Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Jonst]

^ same, for me scoring comes second to survival that late in the game (stage 5). Apart from trying not to die, 2 or 3 score extends and the stage 4 extend should be enough to get the job done, it worked for me

The only game i'm comfortable enough not to bomb (until the final boss) is Akai katana.

[wiNteR]

Incidentally, I was also playing progear a few months back. I could have gotten a 2-3 score (reaching the stage, not clearing it), but I thought that I would practice the game more and get a 2-4 score first in a full run. Third stage in second loop is the first big increase in difficulty in game, followed by anything including and after fourth boss in second loop (where it basically goes insane). I had problems with my desktop pc due to which I couldn't play for few months.

Now when I have a 'new' desktop pc (even older than the previous one) it seems it just doesn't run progear properly. So I have put it aside for now at least.

Usually 1-4 boss onward it can be more difficult to be consistent than it looks. I happened to lose one or more lives quite often either on stage-4 boss, somewhere on stage-5 or the stage-5 boss. These parts can certainly be a bit tricky, even if you can do all the individual sections perfectly in practice.

[pegboy]

Im playing thunder force ac, one of the easiest shumps ever made but holy fuck that soundtrack is on another level. This is honestly one of the best games ive ever played. I love playing with autofire and just obliterating everything in sight. It just feels amazing. Im prob going to be tackling the whole series here soon.

[KoopaTGR]

Same!

I just got the clear on my second serious attempt, although it was a shit score and was done on the easier World version I might play Thunder Force III next due to their similarities.

Speaking of TFIII, do the stages change in terms of difficulty depending on which starting stage you choose?

[Vludi]

Yeah TFAC is so easy even without auto. TF4 is the best for a challenge, i guess TF2 X68k too.

[Stevens]

Haha. That feeling when you're under the influence, hit practice mode, and do OK:D

[Gamer683441]

Gone back to Ikaruga. Also got off work today a little early, so I booted up my Saturn and got a bit of Radiant Silvergun in as well.

[pokemon123]

raystorm. Since I can't find the question thread what are some differences between raystorm ps1 jp and US. I know you get 4 lives on arcade mode instead of two so i will need to change that but what else?

[AxelMill]

raystorm. Since I can't find the question thread what are some differences between raystorm ps1 jp and US. I know you get 4 lives on arcade mode instead of two so i will need to change that but what else?

Here.

[wgogh]

Gunbird, trying to get my first 1cc. Yeah, i played a lot of the genre since mid last year but never focused on one game to master.
I wonder if that's a good choice of game.

[Shepardus]

As long as you're talking about a 1-loop clear and not a 2-loop clear, it's a pretty good choice. There are easier games, but it's one of Psikyo's easier games and it's charming too. The random stage order for the first three stages is probably the most annoying thing to deal with.

[wgogh]

As long as you're talking about a 1-loop clear and not a 2-loop clear, it's a pretty good choice. There are easier games, but it's one of Psikyo's easier games and it's charming too. The random stage order for the first three stages is probably the most annoying thing to deal with.

I've got the feeling that Strikers 1945 is an easier Psikyo game, idk, but anyway

Yes, I really like the game and the TeamRocket-like villians, always returning.
I'm playing with Yuan Nang, for now. In my best run from yesterday (that i recorded to analyse), I got 'no miss' in the first stage and died on the stage-3 boss. Not bad for now, and I'm enjoying the game. I know that there are spots where you can kill the bosses fast, but I couldnt reproduce this.
(I'm playing the Playstation 2 port or Mame rom)

[endoKarb]

Gunbird is one of the easiest 1-ALL due to how easy the last stage is. You should be able to clear it pretty fast if you are smart about bombing.

Bomb the Train if you get it as second or third stage. Bombing whatever boss you get on 1-3 is also good.
1-4: keep the big flying robot halfway through the level alive until it flies off stage and comes back. Bomb the Ship boss once or twice.
1-5: You can bomb the bottom right corner of the stage if it's giving you trouble. Learn the boss, it's easy.
1-6: Use every bomb you have, hold nothing back. Important targets are the "grave" thing, the dragon head, whatever random boss is giving you problems, the final Dragon boss.
1-7: Use the bomb you get before the mid boss on the mid boss. You'll get another bomb, use it on the final boss. You win!

That should cover most of the trouble spots

[wgogh]

Now I died on the 1-4 boss, sort of a progress.
I'll try again with your tips, thank you very much!

I'll probably try with Sengoku Ace after this!

[Shepardus]

Gradius 1 (Arcade). Pretty fun game, at least until you die in a bad spot and lose the rest of your lives trying to recover. Most of the checkpoints seem reasonable enough (though it's still mildly annoying having to recover from those) but a couple, such as one in stage 4 and another in stage 7, are much tougher and I just have to hope I don't die in those areas. Earlier today I had a no-miss run up to stage 7 but then died and lost all my lives to one checkpoint.

Is it just me or are the first four stages way harder than stages 5 and 6? Stages 5 and 6 just don't seem very threatening to me at all, but the preceding stages easily get very hectic. I even have more trouble with stage 1 since I keep crashing into the mountain with a hole while trying to do loops around it.

[Vludi]

You can recover in the last checkpoint of stage 4, just don't power-up your missile there because the rank increase is annoying with that boss.
Stage 7 is just hell to recover though, so you don't want to die there. And yeah Stage 5 and 6 are pretty easy.

[Stevens]

Still hanging with Progear.

Stage 5 practice runs have been ending with me clearing the stage and defeating Volvox.

Now I just have to do it:D No real rush though, still enjoying it immensely.

