Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Jonst]

^ thanks man! I'll keep going. I've been super close quite a few times, apart from stupid mistakes, my main problem is a really shitty pad that sticks sometimes. It's good to recognise when you know it's time to break from playing. I worked this out a little while back when I was working on ketsui... I know I can do it, and I will... Hopefully sooner rather than later as it's tedious going over and over the first 3 stages and then screwing up volvox at the end of the game. Tedium turns to frustration!

Man, mars matrix sounds too much of a beast to clear, I salute your determination! I have full confidence you'll do it. Sounds like you made fairly quick progress, but yeah, it's all about putting together in that one run...

I'm not sure if the stage 3 extend in fast striker is just down to score? I'm pretty sure I've gotten all secrets on that stage in the past, I've never seen the extend item on that stage. Like I say though, I am a bit rusty with it!

Yeah, I pray ghost blade comes out good. I'm looking forward to it but man, I'm nervous!

[cicada88]

I've been playing Gun-Nac here and there the past couple of days. I used to think this game was mediocre at best but then I turned ricochet bullets on.

When I saw YouTube videos of Gun Nac I thought I'd hate it, but the first time I played It, 2 hours went by as if it were 15 minutes. Like all Compile shmups I've tried, it's super addictive.

I ‹3

[LordHypnos]

Re: Fast Striker
I am like 85% sure that I managed to get the stage 3 extend at least once in the past week or so, but maybe I'm misremembering it. I thought it was just that you needed to kill all of the blue enemies, but I feel like I've done that without getting the extend so it might have several parameters. Maybe it's like devil's rank + no miss + kill all blue guys, or maybe you have to actually start the stage with devil's rank. I'm not really sure, but I'm pretty sure I'm not making this up. I used to always get it (or almost always).

I'm taking a less is more approach with Mars Matrix. I been getting unreasonably frustrated with it lately after extended play sessions. I figured out this morning that no good will come at this point from playing longer than an hour.

Yeah, I think that's very true. The amount that you get from practice does seem to decline if you go on for too long. It's definitely super hard to resist binge practicing though, at least with Mars Matrix, in my experience.

Also best of luck to both you and Jonst on your respective goals. I know you'll get there

[Chaos Phoenixma]

More Hitogata Happa. It just didn't want me to win at all today.


Tried getting a decent Solo Voyage Euridice Rooty, but kept doing badly.

Tried out solo Voyage Euridice Sikkim to see if I could improve my scoring some with that one. I did but it was still a pretty terrible run. Also figured out what I was doing wrong that would make it so I couldn't seem to beat the Mission 0 boss quickly enough with Sikkim(without bomb), which means I may have to go improve on my Destiny 13 again and that mode is a pain in the ass to do right. I think Sikkim Mission 0 + 1 should be better than Rooty Mission 0 and Fortuner Mission 1 for Destiny 13, plus Rooty only works for Mission 0 without bombing on Euridice because only Euridice has a safespot above the boss on the final pattern, so with having to dodge on the other modes, Rooty would time out.

Played some Nobilmente main game. Didn't get very far because I don't remember much of it.

Play Solo Voyage Nobilmente Earl. Almost time out on most of the bosses even with Bomb Attacks because Earl is so damn bad. Then chaindeath before Mission 5 boss, which means I can't bomb attack the first phase, which meant fighting it with Earl's weak attacks. Obviously went into error mode and didn't make it to TLB which probably would not have gone well anyway.

Play some Solo Voyage Nobilmente Rooty. Horrible play in general so I game overed on Mission 5 normal final boss(from lives, not time out).


I wonder how many of the Solo Voyage and Destiny 13 clears on Nobilmente and higher are actually doable. I already have Fool Nobilmente Solo Voyage a while back because Fool is 400 gems regardless of difficulty or number gotten, so any bomb attack gets you her back for the next stage and it's easy to get a lot of lives. And her jumping really helps against the TLB(which I had gotten to in main game but did not beat on that difficulty).

[Jonst]

Thanks lordhypnos! I'll keep going, it's frustrating to keep failing the end due to lack of resources - due to silly mistakes earlier in the game, but luckily it's not too much of a grind. The game is really fun now I understand the scoring system properly. All my usual signs for a clear are there, so hopefully soon!

