Shmup Goals 2015 - The REKT'ining

[Aquas]

2013 Thread, 2014 Thread

2014 has wrapped up, so please feel free to update on your STG successes, failures and inevitable procrastinations of 2014 in the 2014 Thread. Or you could save it for this thread.

2015 is here, and the story of Armed Police Batrider wraps up, Gigantech has fallen.
We may start rebuilding Manhatten with our own enterprises, our own endeavors.
But first, we must reflect on what brought us here, and then post our goals for 2015.

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014: Did a Power-up carrier pick you off or ram into you and ruin the GOD RUN? Whatever comedies/tragedies pop up most clearly to mind go here! These don't have to be specific occurrences but can be generalities as well in your gaming endeavors.

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014: Whether it's a long-time goal achieved by a close friend or a new WR set in one of your favourite games (or both at the same time!), you can post whatever stuff you enjoyed seeing other people do this year here!

Goals for 2015: What do you have your eyes set on achieving next year? List all the clears, scores, and crazy challenges you want to achieve next year here. Be ambitious!

[OPTIONAL] CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS: The fun one. Throw down the gauntlet and challenge someone else to something! This might be to beat one of your scores, or a race to a certain clear, or whatever you like. Remember to keep it a little friendly, but on the other hand, go totally nuts!

Alternatively if you want to be lazy then just post your goals for the year as usual. Are you ready? Your mission starts now.

[Stevens]

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014: Lord Hypnos getting the Mars Matrix clear. It was fun to watch from afar and I suppose in no small way inspired me to try and clear it.

Goals for 2015 in order of desire/ability.

Mars Matrix - Arcade - Cleared 02/26/15
Fast Striker - Original - Cleared 03/07/15
Under Defeat - 2nd Loop - Cleared 05/08/15
Mushi Futari - 1.5 Original - Cleared 11/21/15

Games on my to do list:

Fast Striker - Maniac
Akai Katana - Zetsu/Shin
Zero Gunner 2
Mars Matrix - Elite
Raiden IV - Maybe?

[Blackbird]

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014: Didn't get as many websites to review Crimzon Clover as I would have liked.

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014: Softdrink getting to the loop in Ketsui and freaking out during a live demo. SPS no-missing DOOM live at Stunfest. Kamui's progress towards 21mil in Battle Garegga.

Goals for 2015: Clear Crimzon Clover on Arcade difficulty. Get at least one more great shmup on Steam. Get some clears in other real arcade shmups?

[CloudyMusic]

Favorite Achievements by Others of 2014: x91's 3.1 billion Futari BL Original score. I love seeing high-level BL Original scoreplay, and that was a great run. Also, DEL's Manpuku 2-ALL can't possibly go un-mentioned.

Goals for 2015: Since I have a whole year, I guess I might as well set the bar pretty high. I won't be surprised if I can't get both of these done, but hey, maybe with the motivation I can make some magic happen.

- Clear Futari BL God
- Get to Omote in Ketsui

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Personal Favourite Achievements of 2014: Managing 2 clears I had wanted for a while after finally coming back to the games. Those being Raiden Fighters Jet full clear(on the 360 version's Full Run mode that has you play all 12 of the stages) on 360 Normal Difficulty and 2-All on Muchi Muchi pork version 1.01.

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014: Outside of not playing too much, not really.

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014: Del's Muchi Muchi Pork 1.01 Manpuku 2-All.


Goals for 2015: And now this is where things are going to get a little crazy, or so I hope.

Upgrade that Raiden Fighters Jet Full Run clear by doing it on Arcade Difficulty(this may be quite difficult as I barely managed it on Normal and the enemy/boss health in Arcade means I'd need to learn to dodge more).

Loop Muchi Muchi Pork version 1.00

2-All Muchi Muchi Pork version 1.00 (probably won't happen, but I do want it)

Go back to Mushihimesama Futari God Mode, relearn it, and finally clear it preferably with Spiritual Larsa

Go back to Judgment SilverSword and finally 1cc Hard with the Default Ship. It's something that really should have happened by now, both for me and others. Also get the Special Clear with Default Ship.


