Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various games)

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Plasmo
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Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various games)

Post by Plasmo »

The project originally started on Twitter. I'm posting this here for posterity's sake. Maybe you guys have some more additions as well.
I wanna thank the following people who have contributed to the list (in no particular order): @PearlescentX, @Arasaka9, @JaimersSTG, @SPE2500, DBS, @SGP009, Ako, sikraiken, Gunner, Despatche

No cosmetic differences - only gameplay differences!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Air Gallet
starting with different bombs (the respective other ones can be picked up later)

Batsugun Special
2p gains experience slower from pigs (https://twitter.com/HiroThikuro/status/ ... 1777518011)

Darius Gaiden Extra
2p activates a mode where you play through every single stage

Deathsmiles
2p: weaker bomb (https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm27478219)

Dodonpachi
1p: you can continue your chain during a laser bomb when your max bonus is active
2p: 1) small star items accumulate over the course of the whole game; 2) easier 2-3 midboss with laser ship types; 3) only fast bullets during final attack of the TLB

Dodonpachi Daioujou (white label and black label)
2p: less iframes during hyper activation on bosses

Espgaluda
2p: more disc enemies / bullets during st3 midboss [in the port, both sides behave as arcade 2p side]

Esprade
2p: 1) higher starting rank; 2) killing enemies with your barrier shot increases the bonus timer

Fire Barrel
2p: life bonus after each loop is doubled, even though the game only displays a single life bonus on screen

Forgotten Worlds
different characters
2p: more enemies [unconfirmed]

G.Darius
2p: bosses have more HP

Gekirindan
2p: 1) Type C has a stronger shot; 2) lower difficulty [unconfirmed]

Giga Wing
2p: shot deals more damage

G-Stream G2020
2p: faster movement

Guardian Force
different ship types

Hotdog Storm
2p: faster movement; shot deals less damage

Ibara
different ships

Ketsui
2p: slightly lower rank, barely noticeable

Ketsui IKD Special
2p: no extra lives after the completion of a level

Kyukyoku Tiger II / Twin Cobra II
green weapon is unique to each player side

Life Force
different order of powerups on the gauge

Mushihimesama
2p: 1) third attack of the TLB changes from aimed to random and is therefore more difficult; 2) second attack of the TLB is slightly different and has missing bullets (cf. https://youtu.be/UVAq597JFD0)

Nostradamus
different ships

P-47 Aces
2p: 1) due to a lower spawning point on screen, you can go inside the ship on stage 4 (cf. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4wa8yt); 2) you can bomb again after a bomb much quicker. This has no effect on the iframes.

Progear
bullet sound differences (https://youtu.be/dkRGZgwfnkw)

Raiden
2p: easier difficulty

Raiden II
different item tables (details)
2p: 1) starts with cluster bombs; 2) checkpoints (Japan ROM only)

Raiden DX
2p: faster horizontal movement, slower vertical movement.

Rapid Hero
2p: lower difficulty [unconfirmed]

Salamander 2
2p: lower rank

Sand Scorpion
2p: shot deals more damage

Side Arms
2p powers are different in combined mode

Sonic Wings
different ships

Space Bomber
one of the secret ships is different

Strania - The Stella Machina
with two swords equipped, the mech's third swing of the swords is different

Super Space Fortress Macross
2p: faster movement

Super Space Fortress Macross II
2p: faster movement

Thunder Cross II
2p: pointblank rapid fire does more damage

Thunder Dragon 2
different ships

Trizeal
2p: 1) faster movement; 2) gap in laser shot is narrower

US AAF Mustang
2p: some enemies only give points on 2p side, e.g. the brown tanks in stage 8 (30k each) or the 4th boss

Varia Metal
second button is different. You either get a bomb (1p) or a shield (2p)

XII Stag
2p: faster movement

Zing Zing Zip
2p: slower vertical movement, faster horizontal movement
Last edited by Plasmo on Wed Aug 23, 2023 5:17 am, edited 19 times in total.
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CStarFlare
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by CStarFlare »

Very interesting - thank you for compiling!

Are the Cave ones generally considered bugs or are they likely intentional? The Mushi TLB stuff is weird, as are the extra enemies in Espgaluda and the DDP differences. Things like different ship capabilities makes sense, tweaks to seemingly random individual attacks are puzzling to me.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by Mero »

The first Sonic Wings has different Characters for 2P.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by NeoStrayCat »

Well, the only difference that I know at the moment is...

Strania - The Stella Machina
1P/2P - With 2 swords equipped, the mech's third swing of the sword(s) is different per character.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by Ruldra »

Some (maybe all) weapons behave differently on the 2P side in Guardian Force.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by Shepardus »

In Space Bomber one of the secret ships (the one that's not the Tetris block) is different on the 2P side.

In Raiden II and DX (and also 1? I don't remember for sure) the 2P ship has faster horizontal movement but slower vertical movement than the 1P ship.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by MrJBRPG »

While I do not know the difference of either side, I do know that several differences when 2 players are active.

Strato Fighter - 2 players active
More power ups dropped
More enemies pop up

Chimera Beast - 2 players active
More creatures
Increased aggressive behavior(?)
Bosses have more hit points
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by Kollision »

Trizeal - player 2 ship is faster, gap in laser shot is narrower
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by MrJBRPG »

Shepardus wrote:In Space Bomber one of the secret ships (the one that's not the Tetris block) is different on the 2P side.
Referring to the secret codes from the website, only one player can take the Tetris, yet both players can become the hidden ship.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Ruldra wrote:Some (maybe all) weapons behave differently on the 2P side in Guardian Force.
1P and 2P are essentially two different shot types in this. Sadly you can't select what shot type to play as such as playing the 2P version on P1 side.

