ST: Giga Wing

[Randorama]

Thanks for all this information, Roo. Would you like to actually create a proper ST for this game, so that we can put this thread into the dustbin of the site's history?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Give me a month or so to properly get back into scoring the game and I can consolidate all the info up and write something more indepth with pictures. Now that I'm way more comfortable with survival at any point in the game without reflect I feel like being very aggressive about milking will come much more easily. But my uh, slight obsession with no-reflect clearing it means I'm sorta rusty on boss milking timing. >_>;;;

I should be able to achieve a decent score as long as I can get a no-miss run that can beats the game with no more than like two bombs used. Preferably none but a couple bombs used is better than dying and losing the stock on stage 5 or 6.

I've given the Dreamcast version a whirl a few times now. It'd actually be easier than the arcade due to the slight damage boost you get by being able to reflect without interrupting your shooting if not for the reduced slowdown that makes several bosses more difficult. My first serious credit into DC stage 6 died horribly when I was expecting to breeze through its first attack without needing to bomb then "ohcrap it's way faster" and I hoarded bombs like a sucker death until I died a few times in a row.

[Randorama]

Any time is fine for me. Just please feel free to open the proper ST thread any time you like, and we can just have this one fade away in the background

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I haven't forgotten about this I swear. >w>; Infodumping so I don't forget some of this stuff again.

S4 Boss always uses the first same 4 attacks. Spread -> laser sweep -> spread -> laser sweep. You can get in close on top of the boss during the spread, back away as the shoulder turrets take aim, and if you're strong enough to kill the turrets on the right then you can get back in its face as it uses the laser sweep. Hiding at long range for the laser sweep is OK too. Then repeat again. Its 5th attack appears to be randomized or possibly dependent on factors I'm not aware of, but normally hiding at the bottom of the screen works for survival purposes you can kill this boss before or by the time it starts attack #5. This is obviously bad for scoring because you want to actively milk the boss and break off its arms repeatedly, but it's a boss you can speedkill if you just want the 1CC

S6 boss has a safespot during its opening attacks. The third wave of blue rings can be completely avoided at the bottom left of the screen, and then there's a safespot that works on the second and third attacks (its second attack is very dangerous). Where the OK indicator is on P1 side, there's a tight spread that fires downward. You want to sit so the cockpit is at the bottom of the screen and basically in the middle of the letters OK, so you're just to the left of the vertical line of bullets. This position causes the fixed spreads of its second and third attacks to miss you, and the aimed shots to fire below your ship. The positioning is tight, but doesn't have to be pixel-perfect.

[Randorama]

Well, any amount of infodumping is OK for me, and after all these years...I am not in a hurry to get a new thread. Any time is fine for me, literally

[Randorama]

I will delete this ST on the 2025/09/30. Anyone who is willing the incorporate information from this ST in future STs is welcome to do so before that date. The STG wiki page for the game represents a simply superior source, but some readers might want to preserve parts of this now obsolete ST for their own personal reasons. Readers who wish to complain about this decision can read Sistem11's message in the DonPachi ST from 10 years ago for some background.

[aak]

ACKNOLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to BER and Rob, who both are Giga Wing experts and provided me with useful material and insightful discussions.

Many thanks to archive.org for not letting the most reddit man alive delete useful write-ups 20 years later.

INDEX OF CONTENTS

0.0 THE WAR OF THE MEDALLION
0.1 SOME NOTES ON THE PORT
1.0 BASIC MECHANICS
1.1 SHOT
1.2 BOMB
1.3 REFLECT FORCE
1.4 THE PLANES
1.4.1 SINNOSUKE AND THE RAIJIN
1.4.2 RUBY AND THE CARMINE
1.4.3 ISHA AND THE PORCHKA
1.4.4 STUCK AND THE WIDERSTAND
1.4.5 A FEW NOTES ON STRANGER
2.0 ADVANCED MECHANICS
2.1 THE SCORE SYSTEM AND THE MULTIPLIER:MAXING OUT
2.2 EOS
2.3 RANK AND DIFFICULTY
2.4 WHAT TO DO AND WHEN: SOME NOTES ON LEVEL DESIGN
2.4.1 STAGE 1
2.4.2 STAGE 2
2.4.3 STAGE 3
2.4.4 STAGE 4
2.4.5 STAGE 5
2.4.6 STAGE 6
2.4.7 STAGE 7
3.0 TIPS, TRICKS AND ODDITIES

