Shmup Goals 2021 - Lightning strikes twice

[Plasmo]

Shmup goals 2021 - Lightning strikes twice



You are Tom Martin. Ever since you have visited a certain Thai restaurant 5 years ago, you feel an obsession with thunderstorms. Your mission is to get as close to lightning strikes without getting killed. You absolutely value your life and hold strong moral ideals but you just have to be close to these lightning bolts. Your girlfriend is a photographer and joins you. The third crew member is your dog (German Shepherd) who can detect lightning early and then starts to bark in a special way.

Here are the links to the previous topics. Have you reached your goals? Failed hard? Tell us!

2013, 2014, 2015, 2016,
2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

You know the drill by now, kid!

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020: As the name suggests, post the stuff you're the most proud of here, whether you're an Easy mode survival player or a Lunatic scorerunner. Anything that stands out to you is what you want here, no matter how silly it may be!

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020: Did a Power-up carrier pick you off or ram into you and ruin the GOD RUN? Whatever comedies/tragedies pop up most clearly to mind go here! These don't have to be specific occurrences but can be generalities as well in your gaming endeavors.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020: Whether it's a long-time goal achieved by a close friend or a new WR set in one of your favourite games (or both at the same time!), you can post whatever stuff you enjoyed seeing other people do this year here!

(4) Goals for 2021: What do you have your eyes set on achieving next year? List all the clears, scores, and crazy challenges you want to achieve next year here. Be ambitious!

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS: The fun one. Throw down the gauntlet and challenge someone else to something! This might be to beat one of your scores, or a race to a certain clear, or whatever you like. Remember to keep it a little friendly, but on the other hand, go totally nuts!

Alternatively if you want to be lazy then just post your goals for the year as usual.

Your mission starts now. Are you ready?

[copy-paster]

1. Personal favorite Achievements: 2020 has affect me in a bad way IRL wise, but for shmups it's the opposite. I cleared a lot of games I liked and hated this year, something I hadn't done much in previous years. Here's my experience of few cleared games I liked most:

Salamander 2: I got a 2-ALL after Calice 3 ends. This is by far my proudest clear I've done, not only S2 is one of my top 3 gradius games, but loop 2 is very challenging. From what I know not many western players (in farm at least) have 2-ALLed S2, so it's nice to me being one of 2-ALL gang.
Gradius IV: Took me a month to clear and it was no easy feat. I originally set my goal to clear on Easiest mode but somehow I determined enough to change to Normal. 50% of my runs ended at cursed bubble stage and I almost quit the game before move on to other games. IV and Salamander 2 taught me how to dissect and strategy learning in shmups. I would put this at top 25 shmups if only bubble and stage aren't too brutal.
DaiOuJou Black Label and Garegga: Not much talk about these two other than they're one of my top 3 shmups. BL clear were done non-defaults (I changed extend to 7mil and 18mil) but I don't care, still would like to revisit with default setting in near future.
Game Tengoku: Sadly this isn't one of cleared games I liked, I only got one because Calice 3 completion. Despite the cute and fun first 2 stages, the rest are pretty much abysmal. I feel like anything after first 2 stages of GT is example how not to design STG stages, and at the time playing it felt like a torture to me I do love stage 2 boss though hahaha.


(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020: Failing to clear Ketsui 1-ALL and Thunder Dragon 2 2P side

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020: Flobeamer got his Truxton II clear which took him six months, and Lags 2-ALLed Salamander 2.

(4) Goals for 2021: clear any shmup l liked, beat my 12mil PB of 19XX, clear Darius Gaiden Extra 2P side, clear Ketsui, clear Gradius IV on Hardest difficulty.

(BONUS) CHALLENGE TO OTHER PLAYERS: Anyone who willing to 2-ALL Salamander 2. Not many western players did a 2-ALL, you might be next.

[OmKol]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:

Judgement Silversword, Normal mode, Steam - got second place score which is 120 mil which means no miss no shield run until final boss rush and also good survival bonus and final boss kill bonus. Now it's a second most played STG in my list. It's very good. Also participated in Shmup Slam and got 82 mil!

La Calice Cups - many new clears. I'm usually a survival player and I really enjoy to collect clears. But it was really fun for me to do scoring in some games so I've got a very good scores in Fire Lancer Heavy Mode (7.07 mil) and Remote Weapon Gunfencer (2.76 mil).

And of course the hardest one in my clear list - Dodonpachi Daioujou White Label. I just had one dream - to do any Cave 2-ALL clear. And I decided to play a game which requires a really huge amount of time and dedication. Without any understanding how I will clear this game. I tried to focus on enjoying practice, enjoying every small success like clearing a single second loop stage or boss fight or two stages in a row, enjoying every big success like reaching 2-3, reaching 2-3 second time or two times per day or even reaching 2-5 with four lives. It's still hard to believe because I always played this game without any expectations. Every time when I reach 2-4 or 2-5 or Koryu or even flying Koryu I don't expect to get a clear. And when I destroyed Hibachi it was unbelieveable for me and only became believeable when I did a input file playback to see that was a full run and not a practice or a dream. So yeah, I have a DOJWL 2-ALL.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:

I tried to go for first place in Judgement Silversword but I was exhausted. First place requires to do almost everything without mistakes and I had enough runs with only one mistake. Even such a mistake like having a small multiplier during last boss kill. Damn!

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:

Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Arrange A Ura 2-ALL WR from Daringspino. It was amazing to watch this stream live.

Dodonpachi Daioujou Black Label 2-ALL from QSD and Daringspino. It's really inspiring! I tried to play harder after those clears and got a DOJWL clear. And that means three DOJ 2-ALLs happening in the same month!

Amazing performance by Jujukenobi - Ketsui Omote 2-ALL, Dodonpachi 2-ALL, Progear 2-ALL!

