Shmup goals 2022 - A Fantastic Resort

[Plasmo]

Shmup goals 2022 - A Fantastic Resort



Finally a calm place. Finally a place you can call your home. "Or is it just my mind playing tricks on me?" you think to yourself as you reach possibly one of the most deserted apartments you have stepped a foot into. High ceiling, very wide corridors, awkwardly thin windows. You take a deep breath and notice that distinct smell of something new, something fresh. Soon enough this smell will be gone. Soon enough it will turn into a very reminiscent smell. Again. Waking you up abruptly from your thoughts is the sound of a voice calling for you. No sweeter voice you have ever heard. You smile back.

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,
2021

You know the drill by now, kid!

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021: 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 2021: 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 2021: 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 2022: 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?

[ZPScissors]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:

Without a doubt, finally getting Same! Same! Same! 1p version 1-ALL. It wasn't too long ago that I thought this clear was completely unattainable, but then I decided to actually learn routes for it, and then I got further and further, and now I've actually done it.

Other notable things I did this year: Increased my UFO PB to 2.398b, Strikers 1999 NMNB 1-ALL (Getting close to the 2-ALL too!), Tiger Heli counterstop



(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:

My performance at TWC 2021 sucked. Moving on.



(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:

I'm sure we can all agree there's one achievement in 2021 that stands out above the rest: Moglar's Ketsui world record. Quite possibly the greatest achievement by a Western shmup player.

Other things I'd like to mention:
WTN's Great Mahou 110m
Plasmo's DonPachi Hong Kong version 2-ALL
RefKey's Detana Twinbee 2-ALL
SOC getting a Lunatic NMNB in every Windows era Touhou game with every shot type
KG's UFO Lunatic 3.6b (a score thought to be humanly impossible a year or so ago)
NMS going from almost no experience with Tatsujin Oh to clearing it during Calice
Flo's Tatsujin Oh 1-ALL (Thanks NMS for reminding me this was also in 2021)
Borealis getting the WBaWC world record DURING their TWC match
Sairyou beating Inbachi under circumstances that can happen in a real run



(4) Goals for 2022:

• UFO Lunatic 2̶.̶5̶b̶ ​ 2.7b
  Tatsujin Oh 1-ALL
  Maybe also 2-ALL another CAVE game (DFK Omote is my only one so), unsure on this one though the other 2 are much higher priorities

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:

lnb ufo



Reflecting on my 2021 goals:

UFO Lunatic 2.5b: Nope but I did make progress unlike 2020 when I didn't get a new PB all year
LLS LNN: Nope, kind of put this to the side at this point
Sam3 1p 1-ALL: Well, I did do this one!
Look in to Dimahoo scoring: Well I know how the scoring system works now but I only have about 20 seconds of actual routing

[NMS]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:
Tatsujin Oh 1-ALL, especially since I did it in just one month for La Calice. It was in my to-do list for a long time but never really had the will to start learning it. Felt impossible when I started learning stage 5 (basically just getting stomped), but one month later it was done.
Hishouzame 10M+alpha. This was also done for a Calice-related tournament (STGC3) and I happened to do it in just one week, so that was cool. Although I already had some limited experience with this game, I didn't expect to be able to get 10M.
Generally speaking, clearing all those Toaplan games I did this year, as I'd like to clear them all at some point. I did several of the harder ones (Dogyuun, Tatsujin and its sequel...), some that I thought would be tedious to get but turned out ok (Zero Wing 1P, Hellfire, Tiger Heli...), I think I did 8 of them this year or something. And broadly speaking I cleared a bunch of games from various devs (30 if I'm not forgetting any), although many were on the easy side. I don't think I'll have another year with so many clears in the future because I'll focus on harder goals now.
And also, Daioh US 2-ALL.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021: I don't know.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021: smc getting to Tatsujin Oh's end of stage 2-4 during La Calice. Flobeamer getting the clear early in 2021 and another one immediately after the start of Calice 5.
Moglar Ketsui WR.
ZPS Same3 1P 1-ALL
BOS Dragon Blaze scores
Plasmo DP HK 2-ALL
RefKey Detana Twinbee 2-ALL
edit: Juju and JayLab Dragon Blaze 2-ALL (I forgot this was in 2021)

(4) Goals for 2022: As I said, I want to get at least a 1-ALL in every Toaplan game. I am getting close to the end, and only have to do Fixeight, V-V and Same3 1P, the last one being by far the hardest (and will likely take more time than the other 2 combined). I've done most of the job now, and getting the Tatsujin Oh 1-ALL means that I can probably get Same3 too, it's only a matter of time. So that's my #1 priority goal and I'll work on those few games now.
After that, I will try to improve my PBs in some of their games, which includes:
- Out Zone counterstop (big priority)
- Dogyuun 4-ALL. If it appears to be way too hard, I may fall back on either Kyuukyoku Tiger 10M or Tatsujin 10M. Either way, I'd like to do at least one of these 3 goals (if possible all 3 but it probably won't happen this year).

A few clears I'd like to get are Dangun Feveron, Ketsui (1-ALL for now) and Garegga, they're long overdue.

