I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

[Stevens]

Nice work kid.

Fightcade also has some shmups on it.

[Shepardus]

Nice one, hope it's just the beginning for you. If you want more there are plenty of shmups for PC, both freeware and not, and there's also MAME if you're not opposed to emulation.

[Perikles]

Tztztz, you guys. Recommending new games instead of persuading atheistgod1999 to clear more loops of Gradius even though everyone knows it's all about spending several hours on one credit. Difficulty should be maxed out in the fourth loop or thereabouts, that's a splendid goal to aim for!

[Squire Grooktook]

He needs to broaden his horizons though.

[seraph]

I'm pretty sure looping an arcade shmoop to hell and back would make anyone competent at it and other games that are similar! That's a Hot Superplayer™ Secret that is also not so secret, please enjoy!

[wgogh]

Progress on DoDonpachi. i'm working around that...
Its hard for me to focus in just one game, but at least im making progress in all of them

Spoiler

[__SKYe]

Just finished Touhou 15 on Normal in Point Device mode.
Died 819 times.

Holy f***, that was the hardest thing I've ever played in my life.
I thought it would be kinda easy to finish due to the rewind mechanic, but damn...

I shudder at the thought of actually trying to 1cc it in Legacy mode...

I am very proud of it though, especially since I managed to beat most of the patterns without bombing, after dozens of tries.

Anyway, let it be another stepping stone to greater personal shmup achievements.

[Shepardus]

It's actually arguably easier in Legacy mode, since grazing enough in each chapter will get you extra life fragments rather than bomb fragments, so you can afford to spam bombs/die a lot more as long as you're getting graze from it.

Clownpiece is a load of bull on Normal, good job on getting past her.

[Aggro Sky]

I posted in another thread about it, but I 1CCed Thunder Force IV on Maniac. Score was 6699260. Was hard as hell, but I pulled it off

[EmperorIng]

my first 1CC in months:



I hope so too, Xevious! Actually, it might be sooner than you think, considering i still have Xevious 3d/G+ in my PS1 collection.

I cleared Fardraut Mode, which is Compile's reimagining of the Xevious formula at Namco's behest. Thus the mode combines the variable AI of Xevious and Zanac, Compile's love of ungodly long stages, minus the weapons-glut of Compile and the minimalism of Namco's original.

The bullets come extremely thick in this game, which despite a fairly generous extend rate puts up ferocious resistance. A couple of ground targets can quickly litter the screen in bullets if the rank is up, which is usually is. There are now a few powerups - Red Ws that increase your shot, Blue Rs that give you Shionites (sp?), Yellow Ws that increase your ground shot radius, and a few others that don't seem to do much or are negated by the presence of autofire switches on the PCE.

Some of the later parts of the game's second half (stages 3 and 4) seem impossible to navigate without the Shionite prism/square things that act as a shield that destroys the floating squares and tanks bullets. They seem to have a large health bar that is replenished with Blue Ws, but I am not for sure.

Needless, there are stretches that are sloppy and frustrating thanks to the huge deluge of bullets, or the extreme difficulty of recovery if you lose your precious Shinotiess or widened ground-shot radius. Some of the new(?) bullet attacks are incredibly cruel: a fast-moving parabolic shot that sometimes curves back at you like a boomerang... the dreaded zakatoa five-shot spread is spammed in the later levels to hair-raising heights... New bosses that while not posing threats in and of themselves are usually supported by huge waves of enemy zakos that target your puny, huge hitbox.

Xevious feels like one of the tougher PCE games I've played, though that might be more an indicator of my skill. I don't think I'll bother too much with the PCE port's arcade mode, as the arcade Xevious I have yet to fully get in to. Maybe; after all, there are all those lovely arrange modes on Xevious 3d...

Also, my reaction to there being no board for Fardraut Mode. If you have the port, play it! It's a good mode. If you like Xevious, emulate it! It keeps the game fresh and its remix of the Xevious jingle on stage 3 is tight.

===

Yesterday I got the farthest I've ever gotten in KiKi KaiKai's PCE port; I hope I can take that one next off the list.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Work has been slow, so I had the time to accomplish something.

1CCed Mushihime-Sama Original.
I made some notable gaffes, but I was also pretty clutch when I needed to be.

Part 1 (starts 20 minutes in ) - https://www.twitch.tv/pepsiman4mayor/v/81844572
Part 2 - https://www.twitch.tv/pepsiman4mayor/v/81848637

Sorry about the bad quality. I'm still messing around with streaming.