I'm still surprised that people that love progear don't necessarily like akai katana. They have the same designer on both, and ak really isn't that dissimilar in terms of the scoring system, the more i play progear the more I see how alike they are in some respects.

[Stevens]

I think the art in both games is ridiculously awesome.

[Jonst]

Ridiculous good or ridiculous bad?

[Stevens]

Played three credits and walked away. 1st one was looking promising until stage 5 of all places.

Tomorrow is another day.

[ACSeraph]

Been unfocused lately and mostly playing non-shmups, but I did pick up Gyrodine on Famicom the other day. It's ugly but pretty deep and interesting for such an old game. You really feel like you are piloting a helicopter; you can see the vision behind it.

Also was playing a bit of 1943 Vanilla and Kai on the Capcom Classics PSP port. Interestingly the weapons do not count down in the PSP version, ammo is limitless. It probably makes the games too easy, but the original powerup system is pretty damn obnoxious you gotta admit. Fun to play as an "arranged" version of the originals.

[pokemon123]

"The yagawa triology" (raizing)

Batrider is great, bakraid is also pretty fun, not really a fan of garegga.

[LordHypnos]

Okay, so looking back at some notes of mine, it looks like the stage 4 extend in Fast Striker comes from getting 3/3 secrets in stage 3 (which evidently used to be normal for me, though now I keep getting 2/3). The stage 3 extend comes from getting 5/5 secrets in stage 2 (I've never heard of anyone getting more than 4/5, which is also what I usually get. anyone happen to know what the other one is?), However I was able to trigger it (probably a glitch) by getting 2/3 secrets in stage 3 before the spaceman that drops the extend. This seems to be my problem, then. I did, however, get the stage 4 extend once today, but I keep screwing up in stage 3 somehow. Also I don't remember how I used to kill the second blue enemy without losing all my shields, straight up dying, or shielding (which I need for blue enemies 3, 4, and possibly 5, all with the same shield). I used to not have too much trouble with that.

Also, I've discovered that passing on the stage 1 and 2 tech bonuses is a good idea if I'm mostly trying to play so that I can practice 3. Now my thumb is starting to get sore, and my eyes are starting to glaze over, so I think I'll have to wait til tomorrow to investigate further

[Stevens]

Okay, so looking back at some notes of mine, it looks like the stage 4 extend in Fast Striker comes from getting 3/3 secrets in stage 3 (which evidently used to be normal for me, though now I keep getting 2/3). This seems to be my problem, then. I did, however, get the stage 4 extend once today, but I keep screwing up in stage 3 somehow.

Jonst suggested that the stage 4 1-up is earned via destroying the 4 large green enemies that appear briefly. I have gotten this to work several times. Of course it is possible that I'm getting the 3 secrets on stage 3 and destroying the four anyways.

I'm still lost on the stage 3 1-up though. That said it is going to take both of them, and the 2 score extends if I want to see the end on a credit.

Going to the Rangers game tonight, but I hope to get a credit or 2 in MM.

LH wrote - Now my thumb is starting to get sore, and my eyes are starting to glaze over, so I think I'll have to wait til tomorrow to investigate further

^Time to walk away!

[LordHypnos]

Okay, so looking back at some notes of mine, it looks like the stage 4 extend in Fast Striker comes from getting 3/3 secrets in stage 3 (which evidently used to be normal for me, though now I keep getting 2/3). This seems to be my problem, then. I did, however, get the stage 4 extend once today, but I keep screwing up in stage 3 somehow.

Jonst suggested that the stage 4 1-up is earned via destroying the 4 large green enemies that appear briefly. I have gotten this to work several times. Of course it is possible that I'm getting the 3 secrets on stage 3 and destroying the four anyways.

I'm still lost on the stage 3 1-up though. That said it is going to take both of them, and the 2 score extends if I want to see the end on a credit.

Going to the Rangers game tonight, but I hope to get a credit or 2 in MM.

LH wrote - Now my thumb is starting to get sore, and my eyes are starting to glaze over, so I think I'll have to wait til tomorrow to investigate further

^Time to walk away!

