Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Stevens]

I just think it's cool so many people are playing UD.



Made the boss on 2-5 again today. I'm close!

[Jonst]

I have most of stage 4 memorised, probably the last turrets catch me out sometimes, so instead of planning a rocket I end up bombing which will leave a resource down when I really need it. I was happy to make the stage 5 plane the other night, but realised I was playing virtually blind. I'll get there eventually (hopefully!)

[dink]

DonPachi and more DonPachi

[JBC]

Started on Nexzr today & didn't have the patience to play right. I got stomped pretty hard but I can tell it's a quality game. Seems to take equal parts skill & memorization, so I believe I'll be returning to it often until I've mastered it.

[mgy1523]

Playing some Gun Nac on NES. What can I say, this game is amazing!

[Weak Boson]

Got back into Psyvariar Revision recently.



So I managed to reach the TLB for the first time without the roll button. It was horrible. I had spare bombs, so I used one but then that messed up my rhythm and there was a horrible second or so when I realized "this isn't going to work" and sure enough my shield ran out and I perished. But I had bombs, why?!

[Gamer707b]

Ive taken a shooter break as these games are sometimes too stressful for me. When I start hating a game , then its no longer fun obviously (Im looking at you Layer Section) Been playing rpgs and what not now, but looking forward to finishing up Layer Section, then maybe doing some Darius Gaiden, and Ikaruga.

[Stevens]

Not a bad session today..

I'm not bombing on the 2-3 boss at all anymore (3 or 4 bombs to reach 2-4), gotten much better at quick killing the control tower, and I made 2-5 a few times in a row today.

Soon!

[Stevens]

I had the "should I not play today" feeling when I started my session yesterday, I was right. Under Defeat is a cruel mistress..

Thankfully I didn't let myself get frustrated, I just stopped after the 4th or 5th run.

The last few nights before bed I've been playing Raiden IV. Stoned. It's awesome:D No pressure - not trying to do anything specific. It's just fun. I would like to try for a clear at some point, but not just yet. The 3rd stage feels realllllly long.

[JBC]

I've been playing a bit of Under Defeat lately myself. At first I didn't appreciate the game but it's grown on me. Y'know, the visuals kind of have a Raiden feel to them but muddier.

[Stevens]

I've been playing a bit of Under Defeat lately myself. At first I didn't appreciate the game but it's grown on me. Y'know, the visuals kind of have a Raiden feel to them but muddier.

Funny you should say that. While playing IV last night I wondered how nice UD would look with those graphics.

Also if anyone cares - to dodge the 2-5 bosses twin machine gun attack you don't have to tap dodge through both bullets.

If you dodge the first bullet and keep holding the direction you're going the second bullet will miss you as well. It works on the 1-5 boss too.

[Jonst]

Been messing about with raiden fighters aces, really fun and a nice change from the other stuff I've messing around with lately, since I cleared jet tonight, I might try and clear the other ones too...

[dink]

Mr. Heli no Dai Bouken (arcade version) <3

[JBC]

Just got the Espgaluda II HD Smartphone Version for iOS. I didn't do any research so I hope I made the right choice. I'll be playing on an iPad Air so the shot tapping shouldn't be too difficult.

I also picked up Super Ox Wars which is frickin' great.

A few other things I wanted to look into. I got DoDonPachi Ressurection HD lite, Gridrunner, Galaga 30th Collection, & the Namco Arcade app which I may use to buy either the original Galaga or Starblade. That Galaga 30th Collection looks pretty bad...

My original intention was just to get Dariusburst SP again

[pokemon123]

On a positive note enjoying ibara still a lot and mushihimesama orginal mode is quite fun. IDK know why I keep on playing pink sweets even if I suck but it's nice.

Trying to get back into touhou but for some reason I played my least favourite game in the series to start lol.

[Squire Grooktook]

-More Spriggan

Played a bit on Super Hard. I will say that the difficulty here feels a bit too based on recoveries/chain death, but there are some nice tricky moments still. Like most Compile games, I don't think they nailed the pacing 100%, but it's certainly an improvement over their past titles so far.

The power up system is a little more annoying than I initially thought. Far too many weak weapons. Still has a solid number of viable options for any given situation, so I still find it very cool.

-Soukyugurentai/Terra Diver

Decided to spend some more time with this after intitially disliking it. Came off a lot better this time.

It still has that thing I hate in some of the non-Yagawa Raizing games where even the "slow" ships feel a little bit too fast for the kind of bullet density you have to deal with, but it overall feels a lot more tolerable than say, Kingdom Grandprix. There's also a decent amount of macro dodging so the speed still feels intuitive for the most part.

What really clinched it for me was switching to the "Random" shot mode with Scallop. Spinning around and managing the reverse aim was crazy fun. Makes your ship feel like a killer metal ballerina.

[dink]

Dragon Blaze \o/

[horaceappleton]

Tightening up my stages 1-3 routing in Phantasmagoria Trues Advanced. I think it's best to optimize Rate gain in the early game, especially in stage 1. I've gotten Rate 1.96, I know where I can get .02 more; and I really want to make a video of 2.00.