[CloudyMusic]

Work has been slow, so I had the time to accomplish something.

1CCed Mushihime-Sama Original.
I made some notable gaffes, but I was also pretty clutch when I needed to be.

Part 1 (starts 20 minutes in ) - https://www.twitch.tv/pepsiman4mayor/v/81844572
Part 2 - https://www.twitch.tv/pepsiman4mayor/v/81848637

Sorry about the bad quality. I'm still messing around with streaming.

The quality looks OK, the Mushi series is pretty rough on video encoders almost no matter what you do.

Congrats!

[PepsimanVsJoe]

The quality looks OK, the Mushi series is pretty rough on video encoders almost no matter what you do.

Congrats!

Thank you. I thought about uploading a better quality video onto youtube, but the PC version of Mushi still suffers from broken replays. Oof.

[Stevens]

Perikles - I'm a bit late, but I think you should look for something in Psikyo's stable.

I would go with one of the following:

Dragon Blaze - I think Shep already mentioned this. Haven't played a lot of it, but I played enough to know it's hard, beautiful, and has a tight mechanics. Many say this might be their best work I while I don't disagree, you can make a case for ZG 2 being their best, but it's close.

Zero Gunner 2 - This is one of the most unique shooters ever. Your ship can rotate 360*.

Gunbird 2 - Strikers mechanics and you have a melee attack. Love the art in this one.

Or you can always play Mars Matrix.

[EmperorIng]

I think Perikles would rather spend his time refining his Zing Zing Zip score.

He should try out Samurai Aces though. Psikyo's first I think? They really knocked it out of the park with that one, even it set the precedent for the next five games of charge attacks being worthless.

Video System's Turbo Force is also excellent, which is impressive considering so often the group doubled down on weird or pointless design choices in the Sonic Wings series.

[Stevens]

I think Perikles would rather spend his time refining his Zing Zing Zip score.

I think when new people ask what to play this should be the universal answer from all of us. A little harmless hazing if you will.

He should try out Samurai Aces though. Psikyo's first I think? They really knocked it out of the park with that one, even it set the precedent for the next five games of charge attacks being worthless.

Video System's Turbo Force is also excellent, which is impressive considering so often the group doubled down on weird or pointless design choices in the Sonic Wings series.

I haven't played SA, but it looks like it plays exactly how I would expect it to.

I am curious about the charge attack comment. Are they generally less effective? I've played ZG the most and there is no CA. And I've only dabbled in GB 2/Strikers 2 and tend to use them frequently.

[EmperorIng]

I don't think Charge Attacks are worth anything in Psikyo games until at least Strikers 1945. In Samurai Aces and Gunbird, they are beyond worthless since they take forever. I mean, I guess Yuan-Nang's faster stick attack is useful, but on the whole Psikyo didn't quite "get it" yet. Maybe "5 games" was a bit of hyperbole

Of course by the later games (Gunbird 2, Dragon Blaze), things had been refined and improved to a considerable degree.

[Perikles]

Dragon Blaze - I think Shep already mentioned this. Haven't played a lot of it, but I played enough to know it's hard, beautiful, and has a tight mechanics. Many say this might be their best work I while I don't disagree, you can make a case for ZG 2 being their best, but it's close.

I think Perikles would rather spend his time refining his Zing Zing Zip score.

Believe it or not, I actually am strongly considering to give Dragon Blaze a fair shot. Someone (who is qualified for such a statement) said to me that a Dragon Blaze 2-ALL is much easier than a 2-ALL of Image Fight, that got my hopes up a little bit. I woud love to get a marathon run of Gradius II going at some point in time, Dragon Blaze seems like a great counterpoint. There's always the possibility I end up regretting giving yet another Psikyo game a chance, but I do try my best to broaden my horizons. And thanks for the recommendations in any case! I tested Turbo Force once and got the impression you really have to learn how to allot your fire power (is it time-based or ammunition like in Sonic Wings?). Running out during some boss fights sure is no nice experience.

The charge attack in the first Gunbird is invaluable, by the way. Yuan-Nang's staff attack cancels bullets and does absurd damage, it's by far your best option.

I haven't played much of Fardraut Mode regarding Xevious on the PCE, EmperorIng, but your instructive review piqued my interest!

I think when new people ask what to play this should be the universal answer from all of us. A little harmless hazing if you will.

You can alternatively play Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe's Brother or Uchuu Senkan Gomora, though. Those are all fascinating experiences! I honestly enjoy eccentric titles such as these from time to time, for as long as it isn't all around miserable (like some of those unlicensed MD shooters).

