Decided on a ship in
Raiden Fighters Jet - Judge Spear Slave - and put in enough practice to savestate no-miss up to Real Combat 1.
I'm getting the hang of activating special medal mode at the first Miclus of the second stage. Feels odd for a good run to throw away the interesting combining mechanic so quickly in favor of a more straightforward Garegga approach, but it undeniably makes flying less chaotic.
Can't decide if a 1-ALL feels doable short-term or not - it seemed well in reach at first since continues were artificially lowering the rank, but the other side of the coin is delivering a vigorous beating. Those stage 4 boats in particular are vicious thanks to their tight point-blank window - had to hail-mary a fairy bomb from one of them to cut through the boss safely on my successful run.
Speaking of, bosses seem almost tame by comparison to the more aggressive zako rushes - a couple of well calculated kabooms and you barely have to dodge anything!
And woo, Real Combat 1. They really kick it up a gear with those stealth fighters
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
manageable with proper positioning, but it's easy to screw up amid the QUICK SHOT chaos and let one live long enough to snipe you.
Unwound with an improptu evening of
K Tiger afterward, which by comparison has been kicking my ass in the manner of a seasoned Jujutsu practitioner. Slow, deliberate, effortless.
Your form is poor, student
More fool me for passing it up as
a little too retro until now - good design wasn't invented at the turn of the decade, after all. I'm still acclimatizing to the stately pace and big hitboxes (Stage 2 Plane Boss is the wall thus far) but it's quite fascinating to see the nuances that emerge when you slow things to the point where travel time and trajectory are hard-committal.
Firing lines, turret turn rates and enemy control as primary concerns, imminent death being visible but not fixable with a simple flick of the wrist, V-strafing dodges that lend a surprisingly dog-fighty feel to certain baddies, having to accept that you missed the powerup carrier in the melee... And woe betide the inattentive player who allows a powerup traffic jam to occur!
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
The genre never fails to amaze with its versatility.
And of course, the music. Come for the cool helicopter, stay for the pitch perfect aviator-toting 80s pilot 'sperience
![Cool 8)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)