I also have some secondary goals, which are lower priority. I will never have enough time to do all of those in 2022 (those I won't be able to do in 2022 will be goals for 2023), but if I want to take a break from other goals and have some time, they would be
- Scoring UFO Lunatic, unsure what score I should aim for, but let's say 2 billion for now. But if I can at least learn Lunatic survival this year it's already something. Talking about very solid (with a few bombs and lives in stock at the end) and consistent survival, not getting a clear and moving on.
- Getting a Psikyo 2-ALL, but not Sengoku Ace, as this one is considered much easier and not what I'm aiming for. Maybe I'll go for that one too, but it wouldn't count for the goal. Thinking about either Strikers 45 2 or 99. Dragon Blaze is my favorite but I'm pretty bad with it (despite getting a 1-ALL, I just can't do anything about stage 6), so maybe I should start with something else.
- Trying to get a Cave 2-ALL, and I'm leaning towards DOJBL or Ketsui Omote (if I can 1-ALL it without too much trouble first). Could be DDP too.
- Slap Fight arcade counterstop, because why not (maybe give the MD arrange a try too)
- Darius Gaiden Extra ALL (2P side, so marathoning all stages)

Oh, and actually try to start streaming. If I can get a few of my clears or good runs live, even if it's nothing great, that would be nice. I would love to do Same3 live especially. Not sure how feasible it would be with my unstable internet connection and slow computer, but at least do a few test streams to see how viable it is. This may be shortlived but I'll see what happens.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS: Play Same3 1P or Tatsujin Oh.
Flo, I hope you will have the motivation to work on Tatsujin Oh's second loop. I won't have enough time for it this year but it would be cool to see a western player get it.

[Meriscan]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021: Really learning to love Psikyo games. I cleared all their games' first loops and tried learning several of their second loops. Also slightly pushing my Air Gallet PB, but not nearly to the point I'm satisfied with. That will have to happen this year.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021: Still not having started playing Progear and Batrider in much depth. They remain some of my favorites, but I've kept putting off learning them.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021: You can't not mention Moglar5k's Ketsui WR. A huge milestone that was years in the making and should deserve even more praise than it has already gotten. But there are several other achievements by others that absolutely deserved to be mentioned as well:

- ReFKeY's Detana Twinbee 2-ALL. Just a really impressive achievement made all the more impressive by how fast he was able to do it.
- Plasmo with the Donpachi slaughtering. Starting the year with learning Type A and building up his score slowly, and ending the year with the first Hong Kong 2-ALL ever.
- DMC with his fantastic Souky PB that happened a few weeks ago and his Brave Blade PB from earlier this year. Making another really entertaining and informative video out of it too. I would love to see others also try to take a shot at making video's like these.
- MauCast for several of his really impressive clears and scores. Like his recent Raiden IV Overkill 2-ALL. And every one of his scores during Calice 5.
- Lethe getting an extremely good Dangun Feveron score. I'm really looking forward to seeing if this gets pushed even further.
- Erppo who got an absolutely fantastic Espgaluda II score. Finally beating GUS' old PB after it had been sitting there for years.
- Psikyo getting some of the love they deserve. With JayLab and Juju getting their Dragon Blaze 2-ALL and BOS getting a big PB with Ian and Quaid. Vludi clearing several 2-ALL's like Sol Divide, Strikers 99 and Gunbird 2 with Valpiro. Juju also getting a massive score in Space Bomber should not go unmentioned. Maybe it's the Frequency illusion, but I've been noticing more Psikyo love on Twitch by japanese players as well.
- Toaplan also getting some dedicated players. NMS and SMC with their Tatsujin Oh clears, and ZPS with his Same3 clear. Several people went deep into Hishouzame. With almost all of these players getting several loop clears.
- And a huge salute to everybody pushing the Shikigami games. You guys have been keeping me busy.


(4) Goals for 2022: Try to at least somewhat shorten my bucketlist of games that I've claimed are some of the greatest shmups, but without actually having played them much beyond the point of a 1cc. These include the aforementioned Progear and Batrider. And some others like MMP and Souky. Not getting sidetracked seems to be the most impossible task for me however.

[Nachy]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:
1-ALL with Ketsui, it's my first 1cc with a CAVE game and a traditional arcade shmup overall. When I first started getting serious into shmups last year I had periods where I feel like I probably wouldn't be able to actually clear the game, let alone most shmups of a similar caliber. Age has been another thing on my mind that I may have entered this genre a bit too late and I'll be more of a slow learner compared to everyone else who started way earlier and younger. But in the end, my enjoyment of playing the games became my natural motivation and without even realizing it, improvements came by as well over time. Next thing I know mindless runs became more mindful, and that the once impossible goal that felt like a when I first started was suddenly within reach.

Getting that 1-ALL cemented my love of the genre and now I'm dabbling on every single shmup I could, from obscure doujin to even older classics from a variety of systems. Last year was also the year I finally 1cc'd every mainline Touhou game on Normal, I've been a fan of Touhou for years but I never got really the drive to 1cc them or dabble on them further than a credit-fed clear in the past.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:
I joined a scoring contest for Touhou 15: Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, and I didn't have enough time to practice for it and just winged it at the last minute. Sloppy overall, but I died at the Stage 6's boss because I literally did not remember the order of the spell cards.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:
Also gonna say Moglar's Ketsui WR run. I also have a more personal mention with a Japanese friend Marukyu who's a Touhou 15 player who got his first LNB of the game last year.

(4) Goals for 2022:

• Touhou 15 LoLK Lunatic 1cc. It's my favorite Touhou in the series and I want to make my first 1cc for it to be that game, alongside my using my favorite character Marisa.
  If I get that within 2022, I hope to also do Lunatic 1ccs to Touhou 11 SA with Marisa-A and Touhou 12 UFO with Marisa B.
  1-ALLs with DoDonPachi and DOJ.
  1cc of Battle Garegga and Armed Police Batrider both Normal and Advanced Course.
  Hellsinker 1cc.
  Crimzon Clover Arcade Original 1cc.
  2-ALL Omote/Ura Ketsui.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
Vasara 2 1cc on 12-Stage mode.

[skalt711]

So I decided to register just to post this reply. I forgot how to apply style to the text on forums, so I'm sorry if this looks rough.