(4) Goals for 2021:

No crazy goals but I want to clear Battle Garegga. And probably Dangun Feveron clear, Hacha Mecha Fighter 1-ALL, something from Darius series? Probably any Steam shmup I have but not cleared yet?

[AlvaLynsis]

.

[Sengoku Strider]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020: This was the year I got seriously into STGs, so the achievements aren't spectacular by community standards. I got a 1cc and a decent score on Thunder Force AC, which after all these years was the first Technosoft game I ever really got into. If the hi score thread ever gets updated I'll go back & try to crack the top 10, I think it's reachable.

But the real achievement for me isn't necessarily a concrete milestone, it's seeing myself able to handle situations that I thought only people with cybernetic reflexes could get through. Like, later levels in Psikyo games or anything at all in Vasara 2.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020: Taking as long as I did to understand how much latency matters. It took the STG community to get it into my head after all these years. When I think how many years I spent trying to get good at fighting games...

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020: Everyone going hard at Gunbird 2 in the hi score thread.

(4) Goals for 2021: Working my way up to normal difficulty in Gunbird 2. Same with Strikers 1945. Achieving anything like a submittable score in Battle Garegga. Chaining an entire Ikaruga stage. Getting good enough to tackle the hard route of Vasara 2. 1cc in Esp.Ra.De Psy, or at least getting to the last boss. Achieving competency in Dodonpachi. Not giving up.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS: Beat Cybernoid on NES. It is Eurojank in its most sadistic final form.

[Meriscan]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020: Definitely shippu mahou no miss clear and air gallet 10.4m score.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020: Somehow convinced myself earlier this year that Progear 2-all would only take about a month or two to clear. You get 9 lives to clear the loop, how hard could it be right? It's not on the current goal list, since it would still take a lot of practice and there's quite a few games I've found in the meantime that I'd rather play first. But if nothing else I do want a better score for that game than my current pb.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020: Here is where my goldfish memory is gonna kick in hard. It's been great seeing the amount of activity in Batrider and the amazing achievements along side it. Also, Juju's many high-scoring 2-alls certainly come to mind.

(4) Goals for 2021: Had a few things I had in mind include;

Muchi Muchi Pork - 150m
Armed Police Batrider - Grasshopper Solo Scoring (no precise goal besides that)
Great Mahou Daisakusen - Karte & Miyamoto clear and learn scoring, goal being 50m (probably a bit too high, but whatever)
Mars Matrix - 1cc + 400b

(shitty) Clears: 19XX, 1944, Dogyuun, Mahou Daisakusen

Of course, I'll likely not finish all of them or I'll pick up new games that I like, but I tend to stick to goals like this if I talk about it more and write it down.

[maximo310]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:
- Hishouzame 3-ALL & Outzone Counterstop (6-ALL) : Getting better at 2 Toaplan games I've always liked to do marathon sessions is a great feeling. The latter also happened pretty quickly thanks to motivation from Dent's STGC Competition #2 as a featured game.
- Kamui Normal 31 million ALL - My best score from the Steam Calice Special; my Rayforce knowledge helped with picking up optimal strategies and massively improved my PB from a few years ago.
- Cho Ren Sha 2-ALL (Windows 2017 version) - Got this relatively quickly after derusting for Calice Special

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:
- Making it to Gluon multiple times on Psyvariar Revision and making minor mistakes that cost me my victory ( a stray bullet & using a long bomb instead of short) along with not maintaining practice on that port.
- Failed to improve my Rayforce PB on the few times I played the game (highest attempt was a 5.3 mil final boss game over)
- Kind of forgot to check out Truxton; oops

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:
-Flobeamer's Truxton II 1-ALL!! Make sure to check out his quest to 1-ALL Tatsujin Oh this year!
- ZPS getting 10 million in Fire Shark 2P pretty quickly ( along with UFO LNBNV at his Touhou World Cup event :OOO)
- Jaimers destroying a ton of stuff, including an absolutely criminal 14-ALL of Outzone, only stopped by his body's urge to go to sleep
- Starshinelunacy's Mystic Square Lunatic WR being improved to 196 million on the first week of Calice Cup Special
- Spino's amazing 21 trillion run in DFK Arrange A
- Prales destroying a number of games ( Frantic Dimension, Flying Pancake Octopus in Black Hole, Blyanix)
- Omkol defeating DOJWL 2-all and destroying people in other games ( Fire Lancer 7mil, Neko Navy Hard 2.4 bil, Gunfencer demo 2.7 mil)
- Pearl & QSD completing Batrider with all ships, satis & chum with big PBs
- DMC's Soukyugurentai 26 million run with commentary
- Juju's Progear 2-ALL coming in hot & fast ( along with ketsui omote 2all whew)
- Aquas getting a Harahara Momo WR within days of coming back to the game lol
- Legend_Hoa getting 20 million on Cho Ren Sha & his 76 million multi-day Vimana run
- Plasmo's dedication to improving his Pink Sweets WR strats & memes
- Mark's MUSHA counterstop
(4) Goals for 2021:
I'll try to continue that same energy with this year ( even while sick lol); not sure if I'll hit all of the below but we'll see:

- Nostradamus ALL
- Crisis Wing ALL
- Darius Gaiden Extra 1P ALL
- G-Darius ALL
- Psyvariar Revision X-D ALL
- Twin Cobra 1-ALL
- Rolling Gunner Original ALL (no TLB)
- Rayforce 6 million+
- Flame Zapper Kostujin 11 mil+
- A letter score in a Yagawa game
- play more indie titles
- Raycrisis (regular ALL and/or PS1 special mode ALL)
- checking out the first Truxton
There may be other stuff I forgot to include, but that's what I remember at the moment

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
Another brave soul to tackle the Raystorm ALL. Also, go check out Psyvariar Delta; its an awesome port.

[ZPScissors]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:

Easy answer, getting to participate in the Touhou World Cup, and getting my first UFO LNBNV on the first credit of my match (which also makes me the first person to clear UFO in TWC!) It was something I had been grinding for a month or two but never ended up being able to close out a run, but I got it exactly when it mattered most.

