Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Enzo03]

I randomly picked up TF4 just now and made it to level 7's boss. I've never gotten that far in TF4 before, though I haven't played it often (enough).

I feel I might be picking up some tricks from my hilariously feeble attempts to play through Truxton II.

[Jonst]

Progress continues with ibara. Almost made it to the stage 5 boss but still mostly screwing up the stage 4 midboss extend but I'm pretty pleased, I feel more consistent now, I'm finally getting it!

[mamboFoxtrot]

Well, I made it somewhere past the mid-boss of Stage 5 in Mushihimesama 1.5 Original today, and might've made it a bit further if I hadn't forgotten that there's no auto-bomb when you have MAX mode off. I guess that means I might be able to 1CC this soon! (inb4 I spend three weeks somehow not being able to make it past stage 3...)

[boagman]

I'm just enjoying the heck out of Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours these days. I don't have a ton of time for shmups right now, but when the moment(s) present, I flick on the Vita and try my best to plod through as far as I can. It's such a great game/effort.

[KoopaTGR]

The recent score thread drama has inspired me to revisit DoDonPachi.
I'm currently trying to get to the second loop, and since I just got 40mil with C-L (without much of a scoring route) I don't think I'm too far off!

[copy-paster]

Super Darius, went to ABDHMSX route, no miss'd Fatty Glutton for first time

M zone is easier than the arcade one, and got died at X zone.

[Harpuia]

Super Darius, went to ABDHMSX route, no miss'd Fatty Glutton for first time

Super Darius is great, I actually like it more than the arcade version. So far I've cleared the ABDGLRW and ABDGKPZ paths. I usually try to avoid Fatty Glutton in all of my routes, as I don't think he was balanced to be beaten with the laser like in Darius Extra.

My main focus right now is ESP Ra.De with J-B 5th. So far, pretty cool game with a scoring system that I can actually get into even I have to put much of my focus on just surviving later on. Managed to make it to the final boss for the first time earlier.

[Stevens]

My main focus right now is ESP Ra.De with J-B 5th. So far, pretty cool game with a scoring system that I can actually get into even I have to put much of my focus on just surviving later on. Managed to make it to the final boss for the first time earlier.

Great game that should have had a home port. Keep at it!

Last two weeks haven't allowed me much play time. Yesterday was the 1st day since the 23rd I was able to get a session in.

Weekends looking good though.

[kaicooper]

just completed 2 classics Shmups

M.U.S.H.A on Genesis
and
R-Type III on SNES

M.U.S.H.A such a perfect game in everyway..but short little bit..eatch level has
unique bosses and stuff..great

R-Type III
WTF was that..i like surreal/space games and this has it all
but comon..is this Punishment? i've never play a game like this before
i finished previews games and they r amazing on MAME but this was
Huge PUNISHMENT..hhhh..but felt great after its Done

[davyK]

Still at Gigawing.

Got to level 4 stranger today and broke 1 trillion for the first time. Hurrah! My score starts the same colour as those in the hi-score tables now!!!

[Stevens]

At the moment nothing, Gunbird 2 later though, and I'm possibly feeling some Futari for some reason.

[Jonst]

Futari Stevens?... Where's that akai katana clear?

Still ibara for me. It's like crack, but I'm just not getting enough time to play it...

[Stevens]

Haha. How are things?

You know how it is. There's things I would like to accomplish (Esp 2 BL, AK Z/S, UD 5 mil/ALL), but man if I ain't feelin' it..

Times been limited lately too. Been a bit more tired than usual (someone needs to eat more food) since I've been training.

And (on the weekends at least) particular substances are never conducive to making any sort of real progress. I'm going to keep that stuff to a minimum today and play the following:

GB 2
MF 1.5
Esp 2 BL
and maybe UD and AK.

No matter what it will be a great day. I hope you are enjoying yours sir.

[Jonst]

Yeah, good at the moment thanks, enjoying some time off work! It's been flat out, so needed some time out to reconnect with my own life for a bit.

I know man, I'm the same!

It's a pretty good day! I'm still working on ibara, I can't stop playing it, but it does kind of hate me! My goals are less lofty these days, but I would love an ibara clear. I just can't settle on my play style for it... Genius game though!

[EmperorIng]

I'm practicing Skull Fang, and the more I play it the more I hate it.