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:

Actually clearing my goals, to be honest. Anyways, Gradius II 1-ALL Type 1 1cc on PlayStation port, Gradius II 1-ALL Type 3 and 4 (I forgot to record Type 4, maybe I'll do it later) 1cc's on Sega Saturn port, Twinkle Tale 1cc, Salamander 1-ALL 1cc on PlayStation port and Gradius ReBirth 3-ALL 1cc.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:

Not doing Touhou 6 and 8 Normal 1cc's because I was practicing other games. Also, adding too many goals to 2021 (I later cropped the list down to just Twinkle Tale and Gradius ReBirth).

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:

Moglar's Ketsui 599m WR score, Refkey's Detana!! Twinbee 2-ALL, ZPS' Same! Same! Same! 1P 1-ALL, Plasmo's Donpachi (Hong Kong ver.) 2-ALL, Daringspino34's Gradius II 2-ALL, Gradius III 1-ALL and CCWE Arrange Unlimited 50 trillion score, Tom's Touhou UFO Lunatic 1cc, Maucast's Raiden IV Overkill 2-ALL, CPS' Thunder Force V Master 1cc on PlayStation port, Yakumov's CCWE Arrange Unlimited 1cc, tomzacz' Ketsui 1-ALL, CRI's Mars Matrix counterstop on arcade version, morsalty's Magmax 6-ALL on NES port, Niklas' Mushihimesama Arrange 1cc and Crimzon Clover Arcade Original 1cc, NMS' Tatsujin Oh 1-ALL, Lakiku's Ketsui Ura 2-ALL and, most importantly, arumi_hirasaka achieving arcade version Gradius II 1cc and Prickly Angler finally reaching the Crab in Gradius II on Sega Saturn port!!!

(4) Goals for 2022:

Arcade version Parodius Da! 2-ALL (Yes, I'm dead serious on achieving that. I even omitted all other 2022 goals just to do it, LOL)

Reflections on 2021 goals:

Not gonna lie, while I had quite ambitious 2021 goals, I didn't really work on them, so I had to crop the list down to 2 games, so I could finally convince myself to do them.

Challenges to other players:

Darius Gaiden 1cc on Windows 95 version

[pja]

Hey this looks fun, I'll try it out

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:
Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga 1cc's.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:
I'm kinda disappointed that I didn't 1cc a lot of other games this year, I seemed to just jump between them instead of progressing more in some specific one.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021
A (mostly non-shmup) streamer I follow 1CC'd Gradius V, it was really nice to watch the progress.

(4) Goals for 2022
Some Raizing 1cc would be nice, I seemed to gravitate towards their games lately (Garegga, Batrider, Terra Diver). And maybe NES Gradius 1, that one keeps haunting me.

Challenges to other players:
Clear some game that eludes you for a long time already

[third_strike]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021: Guess which 2021 was good year. Mainly in this last trimester. I wil note two which was:
- Gallop Counter Stop: find the way to this was a real challenge, mainly because this game was very far from my stile.
- Gun Hohki 1,87Mi. I was very happy because in my last run I could put my 2-6 strategies at work, this stage is very hard to survive mainly while you is scoring (indeed I no missed the whole second loop which have some really nasty parts, but I used each single characterist from my "ship" to do this).

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021: Still be so weak.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021: All Shikigami no Shiro Warriors mainly M.Knight for give some love for this great game. I am very grateful to you.

(4) Goals for 2022: This year I will be really busy in personal life to me, but I hope clear at least two Psikyo games, starting with Sengoku Ace. Sengoku ace is already very challenging to me, I find very strange people call it very easy.

[JayLab]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:
My main goal for 2021 was to get higher quality clears in the games I love the most, and I'm happy to say I did myself proud. Dragon Blaze 2-ALL, Ketsui Omote Loop entry, and Ikaruga 25mil+ all achieved. With Dragon Blaze it was my first time really going for a very difficult clear, and it turned out to be a really rewarding process. It's also given me a new confidence that some of these difficult clears that once seemed unfathomable, may be within my reach after all (albeit with a lot of hard work).

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:
I was pleased with my Ikaruga PB, but it's blighted by some very embarrassing deaths. Running into a wall in st3, and then dying 3 times to Stonelike really did sour the run a bit. I'm certain I'm capable of a much higher score, so I suspect my journey with this game is not yet over.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:
Moglar's Ketsui WR and Kayar's SDOJ WR are two of the best shmup replays I've ever seen. Genuinely unbelievable accomplishments.
New Tatsujin Oh clears are always a cause for celebration, and Flo, NMS and SMC all smashed it this year.
It was also a busy year for Psikyo clears, with Juju (Dragon Blaze), Meriscan (Strikers 1&2), and Vludi (Strikers99/Gunbird2) all doing amazing 2-ALLs.
Ikaruga saw some great replays as well, with Juju and Maz delivering incredible scores.
And then there's Plasmo DPHK 2-ALL, ZPS Same3 1-ALL ... Insane year honestly.

(4) Goals for 2022:
Ketsui Omote 2-ALL is the next obvious step for me. I'd love to give it a shot, but right now I'm in the mood to play some other stuff. Wanna check out Strikers 2 properly, and also revisit loop 2 of Gunbird 2 to see if its a goal I want to pursue. I also want to play more DFK, which is a game I've always really liked but never properly invested time into.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
Dedicate your life to Psikyo.

[Sengoku Strider]

My own favourite accomplishments were pretty modest, probably 1CCing DeathTiny mode & platinuming both Ketsui & Garegga.

I'm unable to break from one of the cardinal sins of shmupping, namely hopping from game to game all over the place. So really, this year was more about progress & building consistency with hitting things like:

Stage 6 of Dodonpachi
The last boss of Sengoku Blade
Stage 6 of Layer Section,
Stage 6 of Soukyugurentai,
Stage 6 of Gunbird
Stage 6 of Gunbird 2
Stage 7 of Shienryu
Stage 6 of Blazing Star
Stage 3 of Pulstar (I love this game to bits but it humbles me without save states).

