Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[BIL]

Hey! What is the fuck, Blue Rifle #1! I just blasted your buddy with a gut-shot and you are flat on your back enjoying a smoke!



ST done.

[egg_sanwich]

Been playing a lot of Dimahoo recently. Not really sure what is up with all the items, just aiming for survival for now...

[OmKol]

Still Touhou 14.3. Only three scenes left for no item clear - 10-4, 10-5 and 10-7. Oh my god...
10-7 cleared and I forgot to record a replay. What a dumb. Okay, if I ever can clear 10-4 and 10-5 I also can record 10-7 because I did it surprisingly fast (for me) - only 255 tries.
No, I really wanted to show clear to my friends so I rerecorded it with just 40 tries and now I'm busy with uploading

[Weak Boson]

Just got trouserplanked by mushihimesama maniac. Was doing very well with my first death in stage 4. Well, a few silly mistakes later and I'm still doing ok, but I realize that at some point I forgot to pick up all of my options. So I end up facing the final onslaught under powered and under resourced and feeling like I could have just about made it through if I was doing the amount of damage I DESERVE.

[Stevens]

A few years back I passed on a copy of Gradius V in the wild and kicked myself for not grabbing it when I had the chance.

Yesterday I find a guy's wallet and I went out of my way to return it to him. Today I was gifted a copy of Gradius V.

Karma?

Now playing a mix of Under Defeat, Progear, and now Gradius. I never realized how much I rely on auditory cues in UD until I played it with the sound off.

[CloudyMusic]

Been learning Espgaluda II recently. I really like how you need to always be thinking ahead and be prepared to adjust your route on the fly depending on your resources. Still not very good at scoring, but I can work on that.

[atheistgod1999]

Back to Gradius on NES after being sidetracked by other stuff. It's hard for me, but in an unusual way: I have a hard time concentrating on things, so eventually my mind will wander for a split-second, causing me to fuck up and die, currently at stage 6. This hasn't been an issue before, and was actually getting to stage 7 but I don't know how to get past the force field thing (and don't spoil it, please). Momentarily getting distracted is nowhere near as consequential in any other game I've played before.

I need to learn to meditate.

EDIT: Then again, not getting enough sleep last night is probably the cause.

[Squire Grooktook]

Been taking an interest in bullet parrying/reflection mechanics lately, so I decided to give RefleX another shot. I already 1cc'd it, and the scoring system is kind of shit IMO, so it was purely for the excitement of 1cc'ing it again.

It's a good game for sure, with great aesthetic and sprite puppet show stylings, but I think it is indeed the most dry out of all the Alltynex games, in terms of gameplay. It has neither Kamui's scoring depth, nor Alltynex Second's tightness.

I think the gameplay has glimpses of greatness, but neither the pattern design or the system itself manage to support that greatness for long. There are tense moments where you're deciding in milliseconds whether or not to weave through the next pattern naked while charging your shield for the next one. Those are great, but I feel that the way the shield system actually works, and the way the levels are designed, you can effectively minimize those moments with no real penalty to either survival or score. High level RefleX seems to be basically just shielding everything with barely a complex movement.

The game becomes quite a bit dryer and less exciting the more time you spend with it, because there's no real risk/reward element or offense/defense balance. RefleX irreversibly tips toward easiness when you realize that the shield recharges faster when not shooting, at which point most of the boss battles become incredibly easy to "play safe" against, with no real downsides. At that point, memorizing patterns and developing a route is simply overkill in a game that you can more or less goof through.

When the game is good though, its real good. Those moments where you really are juggling shield/vs fire/dodging are sublime. I personally think that Biometal does the same concept a bit better and more elegantly though. Despite not having reflection, its similar in terms of having a recharging "guard" mechanic, and it balances it for white hot knuckle action a lot better overall imo. Of course, you can't get Siter Skains distinctive cinematics anywhere else.

Despite being rough around the edges, and somewhat broken in parts, I will probably continue to return to RefleX over the years, every now and then, for its few uniquely exhilarating moments, and its cinematic channeling of apocalyptic war.

[cave hermit]

Got myself a copy of Gradius V in the mail yesterday from Goodwill's Amazon storefront for $30; case is kinda worn out and has some scratched out price stickers (...that say 19.99 on them), no manual, and I'm not sure if those circular marks on the disc are scratches or normal wear, but the game seems to run well, and with retro gaming purchases, I think Darth Vader put it best:

Spoiler

As for the game itself, it's pretty great, although it's missing a bit of the charm of the older games (one of the trade offs of the cinematic approach I suppose), and it seems to take some cues from Ikaruga with stage hazards for better or for worse (in particular, the closing door just before the brain core in stage 2 seemed like a dick move you couldn't see coming the first time).

The option manipulation systems are really cool and add lots of depth to the game, although I feel like some of the systems are much better than others (type 2's free aim beams for example), and they kind of make double/tail gun obsolete.

Also I love the announcer voice.

After getting back from vacation on Sunday I plan to invest some more time into this. I'll totally stick with it and 1cc it. For reals this time.

Spoiler

Honest.

Also I kind of want to get some quality time in with Pink Sweets arrange before I move to campus in August and consoles become a bit more of a hassle to set up.

[OmKol]

Touhou 14.3. Fuck this pattern.

Spoiler

[Squire Grooktook]

Aside from revisiting RefleX and Biometal, I've been getting back to Battle Garegga a bit, playing a credit or two in between classes or homework. It's a good pick, because the whole game is consistently thrilling and brain straining from beginning to end, so you always get your times worth.