Honorable mention goes to making it to Stage 9 in Sam3 1p, it's not a clear but that game felt impossible to me at the start of the year but now a 1-ALL seems realistic.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:

I also got to play UFO for Shmup Slam 3... which didn't go nearly as well as TWC. I game overed to the Stage 5 boss in what should have been a fairly simple clear for my skill level in that game. UFO LNBNV also being literally my only 2020 goal I actually got.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:

A lot to mention here, Juju's Progear 2-ALL, Daringspino's DFK Arrange A WR, Moglar's absolutely insane progress in Ketsui, OmKol FINALLY getting DOJWL 2-ALL, Starshine improving the Mystic Square Lunatic WR during Calice, HALF the main series Touhou games getting new world records, SOC's DDC Marisa A and Sakuya B LNNs, all the other amazing stuff that happened at TWC (such as Mino's PCB Marisa B LNNN), Prales and Vludi's Tatsujin Oh and Flobeamer's Truxton II clears, Jaimers's Out Zone 14-ALL, VioletHatPurple's Gunbird 2 NM1B 2-ALL, Pearl clearing Batrider with every character, and probably a lot more I'm not remembering off the top of my head. A lot of people did some really cool stuff this year!

(4) Goals for 2021:

UFO Lunatic 2.5b and LLS LNN (again)
Also want to finish Sam3 1p 1-ALL, might also look in to Dimahoo scoring.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:

get ufo lnb

[Pearl]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:
1943 Western Record
Batrider All ship clear + 15Mil Carpet
Learning Pink Sweets and preparing for Kasumi WR
Getting a supergun setup + PCBs
96.2t Giga Wing
Nabbing my 100th 1CC
Making videos showcasing lost-to-english strategies for preservation.
Laughing at Elixir atleast 200 times

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:
Destroying my PCB lol
Not really doing very hot mentally.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:
In no order
Chum and Satis with their Batrider PB's
QSD Getting atleast 10M with every ship in Batrider
Plasmo and his amazing dedication to PS throughout the year of learning it
Kneg with the 3rd world record in Espgaluda
Meriscan being based at Air Gallet
Flobeamy getting Trux2 1-ALL and Tatsujin 12M
Moggy completely fucking decimating Ketsui, and if he gets WR im buying him wings
Softdrink's Ikaruga scores
Daringspino DFK Arrange-A
Elixir being able to sleep sometimes
Jacob Upland getting the NamcoClassic Galaga WR
Ansel getting a shot to Japan
Anyone I forgot, you did great. Keep it up.

(4) Goals for 2021:
Batrider Carpet 17Mil
Batrider Team 18Mil
Garegga Gain 15Mil
Pink Sweets Kasumi 17Mil+
Giga Wing 120 Tril
Halley's Comet Counterstop
Plus Alpha 10M
Learn Galaga
1943 3.5M
1943Kai 4.7M
Improve mental
Make fun of Elixir 300 times

[Juju Kenobi]

I almosty never post a thing here but maybe it's time to start

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:
- Ketsui Omote 300m 2-ALL : it was something I wanted to do in 2019 but many of my goals were postponed. I ended up getting it at the beginning of the year.
- Dodonpachi 2-ALL and 359m (but not 2-all) : and all my work on Dodonpachi. I got a pretty nice score but I still want to push further and learn new thing about this game. Learning the 1-5 full chain was definitely not an easy task and an achievement in itself for me.
- Progear no Arashi 2-ALL and 72m (but not 2-all ^^) : I really wanted to give Progear a try and I was not disappointed. What a fantastic game ! Incredibly fun to play and learn ! The scoring tricks in this game are super cool.
- Dodonpachi Daioujou BL 2b 2-ALL : Finally breaking through the 2 billion barrier. I had many heart-breaking runs on this game this year and but I managed to improve my PB.
- Dragon Blaze 1-all : it didn't require much effort compared to my other achievements, but it was my first try on a Psikyo game and I definitely want to learn more about this game.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:
- Many DOJBL runs scoring between 1.7 and 2 billion. One particular run scoring 1.8b out of 2-4 with several hypers in stock which I threw out the window in the first half of the last stage.
- Burning myself out on DDP in the middle of the year. Bee overdose.
- I didn't do as much as I hoped with Ketsui, I am sorry Mog

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:
Oh boy, this sure was a very active year for STG fans. I hope I will not forget too many people :
- Moglar's Ketsui 551m Ura 2-all. Absolute madness by an absolute madman ! Truly inspiring work and dedication ! I was lucky to catch the ending of that run live.
- Omkol's DOJWL 2-all. This one is definitely very special for me. Probably the shmup player I watched the most this year. It kinda feels strange to see Omkol not playing DOJ now
- Spino's DOJBL 2-all. I had the pleasure to catch it live. No more Turtle PTSD.
- Feebacker improving his DOJBL PB, closing in with the 2 billion barrier.
- Blackisto getting a massive 522m in DDP and getting his 1rst 2-all on the game on another run earlier this year.
- Flobeamer's work on the Tatsujin series.
- Mark_MSX who keeps giving his best for the community, organizing events, pushing out tutorials, and much more.
- Dent4F coming back with the Calice Cup. Absolutely amazing and fun event to follow.
- Satis works on CCWI. This man is too strong.
- Kiwi's work on Mushihimesama. Literally exploring the unknown on his own and making a ton of discoveries. He will probably take the game further than anybody else so I'll be sure to follow.
- Plasmo and Pink Sweet. And all the work his doing, to preserve and share knowledge.
- MAZ dedication toward Ikaruga. I still remember the day when he said he wanted to learn Ikaruga, after reading an article
- Charlene's (and Komidore) incredible work. Creating the wiki. Few people realize how much work this took. And thank you to all the people who took the time to add some info to the wiki as well.
- The performance of the Touhou players during the Touhou World Cup. Especially ZPS getting his 1rst LNBNV in UFO live. Also, the performance of Mino and Dagoth, who are 2 players that keep inspiring me.
- KZ sticking to Ketsui
- Pearl doing Pearl's things.
- Jaylab almost getting a Dragon Blaze no miss 1-all.
- Buffi destroying the CAVE library.
- Softdrink coming back to shmups, delivering an amazing commentary for Kemonomichi, and his recent work on Ikaruga.
- M.Knight improving his Illvelo PB.
- BOS pushing his Dragon Blaze PB further.
- Silver Star getting a very fast DDP 2-all.
- Diamenciory getting his 1rst LNNN in TD.
- Meriscan Ketsui 2-ALL and Shippu Mahou Daisakusen 2-ALL (No Miss).
- Kneg Espegaluda work. Amazing to see him push it that far.
- VioletHatPurple's work, truly amazing !
- Shmups at GDQ. Always amazing as a shmup fan to see them at such big events.

