Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[OmKol]

If you're "just" playing for survival, maybe even using the "!?" field and suiciding in order to keep the rank low I don't think the first loop is all that hard.

It is. I've got clear of first loop without using second speed up and force field until stage 8. And three deaths (all of them is not suicide but mistake) - 2 on stage 4 and 1 on stage 8.

[BIL]

Been playing Winds of Thunder (PCE) and enjoying it. ¦3 I can't make heads or tails of the opening narration so I made up my own ultra-violent metal story about animu ragnarok. "ANY MAN DIES WITH A CLEAN SWORD," I bellow during Helado's tundra assault, "I'LL RAPE HIS FUCKING CORPSE"

"Normal" difficulty does well with a favourite console STG archetype of mine: design what would be a pretty mean 1-hit killer, then buffer the noob-flaying fury with lots of fluffy hitpoints, shields and bombas, progressively learned to go without. Along with the dense stage layouts, the knowingly hyperaggressive pacing is great - it's a rush smiting the oncoming hordes without taking POW-sapping hits and falling into retreat. Hard and Super difficulties seem more Guardic Gaiden "bombs/shields as crutch," but eh. Those can be fun too with this kind of blazing verve. Very cool game overall.

Speaking of, my mullet is ablaze at shaweet OST. They knew all the best Euro metal to rip off! （＾ω´ ） FUN TIP: this is the SECOND game I know of with RANDY RHOADS as the protagonist! The first is obviously Holy Diver. Stay away from light aircraft, kids.

[CloudyMusic]

Been sorta dipping my toes into one thing after another lately to see if anything particularly grabs me. Looped DDP and decided to put it down for now, then revisited Raiden Fighters and Strikers 1999, both of which I hadn't played in a long time. Also bought DDC since I remembered that it was available digitally to finally give Touhou a real shot.

[horaceappleton]

still looking for a new game to love. Garegga & Phantasmagoria Trues need a longer break, UFO and CCWI are non-starters... I need to try something new!

[Stevens]

The week before I went away was Bionic Commando. Came back, still playing it.

Starting to get the itch again though. Played a credit yesterday of Ikaruga and Raiden IV. Neither was anything special, but they were the 1st shooters I've played in three weeks.

Mushi is calling, but old faithful has started to call my name as well.

Played some Mushi yesterday. Training mode - cranked the gems up to 30000 and routed with Reco.

[G3n3raL86]

Asterbreed on PS4. One of the best shmups i've ever played.

[Kollision]

will be back to Trizeal on the PS2, in between attempts at Raystorm

[The Coop]

Bouncing back and forth between Wolflame and Battle Crust.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Dodonpachi, largely. I'm close to a 1-ALL - but after reaching the final boss a few times, getting smacked down, and then being unable to reach him again over the last few days has me pretty discouraged. I also can't really decide what ship to use - normally I use C-L, but I first reached the stage 6 boss with C-S. But the deleveled laser feels so useless against bosses....

In the meantime I've been messing with other shooters. Batsugun is fun and largely pretty easy; a day of playing saw me reach the stage 4 boss. Stage 4 and its boss are a big difficulty spike for sure, but the game is certainly no Dodonpachi in terms of difficulty. And Gradius (somehow I never managed to play anything from this series in all the years I've played games) is really cool; I like the simplicity of older stuff like this. Having trouble making it anywhere in stage 4 there.

[Harpuia]

Dodonpachi, largely. I'm close to a 1-ALL - but after reaching the final boss a few times, getting smacked down, and then being unable to reach him again over the last few days has me pretty discouraged. I also can't really decide what ship to use - normally I use C-L, but I first reached the stage 6 boss with C-S. But the deleveled laser feels so useless against bosses...

Keep at it! I would highly recommend C-S over C-L, especially if you're playing with autofire enabled. I don't think the difference in laser power is that much, it's more the width of the laser and increased speed that it benefits from, but not as much as, say, A-L would because it's still a slow ship to begin with. If you can get to the final boss with enough resources (For example, two bombs and an extra ship) he's very easy to bombspam your way through.

