Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Sturmvogel Prime »

Getting the last achievement of #Funtime in the XBOX One: Surviving the 50 Waves in Waves mode.
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BIL
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BIL »

EmperorIng wrote:I like the PCE version better of the two I played; BIL sings the praises of MD Twin Cobra, but it was a little too smooshed in for my taste. Good luck on the 2ALL :mrgreen:
MD Tiger's "crash zoom & crop, job done" turns an elegant, measured vert into a TRAPPED IN THA CLOSET nightmare barely fit for human consumption. Image Memoriser Bullshit™ is inevitably upped, with visibility and headroom indiscriminately chopped, but that aside, I like the combination of Fast Aimed Shots™ and nose-to-nose 4:3. Brisk! No Way Out! At such mortal range, Good Fighting Is Required™ With icy control paramount, it makes flailing noobs think their cartridge harbours fucking Skynet or some shit. Image

"I optimistically pawed at the buttons like an inebriated chimp and was promptly shot! HOW DO IT KNOW WHERE ID BE, AMAZING DARK AI SECRET" I feel a Shikigami no Shiro III quote coming on. :cool:

You can't bluff your way through this one. Die. Image (ESPECIALLY as, true to arcade specifications, bomber is not ready! In fact, it's the furthest thing from ready!)

In a stirring reversal of fortune, brazen KT copycat Raiden becomes MD Tiger's ideal substitute, as Seibu actually gave a shit about the yoko conversion. :wink:
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Marc
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Marc »

Finally bit the bullet and ponied up for Esprade.

Enjoying it, managed to blag my way to the 3rd boss on the first couple of credits, it's hitting the sweet spot for my limited skills.
Not a clue what the systems are, and at the minute I don't think I'm going to bother to try and learn at least for the time being - as soon as I do, I start trying to play 'properly' and end up worse off than I was when I first approached a game.

Is this the only one ported to Switch? Shame, it runs pretty flawlessly as far as I can tell. Probably end up picking up the rest on PS4 if they ever go on sale.
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Sengoku Strider
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Strikers 1945 and Sengoku Blade, with a bit of Galaga mixed in as a palate cleanser. I quite like the HD rumble implementation in the Switch version of Galaga on Namco Museum, it adds a welcome and engaging dimension to the game.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Mischief Maker »

Playing the absolute shit out of Cho Ren Sha 68K now that I have my new Mayflash F500 Elite stick with built-in autofire.

No RSI, just the bullet-dodging, please.

Seems kinda strange the most exciting thing for me about getting a $130 stick is playing a 25-year-old freeware game.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

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jedinat
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by jedinat »

Mischief Maker wrote:Playing the absolute shit out of Cho Ren Sha 68K now that I have my new Mayflash F500 Elite stick with built-in autofire.

No RSI, just the bullet-dodging, please.

Seems kinda strange the most exciting thing for me about getting a $130 stick is playing a 25-year-old freeware game.
Nice. I've got the F500 that I upgraded to seimitsu parts. Really nice stick that I think doesn't get enough respect from hobby elitists, lol.

I finally got Black Bird now that it's on sale on Switch and have been playing that some.
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BareKnuckleRoo
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

I've been playing a ton of Under Defeat. I feel like I'm close to a potential New Order 1CC but the line between victory and defeat is very thin since there's no extends in the game. A decent number of resources though with 2 bombs on every stage except the first. I'm finding I actually prefer the widescreen New Order mode, mostly because the Cannon weapon's more user friendly. It's quite powerful and forgiving to use, whereas I feel like in the standard arcade mode I sometimes struggle to kill things. The Vulcan's quite decent, though having to guide it around yourself is a limitation. Cannon's not bad in arcade mode, but Rocket seems to beat it out in a lot of places for sheer burst damage once you memorize where it's worth using. Missing Rocket shots is a bit heartbreaking, though.
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m.sniffles.esq
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by m.sniffles.esq »

Missing Rocket shots is a bit heartbreaking, though.

That's why the only time I mess with the rocket is when I'm about to fight the boss. Anywhere else, it drives me absolutely crazy.

Cannon 4 Lyfe
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

There's a number of places that rocket is surprisingly handy though, at least on Arcade mode where Cannon's 8 shots don't kill fast enough (vs 16 in New Order where Cannon is competitive with Rocket even against tightly clustered enemy groups). The ship cannons in Stage 2, the enemies hiding behind bunkers in Stage 3, the hover tanks in Stage 5 which tend to ram into your Cannon before it fires all its shots, etc. It seems helpful to learn how to handle the Rocket, which in large part is not firing it at a diagonal which drastically reduces its accuracy it seems.

