Racketboy "Shmups for Beginners" Article: IT'S UP! 6-21-15

[BulletMagnet]

EDIT: It's up! Check it out!

[BulletMagnet]

EDIT: Article up!

[BulletMagnet]

EDIT: Article up!

[MovingTarget]

Holy cow thats long, gonna attempt a read after a wee psyche up

[BulletMagnet]

Heh, it's not as readable without the formatting and images and whatnot, but any effort to digest it is appreciated, take as much time to get through it as you need.

[alamone]

Minor quip but I'd say Trouble Witches is more "inspired" by stuff like Magical Chase and Cotton. Especially the shop, heh.
I also seem to recall that the devs don't really like Touhou that much, but I don't know the details on that.

[BulletMagnet]

When I compared Trouble Witches to Touhou I meant in the sense that both featured playable girls with magic powers, but I can see how that could be confused with a more general juxtaposition, I'll probably hafta reword that.

[MovingTarget]

I read most of it, and it was good. Very informative and in detail, maybe the article became a bit too bogged down in more obscure titles, but I dunno, that could be the formatting, the time of night, and the quantity of alcohol consumed by myself...

[Dave_K.]

Suggested Followup: To the best of my knowledge no other shooter has ever adopted Dogyuun's unique “combine and conquer” approach to shooting,

Allumer/Yang Cheng's "War of Aero" has a two player ship linking and unlinking function much like Dogyun. Its a hidden gem of a game that a lot of people write off as a simple Image Fight clone.

Lightning Fighters / Trigon also has a two player ship linking ability, but its only based on one particular weapon powerup item.

[CStarFlare]

I read most of it, and it was good. Very informative and in detail, maybe the article became a bit too bogged down in more obscure titles, but I dunno, that could be the formatting, the time of night, and the quantity of alcohol consumed by myself...

It's very, very long. It could be sold as a kindle single. I tossed the text into a word document, and at 12 point/.75 inch margins font it comes to 34 full pages.

I think the suggested followups could be slimmed down a bit. Some of the sections could use a little less background: some of these go two full paragraphs without turning their focus to the specific game being presented to new players. Interesting information, but I think info for beginners is in danger of being drowned out with in more general info.

[nosorrow]

I love that it is so comprehensive. I see it as a guide/reference tool, not as a novel that you read from the first page to the last. The more insight the better and it is chock full of it. Good stuff, I'll come back to it pretty often.

[Herr Schatten]

I think it's brilliant.

One minor thing, though: Are you sure that Sonic Wings Limited is on NeoGeo? I thought that was arcade only, and tate at that (which would rule out most NG setups).

[BulletMagnet]

that could be the formatting, the time of night, and the quantity of alcohol consumed by myself...

As with most everything else, reading my article while pickled is guaranteed to make it better, if only temporarily.

Allumer/Yang Cheng's "War of Aero" has a two player ship linking and unlinking function much like Dogyun. Its a hidden gem of a game that a lot of people write off as a simple Image Fight clone.

Lightning Fighters / Trigon also has a two player ship linking ability, but its only based on one particular weapon powerup item.

Wasn't aware of those, will check them out!

Interesting information, but I think info for beginners is in danger of being drowned out with in more general info.

Racketboy certainly isn't a stranger to how long some of my write-ups can get, but this is definitely a fair point - the idea was to both introduce newbies to gentler stuff and give them a nudge in a more challenging direction, so as to reinforce the notion that when you improve you open up loads more stuff to enjoy. Of course, it's entirely possible to overdo it, which wouldn't be out of character for me, so I'll keep an eye out for ways to pare things down a little.

I see it as a guide/reference tool, not as a novel that you read from the first page to the last.

Yeah, most of my Racketboy stuff is intended like that, though I do like to aim for making my stuff readable enough that someone could (at least theoretically) go through the whole thing without losing interest; attempting to strike the right balance is part of the reason it always takes me so darn long to finish these projects, heh.

One minor thing, though: Are you sure that Sonic Wings Limited is on NeoGeo? I thought that was arcade only, and tate at that (which would rule out most NG setups).

Hmm, will check into that.

Thanks much for the input so far everyone!

[Bonus!]

That's a nice article!

Maybe make the point that people should start getting a game for a system they own. You also might want to add a short summary table where you list systems and recommended games.

I thought of this when I was recently introducing a friend of mine IRL to Crimzon Clover, which was helped by the fact that he is active on Steam. On the other hand, telling him to buy a console and import some game from Japan would have represented an infinitely bigger hurdle. Of course, the question is who the intended audience of this article is. To me it reads as if it is targeting people who are collecting retro games and have a whole array of old systems at home, and not the general lay person, who might only have a PC, and not even own a game console.