I've had to relearn a lot, since it's been a year or two since I put in any time or effort into the game, but I've been progressing pretty fast. I've been consistently making it to BASE, and I no miss-no bombed the gunwall and made it to Junkey Monkey for the first time today. I'm at 6.2 mil with Iron Mackeral.

[atheistgod1999]

Touhou 14.3. Fuck this pattern.

Spoiler

That doesn't look that hard.

[gs68]

Triangle Service's PC ports.



Kind of bothered that SST wasn't designed with the possibility of people using autofire controllers in mind. I like not getting CTS =/

[Vludi]

Battle Bakraid, trying to get a basic clear of Advance. I can reach stage 8 but Vampire is such a damage sponge. Also not sure if using B or C for the ship.

[Nameschonvergeben]

Touhou 14.3. Fuck this pattern.

Spoiler

That doesn't look that hard.

it is though :/

[wgogh]

Just tried this really wierd shooter today. Game Tengoku or The Game Paradise

Well, i guess that i just dont know

[OmKol]

Touhou 14.3. Fuck this pattern.

Spoiler

That doesn't look that hard.

Did you watched how it looks in real-time? I spend 3000+ attempts on this pattern. The hardest part for me was a top of the screen but after 4 failed chances to kill boss now I spend even more time on the beginning of the battle trying to do as much damage as I can.

[atheistgod1999]

Touhou 14.3. Fuck this pattern.

Spoiler

That doesn't look that hard.

Did you watched how it looks in real-time?

Now I have, and it still doesn't look that hard. I actually thought it was around that speed.

[Squire Grooktook]

Dunno if AG trolling or not. Dunno how someone could struggle with Gradius 1 so hard (I beat the arcade version pretty much first attempt) and yet think a pretty rough pattern like that isn't hard. That's like dying to a goomba in super mario bros and then saying Contra 3's hardest boss looks easy.

I beat the arcade version of Gradius 1 on my first attempt*, and I'd definitely say that pattern looks harder than anything individually in the first loop.

*

Spoiler

Well, I put in one credit, messed around and died on stage 2, then restarted and cleared the whole game on next credit.

[Shepardus]

I bet he thinks Futari Ultra looks easy too.

[The Armchair General]

I bet he also thinks Undertale is the hardest game ever made. Though to be fair I find Gradius very difficult too ;_;

[EmperorIng]

I haven't played too much shmups lately, as my interests are temporarily invested in playing RPGs (have the Wizardry trilogy for the Saturn on its way). However, I have been on-and-off practicing Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams on the PC Engine, still trying to clear it. I've made it to stage 6 (the penultimate stage). After about 4 stages the game goes insane with enemy spam: huge sprites are everywhere looking to nudge Cotton's huge sprite into a large half-power down penalty. Very frustrating!

Does anyone ever use the variety of fairy attacks? There's the standard "hold the bomb button and release" that flings them forward, but it doesn't seem to do anything. There is also the "hold the bomb button, then hold the attack button, and activate spell" attack (something like that) which seems to coat the fairies in a damaging magical barrier, but the standard shot-spell-bomb combo still seems to work the best.

[atheistgod1999]

Dunno if AG trolling or not. Dunno how someone could struggle with Gradius 1 so hard (I beat the arcade version pretty much first attempt) and yet think a pretty rough pattern like that isn't hard.

I've actually only played like twice a day for about 3 days. I was able to get to level 7 on one life thrice, but each time I couldn't figure out how to break the barrier (even thoroughly checked the manual), died, then got somewhat frustrated, causing me to lose all of my lives. And don't tell me how to get past it!

Also, while the pattern may be a little rough, it's slower and gives you more space to move than, say, the level 6 boss in Gradius.

[Shepardus]

The stage 6 boss in Gradius is super trivial because you can destroy its projectiles. You don't even have to move, and with the right powerups it takes only a couple seconds if you're not milking the projectiles for points. Even without autofire it's not hard.

[tomwhite2004]

Guys like Jaimers can make patterns like that look easy but executing them yourself is another matter altogether!

There is nothing like watching a 1cc or superplay to lull you into a sense of underestimating a games difficulty.

[atheistgod1999]

The stage 6 boss in Gradius is super trivial because you can destroy its projectiles. You don't even have to move, and with the right powerups it takes only a couple seconds if you're not milking the projectiles for points. Even without autofire it's not hard.

1. I'm talking about when I'm not powered up at all.
2. I don't need autofire; I can actually button-mash faster than the highest setting on the NES Advantage without tiring out my thumb.

[Squire Grooktook]

I have no idea what the stage 6 boss is like without power ups, because I"ve never actually died there.

The pattern in that video is more consistently challenging because you're going to need some sight reading and execution skills no matter what you do.

Maybe you should play some Dodonpachi in an emulator for a bit and see how you can get fucked up by patterns 1/4th as hard a ton.

[OmKol]

Guys like Jaimers can make patterns like that look easy but executing them yourself is another matter altogether!

Oh yeah, with these knives I can't even say sometimes why I'm dead. In this case I will save a replay, record that replay as a movie file and make some snapshots to see frame-by-frame where actually I'm dead. Like this.

[Shepardus]

Even with no powerups you can easily destroy every projectile coming towards you. (Not that that situation should ever come up since the whole stage is easy.) Trust me, you're not impressing anyone by saying you can beat the stage 6 boss of Gradius. I'd be more impressed, though, if you timed it out without firing.

[Kollision]

Had a good time with Last Hope this weekend.
Plus I also tried Rendering Ranger R2 - got quite confused by the controls, I always turned when I wanted to shift weapons and I always shifted weapons when I wanted to turn