0.0 THE WAR OF THE MEDALLION

Giga Wing is about a steampunk future in which humankind is afflicted by global wars instigated by a mysterious medallion, which is apparently the messenger of the gods.A group of pilots, bent on destroying the said arrogant omnipotent artifact, is the only hope for humankind to gain again peace.Kao Tome's work creates thus a nice (and New Age-ish) atmosphere for this peculiar title: the first game that can be labelled in the "New Minimalism" era (shmups which are simple but not simplistic in their basic mechanics), it is the first title which features the ability to use enemy's fire against them, and for scoring purposes. The game is also part of a series of three shmups produced by Takumi (ex-Toaplan programmers, please read here ).for Capcom, namely Giga Wing 2 and Mars Matrix. The original game runs on CPS-2 hardware, which was mainly used for fighting games, and then saw a number of shmups and other games in its final years of life-span.It has a Dreamcast port, which is one of the few shmups that received all three localizations ( Pal, NTSC-U and NTSC-J).How does it compare to the original version?

0.1 SOME NOTES ON THE PORT

The Dreamcast port has a few extras, like a gallery and score attack, rearranged music, a few changes in enemy placement (less snipers, more or less:we're speaking of a tank or two per level put in a different place,so it's really trascurable), and basically no slowdown at all.This is not a small aspect, as the CPS-2 version, in a few spots, slows down consistently, due to hardware limitations and to make the bullet patterns navigable. The Dreamcast version lacks this slowdown, as the basic hardware is more powerful: however, the bullets still go at a slower speed, as the programmers optimized the speed to make the incriminated sections still navigable.
Finally, there's the stranger (the true baddie behins all the wars) as a selectable plane, which is also quite more powerful than the other planes (and bad for scoring). Ah, one thing, the japanese version (both arcade and DC) has voice acting, removed in the other versions.As i said, Music has been remixed and the drawings are somewhat more detailed, especially in the cut-scenes.Now, let's how the game plays.

1.0 BASIC MECHANICS

I will cover the basic mechanics of the game in this section: namely, the main shot, the bomb and the reflect force.

1.1 SHOT

The main shot is mapped onto button A and has two purposes: shooting (tap the button) and triggering the reflect force (hold down the button with a full energy bar). With A, you need to tap in order to speed up the shooting rate and create an auto-fire effect: on the Dreamcast version, you can map a button for autofire, it will not trigger the reflect force if held down and will be overrired by the main button (i.e. if you hold down autofire and the normal fire, you will keep shooting and trigger the reflect force).You will need three "P" icons to be fully powered-up, then they will be worth a bonus to your multiplier (+10, +50 on stages 5 and 6, +250 on stage 7).

1.2 BOMB

The classic Smart bomb, it damages all hit enemies (but bombs work in a different way one from the other, see planes section) and cancel all bullets.Extra bombs, of course, are obtained by picking up the "B" icon. One good thing, typical of Takumi shmups, is that the bomb is instantaneous in activation, so you won't curse too much for a useless panic bombing.Time to cover the reflect force, now.

1.3 REFLECT FORCE

The reflect force is a new idea in shmups, speaking from a 1999 (February) point of view.It works in this way: you hold down the shot button and the bar in the lower corner of your side (left,1P;right,2P),once filled (and not before) will cause for the reflect force, a sort of shield, to be activated and reflect back all bullets touched.The reflect force will make you invicincible because it will reflect the bullets back to enemies as streams of energy (and you're also invincible to collisions).These bullets will turn into medals, and those medals, once collected, will increase your multiplier (upper corner of the screen, below score and lives). How this mechanic works?