Major uninvestigated scoring questions:
*What exactly determines spell card value? (It appears to usually be a rough multiple of Base, but it's often not an exact multiple.)
*What function determines the number of point items dropped after a spell card, and is it related to spell card value?
*Is it ever beneficial to play for stage-end bonuses by collecting multiplier items, as in this Terminus run? (Probably not, and the only way to know for sure is to run the numbers after a rock-solid scoring run, which AFAIK doesn't exist yet.)
*Is pointblanking the cancel fairies in Stage 2 viable in version 1.2? Their patterns appear to be the same as those in version 1.1, but I have yet to successfully execute the pointblank.

[Kollision]

Tried Karous for the first time just now.
you know that feeling of WTF is going on here?

[EmperorIng]

What really clinched it for me was switching to the "Random" shot mode with Scallop. Spinning around and managing the reverse aim was crazy fun. Makes your ship feel like a killer metal ballerina.

Even though Scallop is the best ship in terms of firepower and scoring potential, I can't deal well with the reverse-aiming Random web. It's too hard for me to get a good grip on using it.

I end up sticking with Swordfish (or w/e the red one is) and almost exclusively stick to Pinpoint. I believe my best score is 12million with that ship. I usually make it to stage 6 or 7 before being overwhelmed.

I think the only thing that drags the game down for me is that to manage rank and to ensure a steady flow of bombs, you have to never, ever power up your ship.

[Squire Grooktook]

I think the only thing that drags the game down for me is that to manage rank and to ensure a steady flow of bombs, you have to never, ever power up your ship.

Agreed. Even the whole concept of "never kill anything with shot, web only" certainly lacks the balance and elegance of Rayforce's system, where both shot and lock kills are necessary. Still fun though.

[Shepardus]

Finally got some time to get back into learning Bakraid chains. I just managed to successfully chain both Axebeak and Cyclops (Forest and Railroad bosses) in a single run, so the next thing I need to learn is the Naval chain, which looks quite intimidating since it's a lot longer and less repetitive than Axebeak or Cyclops.

I must say, the Cyclops chain has a really nice rhythm to it once you get it set up. It may not look that way watching a video, but when I actually have to pay attention to the timing and where I'm dealing damage it's really intense and satisfying.

[cave hermit]

I've started playing Darius Burst a bit more seriously: after discovering that I could detach my burst cannon, the game suddenly made far more sense. I'm still not quite sure what's the optimal way to beat bosses (they seem to have many different breakable parts), but I'm starting to enjoy the game a bit more.

The theming is what really sells me on the game though, with the backgrounds and music combining to create this surreal dream atmosphere.

[JBC]

This is why I love the world of Darius. It's always been very immersive, but I've only really played the 32bit + iterations. So, I think I'll spend tonight going over some of the 16bit era stuff. I understand it's not supposed to be as good, but just for the sake of knowing I want to play them through.

[EmperorIng]

Maybe Darius Twin is worth at least a curious five minutes or so, but you might find more to digest in Darius Force/Super Nova, which is a far more substantial game (not without its problems - rev up those save states).

Sagaia, or Darius II (MD) I think is a fine conversion (almost like an "arrange" mode in that the levels are different), though it has the same stumbling block of Darius II arcade, which is that a single death is going to hurt a hell of a lot.

[LordHypnos]

Have been really busy the past couple of days, but I got a chance to play a bit today. Had a decent run of UD (first death at very end of stage 2), and even practiced stage 3 a bit, but I've been kind of groggy all day, so I felt like it was a bit much. Because of this I messed around some more with Shooting Love. Managed to improve my gamer age to 25 and get above the average rank by a bit (though still under 4), largely due to realizing how to beat the nice bomb challenge (you need to be even closer to the enemy or bullet than I had been getting), thus getting a second nice bomb bonus stage (also beating that).
I didn't beat the powerup dodging challenge, though, this time

Also Exzeal is pretty fun. The game seems most designed around Unit 1, and reminds me a lot of a more modern Vulgus when using Unit 1.

[Stevens]

After a few brutal sessions with UD's 2nd loop I think I may have hit that less is more territory.

I took a self imposed break from UD yesterday and possibly today depending on how I feel later. I spent some time with Raiden IV again yesterday and have been reaching stage 4 pretty consistently.

I haven't forgotten about Mushi Futari either..still looking for that Cave clear.

[Zaarock]

Starting to play Akai Katana Shin a bit again. Such a fun game, I always like going back to it. The system is a bit complicated but having learned it once it's easy to pick up again.

Will try and improve my type A score since it's not that good (very bad scores on the last stages)

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Got Shooting Love 200x on Games on Demand and played a bit on it.

Didn't play too much of TriZeal or ExZeal yet. I have no idea what i'm supposed to be doing in those. Did quite a bit of Shmups Skills test though.


I've gotten over 300,000 points on it so far though I can't possibly take the scoring in it seriously right now anyway cause no turbo. Teenage skill rating(19) though my PB score was a 20 on that. Level 99's on both tank rushes, building evasion, pseudo Hibachi B. Also picked up some of the other achievements in it like the one where you dodge all the medals in the grab the medals one(wonder if that would actually boost or lower the skill rating in an actual run), destroying all tanks in the tank level that isn't a tank rush.


Then I forgot to try out Minus Zero, but I can mess with that a bit as well some other time.

[Blinge]

Played Raiden IV arcade mode with my gf, on very easy & light setting... both playing as Fairies. She was credit feeding, I stuck to my one..
.. Didn't make it past stage 5 =/

Most fun I've had with the game