Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[StutterFingers]

Finally trying to get good at mushihimesama futari, I've not played much in ages so I suck again.

[professor ganson]

twinbee yahho! - I've always loved this game. Still do.

[Doctor Butler]

BULLET SOUL - INFINITE BURST!!!!!

This some great shit.

[Jonst]

Still ketsui x.Still closer to clearing but not quite.took a break for a couple of days,then got to evacaneer with a life in stock,which was one more than last time.Took him down to a quarter of his energy and beat my previous high score...not bad.

[SMbulletz]

Guwange! One of my all-time favs

[LordHypnos]

Still on Mars Matrix. I just made it to stage 6 again (with around 100 billion more points only, so not going to update my score quite yet), and 2cc'd. I made it to the middle of the 6th stage about on first credit, then no missed it all the way to the final form of the 6th stage boss (which I would have done fine on if were being a normal amount of cautious, b/c that fucker is easy) That was after getting game over in the 3rd stage, once, though. lol. no missed all the way to the 4th stage boss, as well, but got owned for 3 lives in the fifth stage, mostly b/c the boss).

I can practically taste the 1cc, but unfortunately I'm not gonna get any more time to play today

[Stevens]

Still on Mars Matrix. I just made it to stage 6 again (with around 100 billion more points only, so not going to update my score quite yet), and 2cc'd. I made it to the middle of the 6th stage about on first credit, then no missed it all the way to the final form of the 6th stage boss (which I would have done fine on if were being a normal amount of cautious, b/c that fucker is easy) That was after getting game over in the 3rd stage, once, though. lol. no missed all the way to the 4th stage boss, as well, but got owned for 3 lives in the fifth stage, mostly b/c the boss).

I can practically taste the 1cc, but unfortunately I'm not gonna get any more time to play today

And to think I remember ll the way back when you were happy to get to the 3rd stage!

You're stupidly close man. You'll get it soon!

I've been taking a minor break. I'm hitting Test Drive Le Mans for a few days (want to do the 24 hour race).

[Jonst]

Lordhypnos,I'm the same with ketsui x. I can taste the clear also,but I'm starting to get really wound up by the stupid mistakes and fails right at the end...still,I beat my top score today,it now stands at 298 million.

What will you do when you've finally cleared mm?

[Stompp]

I've been playing Espgaluda a lot lately. Very enjoyable game and supposedly in the easier range among Cave titles. Still proves to be a challenge for me though. Great fun, nonetheless

[cave hermit]

I was *this* close to getting my first 1cc. I was playing Mushi Futari Black Label original, and I got to stage 5 for the first time (by the way I didn't get an achievement for beating the stage 4 boss: is there no achievement for doing it in black label?), and I entered on my last life with no bombs, somehow gaining 2 lifes over the course of the level and no missing it. I had lady double chins on the ropes with like a centimeter of life left when I lost my last life.

[LordHypnos]

And to think I remember ll the way back when you were happy to get to the 3rd stage!

I know, isn't that crazy!? It's been a long and arduous journey, but a fun one

You're stupidly close man. You'll get it soon!

Thanks! I hope you're right!

Lordhypnos,I'm the same with ketsui x. I can taste the clear also,but I'm starting to get really wound up by the stupid mistakes and fails right at the end...still,I beat my top score today,it now stands at 298 million.

Aw man, that is indeed rough >_< MM is also definately a game where there are so many opportunities to fuck up.

What will you do when you've finally cleared mm?

I don't even know. Maybe take a break. Probably play some easier games for a bit (Probably freeware ones). I might investigate Dangun Feveron or Dragon Blaze for some other hard games. Or maybe I'll get back to Gunbird 2 and go for a 1-ALL. Maybe look into trying to clear Crimzon Clover: World Ignition, or play Boost for score. I also was at one point pretty close to clearing Fast Striker, and I might work on Mountain of Faith again. I ordered Futari recently (though I don't think it's expected to arrive for a long time). But I don't have a 360 yet. Probably will order Eschatos too, so that's another possibility. It's awfully nice that the 360 has native VGA output, because my current screen is a CRT PC monitor. I'm basically just brainstorming here. lol.

[chempop]

Realized again how I am not much of a Muchi Muchi Pork fan, and then played DOJ to make up for it. Going for the White Label 1ALL which shouldn't be much trouble once I re-familiarize a bit.

[ACSeraph]

R-Type Final

This is apparently what happens when you remove dodging from a shmup entirely and replace it with an endless string of cheap deaths and empty space with no action happening. The learning process is mostly just frustrating, not fun, and once you've learned a stage I find the stages rather easy and boring due to the lack of dodging mentioned earlier. It's like Darius II without all the things that make Darius II worth the frustration and effort.

It was an expensive game, and I'm regretting the purchase.

[BIL]

Out of curiosity, did you get the original or budget print? Thinking of picking up the latter at some point to replace my battered NTSCU copy. I like RTF as fanservice (mostly like it, anyway), but yeah, as a shooter it's not much. Absolutely failed to carry Delta's torch.

[ACSeraph]

Got the original NTSCJ print. I like R-Type as a series, but I have yet to find a copy of Delta. I was wary about buying it after this experience with Final as Delta is also quite expensive, but I'll take your word for it that it's much better.

[BIL]

Delta is so much better that if I dwell on it, I get a bit depressed that Final turned out so fucking awful despite infinitely superior hardware.