[OPTIONAL] CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:

1cc Hard Mode on Judgment SilverSword with the Default Ship before I do.

For other players that have the 360 Raiden Fighters Aces game, try out Jet's Full Run mode on it. Maybe try to 1cc it on Arcade difficulty before I do or if not go for it on Normal, it's definitely satisfying.

Assuming anyone actually plays this game, 1cc GundeadliGne on Demonic without Nagi cheese. It'd be neat to see how you do it with a character that doesn't completely trivalize it.

And also the Arcade players try out more Touhou and other doujins. Doujin main players, try out more arcade stuff.

[Bananamatic]

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014: not playing enough

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014: manpuku 2-all I guess?

Goals for 2015: clear sdoj expart and beat hibachi with shot
7t+ in CCWI unlimited with type I
get to Larsa in Futari Ultra

[OPTIONAL] CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS: anyone: get into CCWI Unlimited, especially Jaimers

[Tarma]

If I can find time amongst all the other stuff I've gotta do, then I'd like to get good at Pro Gear... not necessarily master it for a 1cc (really don't think I'll have the time for that sadly), but get good enough to chalk up some really good runs & scores and not feel like a total noob at it.

Also like to get a lot better at Air Gallet and Battle Bakraid.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

get to Larsa in Futari Ultra

How far can you already get? I could never manage those stage 1 rocks. I try to follow the replays for that part, but I can't get through them without bombing a lot. There's probably some small or large thing I'm missing involving that section. I'd be a bit more fine with it if it were farther into the game, but for stage 1, it's just nuts. Such a demotivating mode.

[pestro87]

Personal Favourite Achievements of 2014:
• Breaking 4bil in Futari God Mode
• Reclaiming the #1 spot on the online leaderboards with all ship types in Ginga Force on Hard
• Getting a 1CC and letter score with Golden Bat in Garegga
• Started hosting shmupmeets
• Finally got around to doing the Caladrius translation
• Picked up a DFK BL PCB

Personal Goofups of 2014:
• Not picking up the PCB for Garegga. Got tired of playing Garegga in squashed tate on the Saturn port and stopped playing the game altogether because of that.
• Not playing Futari God Mode enough
• Spending too much time grinding credits in Futari God Mode instead of studying superplays

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014:
I'm probably forgetting loads but off the top of my head...

• DEL getting the MMP Manpuku 1.01 2-ALL
• Aquas and chum getting crazy scores in Batrider Advance
• Eaglet getting the Western Record in Garegga with Golden Bat
• STG breaking 100mil in Progear

Goals for 2015:
• Get a memorable score in Futari God Mode. This will be my main focus during 2015
• Keep playing Ginga Force every once in a while
• Not let Xenoblade X devour the entire year
• Play a little more of DFK BL
• Host more shmupmeets

[OPTIONAL] CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
• Play Ginga Force - Score Attack on Hard
• Make 5 posts in the High Score section for every post that you make in the "I'm drunk" thread

[Dipped in Butter]

This year I need to at least 1cc Dodonpachi, then I can get back to work on trying to 1cc crimzon clover.

[Captain]

My only goal is to convert at least three IRL friends into shmuppers this year.

