Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[broken harbour]

I picked up a cheap Axelay cart yesterday, so far...well it's interesting, I'd been wanting to try this for a while, so far the hit detection seems a tad off, I keep getting killed by things I don't expect in the first stage. And getting hit disables your current selected weapon? Weird. Seems like a memorization heavy shmup, so... jury's out on this one until I try it some more.

[chempop]

Ahhh! Death at Glow Squid again. One of these days...

Oh man, SO CLOSE! What ship/type?

[LordHypnos]

Chronoblast. Liking this and not sure about autobomb. First shmup I've played with autobomb, but still enjoying this.

Personally, when I was playing BWR+ Easy mode, I disabled autobomb for a few reasons:
A) I feel like it blocks you from improving your bombing reflexes, which is kind of important in a lot of shmups.
B) I felt like it made me play sloppier, because there wasn't enough of a consequence for getting hit by a bullet
C) The game is actually pretty easy even without autobomb, so it's not really necessary

I imagine though that it varies from person to person, and game to game, the affect that it will have.

[jepjepjep]

Ahhh! Death at Glow Squid again. One of these days...

Oh man, SO CLOSE! What ship/type?

I was playing Golden Bat today but he's killed me with Gain too.

[Squire Grooktook]

I picked up a cheap Axelay cart yesterday, so far...well it's interesting, I'd been wanting to try this for a while, so far the hit detection seems a tad off, I keep getting killed by things I don't expect in the first stage. And getting hit disables your current selected weapon? Weird. Seems like a memorization heavy shmup, so... jury's out on this one until I try it some more.

It's pretty light on memorization imo. There's a few minor gimmicks in the stages, but for the most part you don't really need a route.

The horizontal scrolling stages might feel a bit better to you.

[LordHypnos]

Still playing Mars Matrix, but I think I've hit a rock hard wall that refuses to give way, and it's called everything after the extend in the 4th stage

[broken harbour]

I almost 1cc'd DDP DFK, (Well, Resurrection) on Xbox Novice mode today... So close, died on the final pattern of the final boss, hit continue and killed it in 2 seconds... Damn that final level to hell!!!! .

Back to Axelay later this week...

[ACSeraph]

Just bought Ibara.

Got sucked into Pink Sweets...

[LordHypnos]

Was just playing 2hu Lotus Land Story. Really fun game, but I can't seem to find a good frameskip setting. auto is super choppy and keeps switching between I assume 2 and 4, 2 feels alright, but I suspect that it's giving me unfair slowdown that makes the game easier. 4 feels way too hectic. Oddly enough I didn't actually do that much worse on frameskip 4 than 2. In both instances I made it to the boss after the level with the bad apple song. Speaking of which, I'm liking these FM-synth BGMs, in spite of how they aren't maintaining a consistent speed (due to the very same emulation woes that are making it difficult to find a good frameskip setting)

[amdiggywhut]

Been playing a couple credits a night of Futari 1.5 BL Original. I'm getting to stage 5 pretty much every time I play and have been a couple centimeters of health from getting the 1cc. Haven't even had a run where I got the 1up on stage 5 yet so I feel like I'm pretty close to the clear if I have a good/lucky run. This seems like the perfect difficulty level for me right now, really loving it.

[LordHypnos]

was just playing elemental master. Technosoft music is god tier, and FM synth is best shooter music

[amdiggywhut]

Technosoft music is god tier

Just had to cosign this real quick. "Thunder Force III soundtrack" is probably my most Youtubed phrase ever.

[LordHypnos]

Technosoft music is god tier

Just had to cosign this real quick. "Thunder Force III soundtrack" is probably my most Youtubed phrase ever.

Hell yeah! TFIII has great music.

[Squire Grooktook]

Currently jumping back and forth between danmaku and manic shooter games. Trying to decide which play style I find most enjoyable overall. It's a tough call.

[LordHypnos]

@Squire Grooktook: how do you define "Manic" STGs. I've been wondering what is included in this category.

I was playing Cho Ren Sha 68k last night, and I've gotta say that it is infinitely easier with a gamepad, and an incredibly fun game. Only made it as far as the 3rd stage, however. That was after dying twice in the first level though, which is cool . I might actually make this game my go to game for a while, since I've hit a wall in Mars Matrix. we'll see though.

I think rRootage might actually play better with the keyboard, on the other hand. We'll have to see about other danmaku doujins like BWR+ or tewhew

[Squire Grooktook]

@Squire Grooktook: how do you define "Manic" STGs. I've been wondering what is included in this category.

I bet there's some debate on this subject, but for me manic shooters are games with small-ish hitboxes and more emphasis on bullet patterns than traditional/older shmups, but lower bullet density and greater bullet speed than what you'd see in a Cave or Touhou game. Good examples IMO would probably be anything by Psikyo, anything by Raizing, Mars Matrix, Cho Ren Sha 68k, etc.

