced to break formation because certain popcorns will spawn early (before you can kill the boss parts that generate them). Alas, poor Vic.

Can't argue with that.

[Patashu]

Me? Evedence? Hell no. Actually, I half suspect it's just people being superstitious about it. It's not like it's easy to tell what rank is

You can use a program called Memory Hacking Software (MHS), run the game in MAME and search for variables that are likely to be rank (goes up over time or when you get upgrades, goes down when you die, for example), then when you have some candidates try fixing their value high or low to see if it makes the game obviously easier or harder.

And if you determine that P2's rank is lower, determining wide can be difficult (you have to disassemble the code to do with setting rank and make an educated guess based on how it's programmed - for example, if P2 is simply left out of a calculation, sounds like oversight, if it's included but has different co-efficients, sounds like deliberate)

[Lordgalvar-II]

Blast Wind.

[Kiken]

Trzeal: Second player gets a different ship which moves faster, but has a narrower (albeit equally strong) laser weapon and a slightly different spread of the vulcan. Overall, I find it a little easier to score and survive with the 2P ship.

The collection hitbox of the P2 craft is smaller than the P1 craft, making it a little more difficult to collect medals with that ship (which is why I stick to the P1 side in that game).