Every reflected medal is worth +1 multiplier points (from now on: MPs), and their value also increases per medal collected.In short, if you pick 3 medals, the first will give you 1 point and be worth +1, the second is +2 and give you to points, the third +3 and give you 3 points.This means that you basically can find out the added value by having the sum of collected medals:

n(n+1)/2

With n being the value of collected medals. 100 medals, for instance, will give you 100*101/2=5050 MPs. Aerial planes will also give you medals, usually worth more (+5,+10,+200 even!), which will work in the same way.This means that getting a +10 medal after those three will give you 1+2+3+10=16 MPs, and also a value of +13. I will return on this in section 2.1, of course.Let's see the planes, at this point.

1.4 THE PLANES

The game has four planes and, in the Dreamcast version only, the Stranger (the baddie) as a special plane, activated by 1-CCing the game (or inserting a cheat code). Alternate colours can be chosen by pressing X+A or B, on the dreamcast, or start and bomb on the arcade version.Bomb/a gives a darker shade, Start/B a lighter one.Their hitbox is circular and roughly located on the cockpits and,unlike later Takumi titles, collisions will be fatal.The four basic planes are:

1-4.1 SINNOSUKE AND THE RAIJIN

Your standard wide-shot plane with a purple default colour, its pilot is Sinnosuke, the typical japanese samurai-like warrior bent on fullfilling his duty.Its bomb is an electric discharge, with screen-based damage (weakest bomb for this reason).It is also the second slowest ship, and the worst scorer.The Stage order is Airport-Train-Vulcano base.

1.4.2 RUBY AND THE CARMINE

Your standard full frontal plane with an orange default colour, it is the fastest plane and its pilot is Ruby, a bizarre multi-billionare lady who fights for the future of her adopted children.Its bomb is a central fire stream with sweeping fire gusts, which deal less damage (the second most powerful bomb, though). It is also the second best scorer.Stage order is Airport-Train-Vulcano base.

1.4.3 ISHA AND THE PORCHKA

Central shot and homing missiles for this plane, blue default colour, the slowest of the bunch and piloted by Isha, a nun (!!!) of the Marie Therese order of poverty's nuns.She fights to end the war, and has a snow-storm as a bomb (second weakest, the central stream deals the main damage). The second worst scorer, its Stage order is Vulcano-Train-Airport.

1.4.4 STUCK AND WIDERSTAND

The top scorer, this is a peculiar plane: Main central shot and moving pods which shoot powerful mines, the pods will position themselves in the opposing direction of movement (i.e. if you go up they will go behind the plane). The second in terms of speed, it is also gifted with a powerful bomb, a sort of giant robotic face that creates a black-hole and damages everything on screen.Stuck, its pilot, is a cyborg who fights for the sake of fighting, but he has a secret reason: his pretrified wife has been turned into stone by the medallion.

1.4.5 A FEW NOTES ON STRANGER

Only present in the DC version, it can be obtained by putting a cheat in the gallery section ( ) or by 1-CCing the game.It is the faster and most powerful plane in the game, actually it's too powerful: most of the time you will destroy enemies too early, and thus it's difficult to use for scoring purposes.The bomb is a set of four small medallions shooting laser blasts, also incredibly powerful. Also incredibly fast, its pilot is Sinnosuke.

Once we've covered the basic aspects of the game, let's see the advanced ones.

2.0 ADVANCED MECHANICS.

I will cover, in this section, the scoring mechanics and the guides to levels, focused mainly on Widerstand.One important aspect of the game is maxing out the multiplier before the sixth stage:this because the time bonus on bosses can be pretty consistent, if bosses are taken down quickly.Since the bosses are also the best source for medals, a compromise must be made: Early bosses can be milked, but the fifth and the sixth ones must be taken down quickly, and this also implies that the multiplier must be maxed out before these two. Let's see how.

