Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[null1024]

Haven't played much in a while, decided to fix that.
Soukyugurentai [PS1].
Hot damn, I forgot how good this was.
was doing just fine and then I forgot about the third boss's flamethrowers and died repeatedly

Sanvein [PS1].
Run started off great, ended miserably after losing sight of where some enemies were and losing about 8 seconds from that -- which would have really helped with the boss I was a second away from killing before the clock ran out.

Oh, and Psyvariar Revision [PS2].
It's nice to actually be able to play this properly instead of in MAME [which has a ton of issues with the game still]. Roll button feels like cheating.

[OmKol]

Seirei Senshi Spriggan, PC Engine CD. So many weapons. But so few weapons is actually useful in this game.

[copy-paster]

Playing Gradius Collection on recent PSP emu (since the old release always have "black screen" after choose the game), cause I sold my PSP 3000 for need extra money.

The port was great, all five games are arcade-console perfect. The flaw is that the save data was able for one game only, yet I found some problems in emulator :

I : When accessing option menu it becomes lag, and I thought playing in PSP screen ratio may doesn't fit and seems looking weird.
II : The first two stages have some sound and graphic issues. Not to mention that the voice announcer is very clean than arcade version and I didn't know it also used in Galaxies.
III : When the 1989 logo appears it drops the framerate and after that it runs okay.
IV : The liquid metal planets and dragons have few graphical glitch, stage 4 also has bit slowdown especially in volcano and lava sections.
Gaiden : Runs perfectly, no any issues until endgame.

[cave hermit]

I decided to start trying out those cave arrange modes, starting with the muchi muchi pork/pink sweets double pack:

So the scoring system in pink sweets arrange is incredibly satisfying and addicting, although outside of the scoring system changes it doesn't seem like enemy patterns are changed at all. The game seems much easier since you almost always have your charge shield active, and you get a lot more lives than usual to work with (I only played two credits so far, so I don't know if you start off with more lives, or if there are very frequent score based extends).
I'm assuming rank is neutered as well since scoring relies on constantly spamming rose crackers, which usually jacks up rank in the arcade version.

Muchi Muchi Pork's arrange mode seems fairly inconsequential though: as far as I can tell the main additions are the non-segmented lard cannon bar, the new fixed medal system, and the fever mode which goes along with the new medal system.

Any other particularly good arrange modes to try? I have all the region free cave ports.

[Yoshi]

I'm playing Blazing Star but so far struggling to get out of the third stage on one credit. I haven't been practicing very long this go-round, so I'll get there.

[SMC]

Played a quick credit of Futari Original. Made it to Larsa second phase. I'd probably be able to 1cc soon if I could stop making stupid mistakes.

[Squire Grooktook]

In addition to Mahou and Dangun Feveron, also been spending quite some time with Dragon Spirit lately.

DS is pretty sick. I can see why it's one of Aquas favorite games. The first two stages are a bit laid back in terms of pace, but have enough diverse setpieces (love the volcano stuff) to keep things engaging. After that, it's pure balls to the walls fast dodging and visceral action.

I also think this game does a great job with the "shooting" part of shooting games. It's really fun to take aim and nail enemies both in the air and the ground, and some of the bosses are built quite brilliantly around this (alternating between destroying the pollen and bombing the cores on stage 3 boss, aiming for the heart while warding off the ghosts on stage 4 boss, etc.)

Also the soundtrack is brillaint. It has an upbeat kind of innocence to it (most prevalent in stage 1 and 3 so far) that really works well for the fantasy atmosphere.

Great game.

[Stevens]

Under Defeat. I had to re unlock the 2nd loop because I managed to delete my save yesterday. Thankfully it took me all of one try.

Then because I played Dodonpachi for the 1st time ever yesterday (and Strikers 1945 and Terra Diver) I played some SDOJ novice.

[Jonst]

Hitting the final boss on doj on most runs now, just gotta keep enough resources to clear.

[Kiken]

Been playing Raiden 4 again... I have no idea why.