You can be perfectly fine one moment, and the next have your life-bar whittled to nothing by two dozen erratic enemies entering the screen haphazardly and unloading on you. Some undodgeable moments seem to necessitate using your "get out of bullets free" roll maneuver, making the game feel like a poorly-designed Euro-shmup. The visual clutter makes seeing the bullets a special challenge, especially when orange bullets are obscured by yellow clouds, orange explosions, and your orange shot. Bosses are infuriatingly random in how they move around; if boss 3 decides to barrel at you from off-screen at 100 miles/per hour, you will have no time to react and will either sacrifice your life bar or your S-Unit upgrade.

I've gotten to the penultimate boss, which is literally just the recycled sprites of boss 2 and 3 one after another; I hope I am finished with the game soon so I can sell it and move on to other shooters.

[Stevens]

Skull Fang/I hate it/finished with the game soon so I can sell it and move on to other shooters.

Jeez homey. I admire your fortitude, but serious question: Why play something you hate?

Raiden IV made the rotation today. I finally figured out its vulcan or bust.

[EmperorIng]

Jeez homey. I admire your fortitude, but serious question: Why play something you hate?

Combination of things:

1) spending money on a game
2) the game having a few elements that are sort of neat (Vapor Trail, the game's predecessor, is a far more refined game with similar elements, though that's a little average)
3) being so close to the end

Usually I try to 1CC a game before I get rid of it (it has left a number of shooters stuck in my "collection"!), and I am making a stronger conscientious effort this year to clean out the backlog and move on.

[Enzo03]

I don't know how I did it but I made it through Level 7 of TF4 alive and had 11 lives coming into level 8.

And I lost each and every single one of them.

Last night I "coined" my way through TF3, though every single continue was on levels 4 and 7. I could probably get through 4 without having to do so now.

[Harpuia]

ESP Ra.De is turning out to be tougher than I initially anticipated. It definitely doesn't feel "extremely easy" like I've seen it described. Still keeping at it though, I haven't given up clearing a game yet and there's no way this is gonna be the first. Something about it just feels off compared to the other CAVE shooters I've played heavily (Dodonpachi, Daioujou BL, and Guwange), maybe it's the player speed which doesn't feel all that different between the 3 characters. The "Bombs" also don't seem as effective as other bombs in Cave games, unless there's a particular way I'm supposed to be using them? Also, is J-B 5th usually considered the best character for survival, like C-S for Dodonpachi?

[Shepardus]

In case you didn't know, you can hold the bomb button to use more of the bomb gauge in exchange for a more powerful bomb attack. Same goes for Espgaluda.

[Harpuia]

I'm aware, yeah. I usually end up tapping the bomb button as a panic measure during stages, and holding it during boss fights.

[Stevens]

It definitely doesn't feel "extremely easy" like I've seen it described.

I mean maybe easier than playing a perfect game of Pac Man or reaching the DK kill screen, but easy? No.

Where the hell you see that?

[Harpuia]

Where the hell you see that?

http://vsrecommendedgames.wikia.com/wik ... t%27em_Ups

Here, there's an entry on the game that describes it as being extremely easy. The author might've gotten that bit confused with ESPgaluda which I do find to be quite easy.

[The Armchair General]

The author might've gotten that bit confused with ESPgaluda which I do find to be quite easy.

How difficult do you find ESPgaluda II?

[Harpuia]

How difficult do you find ESPgaluda II?

I haven't played it yet.

[Squire Grooktook]

The author might've gotten that bit confused with ESPgaluda which I do find to be quite easy.

How difficult do you find ESPgaluda II?

It's much harder then 1, and probably harder then Ra.De IIRC.

[Shepardus]

The author might've gotten that bit confused with ESPgaluda which I do find to be quite easy.

How difficult do you find ESPgaluda II?

It's much harder then 1, and probably harder then Ra.De IIRC.

The Japanese wiki agrees with this - it rates Espgaluda as 16, ESP Ra.De as 20 (on par with DOJBL 1-ALL), and Espgaluda II as 22 (on par with DOJWL 1-ALL, and above Ketsui, though if you ask me Ketsui 1-ALL is harder than DOJWL 1-ALL). I don't have much experience with any of the games but Espgaluda II definitely feels harder than Espgaluda to me.

[Stevens]

Played some Futari (training mode) over the weekend. Out of practice, but was still able to no miss stages 1 and 2 the first try. Stage 3 and 5 on my third try and stage 4 on my 2nd try.

Yesterday was a little more Futari training. I tried Reco on stage 4, normally don't use her. Raiden IV saw some time too - that vulcan at point blank is nuts, and then I played more Dead Space.

[AxelMill]

Just got these three beauties on Amazon for €28.94, guess what I'm going to play?

[copy-paster]

DFK, more accessible to play imo.

Have you own the Black Label version?