Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[endoKarb]

Try using 10-15. It's even more awesome!

Not sure if sarcastic or not, but I generally don't because after a certain point I'm dying too frequently to learn anything. Practice modes and the like are better for parts a lot further along in the game.

totally serious

practice mode makes me want to kill myself. I play games to have fun not to practice

[Stevens]

Still Valkyrius on extreme. Stage 4 boss on a credit.

[LordHypnos]

Earlier today was playing a bit of CC:WI. It's pretty cool, I guess.
Spent a lot more time on Mars Matrix, though. Practicing 4th stage boss, 3rd stage, 5th stage, and a bit of 5th stage boss. When I actually did a full run I game overed on stage 3 though (been happening a lot recently). I was basically all shmupped out by the end of that run, but I might have another in me yet tonight.

[Esupanitix]

I just played ten credits of Mushihimesama 1.5 Maniac on CAVEUI (Mame emulator meant for SH3 games) and six of them died at stage 4, three died at stage 3, and one died at stage 2.

I'm honestly terrible at these games, even if I am becoming more consistent. Before: I could not dodge the stage two boss to save my life (lives ww). After: I sometimes have to toss a bomb for the second attack, but otherwise I'm consistent. Before: I could not carry a good score in stage two. After: I learned that you can farm counter points and jewels from those closed coconut things that I don't know the name of, and my score increased from an endstage sum of 6m to almost 12m by my final run.

Then again, I'm a fucking casual, so what do you expect? :c I'm planning on buying Mushihimesama (PS2) so that I can have reliable emulation of SH3 slowdown that's usable for scoreplay. I'm gonna say this right now: Mushihimesama is probably going to be my favorite shmup ever. PERIOD. 1. Easy to get into, 2. Legitimate challenge, 3. Purple - favorite color, 4. Music that's enjoyable, 5. Somehow I don't get pissed off and quit at the drop of a hat when I lose in this game. This was probably the first time I had spent literal hours at a shmup.

[trap15]

Mushi PS2 has totally wrong slowdown too. The only one with somewhat correct slowdown is the 360 port, though I haven't checked how close it is.

[Esupanitix]

Mushi PS2 has totally wrong slowdown too. The only one with somewhat correct slowdown is the 360 port, though I haven't checked how close it is.

Thanks for the correction on the matter~

[ultrageranium]

M.U.S.H.A.

Second play and brickwall at Stage 5...
Music is fantastic.
Makes me want to play dressed as a Yahama FM soundchip.

[Aquas]

Garegga on ookitarepanda's cab tonight and a little bit in MAME recently. I won't stop untill I get clear, even if I have to play Gain and score as much as I know how to haha.

Along with Guwange, though, mostly because it has been a feel good game for me, but I'm enjoying getting back into it by playing Special / Blue Label.

It might be my favorite Black Label of Cave, the touches are not drastic but improving in a fun way.

[LordHypnos]

Well, after having gotten to the final shot level in Mars Matrix, I decided to take a break and play some CC:WI novice. Made it all the way to the stage 5 boss (sure are a lot of extends...) with Type I, and after game over, I tried again, but I was all out of energy. That's one problem with games that are as painfully long as CC. It's too exhausting to try to do multiple full runs in a row.

EDIT: Man, King and Balloon is a weird fucking game. yet surprisingly addictive

[endoKarb]

Well, after having gotten to the final shot level in Mars Matrix, I decided to take a break and play some CC:WI novice. Made it all the way to the stage 5 boss (sure are a lot of extends...) with Type I, and after game over, I tried again, but I was all out of energy. That's one problem with games that are as painfully long as CC. It's too exhausting to try to do multiple full runs in a row.

It's only too exhausting the first few credit, while you are still learning the stage layout and enemy placement. It gets better after that.

[LordHypnos]

Well, after having gotten to the final shot level in Mars Matrix, I decided to take a break and play some CC:WI novice. Made it all the way to the stage 5 boss (sure are a lot of extends...) with Type I, and after game over, I tried again, but I was all out of energy. That's one problem with games that are as painfully long as CC. It's too exhausting to try to do multiple full runs in a row.

It's only too exhausting the first few credit, while you are still learning the stage layout and enemy placement. It gets better after that.

I suppose that makes sense. I have nothing memorized yet there, and that would explain why Mars Matrix never wears on me that much (I have stages 1-4 memorized completely, and stage 5 up to the boss almost memorized).

[Stevens]

More Valkyrius. Still stuck around stage 4/5.

Fired up Border Down for the first time in ages. I really need to spend time with that one.

[LordHypnos]

Warning: Huge TL;DR approaching fast!
I don't really care if anyone reads this, it's more just to help me. I should probably get a blog or something.