[Icarus]

Things I did in 2014:
• Battle Garegga: E.18 to Stage 7 BOSS, Bornnam (ABC)
http://www.twitch.tv/icarusfw/c/5747017 (24/12/14 - improvement from C.32, F.8 potential)

• Pink Sweets: B.57 to Stage 6, Lace (A)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYFfTNevniU (25/1/14 - improvement from 6.1mil, G.2 potential, haven't played since end-Jan)

• Battle Bakraid: 32.43mil ALL, Normal, Flame Viper (C)
http://www.twitch.tv/icarusfw/c/5375444 (27/10/14 - maybe 6hrs total practice since Jan, just to sharpen chain routes, play it casually on-stream, 70mil potential)

• Crimzon Clover: 8770oku ALL, Original, Type I
http://www.twitch.tv/icarusfw/c/4151564 (14/4/14 - practice for Stunfest 2014, was Western record, 9800oku potential)

• Raiden Fighters: 50.7mil ALL, Judge Spear's Slave
http://www.twitch.tv/icarusfw/c/4274203 (18/5/14 - fun attempt to beat old PB of 48.1mil, done during TRP-STGT, 52mil potential)

• Continuing on towards the tenth episode of the Special Demonstrations series.

• Met up and hung out with everyone in France and Japan.

• Doing a CC Original demo live at Stunfest 2014.

Things I messed up in 2014:
• Probably should have kept going after I hit 8770oku in CC doujin Original.
• Only played Crimzon Clover WI for maybe a week after release before being sidetracked.
• Haven't played Pink Sweets since end-Jan.
• For professional reasons, took several months off to concentrate on studies and work, so ended up being really out of practice.
• I know I can overflow SDOJ AC, just need to learn the last double recharge. However I'm a lazy ass and have stopped trying for now.

Other people's achievements I liked in 2014:
• DEL's MMP! Manpuku 2-ALL
• Kamui's new Gain WR
• All the Great Mahou advancements coming from Japan
• TATEHA's Batrider Advanced WR
• The Western community giving Batrider Advanced and Bakraid Advanced scoring a real push
• Eaglet claiming the Garegga Wild Snail Western record for his own

Goals for 2015
• Keep improving at Garegga through more frequent play, also learning another ship soon
• Finish off routing st6 in Pink Sweets 1.00
• Whatever else comes to mind

(Optional) Challenges to other players
• I can't be the only one here capable of getting a letter in Pink Sweets without infinite lives, right? :p
• Score D or higher in Garegga WITHOUT using Gain or Miyamoto >:3
• Put in some competitive scores, and get these scoreboards moving.

[LordHypnos]

Greatest Personal Achievement of 2014
Mars Matrix, obvs

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014:
Shoulda kept practicing Mars Matrix so as to not lose all of my skills like I did. Should have played a few more times to get a slightly better score. I think I could have.

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014:
Definitely enjoyed DEL's Manpuku ALL, that was intense. AC Seraph's WR score in Caladrius was pretty cool. There were probably others that I'm forgetting. In addition I really enjoyed watching the progress made by Jonst playing Ketsui X mode, Stevens playing Under Defeat, and PTG playing... well a lot of different games, at the same time as I was working on Mars Matrix, because it really helped motivate me a lot.

Goals for 2015:
Samidare 1LC
non-scoring (probably) 1-ALL of a Psikyo game, a CAVE game, a Yagawa game, a Toaplan game, and a Touhou normal difficulty (yeah I know I should aim higher than Touhou normal difficulty, but seeing as I have yet to achieve that, I think I'll keep it modest for now)
Eschatos 1cc (Not yet sure which difficulties)
Actually get an Xbox 360
Finally clear CC:WI novice mode (Again, kind of modest, but I can always increase this later)
Learn how to play Mars Matrix again, and actually practice it regularly
Play more free games (There's a lot of very fun ones that I haven't given enough time to yet)

I probably will change this a lot over time based on how much time I feel I can actually dedicate to shmups, among other factors.

CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:

Spoiler

[Shepardus]

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014: Lost a Cho Ren Sha 68k 1CC at the stage 3-0 boss (stage 0 of second loop, boss right before the TLB), and another run somewhere else in 3-0. I can't focus for the entirety of two loops...

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014: Kamui's new record in Battle Garegga, enough said.

Goals for 2015: Gonna go for quantity over quality here and shoot for a bunch of 1CCs, with some extra "stretch goals" if that proves too easy. Maybe I'll leave scoring decently for 2016, after I've gotten some more experience overall.

