Shmups! Judgement-free Score Challenge

[Special World]

Hi all! These boards are home to people of all different skill levels, playin shootan games at their own respective levels and having a hell of a time doing it. Some people are practically masters of the gentlemanly art of shooting, while other people (like me) are lucky to clear even the easiest of games. That's totally fine on both counts—it's up to every individual person to decide how much time and energy they want to put into this great hobby. You don't have to be the best to have a ton of fun playing these games. And you don't have to live up to anyone else's expectations, because some people on this forum have cleared Futari Ultra and I for one will never be that person.

But still, I want to issue a challenge to everyone. I'd like you to pick your favorite game, or your second favorite game, or even maybe your least favorite game, and put up a new personal high score for it. Play through it a few times maybe, or just do a little training and then do a full run. Push yourself a little bit, and achieve a score that YOU can be proud of. It doesn't matter if you've cleared the game or just gotten to stage 3 (I hear stage 3 is a total bastard...), but I'd like you to try YOUR best to achieve something great. Then post it here, and say a sentence or two about your run. And in two months or two years, assuming this topic survives even a day, look back on your score... and try to best it again.

I was pushed by Icarus and Bananamatic toward a clear of Eschatos, and I was (and am) extremely proud of that clear. And then I bettered that score on my next run by like, a lot, somehow. So this one goes out to two shmuppers who are better than I will probably ever be:

Eschatos - Original Normal: 14,759,214 ALL

Somehow managed to beat the boss with 5 lives left, after making it through by the edge of my teeth the time before. My scoring was definitely sloppy throughout, but... those sweet sweet end bonuses made up for everything.

[Shepardus]

Made it to the fourth stage of Rayforce for the first (maybe second?) time, and reached the first extend for the first time. Died right before the stage 4 boss with a score of 1.3 million. The first three stages drive me crazy because they're a lot harder than they look to me, but the fourth stage seems like good fun for now. Prioritizing survival over score and killing everything has helped me avoid getting swarmed and trapped, and ironically has led to higher scores for me.

[Special World]

Yeah, it always surprises me how much better I do when I emphasize survival over scoring, although I guess it really shouldn't. I always keep scoring in mind to a limited extent, but it's those times when I really focus on it that I end up doing terribly and making myself miserable. I tend to not watch superplays much for that reason... I try to do what they do and just end up screwing myself over repeatedly. It's not reflexive for me, so it leads to a divided mind.

[Squire Grooktook]

I got 4.3 million in Dangun Feveron today. I'm aiming for a Speed 4 clear with some decent dodging on the harder parts and somewhere between 4.5 and 5 million at least.

Also uploaded my 25 million point run of Cho Ren Sha 68k's hard mode. Slightly proud of this one though I still aim to perfect the game one day. I'm doing so uber casually though, like a few credits a month. That run just kinda came out of nowhere.

Made it to the fourth stage of Rayforce for the first (maybe second?) time, and reached the first extend for the first time. Died right before the stage 4 boss with a score of 1.3 million. The first three stages drive me crazy because they're a lot harder than they look to me, but the fourth stage seems like good fun for now. Prioritizing survival over score and killing everything has helped me avoid getting swarmed and trapped, and ironically has led to higher scores for me.

Yeah Rayforce's scoring is one of those systems that makes the dodging even more brutal. That being said, you can get the extend before the end of stage 2, and I'd recommend learning to do so since it's not too hard, and that extra resource can help you later on.

I usually stop focusing on scoring midway through stage 3 (right before that really nasty tank batallion shows up). Now that I've cleared the game though, I aim a bit higher.

[Stevens]

I passed the 5 billion mark in SDOJ. I've been hitting stage 4 more consistently now as well as both score extends.

[Blinge]

Alright Speshy, I managed to beat my PB on Ikaruga today. First time in a year. (not constant play by any means)

Ikaruga - 23,158,870 - Max Chain: 147

This was by learning new score techniques on chapters1-3. It was not a perfect execution of those techniques by any means, and I died at least 3 times, screwing myself out of a 1.5 mil bonus.
Still a lot of learning and practice to come, but my rough goal is to hit 25mil.