The BIG thread of Shmup grievances.

[Kollision]

What a coincidence!
Last night I had two awful runs on Gradius III. In both I died stupidly in the organic stage, then I proceeeded to meet my doom in fire and vegetation.
Then I went for practice on the cube rush and died on that part in the fortress where those things move up and down in a maze shooting straight lasers. I always scrape the lower border in order to flee, but somehow I rammed Vic Viper against that most dangerous laser, the one that manages to get you from time to time even if you stay low...

Anyway, once the boss rush boss is bridged I'm confident I'll get the clear.
It's just that on wait set to zero those lasers get too fuckin' fast (no laser from me anymore). And that bloody creature rammed on me 4 times yesterday!!!

[Squire Grooktook]

Gradius 3 is like a mistress. She may feel good for a while. But you have that sense of guilt after. She abuses you, and yet it's enjoyable. Gradius 3 is like meth, not even once. Gradius 3 was the one who shot Kennedy. Gradius 3 is a punch to the ball sack, by Bruce lee's one inch punch. For some reason I find myself knocking on its abusive door every now and again.

On the other hand, Snes Gradius III is your innocent childhood sweet heart who you grew up together with.

[mastermx]

Gradius 3 is like a mistress. She may feel good for a while. But you have that sense of guilt after. She abuses you, and yet it's enjoyable. Gradius 3 is like meth, not even once. Gradius 3 was the one who shot Kennedy. Gradius 3 is a punch to the ball sack, by Bruce lee's one inch punch. For some reason I find myself knocking on its abusive door every now and again.

On the other hand, Snes Gradius III is your innocent childhood sweet heart who you grew up together with.

I've only ever played arcade gradius 3. I've heard that the snes version is much more enjoyable in terms of difficulty. I've even read interviews where the devs say they were not completely happy with gradius 3 arcade.

[BIL]

I remember years back telling people on some random gaming forum about "Gradius III Arcade," and most assuming I meant the SNES version on its highest difficulty level. More than one jibe of

"PFFT thats easy try CONTRA III HARD or ACTRAISER PROFESSIONAL"

was followed by the lamentation

"OH MA GAWRD, THIS FUCKIN RIDICUROUS"

after a clarification and basic MAME directions. I like to think at least a few carried on this tradition...

FROM LEGEND TO MYTH is the most eternally balls-out grandiose subtitle imaginable, befitting of such an ordeal. YOU REALLY HITTIN THE BIG LEAGUES NOW SON

[Patashu]

Gradius 3 AC had its difficulty scaled super hard after complaints that Gradius 1 and 2 AC were too easy/getting consistently 1CC'd by players. Thanks for being good at video games, jerks!

[Pteriforever]

When you die in the last ten seconds of a game 4 times without getting the 1cc

[hien]

Cotton 2 proves to me yet again, that I suck balls at this genre. Played some rounds the other day and it only made the replays I've seen so far seem more impressive. Though I basically like the gameplay a lot, the "physics" combined with the, dunno, sluggishness just kill me and make me swear in anger at the screen. At the moment, nothing seems controllable or consistent to me and every attempt feels different. The best thing I could come up with was a 131 Chain with a score slightly below the 3 million in the fourth stage (which simply destroys me btw.) and it completely felt like pure luck. Though probably being one of the easier shmups, I don't see me ever 1CCing this.
Also took a look at Boomerang afterwards and boy, it's even worse. Wasn't it supposed to be the noob version in the eyes of some here?

[ACSeraph]

Oh my fucking god seriously fuck you R-type Final stage 2 midboss!

How are you supposed to deal with this thing? Fucking trial and error bullshit why the fuck do I even play this hori shit -_0

[Jonst]

^ though it was just me.I tried to go back to this a little while ago,the stage 2 mid boss reminded me why I stopped playing the this first time.It is a painfully frustrating game.i feel your pain,I remember wanting to rip my hair out at that boss,the first time I got there,initially I thought it was my lack of experience.It wasn't.it's just hard dull game that I have no desire to learn.

[Softdrink 117]

Oh my fucking god seriously fuck you R-type Final stage 2 midboss!

Uh... what midboss? I don't remember stage 2 having a midboss, and I just checked youtube to confirm and couldn't find anything. What exactly are you talking about?

[Pretas]

Oh my fucking god seriously fuck you R-type Final stage 2 midboss!

How are you supposed to deal with this thing?

Use the Strike Bomber's Wave Cannon, it kills most enemies in a single shot with only two bars of charge. Alternatively, the Ragnarok II's cannon will kill anything without heavy armor at charge level 7. These two ships completely break the game.

[Jonst]

Oh my fucking god seriously fuck you R-type Final stage 2 midboss!

Uh... what midboss? I don't remember stage 2 having a midboss, and I just checked youtube to confirm and couldn't find anything. What exactly are you talking about?

You're quite right softdrink,it's the stage 2 boss.I also thought this was a mid boss,probably due to the short length of the stage.