I'm coming to the conclusion that the default helicopters are better than the DLC ones. The extra movement speed is huge, and the one with the homing missiles is highly susceptible to enemy homing missiles.
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Flobeamer1922
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Flobeamer1922 »

I've been playing a few games lately. I've been playing Galaga to try for a new best score, and I've also been playing the games that are in the La Calice Cup Special. For that, I'm currently trying for a Mystic Square 1cc on Lunatic mode.
dmk1198
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by dmk1198 »

Can u ever beat galaga or space invaders?
I mean is there an end credits screen?
Two or 3 levels and I'm always dead lol and unlimited credit don't work
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Flobeamer1922
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Flobeamer1922 »

dmk1198 wrote:Can u ever beat galaga or space invaders?
I mean is there an end credits screen?
Two or 3 levels and I'm always dead lol and unlimited credit don't work
Space Invaders is an endless game. It keeps going until you run out of lives.
Galaga's a bit complicated. It's dependent on what you have the difficulty set to. If it's rank A (which is the default) or rank C, the game will kill screen on stage 0, which you access by clearing stages 1 through 255. If you have it set on rank B or rank D, the game doesn't kill screen on stage 0, and loop back to stage 1 after you clear it, thus making it endless.
Last edited by Flobeamer1922 on Tue Aug 18, 2020 11:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dmk1198
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by dmk1198 »

Very helpful thnx
I know I'm ok.at space invaders
Wondered why I never get that far
Crap at galaga except when I play ridge racer lol
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mycophobia
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by mycophobia »

thinking about playing A-L in ddp. you can just zoom and flail around while lasering everything, which is epic
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Jonpachi »

Working on a 1CC of Einhander, but kinda hitting a wall in the late game. It's starting to feel like a 1LC kinda game, where losing a key weapon just means your run is done for and you may as well reset.
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copy-paster
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by copy-paster »

I never bothered with default mechs, cause limited ammo is not my type of shmup. I like using secret police craft tho, small hitbox and total blast with it's homing shots.
dmk1198
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by dmk1198 »

Are we allowed to sell games here?
PlEase delete if not
Esp ra.de. switch
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224125391098
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mycophobia
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by mycophobia »

dmk1198 wrote:Are we allowed to sell games here?
PlEase delete if not
Esp ra.de. switch
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224125391098
hey man. there's a forum on the index page called For Sale, where you can sell stuff. Check it out: viewforum.php?f=4
dmk1198
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by dmk1198 »

Thnx pal sorry
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mycophobia
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by mycophobia »

No worries
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by CStarFlare »

I've finally got a proper Switch to replace my Lite and can now play verts properly.

I got this impression when I gave it an initial play on my Lite, but Red Death is pretty poor. The story mode is required before playing Arcade, and the story is so nonsensical and badly written and if there were anyone in the room I'd have turned it off to avoid embarrassment.

Arcade feels procedurally generated (though it could just be lazy). It reuses enemy waves and bosses endlessly, most lifted from the three-stage story mode - I got to stage 10 and the game used 3 bosses in total. It's cheap about telegraphing things; certain enemies will scroll off the bottom of the screen then shoot a wave of bullets from behind a full second later, and warnings will flash for laser attacks that your ship cannot dodge unless you're already moving. The game hands out 3 extends at the beginning of each stage. The damage increase from every powerup is substantial, which makes powerdowns when you die especially brutal. This all combines towards a single death leaving you crippled (a mechanic I hate to begin with), and the game stringing you along with an inappropriate amount of extra lives to prolong your suffering. If you can avoid falling into that loop, the game becomes too easy to be interesting.

As I said, I got to stage 10 and I have no idea if there is an end. The repeated waves and bosses prevents any sense of progression, and while story mode has nicely designed backgrounds to its stages Arcade has nothing to indicate stage 8 is different than stage 2. In fairness, it's a $5 indie game and has been on sale every time I've seen it. But it's not a good use of your time.

Sisters Royale is pretty fun though it gives me serious Stage 1 restart syndrome.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by EmperorIng »

I restart Sisters Royale st1 pretty heavily too. It's a consequence of a grazing score system - it's really easy to make a dumb mistake, get mad, and try again...