Yeah, entirely possible. That being said though, just getting 3/3 in stage 3 is quite easy, so it's possible you're getting it without noticing. Somehow or other, I was convinced that it was the stage 3 secrets that triggered the stage 4 extend, before. The thing is though, I remember having to actually destroy all of the blue enemies instead of just enough for the secret to get the secret early enough to get the stage 3 extend. Another thing that's possible is that getting the stage 3 extend like that was a bug not present in VGA mode (though I kind of doubt it), because I used to play in standard definition, and now I'm playing in 480p.

One final addition is that Battletoad posted a video on youtube a long time ago where he gets 5/5 in stage 2, so I'm going to see if I can do that, as well. Looks like the final secret is during the boss battle. At least if I have time for some Fast Striker today.

[Jonst]

^ the stage 2 boss secret/tech bonus is to destroy both sides before killing it... I think.

[LordHypnos]

^ the stage 2 boss secret/tech bonus is to destroy both sides before killing it... I think.

I actually already know about the tech bonus, but based on Battletoad's video it looked like there was also a secret (although maybe the fifth secret was elsewhere and I missed it.)

EDIT: Tech bonus is like these three planes or something that appear near when you'd be destroying it if you don't hold back at all. you need to kill all three

[Jonst]

Are you playing fast striker seriously LH? I mean, for a clear?

[Stevens]

Are you playing fast striker seriously LH? I mean, for a clear?

Yes.

Is what I hope one or both of you say

[LordHypnos]

Yeah, although admittedly it's not the first time. I might find the frustration of no practice mode to be too much, again, though. extends would be a big help to this

[Jonst]

I hope he is! As for me, I won't/can't move on until progear is done. I will go back to fast striker at some point though. I still have a decent score saved and did come close lots of times to clearing it. Frustrating though it was to keep failing the end, I should have stuck with it until the job was done, however this was a couple of years back.
I learned the most about myself and how I learn and progress last year... I shouldn't have given up on it. Although, I wonder how the challenge will be now after getting a good few cave games out of the way?

[Stevens]

You will probably find it much much much easier, but I hear you on wanting to finish Progear first.

The game itself is very manageable until stage 5 and even then doesn't approach the difficulty of a Mars Matrix or a 5th stage from a Cave game (looking at you SDOJ). The spike on the last boss is nuts though. That will take some work for certain.

Being that I bought it less than a week ago, have only spent a few hours with it (some in maniac), and can already get to the 5th stage boss gives me the confidence I can and will clear it. Maniac is a lot of fun since the bosses go down slower than normal and they spit a few more patterns at you.

I have unfinished business with MM first though. Maybe today will be the day..

[Jonst]

Yeah, exactly! Unfinished business... It doesn't take too long to get to the stage 5 boss (fast striker), and is very manageable game as you say. My biggest problem with that final boss is that it takes up so much room... The bullets are really fast and you just don't have the room.
By the time I used to get there I just couldn't memorise the first patterns and would get really nervous at the second and final patterns. Nerves would eventually be my worst enemy! They still are to a degree. They always kick in at the end of a game...

[Stevens]

They always kick in at the end of a game...

You are not alone.

[LordHypnos]

So I did manage to figure out the stage 3 extend. Seems to be you need to kill all the blue enemies (The ones that fire the green bullets). Additionally, I think you need to avoid taking any hits (even if they're just scenery or enemies that deplete your shields on contact). This is likely due to needing to stay at devil rank until the spaceman that drops the extend appears, because usually bumping into an enemy and losing all your shields is usually enough to rank down (at least that early). Incedentally, I think that devil's rank is also a requirement for one of the secrets, because I was always getting 2/3 whenever I ranked down for one reason or another. As such, I think it's still a matter of "get the first two secrets before the extend spaceman." I haven't tested it yet, but in my memory you can still get 3/3 without killing absolutely all of the blue guys, but it happens after the extend spaceman, so you miss out on the extend, then.