[ACSeraph]

Oh my fucking god seriously fuck you R-type Final stage 2 midboss!

Uh... what midboss? I don't remember stage 2 having a midboss, and I just checked youtube to confirm and couldn't find anything. What exactly are you talking about?

You're quite right softdrink,it's the stage 2 boss.I also thought this was a mid boss,probably due to the shirt length of the stage.

Yeah it was this, the stage was so short I just assumed at the time that it was the midboss.

[Softdrink 117]

You're quite right softdrink,it's the stage 2 boss.I also thought this was a mid boss,probably due to the shirt length of the stage.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah the stage 2 boss can be very annoying. The easiest way to kill him is either to just time him out (sit in the upper right corner with your Force in front of you and you'll quickly learn his patterns well enough to time him out with a minimum of effort; this can also be helpful if you just want to unlock ships because it's by far the easiest way to beat him with some of the worse ships in the game and adds to your playtime counter to boot) or to use a ship with a penetrating or radial damage wave cannon. The Strike Bomber's cannon, as Pretas mentioned, will one-hit-kill the boss, and in fact about 95% of the enemies in the game as well. Most ships with a radial bursting cannon (such as the Andromalius and successors) will be able to strike the boss's weakpoint even when it is on the other side of the screen.

The way to beat it with any ship if it puts the weakpoint on the other side is to duck underneath it after putting your Force behind you. You can also, if you are willing to sacrifice some frontal defense, put your Force up against the far edge and then trap it behind the boss; this makes it much easier to push the weakpoint back to the front if it goes to the other side, but does leave you more vulnerable if you can't react quickly to the boss' attacks.

[Jonst]

Haha! I just noticed my quote says "shirt length" instead of short length!

[ACSeraph]

Thanks for the advice, I sort of figured it out earlier using the normal force behind you method. I don't have any game breaking ships yet. I'm a bit curious what those red and blue switches that come out of the boss do though. I think what makes it so frustrating is your massive hitbox combined with virtually no space to move. On the left side even hugging to left edge I would keep getting barely clipped by the tentacle and dying, which was compounded by the fact I was on 2.2 and the water obscures your view as you are coming up. It's kind of a shittily designed boss honestly, they need to give you just slightly more space to work with your positioning. The main thing I figured out regarding killing it is just to be patient and hide behind your force until it's really really safe to move. There's no point in taking any risks at all to kill it quickly. Very dull.

[stryc9]

Those blue and red switches you mention have something to do with toggling different versions of stage 2 IIRC.

[Pteriforever]

The number of times I've lost on the last ten seconds of Crimzon Clover World Ignition has now risen to 7.

Still no 1cc.

[mastermx]

The number of times I've lost on the last ten seconds of Crimzon Clover World Ignition has now risen to 7.

Still no 1cc.

I had that happen to me with Ikaruga. I know those feels Bro.

[LordHypnos]

Mars Matrix stage 6, guys. Sometimes it feels like the easiest stage in the game, and other times totally impossible. This is true to some extent with any stage, but usually in any given day it will be consistent. Not so with Stage 6.

Also that feel where you keep fucking up on something that you weren't even having trouble with the day before

[Jonst]

^ different games,but man we're having the same experiences! I either get myself into a mindset that I have to play a perfect game,then I'm on edge and overreact and make stupid mistakes or I handle all the usual tricky bits perfectly,then get taken out by random stupid stuff!

But I can still taste that clear!!

Keep going lordhypnos!!

[LordHypnos]

SRSLY! Losing in the last ten seconds of a game. The worst!

[DestroyTheCore]

I can't figure how to dodge some of the patterns from Ketsui's 4th boss, for instance when it shoots horizontal and vertical bullets simultaneously. Also the part when there's a drone on top of the screen while the boss is shooting swirling bullets. Arrrgh!

[Bananamatic]

Also the part when there's a drone on top of the screen while the boss is shooting swirling bullets. Arrrgh!

unlock from the boss and lock the drone and stay above the boss

[DestroyTheCore]

Also the part when there's a drone on top of the screen while the boss is shooting swirling bullets. Arrrgh!

unlock from the boss and lock the drone and stay above the boss

Whenever I try, the drone takes forever to destroy while the swirling pink bullets have enough time to reach the top of the screen and kill me.

[Bananamatic]

the closer you are to the enemy the faster you lock it

just get close to lock on and back off

[DestroyTheCore]

the closer you are to the enemy the faster you lock it

just get close to lock on and back off

Alright. No special trick for the horizontal+vertical pattern? Every single time I'm like:

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Alright. No special trick for the horizontal+vertical pattern? Every single time I'm like:

I think that's normal for Ketsui...

[Blinge]

Recently getting to grips with this pattern myself. I find it's better to start nearer to the boss than you usually would, give yourself a bit of breathing room to move up and down as you try and read the shots.

[Bananamatic]

i think the lines are fired in intervals, just watch the armor pieces as they fly around predicting when and where they fire next and watch out for the vertical shots