Personal biggest screwup: see previously referenced shmup hopping habit.

Favourite achievements by others:
Magolar setting the WR in Ketsui.
Mark MSX putting together as many succesful live events as he did (the Kumite was a lot of fun).
DDP DOJ record holder showdown making Daigo's Kemonomichi broadcast.
That Japanese dude who played arcade 3-screen Darius every day for 4 years until he went across the country to Tokyo for Mikado's Fall Shooting Matsuri & 1CCed it. That game was made to break souls.

Goals: keep at the games listed in my rotation above. I just bought a Dreamcast & an optical ASCii stick, so I'll grab a copy of Gunbird 2 and see if I have more luck there than on the Switch port.
1CC Sengoku Blade. It's close now.
Get close to the 1CC for Soukyugurentai.
Keep pounding away at Gunbird 2 and Dodonpachi.
Live long enough to hold the physical Switch version of Game Paradise Cruisin' Mix in my own hands.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
Dedicate your life to Psikyo.

What he said.

[davyK]

This hasn't been a year for achievements for me.
1. I got a deathless Darius Gaiden run but didn't score well as I missed the 2nd 1UP.
2. 1cc of Mushi in Novice-Original mode which I don't really consider that big a deal as I was able to freestyle my way through to it.

Biggest screwup is giving up on Layer Section when I had it within my grasp.

It's all about goals for the year ahead for me:-

Layer Section 1cc Has to be done this year. Was getting to level 6 last year , and had level 7 learned using save states but couldn't get the impetus to push through.

Mushihimesama 1cc Enjoying the Steam port after warming up with Novice. Enjoying Original and Maniac modes but need to concentrate on Original and get that under my belt.

[Lethe]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:
I got one goal done at least. Didn't expect to play Dangun Feveron so much but the more I did, the more I realized how much improvement was possible. Completely did it with my own routing too besides the stage 5 boss trick. (Not like the category's complicated enough to have different routes...)

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:
Had DF no-miss route planned within a week, proceeded to dabble sporadically for three months before actually sitting down and getting it, then took another six months to do it again. Progress is good when I'm motivated but motivation is hard to come by, plus having lingering goals preys on my mind a little too much. I need to re-evaluate my playing attitude. And I lost a 14 million pace run to the final boss on December 31st which is quite funny in hindsight.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:
Moglar WR.
Pearl's explorations/findings/archivals of obscure/underplayed stuff.
GalactaRay's continued StellaVanity play. Also one of very few people brave enough to break 100k spirits with Deadliar in Hellsinker.
Anyone who played in or hosted an event/kumite. Especially those live WRs in TWC.

(4) Goals for 2022:
Wow! It's exactly the same as last year!

[Jonpachi]

I moved twice AND started a new job last year, so I didn't have many gaming accomplishment beyond some easy 1CCs like Raging Blasters and the GG Aleste games. That said, I do have plans for 2022.

Goals

- 1ALL the Playstation version of Dodonpachi with WAIT OFF. I consider this the hardest version of the game (mostly because it's broken) but it's been on my list for YEARS. I've floated into the final boss with a bomb or two left a few times, but I need to just hunker down and get it done.

- 1CC the console version of Esprade. I cleared the PCB way back in the day, and was getting damn close on the PS4 port, but fell off and never did go back. Time to get that done.

- Clear at least 1 shmup a month (12 total for the year).

[DMC]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:
Spriggan score attack, Brave Blade, and Soukyugurentai PBs. Made two commentary tracks on Spriggan and Brave Blade, which gives me a pleasant feeling of fulfillment (or closure).

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:
The occasional thought that I could breeze through the first few stages of an STG while listening to a podcast, leading to wasted runs and poorly attended podcasts.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021
Eaglet making steady progress on Batrider, an L score last I heard.
All the players making live runs on broadcasted events, like Shmup Slam. For instance, I enjoyed watching Meriscan’s 2-ALL clear of Strikers part 2 with Plasmo and Mark making commentary.
Emperoring, Despatche and others keeping the hi score section alive.
Also credit to Prickly Angler who keeps destroying Darius fishes on Youtube. Also shared his knowledge on Soukyugurentai with me and motivated me to keep playing.

(4) Goals for 2022
A few more millions in Soukyugurentai.
Dimahoo 1CC, with some additional progress on the scoring front. At some point I want to make a commentary video on it, but more likely to be 2023.

[roihu3M]

To start with, 2021 was the year I got into shmups, and, man, not only they did reignite my passion for gaming, but I've also met a lot of new nice people, so, in general, I think this year was a success for me.

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:

One of my most memorable clears of this year is my first ever one, which is 1-ALL of NES/FC version of Gradius II. As for other clears, I also like my 1-ALLs of Salamander 2, Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu and Sorcer Striker, and 1CC of Darius Gaiden finals V and X. Oh, also that one Touhou 8 Normal 1CC with slowdown rate of 40 percent (the bug which caused it was hilarious).

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:

Major one: not being able to record a good half of my clears. Minor ones: failing to beat zone W boss in Darius Gaiden due to poorly playing zone Q TWICE IN A ROW, dying at final stage of Nemesis 3 (MSX) and... simply ragequitting despite the fact I could recover without much problem.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:

As for WRs/superplays, definitely Moglar's Ketsui 599mil, SOF-WTN's Great Mahou Daisakusen 110mil, Plasmo's Donpachi HK 2-ALL and IFC-Sairyou's Inbachi clear.
As for usual clears... probably the fact that Yakumov did 100+ 1CCs that year, and especially the fact he got DOJBL 1-ALL in 6(!) hours (which kinda puts me to shame tbh). He's a real beast, especially for his young age.