• Finish clearing all the Extra stages in the Windows Touhou games, meaning Touhou 12, 12.8, and 13. If Touhou 15 comes out this year I'll count that as a stretch goal.
• Progear 1-ALL - Looping the game is a stretch goal for myself.
• Armed Police Batrider Advance 1CC - I've just started trying out solo Shorty-C and this may end up being a lot easier than I thought it would be, so clearing with a mixed team and a letter score is a stretch goal.
• Battle Garegga 1CC - Letter score as a stretch goal.
• Crimzon Clover World Ignition Arcade 1CC - Either Boost or Original, both is a stretch goal.
• R-Type 1CC - Because I feel like I ought to clear a pre-90s classic, and I like R-Type.
• Deathsmiles 1CC (all stages Rank 3, with Canyon stage) - Preferably during October. I've previously gotten a 1CC with 4 stage Rank 3 and no EX stage; I want to get it with the EX stage, but I need to get a lot better at absorbing the suicide bullets.
• Dangun Feveron 1CC
• Cho Ren Sha 2-ALL - See my screw-ups of 2014. Man, multi-loop games really stretch my ability to focus.
• Get off my lazy ass and make a shmup of my own, or at least make significant progress on one.

So there we have it, some not-very-ambitious goals for myself. It's a start, though, and through this I hope to improve my understanding of shmups and what I'm realistically capable of, so later I can set my sights higher and figure out what I want to focus on mastering the most.

[Perikles]

Greatest Personal Achievement of 2014:
Cleared almost every HuCard and MD shooter in a pretty timely manner. Granted, a lot of those clears are nothing to write home about, but I love the 16-bit era and I already did my homework on the SFC, thus, it was only logical to continue on the other systems.

I gathered a few tougher clears on the way (both Tatsujins, Raidens, Undeadline 1LC on Crazy to name just three) so I can't be too sad about that. Additionally, I looped some Konami and Toaplan games (13 loops of Slap Fight MD, 6 loops of Hellfire, 2 loops of Kyuukyoku Tiger...) which was fun.

I 1LC'ed R-Type I & II (first loop only) and Delta. Surprisingly, I was able to clear R-Type II in just two days, it was almost like some sort of demonic possession. Very glad about that.

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014:
Couldn't muster the patience to beat Aero Blasters (MD & PCE), V-V or Violent Soldier. Didn't even attempt to finally clear the first loop of Gradius III (AC).

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014:
Kollision's 1-ALL of Gradius III.
Saucykobold never ceases to amaze me with his incredible runs. I'm always left in awe watching his videos. Not too many players are able to crush those classic Konami and Irem games like it is the easiest thing in the world.

Goals for 2015:
I don't have too many plans, although it'd be nice to clear more arcade-accurate ports now that I'm mostly done with the 16-bit systems. Raiden should definitely be doable after the practice I got with the ports, to cite just one example.

[laml]

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014: getting mad at videogames

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014: chum quitting StB

Goals for 2015:
- DOJ/Ketsui/Gunbird2 1-ALLs (putting this down so i maybe stop being a lazy ass)
- Any Touhou cleared on lunatic
- have fun playing videogames

[Bonus!]

Greatest Personal Achievement of 2014:
Didn't get to play as much as I would have liked, but I cleared a few shmups on PC. One highlight is no-missing stage 5 (including TLB) in Crimzon Clover: WI Novice. Also, getting into one game and sinking some time into it: again, Crimzon Clover.
Lastly, getting proper equipment was great. I play with keyboard on PC, but on X360 I now wield proper Japanese arcade parts.