All the weapon/bomb types behave differently depending on if you're playing the 1P blue tank or 2P red tank. For instance, the basic rapid weapon is tighter on p1 side and fires a concentrated laser as a bomb and is wider on p2 side with a 5-way beam as a bomb.

Pretty much the same thing as Thunder Dragon 2 - 1P and 2P are totally separate ship types.

Raiga: Strato Fighter - No gameplay differences between 1P red and 2P blue, but if you're playing 2 player there are about double the enemies and extra powerup carriers that appear. Not sure about any boss or second loop changes if any.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by BrianC »

Do any of the Darius AC games aside from G. Darius have differences on the 2P side? It doesn't seem to be the case in the arcade, but Tiat is easy mode in a few of the home versions of Darius II.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by Despatche »

The first Darius doesn't let you select 2P separately. II does, but I don't know of any changes. Same for Gaiden. Gaiden Extra Version, however, has two different modes for the player sides.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by Plasmo »

Despatche wrote:Gaiden Extra Version, however, has two different modes for the player sides.
Do you have any details on this?
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

1P is the standard game choose your route gameplay (which zone is which level are shuffled around in the Extra ver). 2P activates a mode where you play through every single stage, as in this run here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HP-Nr4FqTH4
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by davidwhangchoi »

Please add Side Arms.

2P powers are different in combined mode. (precursor to Forgotten Worlds)
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

Super Spacefortress Macross (the first arcade Macross I think, the one made by NMK) as well as G-Stream 2020 both have a 2P side that has slightly higher movement speed over 1P side.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by Despatche »

The 2P boards of Same! Same! Same! (including the various Fire Sharks and the recently discovered Jiao! Jiao! Jiao!) have weird behavior for the player 2 side. At least the blue weapon does more damage, and only to regular stage enemies (not bosses). I can't really tell if the same thing is happening with the red or green weapons.

The player 1 side getting 0 points for the brown tank boss in USAAF Mustang stage 8 also applies to when that boss actually appears in stage 4.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by copy-paster »

Gekirindan's 2P Type-C shot type has doubled amount of 1P Type-C which makes the difficulty is lower for this 2P specific type. Other ships with 2P side is same as 1P.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by EmperorIng »

I like to think that the "lore" reason is that there's two pilots for 2P's Type C in Gekirindan, so they have twice the power!
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by trap15 »

Courtesy of ZPS, regarding Same! 2P and Fire Shark:
ZPS wrote:the 1p side does less damage than the 2p side. i'm not certain on all weapons, but it's definitely the case for blue.
Plasmo wrote:P-47 Aces
2) you can bomb again after a bomb much quicker, which also means less iframes from a bomb
The i-frames are the same, it's just that the 2P side ignores the bomb cooldown. For specifics, there's a 64 frame cooldown between bombing, and the bombs last 128 frames (the whole time you are invulnerable). If you press the bomb button on 2P side, it ignores the cooldown time and immediately restarts the bomb (setting the invulnerable time back to 128 frames).
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by oboewan42 »

Kyukyoku Tiger II (Saturn port only) - 1P side has a scoring glitch where it gets more points from powerups than it otherwise should
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by apatheticTurd »

Alpha Mission 2/ASO II Last Guardian: P1 starts with the LASER armor in stock while P2 has HOME.

Blast Wind: different ships (though in practice, P2 is plainly weaker than P1)
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by trap15 »

Curious what's known about the difference in Raiden's P2 side. I gave it a go recently and noticed some boss patterns are significantly simplified, but it's a bit tough to tell in stages if there's a real difference. Anyone know specifics?
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by EmperorIng »

trap15 wrote:Curious what's known about the difference in Raiden's P2 side. I gave it a go recently and noticed some boss patterns are significantly simplified, but it's a bit tough to tell in stages if there's a real difference. Anyone know specifics?
What I have heard for a while around here and elsewhere is that P2 has a slower rank climb, but only if you have the vulcan equipped, whereas P1 is the same, but only if you have the laser equipped.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by copy-paster »

Correction about Raiden DX: even in no powerup state, 2P ship will always have faster hori and slower vert movement. And in Raiden III both ships have same speed.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by Rastan78 »

copy-paster wrote:Correction about Raiden DX: even in no powerup state, 2P ship will always have faster hori and slower vert movement.
That's true. Getting to shot level 5 or missile level 3 and above will give you the wider hitbox and that's all.

In my understanding the different horizontal movement speed of 2P side only applies to a single player beginning a game by themselves on 2P side. If two players start together they both have the same movement speed as the default 1P side.

If 2P starts by themselves and 1P joins in, then as soon as 2P dies or a level is cleared 2P will switch back to regular movement speed.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by Lethe »

In Hotdog Storm, 2P's shot also does less damage than 1P's.
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by Plasmo »

Main post updated for Raiden III, Raiden DX and Hotdog Storm. Thanks all!
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by DEL »

I have a weird one for you.
On the arcade Gradius II Gofer, start a 2P game. Player 1 then has to 1LC the 1st loop and when he dies on the 2nd loop, Player 2's first loop will have the 2nd loop's upside down nonstop spewing volcanoes as Stage 4.
Its some kind of programming glitch I guess. But we used to do it for fun in the Chinatown arcade :D

EDIT: Quote:
Gekirindan
2p: 1) Type C has a stronger shot; 2) lower difficulty [unconfirmed]
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Re: Differences between 1P and 2P player sides (various game

Post by NMS »

Raiden 2
Different item table.
P1 has:
  • - 1-3. shot
    - 4. bomb (this "3 shots, 1 bomb" sequence repeats until carrier 24)
    - 25-30. bomb
    - 31. full power-up
Cycle resets after that

P2 gets rid of the 6 bombs in a row at positions 25-30, so item 25 is a full power-up and cycle resets.
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