Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Square_Air]

Died in the last 5 seconds of Gigafacer's timeout phase in Mahou Daisakusen, the bomb delay in this game is real. Got all mine patterns from Tsumuji and chain died, thanks a bunch RNG gods. I thought I would be able to pick this clear off in a week because of the gargantuan amount of bombs you're provided, but it seems I underestimated the lengthy recovery time. I find it much easier to no miss up to the stage 5 boss than to recover in the previous stages/too early in stage 5. While this game isn't that difficult overall, it's tricky in the few places that count, and having to recover at certain points is often death sentence for the run.

The stage 5 boss can go fuck itself.

[Jonst]

Was border down, but back to ibara now.

[Stevens]

How was your progress in Border Down coming along? I am taking the less is more approach and throwing a credit into Progear every few days.

The wife is working this evening from 5 till 10 (she is a closed captioner - doing a MLS match so I will occupy myself with a credit or three of the following:

Under Defeat
Mars Matrix
Fast Striker
Sturmwind - It has been ages and it ain't perfect, but it sure is easy on the eyes and the soundtrack is pure sex.
Gunbird 2 - Only if I feel like tateing my tiny behemoth of a crt.
Progear
Steredenn - Close to looping this one.

A glass of bourbon to accompany me (and maybe a little something green too), yeah not a bad way to spend the evening.

[Jonst]

it was coming slowly, I made it to stage 4 a couple of times in a single credit (stage 3,boss is brutal, as you're forced to fight low powered dodging shit from every angle). I then got side tracked by twinkle star sprites, I thought I should play some of the other games I own! I'm still into border down, just haven't played it for a couple of weeks but once again, I've lost focus for a single game.

Less is more works for me sometimes but only if I know the game well.

Sounds like nice chilled evening my friend, great list btw!

[Blinge]

Border Down is sometimes life.

You're driving your car, BORDER DOWN suddenly you're cycling.

breakup with yer girl BORDER DOWN now you're dating an uggo
or I guess border red would be your hand.

It happens to the best of us D:

playing a Cave game BORDERDOWN: oh you're playing psikyo.

(hang in there)

[Jonst]

Haha! Word blinge.

[Blinge]

As for me I sometimes play a credit of Garegga with Chitta instead of the usual golden bat, to remind myself that things could be worse.

[Jonst]

Yeah I saw you cleared it. Awesome job! I tried to get into it seriously a while back but just couldn't manage the rank properly. I would get murdered by the end of cloud stage (plus I just can't boss milk in Garegga).

[Blinge]

Ah, That's been feeling like a fluke because i haven't been able to do it since, and never got a recording >_<
I was just playing better than my usual standard that day I think.
Consistency is hard..

I'll repost Eaglet's advice for rank/ survival clears then

In general, if you want the easiest time with it, i'd say go with Miyamoto (C) and an autofire rate that's slightly higher than standard. Raise it to 10hz if you can do it succesfully since it doesn't affect frame rank whatsoever.

With Miyamoto (and any other ship if you want low rank) ignore all small shot powerups and only level up with the big ones.
However, Miyamoto's offensive strengths are his options so you'd do well to keep at least two at every opportunity.
If you aren't going for any special scoring tricks then 2 options only should see you through everything up til stage 6 and onwards where you should be at max power anyways.

Do not ignore medals at all! Even if you want to keep rank low. Since medals valued higher than 400 points increase rank by a microscopic amount only whilst 100, 200, 300 and 400 medals are some of the most rank increasing pickups in the game.
I'd say the only point where you shouldn't try to rebuild your medal value is stage 6 and onward if you're just going for the clear.

Also, never keep above 2 extra ships until stage 6.

[Jonst]

Cheers mate! I'll give it a try when I next have the Saturn out...

EDIT: I need that kind of low rank clear advice for ibara at the moment.

[stampfer]

Been playing Ghost Blade HD (on PC) for a while now.
I know that there is some controversy around it, but I found it works quite well for me.

[CRI]

more doj practise. now with 2-5 full chain & tlb clear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu3mIqfnVuQ

[Blinge]

Blinge's Guck Faregga log.

1.Great birds, Decent score, one medal break.
- Dodged Black Heart II super good, including full vulcan.
- NMNB Glow Squid until the escape pod came out. Failed.
- I put another credit in, fired TWICE and he died.

2. Potentially best score I've ever had, kept chain well into stage 6. 3 spare lives.
- Black Heart II giving me grenades, then grenades + popcorn. Can't believe my luck
- moves mostly offscreen, I don't have the wherewithal to bomb, think I'm safe & get hit by reflect shot
- Takes ages to die, I fail the vulcan.
- have to bomb to stop 3rd phase beginning.
- credit ends at glow squid.

I guess the best thing about my obsessive play lately is that I'm not so scared of St6 anymore. Especially now i'm bombing some hatches.

[copy-paster]

X68k Gradius II




This version, perhaps much harder than the arcade or PCE port (on default difficulty). The safespot is no longer works in that section.