2.1 THE SCORE SYSTEM AND THE MULTIPLIER: MAXING OUT

One key aspect of this game is learning how and when to reflect: aside finding the right spots, it is also necessary to maximize the amount of reflected bullets.This basically means that you have to know how many bullet streams you can reflect back: for instance, the blue kyte-like planes on Airport stage will shoot four streams of bullets: reflecting more than four of them will be more or less useless, as often there won't be enough enemies to reflect them against.Also, it is important to close-in (i.e. approach the enemy) once reflecting huge streams of bullets, so the first row will be "accelerated" and hit the enemy at the same time as the first, and it will be easier to collect all medals. This is not always valid, as in some cases you will use terrestrial enemies to do this. Also, some attacks (especially on bosses) must be point-blanked, as it is the best method.In short, it depends a lot on the specific level section.One important thing is to know the extra medals and to collect the normal medals, as they will give a good boost your overall medal value.

As a general rule, the multiplier should follow this progression: 8M per stages 1-3, then 10M on stage 4, and then 15M on stage 5.Since medals aren't worth any points, maxing out the multiplier is necessary to reach a high value (49.999.990 MPs) when collecting the EOS (End of Stage bonus) at last 3 stages. Else, you won't really collect many points.Since i've mentioned the EOS, let's see how it works.

2.2 EOS

The EOS is probably the most important aspect of score, once the multiplier has maxed out. it works in this way,as clearly pointed out by BER and based on this site:

* Boss break: 1,000 * current multiplier * boss hit percentage * time remaining * stage number. (Notes: First, if your boss hit percentage is 100%, then this bonus is doubled. Second, in stage 7, the time remaining is always 1.)
* Shoot down: 10,000 * current multiplier * stage hit percentage * stage number. (Note: If your stage hit percentage is 100%, then this bonus is doubled.)
* Bomb reserve: 10,000 * current multiplier * number of remaining bombs * stage number.

As you can see, destroying everything on screen and not using bomb are also very important mechanics, but in cases like stage 5, destroying the boss quickly (let's say 60 seconds) will warrant a coefficient of 1,000*60=60,000k points, or 6 times the basic value of bombs and destruction rate.This also implies that completely destroying bosses (all of their sections) is necessary, as it will double a potentially high value. Also,not bombing is a good policy, albeit the usage of bombs will not be really punished heavily, so to speak. This basically means that you can use bombs without fearing to rape your score.Last but not least, a 100% destruction rate is only possible on the sixth and seventh stages, as they are boss fights.

About rank, then...

2.3 RANK AND DIFFICULTY

The game features a simple rank system, which will make bullets faster and reduce point-blank distance (i.e. the distance at which an enemy won't shoot at you because too close).The earlier you die, the lower rank will increase.The default difficulty is 2 on japanese versions and 4 on US/EURO ones, but they play in the same way: so, no necessity to change things.Finally, it's obvious that the different stage order will affect the difficulty of levels: The Airport boss will shoot more bullets, if the Airport stage is the third one, and vice versa regarding the lava stage. Now, a few notes on level design.

2.4 WHAT TO DO AND WHEN: A FEW NOTES ON LEVEL DESIGN

One characteristic of Giga Wing, as opposed to its sequels, is that there are quite more secrets to uncover, and in many sections it's necessary to let enemies live in order to have something to reflect bullets against.Also, in many occasions you will need to take down all enemies save some pop-corn planes, to make things more navigable: it is important to have the right amount of bullets to reflect, not too many, as else most medals will be uncollectable, or just won't hit anything.On bosses, also, it's important to know what can be point-blanked, as it will yield a lot of medals.

At any case, all the proper tecniques will be pointed out in the following sections.One important thing: i will follow Stuck and its stage level order, regarding the stage guide.Also, i will provide a temptative value for the multiplier bonus after every key point, as a general guide.No value of the madals, as i lack a good video, but the multiplier value should do.

2.4.1 STAGE 1

1.General rule for secrets: destroy all purple turrets at the very last moment, a +20 medal will appear from the top part of the screen. Reflect as you like on the part before the stranger, you can reflect the turrets' pattern as long as you don't destroy them. (30k).
2.Be ready with a shield on the stranger, start reflecting from a short distance and then point-blank, refill and repeat (500k).
3. Repeat the turrets' tecnique and destroy everything in sight, there is about a minute of nothing worthy until the first tank. On the first tank, let it shoot a bit and close in from right to left, so its remaining bullets will go against the green planes.You should be at 700k before the tank, 1M after.
4.Prepare a shield for the left tank (1,2M) then another shield for the right tank (1,4M) and refill for the twin tanks (1,7M).Reflect random stuff (and on the last tank)and stay centered on the final two bullet spammers (up to 2,3M).