[EmperorIng]

If I need a quick fix, the shooter has to be "manic" like a Psikyo game - really fast and relentless (Cave games, unless they are DOJ or Ketsui, usually take two stages to do this). I want the stage 4 challenge in stage 1!

Bullet hells for me sort of [mostly] live and die by their scoring mechanics (because the games are designed around them). It might be trite, but if it's interesting (e.g. Giga Wing 2's bullet reflecting), I'm interested. If it isn't (e.g. chaining enemies), I don't really give a shit. Again in good cases (Ketsui and DOJ) the game is hard enough for me to ignore them and just enjoy myself.

I should qualify these statements by saying I am on average, a below-average Cave shmupper, and a well-below-average Psikyo player.

OT:
Guardian Force, still wondering if I should care about its simplistic medal collection stuff. It's so easy (medals, not the game, which is rock hard), that it's hard NOT to rack up points grabbing all those bouncing medals.

Gradius V, since my fat PS2 miraculously decided it would actually load the game for a change.

[LordHypnos]

@Manic Shooter Discussion: Looks like that's most of what I've spent a decent amount of time with so far in terms of shooters. I'm also not sure if I prefer danmaku or manic, but Mars Matrix is definately my favorite so far.

OT: Tried CRS again, last night, and could not make it past the second level for some reason Not sure how I did that before without even a death. Also keep dying on the first boss. Still a fun game, and the FM soundtrack is pretty awesome. really fits the speed of the game.

[ACSeraph]

Had a Triangle Service marathon tonight. Man Deltazeal would be so godly if it used Trizeal's powerup system... Amazing how they took the same basic powerup pickup system of Raiden and managed to make it troll you even harder. Still a great game though; beautiful graphics.

[trap15]

Deltazeal would be so godly if it used Trizeal's powerup system...

Deltazeal (G-Stream G2020) came first, and inspired Trizeal's powerup system Personally, I like Deltazeal's better, it requires more thought and planning.

[ACSeraph]

I think I'd like it better if the powerup colors didn't change so quickly, or at a minimum it gave you some kind of indication of when it was going to change. It's way too easy to pick up an incorrect powerup which takes an eternity to "flush".

[LordHypnos]

I picked up Giga Wing the other day, finally. I like it a lot, though not nearly as much as Mars Matrix.
Also, I have no idea how it keeps murdering me so hard. How is this so much harder for me than stages 1-3 and the first part of 4 of Mars Matrix!?
It does seem to be more focused around denser, and a little bit slower bullet patterns, FWIW, which might be part of it. Maybe I'll have better luck today.
Have mostly been switching between Ruby and Isha.

[StutterFingers]

Switching between R Type Delta and Mushihimesama Futari.
Sucking at both of them and I doubt switching between the two is helping.

[CloudyMusic]

Buckling down on Futari God, my one big shmup goal for 2014. Luckily it's probably the most fun I've had in a shmup to date so far.

[ACSeraph]

Reaffirming my vast burning hatred for the Darius II Saturn port at the moment. Despite it's reputation of being an accurate version of the arcade game I can assure you it is not. It's not even a decent but inaccurate port; it's utterly broken in ways that makes certain sections nigh unclearable. I refuse to believe the game was play-tested, I don't see how it could have been. And yet, clearing it has become some kind of hate fueled obsession for me. Do yourself a favor and never buy a copy, and if you own a copy I strongly recommend you don't waste your time trying to learn it.

[Eno]

Stopped fooling around and went back to work on BWRP Original. I was able to reach Stage 5 yesterday, with a little work on the bossfights and bomb management I think I'll be reaching the boss occasionally pretty soon. Still getting silly misses on the first two stages though, which is beyond shameful.

[ExMars]

Working on getting my first 1cc in the original R-Type. I can reach to the boss on level 5 so far, he gives me some trouble but I think he'd be easier if I keep the red beam instead of the blue.

[Kollision]

Working on getting my first 1cc in the original R-Type. I can reach to the boss on level 5 so far, he gives me some trouble but I think he'd be easier if I keep the red beam instead of the blue.

Indeed, red weapon is the best one

I'm working my way on Caladrius with Kei.
I can no-miss till stage 4 so far. Practiced stage 5 last night, let's see how I can handle the 5th boss today.

[LordHypnos]

Mostly still Giga Wang and Mars Matrix. Seem to be getting better at both, but much distance left to tread.

[ACSeraph]

I'm working my way on Caladrius with Kei.
I can no-miss till stage 4 so far. Practiced stage 5 last night, let's see how I can handle the 5th boss today.

Much respect for soldiering through the game with Kei, it's much harder than using the typical custom Caladrius. Are you going default? I need to get my copy back from my friend who always claims he's going to play it but never gets around to it. I want to dig in and learn default Lilith properly before Blaze hits.