I guess I wanted to finally get a legit Arcade Original 1st loop clear... which I've now done. After playing continuously on Original difficulty, going back to Normal for leaderboard runs is like suddenly getting to play on Easy (bullet speeds are so much slower, even in the second loop). Thus far, I've now managed to make it up to the stage 2-3 boss and I know that I should be able to get to 2-4 if I clean up a couple of spots.

[Shepardus]

Played a bit of Batsugun today. I want to like it but the secrets seem really silly and I'm not really sure how to trigger any of the piggies consistently. I've been drifting between games a lot searching for something not too difficult that I want to 1cc or 1-ALL, but haven't really settled on anything yet. Besides that I've just been playing Bakraid, as usual. After all this time I'm still amazingly terrible at the Railroad stage. It's not even that hard, I just manage to screw it up almost every time...

[Squire Grooktook]

Making it to st5 in Dragon Spirit, st6 in Battle Garegga, st4 in Dangun Feveron, and st 5 in Mahou.

I think I might focus a bit more on Battle Garegga, way too fun.

I think I kinda see why people prefer Garegga over Batrider. Level design is a little "busier" with more stunts to do and a bit more frequent dodging. Boss patterns seem more basic visually, but they have an iconic feel and a deadly simplicity.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Tried playing Ironclad (via Wii VC) again over the last couple days.

Eh, I dunno about this game. The stages are slow and have a lot of empty spots, and having to wait for boss invincibility periods either during their intro and often somewhere in the middle of their health bar is tedious. Your firing rate is also annoyingly low, especially considering that the one-every-1.5-seconds homing missiles seem to be the only things that can hit the grounded enemies, and these missiles unfortunately will go after air targets at times instead. Sometimes enemies come from behind, and sometimes bosses even spend some time behind you, which makes it really annoying that you can't fix your R-Type pod knockoff to your rear (maybe I should stick with the homing-missile main shot). Most of the graphics are pretty bland, too.

But hey, it's not every day I see a giant robot playing a church organ. I can at least give the game that.

[JBC]

R-Type III: The Turd Shitening - & it's kicking my ass!

[Shepardus]

Level design is a little "busier" with more stunts to do and a bit more frequent dodging.

I actually feel the opposite about Garegga vs. Batrider - I feel that Batrider packs its scoring opportunities a lot denser than Garegga, especially in the earlier stages where scoring targets are relatively sparse in Garegga while in Batrider there's a lot of targets to aura, bomb for medals, etc. and it's really risky to go for all of them, more so than in Garegga I would say. I do agree with you about the bosses, though. Batrider's bosses may be more complex and varied (and there's also a lot more of them) but none are quite as instantly recognizable as Black Heart's sweeping vulcan, which will always be Black Heart's attack even if it's transplanted into another game.

[JBC]

Never again.

[Stevens]

SDOJ. Digging novice expert, regular SDOJ is way above my pay grade.

Heading to the west coast for two weeks!

I'll have Jamestown, BWR+, Danmaku 2, and Sense of the Seasons to keep me busy if I have some down time and a hankering to blow shit up.

[CloudyMusic]

Any other particularly good arrange modes to try? I have all the region free cave ports.

I think Galuda 2's is sort of interesting, or at least worth trying once to see if you like it.

[pegboy]

Never again.

I'm playing this as well, did you clear loop 2? Also, what force type are you using?

[JBC]

I did not, but I think I could now that I've gotten through the learning curve. I was just using the default force type. To save you the trouble of finding out the hard way, the last thing you need to do in the game is draw your force pod back to you & then send it flying back into the boss's swollen face.

[Squire Grooktook]

Level design is a little "busier" with more stunts to do and a bit more frequent dodging.

I actually feel the opposite about Garegga vs. Batrider - I feel that Batrider packs its scoring opportunities a lot denser than Garegga, especially in the earlier stages where scoring targets are relatively sparse in Garegga while in Batrider there's a lot of targets to aura, bomb for medals, etc. and it's really risky to go for all of them, more so than in Garegga I would say

Perhaps, might be a bit splitting hairs.