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014:
installing OS X Mavericks on my main machine, an not being able to run SDL MAME on it (there was probably a way around; the issue is that the precompiled SDL library has a bug and can't be installed, but I don't enjoy that kind of troubleshooting)

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014:
I think the special demonstrations Icarus puts out are pretty great. Mushihimesama Futari BL (God Mode - NAK, 7.18bil ALL, Reco) was nice to watch. Further, it's great to see Edward/kollision work his way through the entire genre. That's pretty cool to see, not just because his blog made me think that I should see whether I could 1cc some games myself, which in turn led to a drastic change of my gaming habits.

Goals for 2015:
- 1cc'ing Crimzon Clover original (doujin release) with Type-I
- 1cc'ing one of {Donpachi, Dodonpachi, Espgaluda, Progear}
- playing more regularly

[Cata]

Just got into shmups last year so not gonna be too hard on myself for not having a 1cc yet.

For 2015 I'd like to:

1. 1cc first loop of Ketsui
2. 1cc Mushihimesama Original
3. 1cc DoDonPachi
4. 1cc one more game on top of these, undecided

[Lilium]

Personal Biggest Achievements of 2014: Reaching far into second loops of various Cave games.

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014: Not 2-all'ing the same Cave games... by which I mean being lazy lazy lazy and playing like 20 games at once.

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014: I don't even know where to begin on this one. Most fascinating have been watching the Japanese players tear up various shmups. To mention just one, 3.6 billion in Perfect Cherry Blossom is just one of the cases of wow.

Goals for 2015: Dunno if I wanna put out any concrete goals since I'll probably just be playing whichever title I feel like on any given day but two major trials lie ahead: Play more and get into playing more for points.

CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS: Try clearing a Touhou game. Without it being Imperishable Night or Perfect Cherry Blossom. Without it being on Normal. Begin with UFO Lunatic.

Softdrink 117 should clear UFO Lunatic with the IIDX controller. Yes.

[EmperorIng]

Goals:

1CC/1ALL

• G-Darius
• Gradius
• Raiden
• RayForce
• RayCrisis
• Sorcer Striker or Kingdom GrandPrix
• Soukyogurentai
• Strider 2
• Strikers 1945 II

A hefty challenge, but it's about time I put some of these games to rest (I've made it to the final stages of RayForce, RayCrisis, and Souky). Time to put in something like a half-hour of practice a day!

[z0mbie90]

Just have one goal for 2015 and that is play more STGs

[Bananamatic]

How far can you already get? I could never manage those stage 1 rocks. I try to follow the replays for that part, but I can't get through them without bombing a lot. There's probably some small or large thing I'm missing involving that section. I'd be a bit more fine with it if it were farther into the game, but for stage 1, it's just nuts. Such a demotivating mode.

I didn't even get the game yet lol, shipping is hella slow now

though the stages apparently aren't that bad and the harder parts are early on which is arguably better
the only real hard part for survival is the st2 boss, then it's a matter of not fucking up and I don't see any real chokepoints in there like DDP 2-5 midpoint or DOJBL 2-3 boss final/2-4 cartridges
I'd say it's definitely easier than clearing SDOJ EX, reaching Larsa with 4-5 lives and then not fucking it up anyways is where the real difficulty comes from

[spadgy]

Personal shmup goals for 2015?

Mainly, continue going to meets and other arcade events, meeting fellow players/members on my travels, hanging out with the shmup crew from the now defunct Casino Arcade in London, and hopefully hosting my own meet.

Other than that, I'd love to 1CC some classics - Raiden 1 and Gradius 1 namely.

And I'd love to get to that second loop of Progear. That would make me tremendously happy.

On that note, tating my PVM back to yoko so I can give more horis love!

Oh... and update my high score board and other threads here much more regularly. That one's a promise!

Favourite 2014 achievements by other players?

That would be seeing some of my UK arcade/meet crew like Smraeids, DEL and Icarus tear it up doing demo plays on stage at Stunfest 2014 arcade festival, joining the best in the world.

[Zaarock]

Personal Favourite Achievements of 2014: Some good progress on Hellsinker, but I quit too early to get near WRs.

Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2014: Didn't play STGs much.

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014: DEL's Muchi Muchi Pork Manpuku 2-All. new Garegga WR by Kamui. AC Seraphs & LordHypnos enthusiasm for their games & great scores. Various runs by Jaimers.

Goals for 2015:
- Play more regularly (not necessarily more at a time)
- QP shooting - dangerous!! Super 1CC & >60 million
- Sora 1CC on hard or normal
- Go for score in some Cave STG or Crimzon Clover WI
- Improve short or full mission score in Hellsinker
- Get more people into versus shooters (Acceleration of Suguri 2, Senko no Ronde, etc..)
- Try to get into STGs from more developers

[OPTIONAL] CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
- Play Aero Chimera
- Play Ginga Force - Score Attack on Hard
- Keep the scoreboards going!

[ProjectAKo]

I must 2-ALL aero fighters 2.

[Jonst]

favorite personal achievements of 2014:
1cc's of donpachi (1 all/2/2)
dodonpachi (1 all)
mushi futari 1.5 original
ketsui x-mode
ketsui arcade (1 all)
batrider (normal course)
mmp arrange
... and significant improvements to my doj game...
Getting married!

personal screw-ups of 2014:
I can't really complain about anything,2014 was an unexpectedly good year for me especially playing wise! (a good year is rare for me)

Favorite achievements by others 2014:
Lord hypnos - mars matrix 1cc. His dedication to the game was admirable and spurred me on in my darkest moments with ketsui, i felt like i was on the journey with him!
blinge - ketsui 1cc. This spurred me on to clear arcade mode myself after x-mode left me feeling slighly hollow. He was also supportive when i started to despair.
chempop - dangun feveron 1cc. I love the way he applies himself to games, the clears are never far away! i'm trying to adopt this approach myself, with some degree of success over the last year...

Goals for 2015:
My only immediate goal is 1 all mmp clear (i'm close!) beyond that, whatever i feel like playing that i really get in to. I won't set myself any strict goals... but i do have some ideas.
Be more active on the leaderboards, this was something i started to get into towards the end of last year.
Finally start the akai katana guide with acseraph...

(optional) challenges to other players:
GIVE AKAI KATANA A CHANCE!!... or just play it moreand give this superb game some much needed love and appreciation! (shin or zetsu modes,arcade is weakest)

[spadgy]

- Keep the scoreboards going!

This! I've a shmup goal for all of you. Submit your scores on our boards! And run one if you fancy it. Posting less than impressive score is a great motivator, and you get to see yourself climb. Posting dazzling scores in just outright excellent.

Get involved, all of you!

And to add my own Optional Challenge for Everyone:

Play some Raiden III or IV double play. It's how those games are supposed to be played, I swear, and it's insanely rewarding. Know my scores down a peg or two (I ain't all that).

[Kollision]

Favourite Achievements by Others of 2014:
Since we tend to keep close watch on the games we're actually playing, I'll mention Kino's outstanding performances on Cotton 2, Battletoad's 3-ALL on Axelay, everything Caladrius by ACSeraph and Biesendorf's ALL on Raystorm.

Goals for 2015:
I want to keep it simple and see if I can clear the remaining objectives of two years ago, so it should be Raystorm and After Burner Climax.
Only when I've done those two I'll focus on new objectives.

CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS: Raystorm

[Stevens]

I'll probably get shit for this...but I do NOT like Raystorm.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Just did a quick run of JSS Hard to see where I was after the year+ of not playing the game. Around 27 million on Area 23. Not bad considering I died on Area 5, twice on Area 12 + a dropped extend on Area 12, and several Mirror Shield deaths cause I didn't really remember certain patterns.

I'm sure next times will be a bit better, but it's nice to see I haven't forgotten everything about this game. Obviously do have some work to do still. I'll do some quick runs of the other games in my goal list soon to see how much I've forgotten since only MMP is somewhat recent.