[professor ganson]

Super interesting and a joy to read-- I'm about half of the way through so far. My favorite aspects of the article are: how it is mainly focused on recommendations and how the recommendations are more quirky and interesting than usual (as I would expect from you!). My first thought on the introductory remarks is this. I like the concise and useful guidelines you have and I just thought you might add one or two more. (Yes, I know the article is already quite long.) These points are probably already covered in the 101 article, but it might be helpful for newbies to be introduced to the idea of different basic goals: getting as far as you can with no continues vs. getting the best score you can with 1 credit. You could explain how using multiple credits can be useful for practice, but the basic goals of a shmup are (i) to clear the game on one credit OR (ii) to get the highest score (relative to some context or other). I also thought it might be nice to say something more in the introductory remarks about subgenres-- but without getting into any definitional issues that will turn most readers off. It might be good to be up front about how one of the things that keeps people coming back to the genre is that great diversity of approaches to the fairly simple idea of a shooter.

[BulletMagnet]

Maybe make the point that people should start getting a game for a system they own. You also might want to add a short summary table where you list systems and recommended games.

I did include a segment about "shmup-friendly" systems in this article, though it's not quite the same thing...your suggestion is sound, but I am a bit worried about coming to any manner of consensus on the "top 3" shmups for any system (wasn't there a topic similar to that recently?), or, heck, even deciding which systems to list in the first place (how obscure do we get?). I'll hafta think this one over...

To me it reads as if it is targeting people who are collecting retro games and have a whole array of old systems at home, and not the general lay person, who might only have a PC, and not even own a game console.

Another fair point, though I honestly couldn't say how much of racketboy's readership is composed of "enthusiasts" versus "I think I have some games on my hard drive" types. I definitely don't want to alienate any particular type of reader, but at the same time I can't cater to absolutely everyone in a single write-up either...I hoped that having a specific doujin section (which is comprised almost entirely of PC shooters) would help to mitigate this, but if you think I ought to do more in this area is there anything specific you can think of?

These points are probably already covered in the 101 article, but it might be helpful for newbies to be introduced to the idea of different basic goals: getting as far as you can with no continues vs. getting the best score you can with 1 credit.

I suppose it couldn't hurt to reinforce those particular axioms, especially since they're so infrequently invoked in this day and age, but I'd need a bit of time to figure out the best way to sneak them in...

I also thought it might be nice to say something more in the introductory remarks about subgenres-- but without getting into any definitional issues that will turn most readers off.

I could probably work a sentence or three in there on this; maybe it'd fit into the Ed-Oscuro-inspired "just play whatever attracts you" section.

[professor ganson]

I feel like a newb not knowing (or probably just forgetting) about a shmup mentioned in a "for Beginners" article, namely, Astro Warrior, which looks like a pretty nice exclusive for SMS. The controllers for that system are really flimsy-- really don't like them-- so I'm not sure I would recommend a beginner seek out the system + game. But it's still a better recommendation than Star Soldier if only because it's different. (Yes, Astro Warrior is apparently on "iOS", but I still can't bring myself to think of that as a proper platform for shmups.)

[BulletMagnet]

I feel like a newb not knowing (or probably just forgetting) about a shmup mentioned in a "for Beginners" article, namely, Astro Warrior, which looks like a pretty nice exclusive for SMS.

I've never played a Master System game in my life, so I hadn't heard of that particular item myself before someone here suggested it, heh.

[cham0mile]

I think this is well done. If you ever wanted to publish this as a single, as some users suggested, would you have a works cited/source page?

I wanted to write my own essays and maybe cover some lessor known titles, Genesis/Master system.
Would you have any suggestions or resources you could share when gathering STG information?

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ Seems to be my go-to for some things.

I'd like to see more cohesive articles and essays on this genre.
It makes me think back to the Pink bullets zine and how much I'd like to see another magazine compilation.

[Herr Schatten]

I feel like a newb not knowing (or probably just forgetting) about a shmup mentioned in a "for Beginners" article, namely, Astro Warrior, which looks like a pretty nice exclusive for SMS. The controllers for that system are really flimsy-- really don't like them-- so I'm not sure I would recommend a beginner seek out the system + game. But it's still a better recommendation than Star Soldier if only because it's different.

There are better controllers for the SMS available than the default ones, namely the SG Commander manufactured by Hori, but Sega released those very late in the SMS's lifetime, so they are not easy to find these days. However, you could always just use a Mega Drive/Genesis controller. Only a few Master System games refuse to work with them, and Astro Warrior isn't among those (iirc). Since the game also doesn't use the second button, you could connect a good Joystick that fits the controller port, like a Competition Pro or a standard Atari 2600 stick. Compatible sticks are very common and good ones are easy to come by.

[professor ganson]

Very interesting. Those alternative controller options might just make it worthwhile to revisit the SMS some day. Thanks!

[Bonus!]

I hoped that having a specific doujin section (which is comprised almost entirely of PC shooters) would help to mitigate this, but if you think I ought to do more in this area is there anything specific you can think of?

If you think it's an issue, and want to cover your bases, you could simply point out that you understand that some of the recommendations may be for relatively uncommon systems, and cost a fair bit of money. But on the other hand, Doujins offer a great starting point for people who may just have a PC. Crimzon Clover is $10 bucks, and has a very well-paced novice mode, etc.

As I said, for a hardcore/collector audience, this is a superfluous statement, but genuine newbies, maybe the kind of people who just watched the HARDEST VIDEOGAME BOSS EVER video or have heard of Touhou, might appreciate it.