- BOSS -

1.Surprising to say, but reflect every time you can, by doing the close-in tecnique.At roughly 50 seconds left, you should trigger the second form and have about 4,5M.
2.Reflect the spam attacks (one of the four, 4,8M) and be ready for the spiralling attack: stay low and centered on the submarine when dodging, so you can see the holes in the pattern.Point-blank without shooting when you can, you should be able to do two boosts and arrive at 6,1M.
3. Reflect the aimed streams and shoot the fire-balls to make them spread more (easier to dodge) and arrive at 6,6M, then on the last attack you can reflect twice and get at 7,6M, in two reflections.Be careful to hit th submarine body with the reflected material!

2.4.2 STAGE 2

1.A few secrets: at the beginning, let the moving train appear entirely on screen for more medals.Then, stay low on the height of the "credit" entry and shoot, you will get all medals from the planes.(7,8M)
2. The train is tricky: destroy the left train (all of its vagons) as quickly as you can, if you stay low the train will also try to stay low.Reflect bullets from the right one on the left one, so it will go down faster. Then, stay on the lower left so the right train will start shooting at you:Reflect the bullets from the cannon wagons (they will shoot double streams of needle-like bullets), and point-blank the locomotive when it will become orange and shoot the spread-like attack(9M).
3.Stay high and in front of one disc-like enemy, collecting the +10 medals, and reflect everything from this position.The main advantage behind this approach is that most of reflected medals will be obtained by using the point-blank effect.Don't worry about destroy the lateral turrets(9,7M).
4.Quickly destroy the central tower in the building, so the radar on the left will start shooting medals instead of stars.Then, reflect and point-blank disc-like enemy formations.Reflect on the planes from the left to be invincible, then stay on the right column of planes to collect most of the medals.(11,5M).

- BOSS -

1.Tricky boss: this giant flying Pancake is about reflecting the lateral streams or point-blanking the medallion once the first layer is destroyed.For the first phase, just reflect the said lateral streams until the layer is destroyed (at roughly 23 seconds, and at about 13M).
2. Once the medallion is revealed, point-blank twice the spread attack, and dodge the rest.This should net you at 15M.

2.4.3 STAGE 3

1.Destroy all the planes and, once you enter the hangar, stay on the right: the kite-plane will shoot two streams, reflect once they're out and close in once the second couple of streams appears. (15,3M)
2.Stay on the lower left corner and close in when the kite-plane has two streams on screen.Repeat this operation twice on the next kite-planes, on the third one, let it survive until it is over the big red tank and reflect (17M).
3.Stay on the lower right part, reflect on the right-centre kite-plane and then on the left one, then move up on the control tower on the left and destroy it , so you'll get 8 +20 medals. Reflect again and be ready for the big kite-plane (18M)
4-Point-blank it once, then wait for the kite-plane on the left and destroy it with a reflection, ending said reflection on the big kite-plane.Go then on the right lower corner and repeat the reflection by having the second stream from the lower kite-plane appear.(20M)

- BOSS -

1.Destroy quickly the wings, and the wings only.
2.Reflect as soon as you can, as basically all attacks are worthy.One thing, don't shoot as you will need to damage the body of the plane with reflected bullets only. (25M)

2.4.4 STAGE 4

1.Same discourse on the kite-plane, then stay on the lower corner of the right for the helicopters, reflect.On the stranger,wait a second and then reflect the first attack (so you will reflect the blue three-way attacks), then stay in front of him, above the space covered by the bullet-spam. Reflect again the second attack as soon as it starts, point-blanking, and you will have a third possibility for reflection (26M).
2.From this moment on, reflect on the kite-planes by point-blanking them, and destroying tanks when you're refilling. You should be able to always take them down with a reflection, the last thing you need is for them to stay on screen after a reflection.The order is: one on the right-one on the left-two on the centre-destroy immediately the tower on the right for medals-one on the centre.27M
3.Point-blank the tank twice for medals, then destroy the purple orbs and after those the red orb (on the right), to receive giant spheres which, once destroyed, will release +200 giant medals.(28M)
4.Destroy the two pillars beside the door on the background, so it will open and release a fountain of medals.take those and reflect for defense, then quickly sweep the screen of enemies (30M).