(4) Goals for 2021:
Many goals, probably too many for the next year, so it's more a "goals for 202x" thing
- Learning how to play Ikaruga
- Learning how to play Donpachi
- Going further with DOJBL. 3b is the next goal.
- Getting 100m in Progear
- Improving my DDP score.
- Dragon Blaze 2-all
- Derusting Ketsui
- Participate in a Calice Cup
- Keep working on the wiki pages for DOJ and Progear

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
Play Progear. This game is amazing !

[JayLab]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:
I started the year with an ESP Ra.De. clear which I was really happy with, but I think the main story for me in 2020 was becoming a big Psikyo fan. I'd never even played a Psikyo title until Calice Cup 3 in April, but I really developed a taste for them, and I ended the year with 1-ALLs in Strikers 1999, Dragon Blaze, and Gunbird 2. All great games!

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:
Playing the M2 ESP Ra.De. port back in January - the first time I ever got past Garra I shamefully died to Alice due to nerves (yes, the easy version of alice). It took me another week of attempts to actually get the clear.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:
Moglar's incredible 551m ketsui clear is one of the best shmup replays I've ever seen. Shoutouts also to the Truxton 2 gang (Prales/Flo/Vludi) for getting clears this year, Juju for his awesome DDP/DOJ and progear runs, and Omkol for his WL 2-ALL. Simply amazing stuff!

(4) Goals for 2021
(mostly copypasted from discord)
I spent a lot of 2020 checking out a ton of different shmups, but heading into 2021 I'm thinking I want to focus more on a handful of shmups I really like, and try to improve my gameplay. So here they are:

Dragon Blaze
I keep meaning to record a no-miss 1-ALL of this game, so I'll try to get that out of the way first. Beyond that, I'd like to write "2-ALL" here, but I think it's still way out of my league, so maybe we'll start with a score goal of 1.5mil and go from there. I've routed 2-1 and 2-2 but the rest of loop 2 is pretty insane. I'll guess my main goal is to just keep playing & improving and we'll see what happens! Love this game!

Ketsui - Omote loop entry
I improved my pb a bunch earlier in the year, so the next goal for me is omote loop. This will take some work cos my stage 5 is complete trash, but I love the game and want to add this achievement to my list.

Ikaruga - new pb and clear video
All the recent activity from Maz and Softdrink has made me want to play Ikaruga again. My PB is (iirc) a 22.8mil clear which I scored on the gamecube about 16 years ago. I'd like to record a new clear vid, and also maybe get a new PB in the process. Maybe it's finally time to chase that S++ rank on stage 3 as well.

Some new clears to aim for if I find time:

Strikers 1945 II - 1-ALL
Radiant Silvergun - ALL
Truxton II - 1-ALL

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:

1. Dedicate your life to Psikyo
2. Play some Tatsujin Oh today

[Lethe]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:
Getting properly into the genre at last and learning a ton about games I already liked and games I had no idea I'd like. Currently I'm feeling like the sky is the limit, I just need to commit to something.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:
Not having said commitment. A lot of wasted time that didn't go anywhere or teach me anything. I'm not trying anywhere near as hard as I easily could be, nor as efficiently.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:
Can I be a sap and say the collective achievement of the current vitality surrounding this whole genre on here, on related places, and elsewhere? Let's make sure that sticks around.

(4) Goals for 2021:
- Dangun Feveron ALL2 + no chain break. (Finding out about the Jaimers Method™ for the stage 5 boss was a big confidence boost towards this seeming possible)
- Full chain Guwange Blue + 40mil minimum.
- Actually learn Imperishable Night scoring and don't totally fuck it up. Haven't decided what team yet but I owe it to the game, it's been long enough.
- Learn a Batrider mixed team route and don't totally fuck it up.
- Also, yeah, "not giving up" seems like a good one (but it's too late for me).

get ufo lnb

- And this one too.

[DaringSpino34]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:
_Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Ver 1.0 Counterstop with A-Bomb and A-Power on MAME, with no slowdown since I was too lazy with blitter thing lol
_Dodonpachi Daioujou Black Label 2-All with A-S, Shotia is my waifu, and turtle is a b*tch.
_Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Ver 1.5 Ura 2-ALL with C-Bomb
_And finally, Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Arrange A World Record 21.6 Trillion! My proudest run so far. And I believe the score will be hard to top off.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020: _Both Shump Slam runs are quite underwhelming, Shump Slam II I got cursed by Powerpoint presentation and Shump Slam III not only I got kicked into Omote loop, hSm completely stole the show (He is a great player though, no hard feelings at all)
_Would have been nice if I got into Ura during Shumpmania DFK Arrange A run, but at least it's a no miss
_Aside from DOJ, I still stayed around DFK, even though I planned to explore the shump genre further.


