Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Jonst]

^ how do you play as fairy in iv? Or is that an overkill only thing mate?

[Blinge]

Oh might be overkill only, just on the character select screen when before you start the game.

[Jonst]

Yeah, sounds like overkill only. I think on regular raiden iv there is no character select, you just go straight into the game... Cheers anyway!

[Stevens]

Yeah, sounds like overkill only. I think on regular raiden iv there is no character select, you just go straight into the game... Cheers anyway!

Jonst you can play as the fairy and a 2nd ship type in 360 Raiden IV, have to download them though..

Naturally.

[Jonst]

^ oh right, that makes sense, my 360 isn't online though cheers stevens!

[spadgy]

Had my oldest, closest friend over who's not a shmupper at all. So I sat him down to Ketsui. He's doing OK.

Right now, though, I'm playing Gradius V on the PSNs. It's ace to go back there.

[LordHypnos]

Continuing to chip away at stage 3 of Under Defeat, and there's some definite progress, but I tend to do worse and worse as the practice session continues, so I can only take so much at a time before the frustration becomes too great. Also have been playing Fantasy Zone II 3D, STG Skills Test, and Exzeal. I switched over to the Unit 4 / XII Stag ship (with auto-sideshot), and it took me a while to get the hang of it (because you basically have no horizontal movement when using the sideshot), but ultimately I think it's the more powerful ship. After some light practice to figure out a strat for stage 2, I finally made it past the boxes in stage 3 and all the way to the boss bringing my score up to 4 million (IIRC) where it had previously been 3 million with Unit 1.
Also, I think Unit 4 looks cooler

[Acid_Rain]

No time for some shmup love… studying fucks up my timetable pretty bad.

[Stevens]

Continuing to chip away at stage 3 of Under Defeat, and there's some definite progress, but I tend to do worse and worse as the practice session continues, so I can only take so much at a time before the frustration becomes too great.

Excellent! How are stages 1 and 2 going? Actually I've always felt stage 1 is a sick joke based on how the difficulty ramps up on stage 2.

3 is a bitch, but I've no doubt you'll conquer it. As far as playing too long I've recently invoked the "less is more" rule myself. Same thing was happening - I was playing too long, the game handing me my ass repeatedly.

I took a 2 day break and went back to it. Made 2-5 3 times in a row. Some silly mistakes sure, but I was cool and calm the whole time:D

[LordHypnos]

^Stage 1 is usually completely fine. It's super easy. I did a full run credit (first one) yesterday where I made it all the way to stage 2 boss without dying, then died like twice >_< But I did make it decently far into stage 3 (not quite to the midboss though, I don't think. Speaking of which that guy is evil. I have no idea how to tackle on high rank with those fast bullet spreads). In subsequent runs though, I just kept dying on the first stage boss and restarting, so that's no good ; I think it was getting a bit late by that point. Generally speaking, stage 2 is alright until the boss which sometimes goes smoothly if I can manage to aim my rockets properly at the final turret, but that's unfortunately quite rare.

[dink]

Battle Bakraid
Yesterday: Progear

[Stevens]

Speaking of which that guy is evil. I have no idea how to tackle on high rank with those fast bullet spreads).

Stage 3 Mid Boss - This isn't the only way to do it, but it's served me well.

Spoiler

You should have the 5 copters before the mid boss dispatched as fast as you can. Do not collect the power up yet.

As it enters the screen I have my copter in the bottom corner firing off screen so that I can destroy the first small turret as it enters. Then load up a rocket and hit the main gun. You may have to do some careful aiming so it hits the main gun and not the remaining turret.

Keep firing. When I need to I will bomb for safety (I ALWAYS bomb at some point) while my option recharges and I rocket it again. Now depending on what the power up started as you may be able to grab a rocket as you're in cool down (the meter HAS to be red). This will give you an instant recharge.

If the 2nd rocket doesn't kill it (it should) a few shots from your gun will do the trick by then.

Lastly the spreads are aimed. You need to tap dodge left or right and they will miss you.

[MSd7342]

Gradius V
and before DDP: DAI-OU-JOU

[Shepardus]

Still Bakraid, I've been mostly working on my consistency in Forest and Railroad. I have this annoying habit of getting myself killed during the Railroad stage, which should be really easy, or at the start of the boss fight, which also shouldn't be so hard. But I think I'm satisfied with my performance on these two stages for now, so I'm putting more work into the Naval chain. Committing suicide can be surprisingly difficult, as is grabbing the extend items...

[Stevens]

Some Futari maniac to keep me sane. My score is shit and I can only make stage 3 but damn if it isn't fun.