- BOSS -

1. As a general rule, stay high and on one side on this boss, and destroy its hands and cannons as soon as you can.Since the attacks can be somewhat random, it's important to know that the most rewarding attacks are the blue streams and the pink spreads.One good thing about hiding in the upper corners is that most of this patterns will not be aimed, and thus appear below your position.Reflect on the shoulders, at any case.(35M)

STAGE 5

1.Stay high and destroy all planes, which are the key enemy of the level.Destroy the two tanks on the centre and then reflect on small turret on the left.Then, wait for the spamming tank and reflect its bullets on the column of tanks. Reflect again against the two tanks at the centre, then go the right and wait to be able to reflect the tanks' attacks against the planes.Most of the time, you will need to reflect some meaty attack against these planes' formations.(37M)
2.Stay on the right, and use the small tanks popping from the pyramid to reflect back the bullets (wait for two tanks to be on screen).After this part, Destroy everything and wait for the barge (the giant egg-shaped enemy) from the left, reflect once the planes dive in and destroy incoming barges.From this point on, destroy all barges when refilling the shield, then stay on the rows of tanks from pyramids when reflecting.Be careful, you need to always destroy enemies when without a shield! (40M).
3.Again the stranger:Reflect at the second passage of the first attack, staying on its right side to make the final part of the pattern dodgeable.Wait for it to close in with blue bullets and reflect, then point-blank the last two attacks.Don't shoot during the battle (44M).
4.Final part: destroy the scisssors-like enemies by reflecting once the planes dive in, the destroy the tanks and reflect once the second barge is in, blowing up all other barges while refilling. Repeat this operation twice, and this worst is over (47M), so you can safely destroy the last formations of planes.

- BOSS -

1.Don't worry to max-out immediately: point-blank its left wing when it shoots a meaty pattern, and do the same on the right wing.Be careful to destroy all of its parts quickly.
2.Once the main body is the last part, overlap your ship on the medallion section on its attacks.All of them are easy to dodge, in case, if you stay low, as you an easily see the holes in the patterns.Wait a bit and then reflect in the said way when getting the red flashing pattern.Be quick! A good kill is at about 60 seconds. (49,9M).

2.4.6 STAGE 6

1. This giant plane is easily destroyed by reflecting its meatier attacks.On the first form, reflect the main blue stream and stay on one side when refilling. When it closes in, do the same and hoarde the aimed stream in the corners, movements must be tight but they're not difficult to do.Don't be shy, reflect a lot as you will damage more the boss (Take down this form at 219 seconds:also, ignore medals from now on, they're worthless).
2.When it stretches its arms, destroy the core nodes and not the external sections, you will get the same result.Reflect for protection and to point-blank.Trigger the third form with tentacles at 170 seconds.
3.Point-blank and reflect as soon as it starts shooting, so you'll trigger the second attack, the spiral.This attack has a safe spot at its centre, but the boss also shoots a pink bullet.Point blank it when reflecting and do left-right dodges to avoid said pink bullet.Take down this form at 160 seconds.
4.The final tricky part. Reflect the huge pink attack by point-blanking it, then be ready for the tricky spamming attack.This attack must be reflected twice by point-blank (very beginning and as soon as the shield is up again), and while refilling, you should slowly tap to be in front of the boss.Failing that, bomb if you get cornered, but don't do abrupt movements, they will create lethal spam. After that attack, point blank the small needles attack, it should explode at 130 seconds.