(4) Goals for 2022:

1. Get into Armed Police Batrider seriously. Mainly, do 1CC of Normal and Advanced modes as Bornnam and probably even get into scoring.
2. Get some 1-ALLs I wanted to achieve last year, like Gradius Gaiden, Dodonpachi Daioujou and Mahou Daisakusen.
3. 1CC all remaining routes in Darius Gaiden and at least a single route in G-Darius once PC port by M2 gets released.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:

For those who are playing shmups on their keyboards, try out using WASD instead of the arrow keys!

[mirkvid]

My only shmups goal this year is to finally 1cc DoDonPachi. I've been playing this casually for 20 years, and have 1cc'd several games in the meantime, but always thought of DDP as one of those games only the pros clear.

But damn them! 2022 is my year!

[copy-paster]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021: Getting two community records of 19XX and Thunder Dragon 2 thanks from some shmup events.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021: Setting too many goals and ended up not doing majority of them.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021: So much achievements by others this year, some of them are quite monster! Keep up the good work.

(4) Goals for 2022: Learning from past mistakes, I'd set less shmup goals and just play whatever I like.

[Sengoku Strider]

My only shmups goal this year is to finally 1cc DoDonPachi. I've been playing this casually for 20 years, and have 1cc'd several games in the meantime, but always thought of DDP as one of those games only the pros clear.

But damn them! 2022 is my year!

I think the first loop is quite tough but doable by mere mortals, since you're spared Hibachi. Loop 2 is for the true madmen and arcade stick ninjas.

[To Far Away Times]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:
I finally 1-ALL'd X-Multiply, a game I loved but got discouraged from finishing multiple times. There are so many little things that can go wrong in this game. Was really nice to get over that wall.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:
Not recording my Rezion EX 1CC.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021
Jaimer's 2-All of X-Multiply. Inpiring stuff. It lead me to getting back into that game.

(4) Goals for 2022
Catch up on the Touhou games
Beat one hard shmup like 19XX, a Psikyo game or maybe even Garegga
Beat a game starting with "Y" so I can complete my infinity gauntlet and have one 1CC for every letter in the alphabet.

[maximo310]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:
It probably would have to be getting the Psyvariar Revision X-D ALL, and then pushing my PB score ( which is now almost 122 million). This was a game that I thought was absolutely bonkers to clear when I first started playing in 2020, but through a lot of practice, incorporating new strategies from other people ( even Ing, your 66 mil replay and 2-D strategy was very helpful).

Other notable things: Improved my Rayforce PB to 6.5 million, Hishouzame 6-ALL, grabbing the Psyvariar Delta community record, getting the RayCrisis TLB ALL in a few credits, attending the Exa Arcadia location test and getting a Psyvariar:Medium Unit 6-B clear on stick, getting the chance to play newly released arcade shmups and clearing some ( Senjin Aleste Original, Cotton Rock n Roll), among some other small clears here and there.




(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:
-Getting to the last boss on Senjin Aleste Expert, and then not picking the game up again (probably due to how I'm not a huge fan of the game design on higher difficulties)
-Made some additional RayForce routes that pushed past 7 million, then got pretty sick for a while (due to personal stuff that came up) and ended up dropping that for a later time
- Barely missing 4 million in Macross 2 Expert in Calice Cup 5 since I went so hard on Psy Revision. Probably could have improved my score in some other games in that tournament, but my motivation was focused elsewhere.



(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:

I think this year was incredible for achievements across the board for the community, maybe even one of the best of the last 5 years. Some of the most notable:
-Moglar5k grinding away and stealing the Ketsui WR by a huge margin from SPS after playing the game for 4 years.
- CPS not only nailing two big community records (18 million in 19XX, 5.7 million in Thunder Dragon 2), but also achieving some amazing survival feats such as a Gun Frontier no miss!!!!!! and a Thunder Force V Master mode ALL.
-NMS's rampage on Toaplan games, including getting Tatsujin Oh in a month, 10 mil+ in Hishouzme, 1-ALLs in K tiger, Hellfire, Dogyuun, and Tatsujin
- ZPS getting a Same3 1p 1-ALL on his very last life (and barely got that as a score extend), and his tiger heli 10M+ run
-Pearl snagging multiple Kaikan WRs, a few categories of Hellsinker WRs, and his commentated 1cc run of Valkyrie no Densetsu
-Ansel's Darius 1 Extra WR grind & silver orb manipulation funfest
-EC/Ing being an Alfa System enjoyer and maintaining a fool-free zone with his huge scores in Castle of Shikigami 1/2 & Sisters Royale WRs
-SMC & Flo both getting their Tatsujin Oh 1-ALLs and sharing findings of the game's inner workings. Looking forward to see if either one of them gets the 2-ALL this year!
- There was some really strong showings by the Korean STG community this year. Some of the most notable accomplishments were kayar's SDOJ Type B Expert 5 trillion WR, RefKey getting a Sexy Parodius 4 million clear, and a Detana Twinbee 2-ALL!!!!, H.J improving his Deathsmiles Rosa EX run to a 671 million ALL, CSG getting a Ketsui Ura- 2ALL w/ 511 million points, SON's 873 million on Mushi Futari 1.5
- Plasmo not only getting the Pink Sweets world record, but getting a harder mode clear, as well as a Donpachi Hong Kong 2-ALL!!
- Jaylab's Dragon Blaze 2-ALL
-DaringSpino getting a Gradius II 2-ALL, Gradius III 1-ALL, and pushing CCWE Arrange Unlimited for 50 trillion
-Satis continuing to dominate the CCWE leaderboards, got 7.1 trillion in Rolling Gunner, and J.7 in Batrider
- NTSC-J getting the Muchi Muchi Pork WR
-Juju's big Ikaruga 30 mil score, Dragon Blaze 2-ALL, and Donpachi 2-ALL
-DMC with his commentated runs on Soku/Brave Blade; hope you get 30mil! on the former
-3rd strike getting that Gallop counterstop, among some other cool scores!
- There's a lot of other achievements that I saw people accomplish, you guys are great and hope you all keep playing!