[r3l0]

Hello everyone. I just signed up to the forum and thought this would be a good place for a first post. I am currently playing sigma star saga but I also just got my copy of 'vertical force' on virtual boy and have been trying to get past stage 2 boss for an hour earlier. It seems to make you highly reliant on the "drone ships" and how you configure them at different times. I am really excited there is a shoot em up forum. I won't start naming a ton but I'll just say hat my favorite system is Dreamcast :]

[wgogh]

The random stage order for the first three stages is probably the most annoying thing to deal with.

Having played a little more lately, I agree with you.
Carryied my credit until the stage before the last, but then I got anxious and lost 2 lives in 5 seconds.
Anyway, it is fun to beat my own record as I progress.
296.400, then 392.800 and now 448.500

[cham0mile]

Playing Super Aleste and other snes STG's. Also trying to get better at CAVE games for TAITO HEY arcade play.

[BIL]

Perikles's customarily excellent post-1CC writeups of Truxton II/Tatsujin Ou have finally compelled me to knuckle down and finish my Gun.Smoke ST, so I'm sort of playing that. More like reviewing old replays and stitching together GIFs, though!

Otherwise, having recently spent time on SFC's brilliant and surprisingly hardcore The Firemen, I've been in the mood for more roaming topdown shooters. Perennial favourite Twinkle Tale (MD) has been hitting the spot mightily. Much like SFC contemporary Kiki Kaikai, the cutesy style belies a truly authoritative run/gun. Moves at absolute blitzkrieg pace. Normal's a bit overly generous with restore items and bombs, though still fun - some satisfyingly nasty later bosses. Will tackle hard shortly.

[davyK]

Enjoying Saturn mode of DoDonPachi. It seems to act as a novice mode. It is slightly easier and has more generous 1UP score boundaries. It also has a level 0 complete with its own boss. It has one loop only and apparantly there is no requirement to reach the true final boss.

In the options you can select to play it as loop 1 or loop 2.

Managed to get to level 5 last night on it (loop 1, blue ship). It should be a nice segway into the arcade mode which is just that bit too tough for me at the mo. I find the usual Cave novice modes to be too easy - this seems to just have the difficulty pitched right.

Playing it TATEd with a CRT of course....

[Perikles]

Perikles's customarily excellent post-1CC writeups of Truxton II/Tatsujin Ou have finally compelled me to knuckle down and finish my Gun.Smoke ST, so I'm sort of playing that. More like reviewing old replays and stitching together GIFs, though!

This feels like the highest knightly accolade; if I'm able to incite your penmanship sui generis - which is bound to let the scrubs writhe in agony and the enthusiasts squeal in ill-concealed joy - I'm a happy man indeed. We also need that ST, Gun.Smoke is brutal. I find some of those early titles (like Star Force, Exed Exes, Argus et al.) to be the hardest ones out there, Gun.Smoke is no exception. Would love to hear some advice!

Perennial favourite Twinkle Tale (MD) [...] Will tackle hard shortly.

It just keeps getting better and better.


I'll probably play some moreso relaxing games before tackling the nefarious 1P Same! Same! Same!. Was thinking of Exzisus which I've been meaning to play for quite a while now, it reminds me a lot of Section Z (both in that you control a humanoid and as far as the sheer fun is concerned when playing these), quite an excellent little title. I actually prefer the US version over the original release, but I'll clear both for the sake of completeness. I'm also having a blast revisiting all those arcade games whose 16-bit ports I've cleared at some point in time. Comparative shmupping is a hobby horse of mine.

[Dumple]

Gradius 1 (Arcade).
...
Is it just me or are the first four stages way harder than stages 5 and 6? Stages 5 and 6 just don't seem very threatening to me at all, but the preceding stages easily get very hectic. I even have more trouble with stage 1 since I keep crashing into the mountain with a hole while trying to do loops around it.

It's not just you! The difficulty curve is pretty weird. Stages 5 and 6 were easy for me too. (Level 5 is partly easy because of the rampant slowdown). Then level 7 is legitimately challenging again. I think level 3 (the infamous Moai level) is the peak difficulty for the game. (Well, the *real* peak is recovery after dying, which is a true penance...)

[Harpuia]

I've 1-ALL'd Gradius a few times and I find the fourth and final stages to be the hardest. I always switch to the double in stage four (it's the only one I don't use the laser in) and I can semi-consistently make it through without dying, although the checkpoint right before the "boss" is one of the few checkpoints that I can recover from so it's not a big deal if I do. The Moai stage isn't too bad once you figure out a route to go with, five and six are pretty easy, and I think the last stage is the hardest overall.

[Shepardus]

I also find the fourth and final stages to be the hardest, with the fourth being the hardest to not die in and the final stage being the most difficult to recover in (the last two checkpoints aren't too bad, but before that it's basically game over for me if I die). I find the last stage easier with double than laser since you can stay near the center and move left and right to cover the top and bottom with your options. I also use double in stage 6 but the stage is easy either way. The hardest parts of stages 5 and 6 are really their "pre-stage" segments - I don't recall having ever died in those stages outside those parts.

[Noid]

Currently playing AIPD: Artificial Intelligence Police Department on the PS4. Working on beating it on Hard, then will grind out 1b cumulative points.

[Stevens]

Hello Volvox.

I reached stage 5 with 2 ships left and a bomb. I figured I could at least make it there and I did. Soon!

[atheistgod1999]

I'm playing Gradius on NES( without the Konami code ofc). It's the only shmup I own and it will be the first one I beat( and yes, I know I should've already played more before joining this forum). I'm able to get up to level 5 atm.

[BrianC]

Played a bit of Winds of Thunder, Last Resort, Raiden II, and Dodonpachi II at TooManyGames.