I was playing Mars Matrix again (obviously). I'm really struggling to bridge the gap between the part directly before the gold cube fountain and the fountain in stage 3. I've managed to do it a few times (Probably gave me the majority of the 1,800,000 experience that I got in my last high scoring run, although part of that was definately almost full chaining stage 5, too). I'm also struggling with stage 5. I might want to give up on almost full chaining it, but who knows if that will make it enough easier. The biggest trouble in stage 5 is coming from 3 sources.

One is the spheres who like to shoot really fast aimed clumps at my ship when they're at the back of the screen.
Two is the second break between the bullet cancelling enemies (Haven't figured out how to bridge the first, either, though, but it's at least easier to survive). What has worked for me a few times (including my best run) is grabbing a lot of bullets with the mosquito, sending the diagonally across the screen from the bottom, chasing after them, and then trying to avoid getting hit and getting cubes too fast before the next bullet canceller appears. After that I get a shit ton of exp cubes.
three is the very end of the stage (before the boss) after the bullet cancellers disappear, because you need to be really quite careful to avoid getting killed, and occasionally enemies shoot big clumps at you that make you have to move while still avoiding the slow bullets that are peppering the screen there. Not chaining helps a lot here, but it's still pretty hard.

Also, I've noticed recently how little medium and short sized chains matter compared to the big ones. So many times I've managed to chain (usually around +700, but got +800 recently) from the rotating turret in stage 2 (as compared to the +400ish that I get when I fail to do this), then I'll end up with a really low exp count at the end up stage 3 because I can only get around +700 or so at the gold cube waterfall in stage 3. My best runs have all failed to chain the second stage from there. Oddly enough, I have gotten over 200,000 in the first stage (stage chain at around +650 or so, because I also get some of that from the boss) on most or all of my best runs. It's similar with chaining stage 4 though, although that's really only small chains for me, so less surprising.

Yeah, I know that almost nobody cares about Mars Matrix...

[EmperorIng]

Small break from Cybattler slashing resulted in a pleasant surprise - No-miss until stage 4 of Raiden (PS1). Now that's the farthest I had ever gotten.

EDIT: 1-5, hot damn. I'm really on a roll.

[President_Obama]

Got Ginga Force yesterday, not sure what to make of it yet.

[LordHypnos]

Too much shmupping today @_@

Had a good run of Mars Matrix after lots of practice. Not my best, but I made it to the S5 boss, and managed to get around 1.6 million experience (level 8 )

Got a little further in V . V (and managed to get the first extend for the first time)

Messed around some more with Hatenkou. This is a very interesting 1998 X68000 doujin game. First horizontally scrolling bullet hell (probably), and seems to have kind of an interesting proto Giga Wing mechanic (though the Giga Wing version is quite a bit better, I think, and the Mars Matrix version even better ). Hatenkou started to feel kinda cheap, after a while, but I'm pretty sure it's just my exhaustion.

Tried to clear Drill on normal. This is a one stage demo of a Dreamcast game that was in development by a french team using the homebrew libraries, but alas it never came to be. They released the demo for free though, which is cool. Speaking of which I should probably add the rookie mode to my 1cc list, because I cleared that a while ago.

There were a few other things too

Super burned out now. hahaha. I think it's a bad idea to do so much shmupping in one day.

[Kiken]

Been playing ESPRa.De. these past couple of nights. After initially going with Irori, I've switched up to using JB5th and have been doing much better overall. Getting up to stage 5-1 in a single credit thus far but I have a tendency to make immensely stupid mistakes when dodging certain boss patterns. It doesn't help that I still don't have a good feel for where the hit box is located.

[Crafty+Mech]

Scrambled Valkyrie on the SNES.

Great looking game, Aleste is on the way as well

[Stevens]

After a six week vacation I am back into Under Defeat?

I thought I had enough of that game. I was wrong.

[LordHypnos]

After a six week vacation I am back into Under Defeat?

I thought I had enough of that game. I was wrong.

That's a sign of a good game. You gonna go for the 2-ALL?

[Stevens]

After a six week vacation I am back into Under Defeat?

I thought I had enough of that game. I was wrong.

That's a sign of a good game. You gonna go for the 2-ALL?

I would like to try, but there are a few things I need to clean up on the first loop. Namely, for all my clears, a no death run still eludes me. I can no miss 1-1 through 1-4, but I always manage to lose at least 1 ship on 1-5. However I have gotten better to the point that I am picking up all sorts of points I used to leave behind on the final stage (giant four engine ship, flying tanks).

Once I can no miss stage 5, I will probably start playing the 2nd loop more. If I ever manage to clear the 2nd loop when starting on it I the 2 ALL will just be a matter of time.

I imagine the 1st loop will be realllllly easy by that point.