A bit like coming off Contra Spirits high as a kite, then remembering there's no PS1 Contra to Gradius Gaiden, Dracula X Nocturne and MGS1. Gahhh!

[chempop]

Were R-Type games ever about dodging?

[ACSeraph]

Were R-Type games ever about dodging?

No, but it still sorta has dodging and action. Final is seriously devoid of dodging, you pretty much can't you'll just die if you're ever in a situation where dodging would be necessary. And I'm really not kidding about how much empty action-less space there is in it. I mean the Gradius series and Darius II aren't about dodging either, but they have it, and the action constantly feels dynamic. There a little bit of room for creativity, whereas the feeling I'm getting from Final so far is "Do this or die." and when you know what "this" is the game is boring and easy.

[LordHypnos]

Playing a bit of rRootage. Took me a bit to re-accustom myself to keyboard controls, but I did end up getting slightly higher scores in 4R and 6R, which was pretty surprising (especially 4R, b/c I already had a really good score, and I lost like 4 lives or something against the final phase of the boss). 7A is still impossible, but I might try working at it a bit in the near future.

[cave hermit]

I downloaded Kaikan today; I love it a lot more than I expected to. Survival wise it's kinda boring (made it to stage 5 on my third try) but the scoring is incredibly fun. After my third try I thought my score was superplay worthy, then on my next run I tried using a bomb on the first boss while I was at A item rank: that one bomb blast gave me enough points to beat my old high score several times over.

I'm actually planning to go for a Muchi Muchi Pork v1.00 1-ALL run.

[LordHypnos]

I've been going back and forth between different games. I was playing CC:WI novice, but kept on dying in the stupidest ways. might try again at some point, though I must ask, why is enemy collision damage even a thing anymore? Is there anyone that likes losing a life from getting bumped by enemies coming onscreen or dive bombing your ship? Especially in CC:WI, where I understand that in many cases you want to kill enemies with lock on for score purposes. I kept overestimating the invincibility time when entering break, and getting kamikazed.

Additionally, was playing Mountain of Faith a bit. I noticed that it was super laggy, so I d/led the vsync patch, and that really made a difference. Improved my score by about 1/3rd (1/2 from before I 1cced Mars Matrix). Still having lots of trouble with the 4th stage though. Running out of energy to bombspam with, and you can't practice it 'til you've cleared it >_< at least not without getting through the earlier stages so that you can start continuing on the stage you can't get past. Note that I also don't know how scoring works in MoF, beyond kind of a vague notion

rRootage also. cleared 7A, but haven't managed 7B yet.

Also briefly visited Batsugun Special, Dragon Blaze, and Dangun Feveron in MAME, as well as Cho Ren Sha 68k in the past few days

And finally, was messing around with Mars Matrix stage 3, because I'm seriously considering trying to learn how to get huge experience from it, and trying to improve my score.

[Prinny]

Was playing Kaikan earlier to relax after playing Perfect Cherry Blossom. I need to work on surviving.

Planning on doing Type II scoring in Crimzon Clover World Ignition in Novice Original later to see if I can go up on the leaderboards. LordHypnos, not sure if it will help but I usually think of my invincibility as the bomb length in touhou (this might not actually help you since my perspective on bomb duration is ReimuB's unfocused bomb in PCB, which is pretty short). The invincibility really isn't long enough for you to stand on top of enemies, but it is long enough to allow for a full lock on once you enter break mode (something I do, especially with the kamikaze ships at the start of stage 2).

[1983parrothead]

Zed Blade - I like Manabu Namiki's soundtrack, as well as its Sweep Records albums.

Armed Police Batrider - This was quite fun. It has several modes.

[cave hermit]

I played the other two games in the YGW Bat trilogy (Armed Police Batrider and Battle Bakraid) for the first time: I really liked Batrider, but Bakraid felt weirdly inferior to Garegga in nearly every way. Batrider made me remember why I began worshipping Lord Yagawa in the first place.

I plan to start trying to 1-ALL Muchi Muchi Pork at some point. If I can stop putting it off.

[Squire Grooktook]

Yes, Batrider is great stuff. Fantastic patterns and the scoring is really fun.

Mostly playing that and Kaikan lately for the tournament.

[professor ganson]

Exed Exes - love love bees!

[Squire Grooktook]

Missed this earlier

Were R-Type games ever about dodging?

I mean the Gradius series and Darius II aren't about dodging either, but they have it,

IMO all shmups, from Cave to Galaga are fundamentally about dodging and shooting. They just have different styles of dodging.

[ACSeraph]

Popped in Vanilla Bullet Soul to give it another go since I've been enjoying Infinite Burst so much. God damn, It's worse than I remember it. How does it manage to be both harder and more boring at the same time. I just can't bring myself to play this trash. Kinda opened my eyes to what a massive improvement IB was.

[cave hermit]

I decided that I'm going to try to 1cc Battle Garegga instead. I love it so much, but it is so frustrating at the same time. As you can probably tell I'm in another one of my Yagawa phases. Yagawa is a harsh god, but it hurts so good.

I still can't get the timing for the hidden 1-up in stage 3: When I knock out everything but the weak central turret and let the hovercraft touch down, I don't have enough time to destroy it (even using the Golden Bat's flame shot) before it scrolls off the screen. Other times I accidentally destroy the whole hovercraft while it's hovering above the landing spot or before destroying all of its weaponry.

[Prinny]

I started playing Genetos. I don't know how or why but I was summoning the bosses I defeated. Not sure what I was doing right (or wrong), but it was an enjoyable experience.