On one hand, ST1 in Batrider has much more stuff going on then in Garegga (although one oculd argue that Garegga's simpler stage 1 is a better ease in to the adventure), but IMO stage 2,3 and 4 have more going on scoring wise then Sky High, Sewer, or Highway. After that it's kind of a draw. Could be my ignorance of higher level play talking though (I'm not totally familiar with what all the highest priority aura targets are, for one). Definitely love both games anyway.

-
Also been playing Macross Scrambled Valkyrie for SFC. Fun little game with some interesting things going on, although a bit slow paced. Stage 1 is almost on par with Stage 1 of R-Type 3 for how little actually happens in such a long period of time (although that Blackhole attack setpiece is cool as fuck). After that it heats up, though I think the stages could still do with a bit of trimming here and there.

Has some nice boss gimmicks (st2 and 3 bosses in particular are very cool), and the power up system is very fun. Choosing which weapons to re-upgrade when you're hit adds a nice strategic element, and speed changes and weapon attributes for all 3 forms also add some careful consideration to how you approach each situation.

Overall pretty solid fun so far, though for SFC shooters it's no Biometal or Super Aleste.

[cave hermit]

Got around to trying out a third credit on Pink Sweets Arrange: I read about how you could stick the explosion from the Hadou-Gun onto a boss's laser cannon to make it fire streams of 3000 point medals, and it is absolutely glorious. So satisfying to pull off and drench myself in that golden shower of points! I think I almost doubled my score from the previous credit!

The arrange mode is without a doubt far easier than vanilla: constant score based extends that are trivial to hit if you score competently, a near permanent energy shield (since you can charge and fire at the same time now), and I can only assume that rank has been very heavily nerfed. That isn't a bad thing though! Game is still fairly challenging, and there's so much room for score optimization (not that I should be thinking about that until I actually 1CC it )

[ogremonk]

Gunbird 2, Shmupmame, keyboard.

[SMC]

.

[amdiggywhut]

I've been playing DOJ. On Easy. And I just made it to stage 4 tonight.

[Ikazu-san]

GigaWing generations. 30fps won't stop me from having fun with scoring. Dem sniper tanks tho.

[awry]

Made it to Stage 0 of Cho Ren Sha 68K. I thought I had beaten the game, but then I saw "stage 0" on the screen and promptly felt overwhelmed and lost my remaining two lives.

[Ikazu-san]

Made it to Stage 0 of Cho Ren Sha 68K. I thought I had beaten the game, but then I saw "stage 0" on the screen and promptly felt overwhelmed and lost my remaining two lives.

You still have a whole journey waiting ahead.

Meanwhile I tried credit feeding Sorcer Striker with a friend person that never played a shmup. Was a lot of fun for both of us.

[Squire Grooktook]

Just 1cc'd Macross Scrambled Valkyrie with Millia.

Pretty great game. Despite some minor pacing issues, I'd rank it among the best of the SFC's library. A notch below Biometal but still an excellent game.

Not sure if this applies to the other characters besides Millia, but the game does really have a nice hook. The different speeds on all 3 forms, and the different weapon properties for each (rapid, piercing, spike damage, etc.) really forces you to constantly switch up. Patterns and boss weaknesses are great for making you use it, from attacks that need speed to dodge to shields that are tricky to hit through without piercing.

The last boss is also an absolutely furious game of high speed rock/paper/scissors as you scramble (heh) to counter each of his attacks power for power with the correct form.

[pegboy]

Just 1cc'd Macross Scrambled Valkyrie with Millia.

Pretty great game. Despite some minor pacing issues, I'd rank it among the best of the SFC's library. A notch below Biometal but still an excellent game.

Not sure if this applies to the other characters besides Millia, but the game does really have a nice hook. The different speeds on all 3 forms, and the different weapon properties for each (rapid, piercing, spike damage, etc.) really forces you to constantly switch up. Patterns and boss weaknesses are great for making you use it, from attacks that need speed to dodge to shields that are tricky to hit through without piercing.

The last boss is also an absolutely furious game of high speed rock/paper/scissors as you scramble (heh) to counter each of his attacks power for power with the correct form.

Nice, I'm been thinking about playing Macross after I finished up R-Type III.

I also really liked BioMetal, but I wish it had a second loop or something that would make me go back and play it again.