[LordHypnos]

Thanks for the tips on the midboss, Stevens! At present I'm still ironing out the early part of that stage, but I'm sure it will be helpful once I get to that point. I didn't even know that collecting a power up resets the gauge

Also have been playing Exzeal, still, and I really dislike stage 3 so far. Hopefully I'll figure out how to get through it.

[Strikers1945guy]

No time for some shmup love… studying fucks up my timetable pretty bad.

Shmups >> school

Priorities man

[Chaos Phoenixma]

If you're hating stage 3, you're really going to love(sarcasm) Stage 6


I managed to credit feed through it barely, and stage 6 is ridiculous. It even has something that might put DFK Laser Wheels to shame, or maybe not because you can actually destroy the stuff here.

My best 1 credit run is up to stage 5 right now, but I think I'll need to really grind stage 5 and 6 in Score Attack to practice them.

[amdiggywhut]

Really close to clearing Hyper Duel, and I've been playing Crimzon Clover as well.

CC just does it for me. Ticks all the right boxes, as they say. Probably ends up as my answer to the 'desert island' question posed in a recent thread.

Headed on a work trip next week and plan on playing the Gradius Collection and Zanac Neo on my Vita. Combined 10 hours of layovers...

[pokemon123]

still trying DOJ. i really don't know why i keep on playing games i don't enjoy, . Trying really hard to like this since everyone seems to consider it a masterpiece but the "hurr durr memorize every little thing" is making me pissed off. Maybe i'm just doing things wrong.

First shmup i've tried to play seriously for score and it's been a horrible experience. Maybe i'll just take bana's suggestion and try ketsui or something for score or try to play a touhou game for score. Or maybe i should just realize that scoring isn't really for me.

apologies for the rant just super frustrated right now.

[Shepardus]

People regard DOJ as a masterpiece because they don't like fun.

[copy-paster]

I tried to 1CCed DDP DOJ but I dying alot in stage 4

too much bullet rain in this

[trap15]

People regard DOJ as a masterpiece because they don't like fun.

^ this

DDP games are incredibly unfun for score. Dangun Feveron, now that's a fun game for score.

[Squire Grooktook]

DOJ is amazing fun, fantastic level and pattern designs, but I agree about chaining. Not a fan of it, heh.

My favorite thing is when people who like DDP complain about Ikaruga being too memo oriented. Comedy gold.

[Giest118]

That's why I cleverly play DOJ while not giving a shit about chaining beyond what's fairly easy to achieve through button tapping.

[ACSeraph]

Dangun Feveron, now that's a fun game for score.

So much this,; I'd buy the PCB if I could afford one.

Infinite Burst has a similar medal chaining system and I love it too, kinda sad it went mostly ignored due to the (very much deserved) bad rep of the first Bullet Souls...

Edit: Just out of curiosity I looked up how many hits the IB system guide I wrote last year got on the strategy forum. 300 hits... and my Burunyanman guide has nearly 1000. I am now crying inside...

[Squire Grooktook]

Was thinking about picking up Infinite Burst actually. Is it region locked?

[iconoclast]

Chaining games like the DDP series take more time & effort to learn because mistakes are more costly. You'll have to practice until you've figured out the exact timing for everything and can consistently execute most of the links with very high consistency. The same can be said for any game with complex scoring of course, but the smallest mistake in a Pachi will pretty much destroy your scoring potential for the rest of the stage. As such, they're some of the most rewarding games for those who are willing to put in the effort, which is probably why they're the most popular games amongst scorers.

Beginners should probably start off with something that's less punishing, unless they plan on buckling down for several months to git gud.

[Squire Grooktook]

I know it's deep, rewarding, good etc. system.

I just really don't care for the system on a fundamental level, and wouldn't care to do it no matter how hard or easy it is.

[LordHypnos]

Dangun Feveron has a very fun scoring system. I feel like it was somewhat influential to Mars Matrix. Both of them want you to move all over the screen grabbing items while avoiding the bullets. The main difference is that letting cubes fall off the screen in MM doesn't hurt your score wheras in DF that's the main thing that hurts your score. On the other hand you can't wait too long between grabbing cubes or it will hurt your score, though I'm thinking that you wouldn't be able to wait too long in DF either unless you use a bomb.

Currently playing Under Defeat and Triggerheart Exelica, and about to play a credit of Cardinal Sins or two.
I feel like I'm making a little progress on the first half of UD stage 3. I really enjoy how hectic things get here, but I gotta say that I need to be near 100% focus to get things right @_@