(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020: It's a lot, but I will try to remember all
_Omkol's DOJ WL 2-All. Congratulations man, you earned it, it's amazing. Also, your performance in Calice Cup was very good too.
_QSD's DOJ BL 2-All. We were having a race to see who will 2-all DOJ first, it was very fun.
_QSD's DFK Arrange B stage 3 counterstop.
_Juju Kenobi's 2 billion DOJ BL goal achieved and his Progear run in Shoot the Baguette event. Awesome work man, hope to see you killing
more turtles.
_Sairyo's numerous DFK BL Zatsuza no miss with A-Strong.
_Queen Charlene for starting up the STG Wiki, and everyone else who has been supporting the Wiki so far.
_Flobeamer's Truxton clear.
_hSm's absolutely insane performance during Shump Slam III. How the hell do you score 800+ billions with Power in a live event I will never know.
_KZ and his unrelenting quest to conquer Ketsui. You will beat it one day, keep it up!
_AlvaLynsis (hope I spell his name right) no miss The Last Express in Jamestown. I believe it's the first time that boss has been no missed.
_Softdrink's numerous success with Ikaruga.
_Raadgiver's 8.9 Trillion DFK Black Label Arrange (Ketsuipachi), which is also WR.

(4) Goals for 2021:
a/Crimzon Clover Unlimited mode 1cc
b/Espgaluda 1cc
c/DFK 1.51 Power scoring
d/Touhou 7 Lunatic clear (I am still a bit undecided on this but I hope I get it)
e/Gradius III 2 loop clear
I wish to have more goals as time passes on

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
Try to beat my score in DFK Arrange A. HoHoHoHoHo

[Flobeamer1922]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:
- Galaga : Reaching the kill screen on stage 0
- Vimana : Scoring 12 million points and clearing eight loops
- Truxton II : Clearing one loop
- Tatsujin : Scoring 12 million points and clearing eight loops

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:
- Failing to clear Mystic Square on Lunatic during the Calice Cup Special, along with failing to loop Cho Ren Sha during the same tournament

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020: So many to list!
- Jordan Dorrington scoring 20 million on Galaga marathon settings, and both him and Armando Gonzalez scoring 10 million on Galaga five-ship settings
- Jacob Upland taking the world record on the Namco Classic Collection Vol. 1 version of Galaga after it stood unrivaled for 24 years
- Pearl clearing Batrider with all 18 ships
- daringspino's DOJ BL 2-ALL, and OmKol's DOJ WL 2-ALL
- Prales and Vludi both doing a Tatsujin Oh 1-ALL
- ZPS scoring 10 million points on the 2P version of Same! Same! Same!, and smc scoring 19 million points on the 1P version
- Xur and Maximo both achieving an Out Zone counterstop
- sikraiken achieving a Bosconian new version counterstop
- Starshine achieving a world record of 196 million on Mystic Square Lunatic
- Fleako's work on Gradius III
- moglar's work on Ketsui
- Juju's 2-ALLs of Progear, DoDonPachi, and Ketsui
- trap moving to Japan and developing SDOJ exA Label

(4) Goals for 2021: This is what I know for certain I want to go for this year.
- Galaga : 4 million points on marathon settings
- Gaplus : 2 million points
- Tatsujin Oh : Clear one loop
- DonPachi : Scoring attempts (I'll decide on an intermediate score goal later)
- Getting better at danmaku shmups, since my skill there is very lacking at the moment, and I wish to fix this
- Having fun throughout it all

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS: Hey, you there. Play Tatsujin Oh!

[chum]

(1) Favourite achievement
The 7-6 1.54m score in StB is by far my best score this year and arguably my best ever

(2) Biggest screw-up
The absurd pace of 109.7k-109-8k pace in 1-3 in StB failed.

(3) Favourite achievement by others
KirbyComment finalizing his PoDD sweep, holding every single WR (36 categories).

(4) Goal for 2021:
Keep attempting good scores in photogames.

[Sengoku Strider]

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:

1. Dedicate your life to Psikyo

Ok, done.

Will our blood sacrifice bring them back into this world?

[Queen Charlene]

this year was actually a very exciting year for me in shmups! it's officially been one year since i became part of the community, and yet i feel like i've really worked my butt off to improve my skills and contribute to the community in as many positive ways as i can. plus i've gotten to meet and chat with plenty of great people about this great genre of games.
on a separate note, i have been very appreciative of everyone's support towards me and everyone else who's been working hard on the wiki! i've had overall a pretty good time being a part of the shmup community and it does feel nice to be appreciated and valued by so many folks in the community. i hope to be able to keep contributing what i can to you guys in the coming years.


with all that said, here we go!




(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020

• DFK Normal 1-ALL, my first non-Novice clear! i played over a year of DFK, with 245 hours logged as of today -- 80% of that time spent in Novice mode, learning the intricacies of the game's mechanics, practicing scoring tricks, memorizing stage layouts, and racking up lots of Omote Novice 2-ALLs, and occasionally practicing the stages in Normal mode to practice scoring consistency and routing. it felt like another big step forward in my growth as a DFK player, and i'm looking forward to keeping it going in the new year.
• all of the progress i've made in Mars Matrix this year -- several 200K EXP stage 1 runs, increasing my average scores to 10 billions, achieving a 50 billions score, making it to stage 4 in one run for the first time, no-missing the first three stages... lots of progress in under 60 hours of grinding!
• opening the wiki! it felt like something that was just waiting for somebody in the community to get started with after what looked like years of talking about it but never doing it! i figured that i wanted to do something to contribute something to the community, and since i'm not likely to become a "superplayer" for quite some time, then i'd focus on what i'm good at -- building resources and being obsessive-compulsive about organization.
• my shmup commentary debut, sharing the mic with Softdrink for the DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu dual run at Shmup Slam 3 with Daring and hsM! it was a ton of fun to talk about my favorite game with Softdrink and the audience while Spino and hsM totally killed it with two awesome runs! lots of people told me it was their favorite run because of the combo of players + commentators, and it's got me thinking about genuinely getting into shmup commentary.
• the announcements for Mechanical Star Astra and Bullet Sorceress! i've always wanted to develop shmups of my own, so it's very exciting to be making them at a time where i'm also very invested in playing them.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020