(4) Goals for 2022:

• -Pushing for a higher score in Psyvariar Revision/Delta
  -G-Darius ALL
  
  Besides those two, I'm not sure what else I'd like to tackle this year, so I'll leave it at that for now.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS:
- I hope more people check out Cotton Rock N Roll; the game ends up being pretty fun if you go for score.
-Play some Psyvariar Delta. You might be surprised how far you go down the rabbit hole.
-Flo lets see you get that JP Fixeight 1-ALL, or an Outzone 1-ALL. I bet you'd like either one of them.





Reflecting on my 2021 goals:
- Got most of my goals (Nostradamus, Crisis Wing, D.Gaiden Extra, Twin Cobra, Rayforce, indies, Raycirsis). The ones I missed were :
-G-Darius, since I decided to wait for the Steam port
- Rolling Gunner; didnt play
- A letter score in a Yagawa game - didn't play much Batrider this year
- checking out the first Truxton - didn't play this year haha

Besides that, I hope you all have a healthy 2022 and can achieve your goals!

[OmKol]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:

Personally for me not as impressive as 2020 but I've cleared many games for the first time like:
- Battle Garegga Rev. 2016 with Golden Bat. Very fun game and I will try to clear it more times with different characters
- Darius Cozmic Collection. I've cleared various routes and versions for Darius, Darius II and Darius Gaiden. Something like 20 clears was done
- Gradius IV. PSP version with arcade settings - wait 0, normal difficulty, normal hitbox. Tough game and I had to do two recoveries during my successful run
- Dragon Blaze 1-ALL
- Mars Matrix
- RayForce
- Space Bomber
- Thunder Dragon 2

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:

I've promised to do Hacha Mecha Fighter and Dangun Feveron clears and I've still don't cleared them

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:

- Moglar with Ketsui WR, Kayar with SDOJ WR. Incredible, outstanding dedication
- Plasmo with Donpachi Hong Kong 2-ALL. A really strict and barely possible 2-ALL without any room for mistakes
- RefKey with Detana Twinbee 2-ALL. Another insane 2-ALL with insane Konami hitboxes
- ZPS with Same! Same! Same! And another really long and unforgiving game
- NMS with Tatsujin Oh 1-ALL. A really impressive clear done during Calice Cup
- Jujukenobi with Ikaruga 30M, Dragon Blaze 2-ALL, Donpachi 2-ALL with Type A
- Daringspino with Gradius III 1-ALL, Gradius II 2-ALL, Crimzon Clover WE Arrange Unlimited 50T
- Prickly Angler with absolutely insane amount of various Darius clears including different versions, ports and No Miss clears

(4) Goals for 2022:

- I want to start this year with Crimzon Clover Arcade Unlimited ALL
- Still Hacha Mecha Fighter 1-ALL
- Still Dangun Feveron ALL
- And many other various clears and score improvements!

[MAZ]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:

Well, 2021 was for me a year of continous grind of Ikaruga AC Normal. The improvements I did for evert stage was beyond what I could ever have imagined when I first started playing the game for score in the fall of 2019! In particular I'll like to mention a 236c for stage 4 at the start of the year (that one was a really hard fought battle), a 257c stage 3 and a 211c stage 2 (a first for the Steam version). Plus having developed new strats (or sub-strats) for Shigi and Tageri 2nd phase and having established nice contacts with some japanese Ika players


(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:

Well, this dedicated grinding advanced strats cost me results in full runs. My PB of 31.5m is really good considering how few full runs I did in 2020... Probably less than ten clears! But this will definitely change in 2022


(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:

- Moglar with Ketsui WR and Kayar with SDOJ WR surely take the crown!
- Speaking of Ikaruga, shamo_tx road to 35.5m was awesome and still not complete (he sits at around 35.4). Also I enjoyed Juju, Jaylab, softdrink and all the other players grinding their PBs in 2021!
- Speaking of Juju, also Dragonblaze 2-ALL, Donpachi 2-ALL and DDP glitcho routing (love those kind of extremely tuned technicalities!)
- Speaking of Jaylab, Dragonblaze 2-ALL
- Plasmo Donpachi Hong Kong 2-ALL + Pink Sweets WR
- WTN Great Mahou Daisakusen WR
- RefKey Detana Twinbee 2-ALL
- NMS, ZPS, smc and flo Toaplan clears
- Pricky Angler Darius clears
- Daringspino and his Gradius III troubles
- Eaglet Batrider scores
- M.Knight Shikigami scores
- ... and a lot of other players of this and other communities playing and loving their games


(4) Goals for 2022:

- Grinding full-runs seriously. The big score goal is 34m. If I even get there, I'll try to push the game for 35m
- Getting decent runs if I manage to play at online shmup events
- Getting a 237c Ch4, a 134c Ch1 and a 7.9m Ch3

[Liquidus0]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:

Darius Gaiden 1LC
Getting close to 1CC Ketsui
Improving my Mushihimesama Futari BL score (from 230M to 340M)

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:

Not a screw-up per se, but I wish I had take more time to play.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:

Clover-TAC still improving some DDP and ESP. RA DE scores
Moglar's Ketsui WR
The great DOJ WL duel between SPS and Fufufu

(4) Goals for 2022:

Play assiduously each month for the Shmup Never Die 2022 tournament (french Facebook group, yearly competition, a different shmup each month).
Aka to Blue Type-R 1CC
1 Cave and 1 Psikyo I haven't 1CC yet. DDP DFK BL and Dragon Blaze maybe ?