2.4.7 STAGE 7

You can access this stage only if you arrive here with one credit.
1.Quickly destroy the medallion, by point-blanking its green spiralling attack.
2.Stay on one side, there's a safe spot on its wide and fast shots.Point-blank the bullet spam.
3.Nasty attack: tap left and right while it zaps, don't do abrupt movements and reflect its green and fast aimed shots.Always stay at the bottom while it zaps.
4.Final pattern: try to stay in front of it, reflect when it's at about half of the screen by point-blanking, then slowly tap among the bullet-spam, it's a matter of precision. In case, well, bomb, it should go down after four point-blanks.

3.0 TIPS, TRICKS AND ODDITIES

One important thing about the game is learning to quickly maximize the multiplier: at any case, both fifth and sixth bosses are more rewarding if taken down quickly, than milked for multiplier.
Aside knowing well the stages, bosses are the best source for MPs, as it can be figured out by the multiplier progression proposed.
This is the first shmup title after Kyukyoku Tiger II, and the first with Capcom.After the said three titles, Takumi returned to be published from Taito, shmups-wise.
This is also the first game that started the "exploit the bullets" (Or New Minimalism) era, 4 months before Guwange and 6 before Psyvariar.
You can get an extra life if you're down to 0, by destroying the orbs on stage 4 in the right order.It will appear in place of the red orb.
Yes, Isha is a nun, and her secret final (i.e. if you can reach the seventh stage) proves that aimed violence can work!
Makoto is Sinnosuke's girlfriend, and a reference to Street Fighter III: Third Strike, but no, Makoto is not his girlfriend, just an obliquous reference.
Like in the other two titles of the series, most of the score (75%+) comes from the last three stages.
Takumi did a second chapter with Capcom in late 2000, and then a third chapter with Taito in October 2004.

Have fun with this excellent title!

[Randorama]

Keep going, lads. I wonder what you are saying.

[davyK]

A handful of tips

On stage 2 (train level) when you come to the large red structure , leave the large round spotlight on the left and take out the last gun in the centre just above and to the right of it. Do that and the spotlight starts spewing out loads of small medals to suck up.

On stage 3 there's a section with 4 guns on the left hand and right hand sides of the screen. Take out the guns on the right then move over to the left and take out the topmost gun - the guns below it turn into large medals.

On stage 4 there's a circular layout made up of coloured gems on the right hand side. Shoot them all leaving the centre to the last. If you are on your last life it gives you a mercy 1up, if not you get some giant medals.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

If you are on your last life it gives you a mercy 1up, if not you get some giant medals.

Two things to add, it always triggers the giant medal shower whether or not the 1UP appears (be at 0 lives in single player to get it, it's an emergency 1UP basically), and the 1UP will never appear when playing in 2 player coop, even if both players are at 0 lives remaining (I've tested this with a friend).

[EmperorIng]

What's going on with those giant medals anyway? When you collect them, the value they show up onscreen says +0. That feels backwards!

[LordHypnos]

What's going on with those giant medals anyway? When you collect them, the value they show up onscreen says +0. That feels backwards!

I always assumed it was because of something in the programming that doesn't allow such large values to be displayed, but I don't really know. I'm pretty sure it increases the chain quite a bit to collect them.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

What's going on with those giant medals anyway? When you collect them, the value they show up onscreen says +0. That feels backwards!

That... doesn't sound right. Not sure what you're describing??

Do you have footage of this happening? They've always given +100 to your current medal value as far as I know, and I don't recall ever seeing/triggering a graphical bug where they only show +0 when collected. Example video here, uploader's kind enough to have a super high res upload so you can clearly see the numbers increment by +100 each medal, and that's how I remember it always being in both the JP and USA versions: https://youtu.be/Va8WuRu_aS0?t=821

[LordHypnos]

What's going on with those giant medals anyway? When you collect them, the value they show up onscreen says +0. That feels backwards!

That... doesn't sound right. Not sure what you're describing??

Do you have footage of this happening? They've always given +100 to your current medal value as far as I know, and I don't recall ever seeing/triggering a graphical bug where they only show +0 when collected. Example video here, uploader's kind enough to have a super high res upload so you can clearly see the numbers increment by +100 each medal, and that's how I remember it always being in both the JP and USA versions: https://youtu.be/Va8WuRu_aS0?t=821

You can see what Ing is describing in my video, but as I said, it seems to increase the value of the chain, anyway. Probably some kind of emulation bug in current MAME, given that it doesn't seem to be that way in the clip you posted.