[Shepardus]

Earlier Psikyo games (pre-Strikers 1945 II) treat the charge attack as a kind of tradeoff between that and the normal shot, either by forcing you to spend a long time holding your fire to charge it up, or by temporarily reducing your normal firepower after using it (like in Strikers 1945). Starting from Strikers 1945 II they're treated more like an addition to firepower, and Psikyo introduced the charge bar at the same time to regulate its usage. You don't lose anything for using your charge attack except your charge meter. To balance this additional firepower, later Psikyo games tend to send you more enemies to shoot so you need to use that charge attack to keep up, while in earlier Psikyo games it tends to be more situational. It's the same deal with Gunbird 2's melee attack and Dragon Blaze's dragon-shot - they give you powerful and spammable burst damage but send tanky enemies that fire dangerous patterns after a delay, so you need to use your new attacks to speedkill those enemies to stand a chance at survival.

Yuan Nang's an interesting and exceptional case, her quick-to-charge, close range charge attack is more like Gunbird 2's melee attacks (Tavia's in particular) than anything else in Gunbird or any early Psikyo game. There's a lot more opportunity to use it than some of the other charge attacks in Gunbird, but its short range makes it riskier to use as well.

It'd be interesting to see you play Dragon Blaze, Perikles. That game's very much a "modern" bullet hell with a Psikyo spin, much more so than Psikyo's other games.

[Bananamatic]

play futari ultra
ball hard or go home

[maximo310]

Got a 1cc on Metal Hawk with default settings- https://youtu.be/M8-cmKknc1Q , looking forward to still trying to improve my score, but its all good for now.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Despite my inexperience with stages 5 & 6* of Dodonpachi, alongside the fact that I hadn't even played the game in at least five years, I managed to pull off a 1CC.

https://www.twitch.tv/pepsiman4mayor/v/84887266 (skip to about 14:30).

Yeah I know it's not a 2 loop clear, but whatever. I will gladly take this. It'll be eons before I can replicate that stage 5 performance though. I was playing on another level for most of it.
The death in stage 3 nearly killed this run. Usually I just reset whenever I die in the first 3 (or 4) stages of a Cave shmup. I'm really glad that I decided to stick it out.

*The only time I saw them in the past, was when I credit-fed.

[wgogh]

That was the first one. I plan to 1cc each of the modes in Battle Bakraid.
(Still learning the Axebeak chain...)

[ACSeraph]

Finally cleared an R-Type game. Had a lot of trouble breaking into this series despite my love for old hori games. I realize now a lot of the problem was that I started with Dimensions. Decided to finish off Super R-Type on a whim and now I think I "get" it. Working on the original now via R-Types on PS1 and enjoying it quite a bit.

For Super specifically, I think the full stage restart at death was a really smart choice and keeps the recovery reasonable in every stage. Even the original seems to have pretty fair recovery with each checkpoint, though stage 5 is giving me trouble. Really seems better designed and more fair than Gradius or Darius. Deaths rarely feel cheap.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Just for the sake of it, I went ahead and 1CCed the first loop of Donpachi.

https://www.twitch.tv/pepsiman4mayor/v/85268914 (skip ahead to 2:21 for the actual run)

It was sloppy as hell, but the generous and uber-powerful bombs allow anyone to make all sorts of mistakes.

[EmperorIng]

Finally cleared an R-Type game. Had a lot of trouble breaking into this series despite my love for old hori games. I realize now a lot of the problem was that I started with Dimensions. Decided to finish off Super R-Type on a whim and now I think I "get" it. Working on the original now via R-Types on PS1 and enjoying it quite a bit.

Way to be! Impressed you stuck through with Super. I never gave it too much a chance because with the original's checkpoint system making much more sense, there was little reason to try and do the "no-miss every stage" thing Super wants to do. Not that I've cleared any R-Type game!

===

I myself finally cleared a game I've had for years. Jeez, I had bought it when I was a Saturn neophyte looking for all them cool shooters after RayForce and Darius Gaiden whet my appetite for the genre. That's years of practice attempts, on-and-off runs and learning a game. Not all at once! As interests shift, some games are put on the back-burner.

Well, I finally resolved to spend a serious week practicing, restarting (mostly restarting), and clear my first Raizing game, Soukyugurentai!

Here Souky is getting all real on me and reminding me of my own continuous spate of contract work and underemployment. Stop that, Raizing; I play games to escape reality. At least my pilot was able to retire to a nice home in Sri Lanka, and so young, too!