[Squire Grooktook]

Finally made it to stage 5 of Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream on Lunatic.

Spoiler

Was playing as Marisa, and the utterly brutal, climactic battle on Stage 4 was against my favorite opponent (Mima).

What an absolutely beautiful monster of a game. The hype is real on this one.

[chum]

yep, not sure why people slept on podd it's obviously one of the best shmups ever made.

[Squire Grooktook]

Just switched to Next Emulation and made it to stage 6 on first attempt. The superior emulation ever.

[Stevens]

Fast Striker Original/Maniac

FS is a game that deserves more love than it gets. I've cleared original before and have made it back to the end, but some sloppy deaths have kept me from another 1 CC.

Maniac gives you harder stages, but the bosses don't seem to be any more difficult than original. Got to stage five today - easily the furthest I have ever gotten.

I've played a little of Omake too. Harder stages than maniac and harder bosses. Shit is currently way beyond me, but I've gotten to the stage two boss.

[stampfer]

Fast Striker Original/Maniac

Are you playing it on MVS or DC, if you don't mind me asking? (I have access to neither )

[Jonst]

^ Stevens is a dc man.

I also agree Stevens, fs doesn't appear to get much love and is underrated. I really enjoyed my time learning it. A maniac clear would be pretty cool dude!

[Stevens]

^ Stevens is a dc man.

I also agree Stevens, fs doesn't appear to get much love and is underrated. I really enjoyed my time learning it. A maniac clear would be pretty cool dude!

Stampfer - Yeah I'm a DC guy. Not exclusively or anything, but I do love that console. I have two currently, but would like to replace the laser with an SD reader soon.

Jonst - I think I can clear maniac. I think the thing that bothers me the most about it is there is no practice mode, that would have been nice.

Still haven't figured out the tech bonus on the stage 4 boss, but I think I know what it is. I usually grab them on stages 1 - 3 although on stages one and two you have to be careful not to kill the boss too fast if you're playing on original.

Stage five tech is still a bit too hard because the satellites are sponges, but it is the same as stage one.

I have not quit Progear. That and UD are my weekend games. I know them both well enough that I can concentrate on FS during the week and break it up a little at weeks end.

[OmKol]

Danmaku Unlimited 3, currently Spirit Hard mode. TLB is something. Can reach him with 4 lives but that last form is so unfair.
P.S. Just did 1CC with 1 spare life.

[Jonst]

Following some tips, I went back to Garegga... And almost beat blackheart. This has been my best credit yet. I continued on to stage 6 and was totally unprepared!

[DEL]

Currently playing BURST and the odd credit of Sonic Boom.
Need to learn more about Burst

[Wachenroder]

Hyper Duel. Freaking cant get enough of this game for some reason.

[Vludi]

Playing some Strikers II, managed to clear the second loop on save-state practice, now I just have to do the whole thing

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Attempting to 1CC Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream on Lunatic. Also trying for a reflectless Giga Wing clear.

Finally nabbed the 1CC of Rapid Hero. It's actually not too tough (the hardest part is remembering when not to stay at the edges of the screen where enemies fly in from behind) but it still took me an embarrassingly long time to clear it (one death on the final boss). Fantastic game, love the visuals in it. There's so much detail in the backgrounds, it's painfully beautiful. I'd love to be able to find a sprite dump of just the stage backgrounds alone, as there's some gorgeous visuals there.

[M.Knight]

Nice clear! I should go back to it myself.
Do you think Rapid Hero is better than even Thunder Dragon 2 ? I quite enjoy the use of bombs as a pseudo-secondary weapon in TD2, and Rapid Hero's zako bullets are quite slow.
I still like RH, but it doesn't feel as fun as TD2 to me. Maybe I am missing something?
Though I gotta admit that the red recurring mech is cool (much cooler than TD2's own recurring enemy), and the stage 2 backgrounds remind me a lot of Gundam's space colonies.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Thunder Dragon and Thunder Dragon 2 are both interesting games. Rapid Hero is certainly a slower paced shmup, and doesn't have the most complex shot patterns around (the stage 4 boss has a hilariously stupid safespot, but otherwise it's not that silly), but its simplicity feels like it's also part of the charm. I know there's a few other NMK fans like trap15 who prefer TD2 like you because it's a generally faster paced, more intense game.

TD2's the tougher game and also has two different ships with different shot types for each but neither felt like they quite 'clicked' for me, and then there's that bizarre voice acting I can't quite wrap my head around. Plus I'm really partial to the space setting, and the graphics in general in Rapid Hero. I also laugh every time the mech whistles (?!) in stage 2 to summon the little attack pods.

Whether or not Rapid Hero is 'better' or not I don't know. It's by no means a perfect game and has some weird quirks and annoying recovery if you die since the powerups you get on a death are randomized, but I definitely enjoy playing it more.

[M.Knight]

I didn't consider Rapid Hero's focus on simplicity, but it's indeed clearly here, you're right.

I also laugh every time the mech whistles (?!) in stage 2 to summon the little attack pods.

Now that you say it, it doesn't indeed make sense!