• came very close to 200/300 billions in several DFK Novice runs, but later on in the runs, fumbling certain scoring tricks really just made me play terribly and threw off my routing heavily...
• i ended up not achieving my plans of a Dogyuun 1-ALL because i started playing lots and lots of games -- it's hard to say if this is really a "screw-up" or not because i learned so much about so many new games -- running the wiki has actually been a great excuse to explore the genre more, as even in its early stages i still end up learning a lot of stuff about games and then getting tempted to play them!
• i didn't get any other clears this year outside of DFK 1-ALL -- a big part of that is because once i start learning a game's scoring, i'll switch to just score play a lot of the time, which means i tend to play very risky and throw away potential good 1cc runs for the sake of higher scores. i ran into this problem a *lot* with Super XYX -- still need to clear that game!!

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020

• Softdrink's Ikaruga grind/PBs/1ccs
• Daring blowing apart Arrange A with his insane 21b right before the end of the year!
• Silver Star's WR run on Shmup Slam 3
• Flo joining the Tatsujin 10m gang / Tatsujin Ou 1-ALL
• The race to the DOJ BL 2-ALL between Daring and QSD
• QSD's Arrange B stage 3 counter-stop (and our combined research on the mode for the wiki!)
• Mark and Shmup Junkie's YouTube channels experiencing lots of growth on their shmup content! it's great to see that people are finding some good success in making shmup content, i think it shows that there's a big desire for more!
• Raad's 8t DFK Ketsuipachi WR!
• gus, moglar, and kayar's amazing GDQ runs

(4) Goals for 2021

• Mars Matrix
  • 1cc
    70% consistency 200K EXP stage 1
    +200 billions
  i've been grinding this game off and on for over six months and almost 60 hours of playtime, and i've seen a LOT of growth in this game lately. i find the game really addicting and hard to put down even when the runs are going bad, and it compels me to clear it!!
  not only do i want to clear, but i want to achieve a 200 billion score, which i think is doable if i can perform all of my current scoring tricks and then survive stage 5 and 6.
• DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu 1.5
  • Normal: 50 billions 1-ALL, 100 billions 2-ALL (Omote) + learn Bomb Style
    Novice: 300-400 billions 2-ALL (Omote), and/or Ura 2-ALL + learn Power Style
    Arrange B: Stage 3 counter-stop
  i am going to continue my journey through DFK -- there's no way i wouldn't! seeing all of the amazing work from other DFK players has me motivated to keep taking my skills in this game further. i will be continuing to explore the scoring of Novice and hope to eventually beat Daring's extremely high Novice scores and dethrone his Novice WRs . i also want to enter the Ura 2nd loop in Novice, which means i have to clean up my 1-5 heavily, and be prepared to switch to survival in the first loop when things get hairy.
  i will be continuing to explore Normal mode heavily, pushing my score and consistency higher and eventually working my way up to an Omote 2-ALL high scoring run. 100 billions is what i want to hit, and if i manage to beat that, i will go for 200.
  finally, i am going to continue my exploration and research into Arrange B. i would like to explore potential counter-stops in stage 1, 2 and 5 as well, but this will be a nice challenge for me on the side. i don't think i will do it *this* year, but who knows?
• Kyuukyoku Tiger / Twin Cobra
  • 1-ALL on both versions
  some time around the middle of 2020, i very suddenly got bit by the Old-School Toaplan bug, and became very invested in Twin Cobra (then ktiger). i started grinding the game a ton, and have managed somewhat decent consistency to survive up to stage 4/5. i want to devote more time to these games, and clock in my first Toaplan clear.
• Invest at least 5 hours into every Steam shmup that i own!!i purchased many shmups in 2020 to support the developers and the scene -- i went from two shmups to a whopping 37!!! so, bearing in mind that i own so many of these shmups, and i have put almost no time into most of them, i want to take a pledge to play at least five hours of every single shmup that i own on Steam before the end of the year. the reason i chose 5 hours is because i believe 5 hours investment is enough time to get somewhat comfortable with the mechanics and design of the games to the point where i can get a feel for if it's a game that i would enjoy playing seriously or not, without potentially burning myself out by investing too much time on games that i end up maybe not being hot on, and giving me space to explore these games more if they really click with me.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
ec / Ing: play more Mars Matrix!! i'm a newb to the genre, so you shouldn't have to catch up with me . i'll grind out a Giga Wing clear this year if you can 1cc before me! (i might be getting into Sisters Royale very soon too...)
Flo: get Tatsujin Ou 1-ALL or Truxton II 2-ALL before i clear Tatsujin 1-ALL! you know i'm gonna be playing some Tatsujin this year. i may be having trouble with stage 2 right now, but i'm gonna dig in quite a bit of time on this game (and watching your replays as well ).

[MathU]

Maybe this is the year I'll finally put together that Darius Gaiden website I've been planning for a long time...
Aww who am I kidding.

Reminding myself here so I can feel bad about it in 2022.

[Buffi]

Easily the year that I have spent the most time with shmups on. Not a lot of other things to do...

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:
The clears I was most happy with are probably 1CC in Battle Garegga, Batrider Advanced and Dangun Feveron. The survival Asagi route in espgaluda 2 also felt real good, and silly.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:
Spent way too much money on games this year. I dont even want to think about how much money was spent on arcade stuff in 2020. Really cant justify this at all.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:
Trap releasing SDOJ Exa definitely stands out.
The new shmups wiki by Charlense + a bunch of others is also amazing.

(4) Goals for 2021:
1. Sell games for more money than I spend on buying games.