[BulletMagnet]

If you ever wanted to publish this as a single, as some users suggested, would you have a works cited/source page?

I feel a bit silly saying so but I'm not sure what "publishing as a single" even means, so I honestly couldn't tell you, heh. I've only ever really done articles that were specifically requested of me (in case it wasn't obvious, writing isn't my day job), so I usually just include relevant links and a brief "thank you" segment when it comes to crediting sources.

Would you have any suggestions or resources you could share when gathering STG information?

Honest to goodness, a lot of the "research" I do for my shooter-related writing is simply hanging around here; in fact, that's why I always post my articles here before I send them off to whoever assigned them, so that the community can have a whack at them first, and pick up on stuff that I missed. Of course, I also do use HG101 and other places too (on that note, the Deathsmiles, Espgaluda and Shadow Hearts articles there are mine, though the former two are in need of cleanup), but I can say honestly that when it comes to shooters most of my fact-checking comes courtesy of the folks around you: if you do a topic-title search for "HG101" or "Racketboy" in the "Shmups Chat" section of the forum you can see the previous threads I started like this one.

If you think it's an issue, and want to cover your bases, you could simply point out that you understand that some of the recommendations may be for relatively uncommon systems, and cost a fair bit of money. But on the other hand, Doujins offer a great starting point for people who may just have a PC.

That sounds pretty painless, I'll probably put something like that in there.

[CStarFlare]

Kindle Singles are pieces that authors sell for a buck or two because they're not really full books. He's picking up on my comparison between the length of this and Singles and interpreted it as a suggestion.

[LordHypnos]

Seems pretty solid to me. I thought there was a lot of depth, and it achieved its goal. Bonus points for recommending rRootage to newbies. I really think that would be a good one to get someone hooked on the genre

The only nitpicks I have are: Fire Shark. You say that it is one of Toaplan's more accessible games in terms of difficulty. I understand, however, that that is very much not true of the 1p arcade on defaults (actually one of the hardest, or so I've heard). The genesis version was rebalanced though, and is relatively kind. I'm not really sure about the 2p arcade version.

The other one was in the Genetos section: Galaga does not allow you even limited vertical movement. That wasn't introduced to the series 'til Gaplus (Which I think is called Galaga 3 in some versions), which allows you half of the screen (like that part of Genetos). I don't know if there are any other games that actually do that, either.

Yeah, pretty trivial stuff, I know

[trap15]

Fire Shark is accessible in the versions where it's called Fire Shark. The Japanese 1P version, Same!Same!Same!, on the other hand, it's one of the most brutal games of all time. Japanese 2P version is basically the same as the western release though.

[LordHypnos]

Aha, my bad

[TransatlanticFoe]

Seeing as Batsugun Special gets a lengthy piece, maybe worthwhile mentioning Dodonpachi Saturn mode as a follow-up? It features a similar default difficulty drop and lets you face the true final boss without any of the loop nonsense.

Strikers 1945 is surely a more natural follow-up from Sonic Wings than Gunbird? I can see the logic behind plugging something a bit different but Strikers has to be worth a mention?

I feel like a newb not knowing (or probably just forgetting) about a shmup mentioned in a "for Beginners" article, namely, Astro Warrior, which looks like a pretty nice exclusive for SMS.

I've never played a Master System game in my life, so I hadn't heard of that particular item myself before someone here suggested it, heh.

Please keep this in. The US-centric nature of "the internet" in general means the SMS barely gets a mention half the time, and in shmups terms mostly for R-Type and Power Strike 2.

[BulletMagnet]

The other one was in the Genetos section: Galaga does not allow you even limited vertical movement.

Will rephrase that part!

Fire Shark is accessible in the versions where it's called Fire Shark. The Japanese 1P version, Same!Same!Same!, on the other hand, it's one of the most brutal games of all time. Japanese 2P version is basically the same as the western release though.

I probably ought to include a disclaimer to that effect in there, so as to make sure people grab the appropriate version.

Seeing as Batsugun Special gets a lengthy piece, maybe worthwhile mentioning Dodonpachi Saturn mode as a follow-up?

Y'know what, somehow I never thought of that one...I'll see if I can fit it in someplace.

Strikers 1945 is surely a more natural follow-up from Sonic Wings than Gunbird?

It wouldn't be too big a deal to include it (not that I'd gave to elaborate a whole lot since it plays similarly to Gunbird in many ways), but I seem to recall that Strikers II is the overall favorite around here...which should I stick with? I could do both, but that might get a bit longer, since a handful of things change between the two.

Please keep this in. The US-centric nature of "the internet" in general means the SMS barely gets a mention half the time, and in shmups terms mostly for R-Type and Power Strike 2.

Don't worry, Astro Warrior isn't going anywhere.

[TransatlanticFoe]

I don't think much elaboration other than mentioning the series is really needed - I'd expect anyone who enjoys the Sonic Wings games to get on well with Strikers and, aesthetically, it seems a more natural follow-on for players than Gunbird. Gunbird's change of setting makes it the best choice for more detailed discussion.