This has been one of the most frustrating clears I have had in a while (probably since my last Saturn clear, the crappy Skull Fang). The game encourages you to do two things: use only the lock-on shot (or very nearly all the time), and never, EVER pick up a powerup. What this makes is a lot of physical fatigue as you continuously grip and hold the A button to make the ship's web appear. What also comes about is mental fatigue, as I did the same tactics and maneuvers over and over again as I fought to get to my "real practice" stages, 1-5 and 1-6. Of course, the actual clear was preceded by my best run of the game to date, getting my best score to date, only to die by a suicide attack while the final boss was exploding. My jaw hit the floor; I couldn't believe I had been so kicked in my dick.

Filled with anger and frustration, I went on to try two more times, with the second finally seeing me no-miss the game all the way to the last stage! I also got lucky with bombs, cheesing out of the midbosses's dangerous bullet spam, and ending up at the final boss with a spare life and a few extra bombs. At that point, not even the surprise appearance of the stage 1 GAMBITER boss could faze me, considering the plucky devil goes down with essentially a single bomb-blast (a real panic boss: easy to dispatch with a bomb, but if you don't have one you are in for a nightmare of a time!).

The Saturn port's original revision (not Otoyuko) is really hampered here by the fact that: a) you cannot skip the 26-second-long intro sequence or else your screen is filled with artifact garbage, and b) you cannot use the practice modes at all because they are awash in a sea of dummy text/punctuation. This makes it so much more aggravating to restart, over and over again, when my time might have been better spent learning individual stages with rank adjusted accordingly.

On the plus side, I certainly have gotten to know just about every nook and cranny of the game. Every level setpiece (and, aside from the boring asteroid level 4, each stage has many). The really fun boss fights, all with goofy names like PERILDAWN and VICTIMIZER - in true Raizing fashion, each has many different types of bullets, projectiles, and attacks, giving them a lot of personality outside of being a giant bullet-barfing blob (see: DOJ. Ooh I went there).

Soukyogurentai is a game with a lot of care and attention to detail that I think is ultimately undermined by how it punishes you for using your normal shot and its insistence and using the web lock-on for everything. I am so glad to finally "clear" the game. I don't know if I'll return; I'd really like to get some cash back on it. If I do return, it's going to be the Satakore/Otoyuko revision all the way.

[BIL]

God, Raizing names. Best in the motherfucking business. Who calls stage 2

IRON BEAST WAR CRY

? Real Men Of Vision, that's who.

Have you played Kamui (PC)? As much of a spiritual sequel to Souky as Rayforce. Mightily averts Souky's shootphobia by giving you a monstrous hull-shearing laser Raizing might've dubbed the GODWANGORAIZOR. And oh, do you get to use it!

[EmperorIng]

Only the demo, but its visceral mix-up of lock-on lightning and deadly blazing lasers piqued my interest for sure. Kamui is on my "really need to get around to buying" PC shmup list... with about half-a-dozen other titles.

Looking at my collection, next on the list might be something less stressful, like Cotton's PCE port! Or I can be a real man and finally 1CC RayForce or Metal Black; clears that have eluded me for years...

[NuclearPotato]

So while clearing out a game backlog out of boredom, I very unexpectedly cleared Genetos on my first playthrough, on Standard User difficulty, which threw me off heavily. The game gives you a ton of resources, including a starting stock of 15(!) lives, and a shielding system in the later generations which I still don't really understand the operation of. The final boss confused me a lot too, though I think the game wants you to lose all your lives to it before it'll allow the death blow.

All in all, very neat game, but very confusing, and I feel like I have to revisit it just to figure out how I cleared it the first time.

[wgogh]

So while clearing out a game backlog out of boredom, I very unexpectedly cleared Genetos on my first playthrough, on Standard Operator difficulty, which threw me off heavily. The game gives you a ton of resources, including a starting stock of 15(!) lives, and a shielding system in the later generations which I still don't really understand the operation of. The final boss confused me a lot too, though I think the game wants you to lose all your lives to it before it'll allow the death blow.

All in all, very neat game, but very confusing, and I feel like I have to revisit it just to figure out how I cleared it the first time.

The game is really easy to clear on the first playthrough. It just is. You wouldnt have to do anything special.
It happened to be my first shmup clear, actually. But I wasnt even happy for it, as I thought it doesnt even count.

I dont remember how the shielding system worked, but I think it got me confused too.