2. Work through my pcb/game backlog and get 1CCs in:
- SDOJ Exa (all modes)
- Aka to Blue Type R
- Pink Sweets
- Akai Katana
- Deathsmiles
- Deathsmiles 2
Ideally also some of these: Progear, Sokyugurentai, Dogyuun, Mission Craft, Strikers 1945+

3. Try playing some game for score. Maybe Battle Bakraid or Espgaluda

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
Play Battle Bakraid Advanced. Its a good game.

[Verticen]

(1) 2020 Acheivements
Danmaku Unlimited 3: 'Normal' and 'Hard' clears
Refunding Among Us on steam and using the credits to buy Graze Counter
Graze Counter: 'Arcade' clear

(2) Biggest Screw-up in 2020:
2 Lastboss gameovers in Hyperspace Dogfights
Using my shitty mic in Elixer's discord

(3) Favourite Achievements by others this year
I wasn't too involved with the community this year, so congrats to the great indie releases we had this year;
Dezatopia, Maiden & Spell, Super XYX, and ZenoDeath all saw release this year!

(4) 2021 Goals:
Participate in Callice
Graze Counter: 'Expert' clear
Battle Garegga: Silver Sword (or variant) clear
Blue Revolver: 'Hyper' clear
Hyperspace Dogfights: standard clear
Missle Dancer (pc): ???
Zeroranger: standard clear?

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
Play Battle Bakraid Advanced. Its a good game.

^Bakraid is a good game.

[Vludi]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:
Finally getting an E as Wild Snail in Garegga.
Tatsujin Oh 1-All
Batsugun special 4-All at Mikado
First attempt Sengoku Ace 2-All at a-cho.
Vasara farm record in a couple days which was lolz.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:
Completely routed Thunder Dragon 2 P1 for a similar score to my P2 run, but didn't do runs for w/e reason.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:
Mog with the mad scores in Ketsui.
Omkol's DOJWL 2-All
Flo going full Tatsujin with 12m in the first game and a Truxton II 1-All
Toaplangang clears, scores and knowledge (myco, ZPS, maximo, smc, Jaimers etc.)
VioletHatGuy with the Psikyo scores and 2-All

(4) Goals for 2021:
Return to TD2 P1.
Play a new Psikyo game.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
We need a hero to go for the Tatsujin Oh 2-All

[NMS]

I haven't played a lot of STGs this year and didn't really follow the big news, so from my limited point of view:

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:
Getting a 1-ALL in DoDonPachi in 3 days (something like 7-8 hours of playtime), it was a scrubby clear but the short timeframe was satisfying considering my skill level. The fact that I lost against the final boss when he had 5% of life remaining, then got my revenge less than 1 hour later was gratifying too.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:
Nothing that I can think of other than my dozens of lame deaths in Kyuukyoku Tiger, 99% of the time it was some popcorn enemy who somehow dodged my shots and sniped me. Every single of my runs ended at a different place, it feels like almost every enemy in the game got to kill me at some point.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:
Flobeamer's work on the Truxton/Tatsujin games, especially the 12 million run in Tatsujin.
Jaimers 14-ALL Out Zone.

(4) Goals for 2021:
1-ALL in Out Zone, Strikers 1999, Tatsujin, DDP DOJ
2-ALL in Kyuukyoku Tiger, Cho Ren Sha 68k, as well as some scoring in Cho Ren Sha
3-ALL in Flying Shark
Many more games I'd like to play but these are the biggest priorities.


edit: well I got the Out Zone 1-ALL, guess I'll go for a 2-ALL then.

[Bawa]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020: I started shmupping this year, and I started it with Mushi on steam. Got the novice clears and moved on for a while but Mushi is SO DAMN GOOD (probably my favorite shmup) that I thought "oh, heck, why not try to get the Original clear?". Man, that took me a while but I eventually got it and that led to "Why not try Maniac?". I was not prepared for the utter spike in skill needed to get it. So many failed attempts later and so many hours on training, I finally got it! I was elated for days to come!!!

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020: Touhou. Goddamn, I can't play these games. I fail at them SO DAMN much that I feel that every run I have is automatically a screw-up.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020: Darinspino's Daifukkatsu Arrange A Ura 2-All and OmKol's DOJWL 2-ALL. These were inspiring!

(4) Goals for 2021:
- 1CC Espgaluda
- 1CC some Touhous
- 1-ALL DDP

[SPM]

.

[XoPachi]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020: N/A

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020: I was trying desperately to clear Mushihimesama on 1 life, but every attempt, I died at the stage 4 boss or during stage 5 in some fashion. I was playing it literally every day from December to February for about 3 hours each day (a bit more during weekends). I wasn't getting results so I just shelved the game.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020: N/A None of my friends are willing to play this genre. Haven't kept up on world record stuff either. I generally focus on speedrun WR's now that I think about it.

(4) Goals for 2021:

1) I want to get one video up of me killing DOJ Hibachi. Not a 2-ALL of the game, I had to come to terms that I just simply can't achieve that. But I want to get to Hibachi in Black Label's 1-Round game, kill her, and have video proof of it. Just for myself. I managed the kill once and -only- once back in high school a decade ago. While I can claim it through text, I want to SHOW it. I've struggled to beat her since then. Since she's just a boss, I think my chances are better than a full run.

2) I'm going to try to learn Battle Garegga. Not for a clear, but I want to understand how to at least play it. Raizing games have always confused me and overwhelmed me. I really never get anything that's going on in them. But I'm going to sit down, read up, and at least understand how the game actually works and apply it during play.

3) I want to get a high scoring clear of something actually worth being proud of. And on that note, I don't have many impressive clears as it is. Not even scoring runs, just...surviving. And even of those, I've got none documented for proof. But every game I got something I thought was good, I'd come here and see it's really nothing special. I want something for myself.