[chum]

Favourite Achivements:
-365k in 2-5 in Shoot the Bullet. my honorable 2nd is probably totally breaking 5-4 with Aya in Double Spoiler with a new strategy that is so close to being TAS only that it's not even funny. I only managed to barely capitalize on the strategy though because it's so extreme. So the future is bright for that scene if there's competition.
-Winning a Calice Cup and a Yolympics, although these aren't strictly shmup related as it's pure arcade related with various shmups included. These are the only times I will sit down and seriously try to perform in a game I don't even enjoy!
-Learning Twinkle Star Sprites and even getting 2nd in a tournament with so many strong players felt good! A very fun game to learn and play, It's my favorite arcade game now and I prefer it to Phantasmagoria of Flower View now as well.

Biggest screw-ups:
-Failing Batrider. I set my goal as 25m near end of 2020, but as I was playing I quickly realized I should aim 22-23m first. Unfortunately I failed to even get that, as I game overed almost every single run I did (I think I only cleared 1 run and it was a total failure that missed much score) my highest game over being only 20.4m, most of my runs that I "kept" didn't have good enough pace to really be anything impressive. I gave up early 2021 as I was losing patience with restarts, since the game is quite long and unforgiving. Maybe I will try again in the future but I think next time I will have more fun with playing solo character since it's not as unforgiving and exhausting. It's just my style to do something until I'm sick of it and even if I failed I will stop then, it's more fun for me that way, rather than to keep trying when it's not fun anymore.
-Failing 1.1 million in 8-6 with Hatate in Double Spoiler. The score luck needed is just too much so I had to give up. after a lengthy and otherwise lucrative grind (many 1.08m+ scores, photo count somewhere in the 5-digits)

Favourite achivements of others:
I will rely just on my memory...
-Moglar's Ketsui WR, one of the last games we ever expected someone in this community to set a WR for in previous years, I'm sure...
-Ia destroying Shoot the Bullet RTA, improving LET's time by almost 3 minutes with a sub-50 minute run. LET has been working on that game for I think over a decade, and has a very solid run. I did not think there was so much room for improvement. This is much more impressive than it has any right to be but I expect nothing less from Ia...
-KG improving the WR for UFO to 3.6 billion. I didn't think the game had room for 3.6 billion.
-Kirbycomment getting over a million on 6-4 with Hatate in Double Spoiler, I have long wanted to see a million score here.
-ior setting a few great scores in Double Spoiler before promptly vanishing sadly, including a 1.4 million in 12-4 with Hatate. The promise was all there, I hope he comes back. The game needs more competition!

Goals:
I have no concrete goals, or make a goal when I feel like, whichever way you look at it, I just play what I want to when I want to.

Challenges:
Challenge yourself realistically in terms of what you can do, and realistically in terms of what you enjoy. Don't waste time on something that doesn't engage you!

[WeedyRainfall]

1. Fav achievement - Mushihimesama Maniac 1cc. I started shmupping in 2019, and at the beginning, i never actually thought i would be able to 1cc a real life cave game. I've gotten a few other 1cc's - dfk, deathsmiles, mushi og - but mushi maniac is one of the big boys, and it's my only 1cc that isn't always on the lists of easiest 1cc's.

But in general, 2021 was the year that i became somewhat competent at shmups, and stopped credit feeding and wiping on stage 3. 2021 1cc's include -

mushi OG,
mushi 1.5 OG
mushi maniac,
Futari 1.5 OG with normal reco and ab palm,
futari bl og and maniac with reco,
Deathsmiles,
Dfk 1.5 with a,b, and c strong
Rolling Gunner true all on "casual" lol this shit is hard,
G-Darius HD - lambda route

I'm a shmup lifer after 2021

2. Screw ups - Lightning Coronatus. I don't know how many times i no missed the entire game and then wiped out here. It's not even hard, i just kept fucking it up lol

3. Others - Tiger Heli 41-all lol what in the fuck
https://youtu.be/TiE2j6rSGEM

4. Goals - Futari 1.5 Maniac 1cc. Gonna be tough. I got the BL Maniac 1cc, but 1.5 feels a lot tougher. This would easliy be my hardest clear. Also DFK BL 1cc, i've gotten to the stage 5 boss a few times, so this should be doable. I really like DFK BL, haven't gone back to 1.5 since i started it.

[Buffi]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021:
Finally letter-scoring Ibara on pcb. I used to only have a survival clear of this, but got a solid B letter score on original mode this year as well which was neat.
1CC of Aka&Blue and SDOJ Original felt good too.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021:
I spent like 40-50 hours on Kyukyoku Tiger and never got past stage 8. I just kept messing up. Eventually I started hating the game and moved on. This should have been 1-ALL'ed though, since I had it all routed but I just couldn't get it. Fuck this game. Fuck.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:
- Plasmo DP HK 2-ALL: Amazing seeing someone devote time to this meme-version. Real cool stuff.
- VxD getting to Aka&Blue TLB: First video of TLB! Very cool to see.

(4) Goals for 2022:
I'm just playing Mahjong games now so uh... but these things would be cool:
- Akai Katana 1CC of all exA modes when that is out
- Kingdom Grand Prix 1CC (if I can borrow a pcb...)
- Soukyugurentai 1CC
- Pulstar 1CC

[Creamy Goodness]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021: 1cc'ed Mushi Original. Not the hardest in general, but a solid challenge for me. Also hit my 10th 1cc with default settings of those games after getting into shmups in the fall of 2020.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021: Probably not having a good practice regimine. Jist kind of dicked around a bit with no rhyme or reason to what I was doing.