[Shepardus]

The difference in focused movement speed alone was enough for me to choose C-L over C-S for my first 1-ALL. The damage difference is pretty minor on single targets such as bosses, but the L types have much better cutting power through vertical lines of enemies like those in stage 5 and their laser starts up faster.

[Oniros]

After a relatively long break from shmups, I'm back to Dariusburst CS, which is what I last played on December 2015.

[Blinge]

I've been back at Ketsui and got that Tiger Schwert 1-ALL.
That's both ships now.

I've still gotta get a lot better at stage 5 if I want to see the omote loop. Although I may fuck around with X-mode some.

[KoopaTGR]

Good work Blinge!

How do you find it compared to the Panzer?

[Blinge]

Cheers man. I used to love the panzer's speed, made the game feel more fun for me when I first started playing.
So tiger took some getting used to, it felt real sluggish at first but the faster lock-speed pays off soon enough.

It's actually been so long since I used panzer that I can't remember how the difference felt.

[Stevens]

Still messing with Futari, got to go with what I feel.

[doom_]

started messing around with mushi steam-release a few days ago. I always liked the audiovisual presentation of the game and that's cool. bullet patterns are fun too. but by the rest of the game design I'm rather underwhelmed tbh. scoring system seems weird and is not really motivating at this point. idk... I got 1.5 dlc and played max mode a bit - that one was way better than vanilla at least.

on the bright side: my disappointment led me to try touhou for some reason. I never really played those games (the artstyle is weird ). people on the internet were suggesting part 6 as a good entry point. and what should I say... IT'S GREAT! more entertaining and motivating than mushi from the very start. some very cool mechanics. nice boss fights. fun scoring system. the game's weirdness will grow on me I guess. I'm happy that I finally tried touhou!

[Jonst]

Nice one blinge!

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

[Stevens]

Yeah - we all know that screen.

Stick with it man, you'll get it.

[Harpuia]

So close dude, keep at it and I'm sure the clear will be yours in no time.

As for myself, I'm taking a little break from Cave and Psikyo titles. I've been focusing on the original arcade Gradius and finding it to be quite a challenge compared to the PCE port that I have more experience with. Also deciding whether or not I prefer the laser or the double, or if it's better to switch between them for certain stages.

[Squire Grooktook]

Tried the remake of Galshell 2 off of Kane's recommendation in the questions thread.

This feels like one of those types of stg's they don't make much of anymore. Simple, manic, and unique thanks to the secondary shot aiming and stages and enemy formations built quite nicely around it. The gameplay has character, which is slightly uncommon these days.

First stage sure is long though, seems like they're going the Gradius V route in terms of length here, but given how manic and satisfying everything is, I can't complain.

Honestly though, I wish the art direction was a bit more...subtle in places. I don't mind most of it, but the boob monsters in particular are more silly then they are evocative of bio-daemonic horror like the rest.

[Jonst]

Yeah - we all know that screen.

Stick with it man, you'll get it.

[Doctor Butler]

I got so bored the other day that I unsealed that copy of Otomedius Excellent I didn't want to play.

It's not very good. Glad I only paid 2 dollars for it (2 years ago, lol)

[SMC]

That's not excellent at all

[The Coop]

Gave 1993 Space Machine a try and beat it. Not a bad little Amiga shmup, but there's a nasty bug on the final boss that makes it impossible to beat if you're not careful and make sure to get rid of ALL of the little shields first.

[hail good sir]

what is this nonsense

[NeoStrayCat]

^Magic pixel, I assume, so close...

[doom_]

haha




... no .... that feels bad, man.

[Stevens]

I had some odd desire to play Danmaku 2 the other day. Threw a few credits in and made stage 5.

The backgrounds are shit, but the game play and music make up for it. I find it pretty fun.

And I just looked at the high score thread. Spending points is encouraged?! That changes everything:D