In that same run I failed to get the fourth stage extend (and also ranked down a bunch due to sloppiness shortly after getting the 3rd stage extend), so I'm actually thinking that Jonst is right to a certain extent about said extend, but I think you need to avoid ranking down from devil as well, however I'm not sure I have the patience to test that yet (Might end up figuring it out naturally as I relearn the fourth stage, however)

As for the second stage secrets, I think that one does, like with the 3rd stage, require that you avoid ranking down from devil (but you also don't need to start at devil, which may be a requirement for the 3rd, as I usually get devil, only after a few enemies in the 2nd stage). The final secret you get by killing the boss a little less slowly, and you'll get it where you'd normally get the tech bonus, then you have to dodge a bunch of really hard patterns and you get a pallete swap of the same thing, and that will be your tech bonus (You could probably easily kill the boss between those, so you need to basically not fire 'til after the tech bonus). I tried it a few times, but haven't yet figured things out enough to get both secret and tech bonus without dying a ton. Did not do it on the run with the extend, b/c I didn't want to enter the 3rd stage on less than devil's rank and knew I'd probably die.

One final note is that in my extend run I got a secret joker (different from secrets and tech bonuses) in each of the 3 stages, though I'm not sure how. Not something I was trying to do. I don't think it's related, but just for the sake of full disclosure

Hopefully that was half coherent

[Stevens]

My less is more approach seems to be working.

I didn't play yesterday, so naturally I was itching to go when I got home from work. I wasn't expecting much - I was out late (Rangers win!), didn't get as much sleep as I would normally like (I'm good for 8-9 hours a night), and my after school program started today so my work day was longer.

LH - My hypothetical last train car strat was a bust.

1st credit (Mos 1) I die twice on stage 4 boss - once towards the end of stage 6 and once (face palm) on the first phase of the boss. I proceed to almost clear the rose without dying. I continue and with my first ship finish it.

2nd credit (Mos 2) was a bit sloppier. I lose my last reserve ship on the stage 4 boss (notice a pattern?) and then no miss all of stage 5 AND stage 6. I lost my last ship as the first phase of the final boss died. Another 2 CC.

Then I hop over to Fast Striker and reach stage 6 and break a little over 3 trillion. Who knew you can kill the stage 5 boss so fast?

All in all not a bad day.

[Shepardus]

New PB and first time reaching Junkey Monkey in Garegga:

(that really fast wave of bullets in the second form is what killed me)

Ever since I started using Miyamoto I've gotten a lot better at maintaining my medal chain. His speed took me a while to get used to, but it's really useful for catching medals that I would have otherwise lost. His options are also really powerful and his bomb is pretty good for defensive purposes.

Haven't practiced Batrider much lately, hopefully I haven't gotten too rusty at it since I was getting pretty close to an Advance 1cc before. I wonder if I'll get that first, or a Garegga 1cc...

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

I've been playing Espgaluda. I was playing it off and on for a few months, but yesterday I reached Jakou's second form (that is, when he gets off the huge machine) for the first time ever, so now I'm feeling pretty motivated.

[CloudyMusic]

Ever since I started using Miyamoto I've gotten a lot better at maintaining my medal chain. His speed took me a while to get used to, but it's really useful for catching medals that I would have otherwise lost.

Yeah, I've been dabbling with Garegga for a long time, but it's never totally clicked. Recently, I started using fast ships (mostly Gain, but also Miyamoto) and a lot of things just kind of fell into place. Just being able to easily maneuver around the screen and have an easier time dealing with medals and powerups really made a huge difference. I'm hooked on it now.

[Stevens]

Mars Matrix Elite Mode.

I was curious to see what it was like so I played 3 credits (start and 2 continues) with mosquito 2. I lost my last ship as the final boss was about to come out.

Initial thoughts: It felt like bizarro world.

Parts that were easy in arcade mode were much harder, or at least the bullets were more dense. Stages 1, 2, and 5 for instance. Stages 3 and 4 felt a little easier and the diabolic field of death in elite mode is possibly the easiest part of the whole thing.

Stage 6 - harder than arcade mode, but I was still able to almost reach the end.

The bosses are exactly the same.

I didn't expect to get as far as I did, but I think much of Mars Matrix is being comfortable and efficient in your use of the shield. After a single play through I am confident I could clear elite mode with a little work.

Raiden IV/Fast Striker on tap for later.

[cicada88]

Been juggling 8-bit Nintendo STG recently--1943, Gun-Nac, Over Horizon and Crisis Force

[dink]

GG Aleste 2 (SMS Conversion) <3