[EmperorIng]

Ok that's really weird, I have never seen actual numbers being displayed, ever - it's only ever been +0 for me, like in Hypnos' video.

However, look at this blurry superplay from Clover-YMN:
https://youtu.be/TnlwIPgA6kA

Bad quality but you can definitely see how the medal value is +0 and that the multiplier isn't going up!

Similarly a Ruby superplay by Koizumin:
https://youtu.be/wgPieC_Z1Uw

And you know these two aren't playing on mame, lol.
This is why I have always not known what is actually going on with them, or if there is some additional element I am missing with them.

In both cases, the player above is using 2p, which most high scoring players do (as does Hypnos), whereas your video from Jaylab uses player 1. Could that be a factor??

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Bad quality but you can definitely see how the medal value is +0 and that the multiplier isn't going up!

That's... yeah, that's super weird, I've never noticed that before, good catch! Puttin' on my investigation hat for this, right after I buy an investigation hat. Maybe a monocle too. When I'm playing I'm usually on 1P side (2P gets a very slight damage boost, which I guess helps with the time bonus on the last few bosses but it's so slim that it's difficult to notice in normal play).

It doesn't occur in 2 player cooperative (USA ver at least), both players see their counter increment correctly:

https://youtu.be/CR7KSKEbd4w?t=859

I have a PCB of the Japanese version, I've never noticed this in either 1P solo runs or in 2 player cooperative runs (I have at least a few friends who've 1CC'd it with me) and I don't remember ever noticing such a thing. But I know I've watched Koizumin's run before and never noticed that, so maybe it's possible I've triggered it before too without clueing in there was something wrong.

Will do some testing to see if I can trigger it by playing 2P side solo. It definitely seems like it's either tied to playing on 2P side as you suggest, or possibly something to do with getting the stage or overall multiplier values high enough as LordHypnos suggests? Very strange! I've not heard anyone else mention this bug before.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Uhhh... I can confirm this happens on the JP PCB playing solo on player 2 side. It even does it if your score is terrible because you gameovered and credit fed at the start of stage 4. I have no idea why, but P2 side seems to get +0 and no multiplier boost when getting those medals. Weird.

[EmperorIng]

I am glad we were able to sleuth that out! I guess maybe the advantages of 2p outweigh the loss of those +100 medals, but it's a real stupid bug. I wonder if the 2p/1p changes were intentional, or just strange oversights as well.

---

Does anybody have some tips for the stage 4 boss, the darkstalkers crossover spectacular?

Namely, I am trying to figure out if the main body's attacks are random, or if there is a set order or way to manipulate them. Obviously you want to reflect when he does the big blue spread shot, but it feels finicky if he does so or not, and when. It seems that he does the first few attacks as set (I think Roo mentioned this earlier in the thread) but after that it becomes a case of pick-and-choose.

EDIT:

After grinding this game a lot, I think i have been able to figure out more how this boss tics, but not to a 100% degree of consistency.

The boss I think maybe does the first three or so attacks in the same order, but that might simply be because of the arm health. He picks an attack based on how many arms he has, and at what point he lost them, and at what point during his "walk" cycle he is in (whether he is low or high on the screen). If you destroy the arms, at the same time, at the same points in the cycle, he will do the same attacks. However, there will come a point where it will be impossible to keep the arms/shoulders in sync with his attack so he will start being random, which is where you really need to watch out - say you reflect during his harmless giant-laser attack, but then he immediately follows with that huge blue spread or that annoying claw-grab with the pink spirals, and you have nothing to defend yourself.

It seems like he can do the lucrative blue spread of lines of bullets maybe three or four times during the fight, but you can get unlucky with your timing and only get it two or three times.

Looking at old topics here, as well as lots of play makes me think another sore spot - the train midboss in the lake stage - is incredibly finicky and random. Sometimes it will simply not give you the attacks you need to reflect for big score and running out of time during this midboss is very common.