But I stuck with it enough to get a clear earlier today! I hope you add your score to the scoreboard thread. Do you have a preferred Sister to Royale yet? :wink:
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by CStarFlare »

I'm a Nur boy. I've been playing Hard (actually surprised to see so many people playing Normal, but then it is probably a more interesting routing game when you can't just graze revenge bullets all day) and have decided to play on PC rather than Switch. I've been absolute trash on the Switch controller and find I'm happier with an X360 pad. If only I could figure out how to make the game work with keybaord.

I'll pop over to the score thread soon. I made it to the stage 5 boss almost immediately after switching to PC, so I think there's a clear in me soon.
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EmperorIng
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by EmperorIng »

I can't wait to see your progress!

On top of Sisters Royale, I've also been on a Darius kick. On the Cozmic Collection I 1cc'd every version of Darius 1 (including no-missing Darius New and Darius Extra!) and am on and off playing Darius II, learning some new survival tricks, mainly centered around rank management: It seems like the rank goes down if a bullet hits you - even if you have a shield. This can be somewhat exploited to make later levels less deadly.

For fun I am also playing a little G-Darius, which is the only arcade Darius I haven't yet cleared. I've made it to one of the final zones on G-Darius in a single credit (the one above G.T.'s level), playing the PS1 port on my PS2. I've cleared the game in two credits earlier today using the same route. I went into that zone with all of my lives. I think a 1cc is within my grasp. I just need to 1) remember which routes to take in-stages to get the boss patterns I am more familiar with (it's hard to keep track!), and 2) find a way to conserve lives.

I can't remember if there are any extends/extra lives in G-Darius. I am pretty sure there are no score-based extends, but I don't know if some levels have them hidden in the scenery like other Darius games. Anyone remember?
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by copy-paster »

EmperorIng wrote:For fun I am also playing a little G-Darius, which is the only arcade Darius I haven't yet cleared. I've made it to one of the final zones on G-Darius in a single credit (the one above G.T.'s level), playing the PS1 port on my PS2. I've cleared the game in two credits earlier today using the same route. I went into that zone with all of my lives. I think a 1cc is within my grasp. I just need to 1) remember which routes to take in-stages to get the boss patterns I am more familiar with (it's hard to keep track!), and 2) find a way to conserve lives.

I can't remember if there are any extends/extra lives in G-Darius. I am pretty sure there are no score-based extends, but I don't know if some levels have them hidden in the scenery like other Darius games. Anyone remember?
Every fourth stage have hidden 1up inside the ground/terrain/cloud like Gaiden, no extends. Also your clear route is one of the hardest, why not go all up?
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by CStarFlare »

Gamefaqs guide for G-Darius indicates there are 1-Up items in the following zones:

Eta M
Eta N
Theta O
Theta P
Iota Q
Iota R
Kappa S
Kappa T

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps/197415 ... /faqs/3906
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by EmperorIng »

Thanks for the info you two! I scoured Glacier for the extra life but I didn't find it. Some more searching is in order. Maybe if that gamefaqs list is any indication, they're in the second half of the stage.
copy-paster wrote: Every fourth stage have hidden 1up inside the ground/terrain/cloud like Gaiden, no extends. Also your clear route is one of the hardest, why not go all up?
I've already made it to the final level without dying, I might as well go all the way. My best run was a 2CC with dying 5 times, that's getting pretty close. If it turns out my attempts at Accordion Hazard all end in failure I might reconsider, but I'm feeling pretty good about this.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by CloudyMusic »

Haven't played a shmup since Shmup Slam in February, but I'm starting to get the itch again a little bit. Thinking about working on Crimzon Clover, maybe.
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Man, I've gotta say I am LOVING this Sega AGES version of Thunder Force AC. The Switch version has almost no input lag, which is rare on the system. I know some prefer the Mega Drive version of TF III, but I couldn't give up AC's kickass soundtrack. When I hit stage 7 I'm jacking my headphones all the way and rocking out to the YM3438 heart on fire blasting through me. I legit seem to like this game more than TF IV, another Sega AGES entry. Also, respect for what they did for the visuals in this version. Some of the later stages could absolutely pass for a Neo Geo game:

Image
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Marc
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Re: Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

Post by Marc »

Still messing around on EspRaDe. Falling off a cliff at the 3rd boss using the first character, but that's only an hour or so in over a few sittings. Love this, one of the better Cave games I've played for sure.
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