[LordHypnos]

@Stevens: Well, good luck

Was just playing Drill again. Played normal difficulty and still can't clear, so I decided to play Rookie, and cleared it pretty easily. Was going for score a little bit, but it's silly because there's nobody I can compete with in a 1 stage demo of a dreamcast game from 2005

Anyway, wasn't shmupping much today. Just a little bit of Mars Matrix practice. Tried to do a run with the red ship and realized I need a completely difference approach to the 3rd stage (also died there). After that it'd probably be alright though. I imagine level 6 shot would be reasonable to take out enemies even with the weak spread shot, and I should be able to get that from the gold cube waterfall. Also the fourth stage would probably be easier with the red ship. I did manage to full chain the first stage and get over 200,000ep there, but not as high as I'd expect with the blue ship.

[Jonst]

Back to under defeat as well...havn't played it for a while.It takes a bit of an adjustment after cave stuff but I'm enjoying it loads even though I'm a bit rusty,it's a bit annoying that there are no extends but it's still a great game,working on a clear but it's quite a way off yet.

[Stevens]

LH - I no missed 1-5, 2-1, and 2-2 in practice. 2-2 wasn't pretty but I did it.

I dig that the game lets you save replays.

Jonst - I am always willing to talk about UD. Good luck!

[Jonst]

Cheers Stevens! I've been playing for a couple of hours a night over the last 2 nights.I can make around half way through stage 4 on a credit,the problem is,I'm getting there with my last life and panic bombing earlier on in the game.I'm watching replays and stuff,so I do feel I've improved a bit in quicker time than when I used to play it.How long have you put in to it? I wish there was at least one extend.It more or less forces you to no miss up to the final stage/boss.Any other tips apart from watching replays I'd be grateful for!

[Erppo]

I imagine the 1st loop will be realllllly easy by that point.

I guess I didn't play the game all that much but this never really happened to me. The second loop isn't that much different from the first and you'll use mostly the same routes so it ended up as just doing the same thing twice. In the end I had nearly the same mistake rate in both loops.

[Stevens]

Cheers Stevens! I've been playing for a couple of hours a night over the last 2 nights.I can make around half way through stage 4 on a credit,the problem is,I'm getting there with my last life and panic bombing earlier on in the game.I'm watching replays and stuff,so I do feel I've improved a bit in quicker time than when I used to play it.How long have you put in to it? I wish there was at least one extend.It more or less forces you to no miss up to the final stage/boss.Any other tips apart from watching replays I'd be grateful for!

I am about 30 minutes shy of 100 hours, with my first 1 CC taking me 66. I am very specific where I bomb at this point almost every run. Places I bomb every run:

Stage 2 boss - right after the tower passes just as the 8 missile silos appear.
Stage 3 mid boss.
Stage 3 boss.
Stage 4 boss.

The places I sometimes bomb - Gonna borrow Kiken's video for this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtnlxTIMeCM

Stage 4 - 2:15, 3:40, and 4:30 (used to be always, but after seeing the video again it may become a never:)

As far as tips?

Before my first clear I used practice mode to identify the parts (specifically stages 3 and 4) where I ALWAYS bombed. I was able to work out paths without bombing for 90% of those problem areas. And I got to the point where I can get to the final stage bombing 4-7 times.

Errpo - I figured the routes would mostly be the same. I am just curious if I'll have the patience and desire to the see the 2nd loop through.

[EmperorIng]

Got to 1-6 on Raiden (on the 1P side ) - getting closer to getting a clear of the game. The game is marathon-length.

Afterwards, it's either Shienryu or a Takumi game.

I want to congratulate Hypnos on all the Mars Matrix work he's been doing. I want to jump back in but the game is so intense that I know it will take forever to get to where I want to be. Maybe I'll "settle" for Giga Wing 2...

[LordHypnos]

Got to 1-6 on Raiden (on the 1P side ) - getting closer to getting a clear of the game. The game is marathon-length.

Afterwards, it's either Shienryu or a Takumi game.

I want to congratulate Hypnos on all the Mars Matrix work he's been doing. I want to jump back in but the game is so intense that I know it will take forever to get to where I want to be. Maybe I'll "settle" for Giga Wing 2...

Wow, nice Raiden progress, especially for using 1p, not that I'm terribly familiar with the game, but it always seemed pretty hard to me with all them fast bullets. Especially the bosses and the snipers that shoot you from behind.

Thanks for your compliments on mars Matrix I gotta say that it would be nice to have someone to play with. It's not that hard of a game, you just need to quick kill the second boss, find a route through the third stage, quick kill the 3rd boss, find a route through the fourth stage, memorize tap patterns for the bullet hell after the 4th stage midboss (they're actually pretty easy tap patterns), learn to read the bosses second pattern... okay it's pretty hard. But it's a really fun game!

Currently still struggling to not die in the fifth stage (getting better, though), find the safespot consistently on the third car of the 5th stage boss, and stay alive long enough to get past the final car of the fifth stage boss. Also still dying a lot in the fourth stage, and occasionally stupidly in the 2nd and 3rd. Thank goodness that there are two (fairly easy to get) extends in this game. I have managed to get 1.6+ million experience twice, though

EDIT: don't you want to be this guy?

[Jonst]

Cheers Stevens! It's early days but I'll crack on with it.