[To Far Away Times]

(1) Personal Favorite Achievements of 2020: Discovering and 1CC'ing Cho Ren Sha 68K and Sapphire. It's kinda rare to be discovering new all time favorite shmup games after playing shmups for close to a decade, but Cho Ren Sha 68K is definitely in my top 10 and Sapphire is definitely a top 25 game. I still listen to the Cho Ren Sha soundtrack regularly. It has some of the best stage design I've ever seen in a shmup. And Sapphire might be the most impressive 16-bit game I've ever played, and has tight gameplay and even a scoring system that's worth mentioning. Both are must plays.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020: More than few failed attempts at the stage 2 midboss in Nexzr.

(3) Favorite Achievements by Others of 2020: All the 1CC's in the 1CC thread.

(4) Goals for 2021: Playing R-Type Final 2 whenever it comes out.

[davyK]

Personal Achievement of 2020: Gigawing 1CC

Personal Screw up of 2020 : not getting a 1-ALL on Samurai Aces

Achievements of Others : all 1CCs. Bless you all.

Goal for 2021 : Layer Section 1CC and Samurai Aces 1-ALL

[Eaglet]

1. Personal favorite Achievements: Getting married and becoming a dad to a beautiful boy.

Shmup-wise; got serious with Batrider. Invented a large part of my own route, even if I use WR team!

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020: Would have liked to get the 21 mil in Batrider, but whatever.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020: All of the hard Toaplan clears, Plasmo on the Pink Sweets, moglar on the Ketsui.
Haven't kept myself super up to date with the community.

(4) Goals for 2021: Batrider 23 mil if I get the time!

(BONUS) CHALLENGE TO OTHER PLAYERS: Play Batrider Advanced Team and go for score.

[buggle]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020: ZeroRanger full clear. The TLB was nuts! It wasn't 1CC but ZeroRanger doesn't care about the distinction so I don't either.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020: Not actually getting the Hellsinker 1CC despite trying my absolute hardest to get everyone to love Hellsinker. I just lost focus! I'm gonna try my hardest this year once I have the free time.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020: I really loved all the sick runs at GDQ! There's been so much cool stuff this year though its hard to pick.

(4) Goals for 2021: Actually finish Hellsinker. And also play more games in general and give them a serious shake of effort. I'd love to make something happen with Mecha Ritz or a Cave game this year.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS: Everyone should play more indie/doujin shmups. Touhou or not. I think it's pretty easy to make your entire experience with the genre the Cave/Toaplan/Treasure/etc/etc commercial arcade games and lose out on the other equally cool and vibrant half of the genre. I won't be too mean and say you have to play Hellsinker, but you should definitely pick some cool indie and doujin games to bite into.

[M.Knight]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2020:

-My general improvements in Illvelo. I definitely haven't beaten 9bil let alone 8.5bil but getting new PBs and uncovering more and more of the advanced meta in that game feels rather neat. Number-wise I haven't jumped as much as the previous years for sure, but the level of understanding of how the scoring strats are supposed to go sure got a boost
-Getting into shmup live streaming, and playing Illvelo more frequently as a result
-Playing for Shmup Slam 3 and Shoot the Baguette 2, with rather solid Illvelo runs despite the pressure
-Posting the Illvelo guide I was working on in order to help anyone who's interested in the game

Well, okay, now for stuff that isn't only about weird LSD tchwaaaaa game :

-Taking the time to play Radirgy with stage select and getting a lot more consistent in it in just a week or two, easily beating my previous score from two years ago. Funny how practice and watching replays actually works compared to just doing blind full runs hehe. Not that I didn't already know this
-Finally understanding Hellsinker and playing it more seriously. This game is such a gem, I've been missing out for way too long
-Getting my own shmup demo to be featured in the Calice Cup PC special lineup, and having players compete on it and enjoy it
-That one stage 5 recovery I did in Twin Tiger Shark for that very same tournament. Definitely didn't expect me to pull it off but I did it

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2020:

-Being so close but ultimately failing to clear Twin Tiger Shark's loop in that same run where I got the unlikely recovery to work. I wasn't aware of the green weapon's devastating power against the boss and made my life way harder against it, costing me said clear

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2020:

Time to show how bad my memory is haha

-OmKol getting the DOJ WL 2-ALL. Very nice end to a rather long and arduous journey through this brutal game
-Juju Kenobi's multiple clears of hard games. The speed and pace at which they occurred is impressive
-The Alfa System gang (EmperorIng, Mishi, Iconoclast, possibly others too) for getting them high scores on Sisters Royale. Such a cool game, go check it out, as well as those WR runs. And same for the Shikigami no Shiro clears and hiscores.
-raisonnable for pushing the MMP Manpuku scoring to the point of getting what is the highest known score on the mode
-GOTYO for improving the Karous WR further and further, as well as posting recordings of said WR runs
-Prales' insane Frantic Dimension marathon lmao
-The various community events as well as the organizers behind them : Mark MSX and the Shmup Slams, DenT4F with Calice Cup, Shmup Junkie and the Omega Blast tournament, the shmupemall forum with the scoring events, the shmup.com monthly streaming events etc. It's always cool but even moreso this year since IRL events and meetups ended up canceled for public health reasons.
-Speaking of Shmup Slam, all the other players who submitted runs for the events! And the Shoot the Baguette players for the same reasons
-The shmups Wiki contributors and their very useful guides
-The indie devs and their pretty solid lineup of shmups/demos for this year. So many games were released come to think of it : ZeroRanger White Vanilla, Demonizer, Crisis Wing, Super XYX, ZenoDeath, Wings of Bluestar, Dreadstar, Astral Gunners, probably a whole bunch I've forgotten too.
-UBO for all the incredible behind-the-scenes work on promoting the shmup scene, whether it's the STG Shmups category/twitter account, the ShmupDeals, the curator group, the advice and tips for content creators and game devs. The hero the genre needs

(4) Goals for 2021:

-Have fun!
-Play games and waste less time on the internet (the hardest goal ever I swear)
-Clear Hellsinker, maybe get into scoring
-More Milestone propaganda
-Keep working on my shmup

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:

-Have fun!
-Play games (especially Milestone shmups) and waste less time on the internet