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:
Don't really follow competitive play to know. I just know about Moglar's Ketsui record.

(4) Goals for 2022:
Want to get at least 2 more Cave 1cc's. Working on Progear right now. Save state practice is solid, but man runs fall apart pretty quick when actually playing from the start. Also just looking to maintain my rate of 1cc's, but with a little more difficult games.

[professor ganson]

My goal this year is to get caught up on recent releases. No specific scoring goal as of yet.

[mojilove]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021
Getting a simple survival clear in Illvelo near the start of the year was nice. It's a fun game and I should get back to it.
Getting a 1CC in Senxin Aleste Casual in the actual arcade with my first ever credit was fun too.

(2) Personal Biggest Screw-ups of 2021
Getting hit in the middle of the last stage in the original SMS Aleste and wiping out all my 10+ lives from there (twice!). Still haven't cleared that game.
Also, as a more general thing, buying too many games and not spending enough time on each one!

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021
I can't really remember much of anything in 2021, but Moglar's WR was amazing.
Sairyo getting Inbachi in training mode was really cool - wishing him all the best of luck in working on arcade mode too.
Also, seeing VxD grind Aka to Blue has been cool - it's great to see how he is enjoying it and I hope he can beat the TLB soon enough in time for the next exA shmup releases.
As for ongoing achievements, shout outs to Plasmo and GSK for always building bridges across linguistic borders, and to Queen Charlene and all shmups.wiki editors for building a library of shmup information.

(4) Goals for 2022: I'll be ambitious in number rather than the difficulty of most of these goals though I know I won't have much time to pursue many of them.
Espgaluda Black Label 1CC (I won a badge with IKD's signature on it, so I want to get a clear in a non-arrange, non-novice mode)
Illvelo Swamp 1-100 full run and/or 2.5 billion (I've already got 2 billion and I was so close to a full clear but it gets pretty hard at the end)
Esp Ra.De. 1CC (I got to the last boss ages ago but I haven't worked on it since then)
Also, get a bit closer to clearing a few games that just need a little push for the 1CC (Sister's Royale Normal, Rolling Gunner Casual)
Also try to buy fewer games maybe? Retail therapy is hard to resist when you consider it is also supporting the industry, but having too many games is a bit overwhelming too.

(BONUS) CHALLENGES TO OTHER PLAYERS: Play some of the excellent new games that have been released in the past few years! Beat my 700 mil score in Radirgy Swag or 2 bil score in Illvelo Swamp! Give Cotton Rock'n'Roll a try - it deserves more attention. I played a credit in the arcade and it was a blast. I bought the Switch version today (going against my goal for 2022!) and I'm looking forward to playing it.

[wiNteR]

(1) Personal Favourite Achievements of 2021
(i) To be honest, to be able to keep playing fairly consistently (at least a little bit almost daily). Few years ago, I think that I would have expected to (practically) quit on the genre (or only play occasionally or sporadically). I feel that, somehow, I have been able to motivate/force myself "just enough" (even when I didn't feel like playing in the slightest), to just sit and spend a few minutes on keyboard nearly daily.

(ii) Was a good surprise to reach 2-7 in DDP (no bombs) while also defeating some of the bosses (e.g. 2-4 boss) fair and square. In particular, because I wasn't expecting that. That's because I hadn't practiced 2-6 boss at all (my focus was on the game before that point). Eventually I got a better score that didn't reach 2-7, but still being able to beat 2-6 boss in actual run was nice.

(iii) Getting nmnb on storm blade (with a completely new ship/character) with just about 20--21 hours of play. Obviously already having a nmnb with another ship helped massively. But nevertheless, I hadn't touched the game for 1.5 years after that nmnb. I had struggled at that time, so I wanted to do better this time (with desert stage third as before).

I was also, initially, slightly overwhelmed by the difficulty initially (when playing again). I was honestly expecting that I would find the game easier than I did (partly because I had played the game before and partly because I had some more experience). However, that wasn't the case ..... I found the game nearly as unforgiving as last time (and a large number of initial full runs I had reflected this). So still, making the adjustment and getting the clear smoothly was quite nice for me.

==========

(3) Favourite Achievements by Others of 2021:
This is not for 2021, but I would briefly mention a few videos I watched this year and thought are worth a mention (the second and third have less views right now, relatively).

(1) PEG's gradius V run for loop 5. Very good skill and also reminded me how good the game is.
(2) MrMonkeyMan's URA clear run for ketsui. Even though I have no experience with ketsui (second loop stages), the dodging in second-half of 2-5 seemed exceptional.
(3) Bananamatic's dodonpachi clear (~600M score as I re-call). Perfect on the first pattern (second form of tlb) twice was very very good (particularly, doing this in a full run was quite something).
As a sidenote, I think the second pattern (small blue bullets) can be a bit easier if one stays on extreme left (or right) side. However, that has disadvantage of not hitting the boss and pro-longing the battle.

==========

(4) Goals for 2022:
If I keep playing then the following goals:
(i) Progear: Reach 2-5 tlb (no bombs)
(ii) Strikers II: Get a no miss with 3 or 4 bombs. Probably one of the bombs will be intentional (since, in the fortress stage, I think doing the turret part without the supershot is nice). But mostly I want to try to use minimum of charge shots (basically using super-shot on trivial/easy parts) and pro-long the boss battles. This is something fun I had in mind for few years now, so I don't want to delay this any further.

(iii) Reach 2-3 on both US and JP versions of donpachi (no bombs). This is mostly just to get started in these games. In principle, the idea is then to come back to these and do better.
(iv) Get a few more 1CCs

There are number of other things that I think would be nice too. But I don't think there would be enough time for this at all. I feel the first goal (i) might turn out to be much harder than anticipated for me. So getting the listed goals will be more than enough.