The Little Things.

[BulletMagnet]

This is something I'm curious to hear people's takes on: some "minor" features found in some shmups, which are not central to the way the thing plays or the like, but you wish more games had all the same. I'll list a few such things that I always like to see, and let you add on whatever else you'd group into this category:

1) Separate Score Listings by Craft/Difficulty/Mode. One thing that's always bugged me about quite a few shmups is that if you feel the need to try a game on a lower difficulty level at first to learn the ropes and manage to get onto the game's single high score board before you move up, once you try the game on defaults (or hard mode) you have no shot at beating your lower-level scores, and no chance to keep track of your progress at the higher difficulty level unless you write it down elsewhere. The same goes for selectable craft: if one or two ships are much more suited to high scoring than the rest, you're almost certain to see only those ships on the score list, while you've no way, except the aforementioned scribbling, to keep track of how you do with other craft. I also cringe when high scores for multiplayer, score attack, etc. are thrown right up there with "regular" one player runs.

For all the qualms I have with a lot of Psikyo's work, I have to praise them for consistently including separate high score tables for separate difficulty levels in their home ports: on the flipside, as much as I generally like Cave's work, five slots to encompass everything isn't really enough. Granted, the extra score storage space often means that the game's file takes up more space than usual on your memory card, but I for one am more than glad to trade that off for more detailed scorekeeping.

2) Multiplayer. I always feel a bit guilty when I want to show a friend a shmup I really like, and then have to either sit there and play by myself while he watches, or hand him the controller and thrust him straight into it without being able to give him much help other than advice (which, when stuff is flying all over the place onscreen, usually comes too late). Of course, the problem only compounds itself if he gets more into it and both of us are eager to play it, and only one can at a time. Even if 2-player really isn't practical when it comes to scoring or the like, I like to have the option to let a friend in on the action, even if I don't do so very often. A shmup without a 2-player mode often feels to me like it's "missing something."

3) In-Game Scoring Explanations/Demonstrations. Seeing as a lot of the shmups I buy are either used and incomplete, in Japanese, or receive shoddy localizations, I'm often in the dark at first on not only how to play but also how to score well, and a game which makes at least some effort to let me know how things work is a welcome sight. Even if I don't get the full hang of everything I can at least know the basic idea of what to go for, and can try to expand on it from there. Shmups which throw me into the fray without explaining a blessed thing tend to take me awhile longer to get into, for obvious reasons.

This is just scratching the surface, obviously, but I figured I'd leave the rest to you, and hear which "unimportant" shmup features you like to see most. I won't specify much further than that, and just leave it open for civil (hopefully) discussion.

[tehkao]

BOSSES/ENEMIES THAT "FLASH" WHEN THEY GET DAMAGED OR HIT IN A WEAK SPOT

I know this sounds like a no-brainer feature that every shmup should have, but I still run into some once in a while that don't have this. How else are you supposed to tell if your shots are doing damage?

[Rob]

-Boss timers/life bars. Having to remember how long a boss lasts or how much life it has instinctively is annoying.

-Replay saving. This option should be in every game. It's my memory card space.

-Highest score listed at the top of the in-game screen.

-Stage restarts a la Giga Wing 2, except no added digit for stage 1 restarts because that's just dumb.

-Oh, and I really love it in tate-able games when it starts off in tate on the title screen after auto-loading the memory card. If that isn't a small thing.

[greg]

Being able to use a bomb and lay waste to the countryside/town, just like in Raiden DX.

[Ganelon]

All I ask for are bright, round bullets that aren't anywhere close to the color of your own ship's shots. Couldn't care less about anything else, esp. score related.

[landshark]

Similar to what a few others have posted. I like bosses that flash faster and faster as they are closer to death.

Bullets that are easily visible even in large explosions.

Bullets that are easily visible against all backgrounds.

(I've never seen this one) A game that would show you the hit boxes of your ship during demo mode. I hate guessing.

[Ghegs]

BM's "Separate Score Listings by Craft/Difficulty/Mode" would be very nice. If that's not feasible for whatever reason, then disable the possibility to enter high-scores when playing with anything other than defaults (Judgement Silversword does this, though it also has separate tables for different difficulties).

Stage select. Every game should have it.

Oh, and some way to see your hitbox would indeed be nice.

[IlMrm]

Pretty much what the others already mentioned.

- I like bombs that are instant lifesavers.
- Missile trails that confuses the hell out of everything are very annoying(Flying Ray's missiles, especially the charged up ones, you can't see anything).
- Your shot/power levels won't decrease by themselves, forcing you to pick up another power-up to restore it.
- I am a sucker for picture galleries, and the artists conceptions.
- Sound tests are cool too.

[tehkao]

Oh yes, good god, Sound Test definitely.

[BrianC]

Some things I would like to see more of:
-A single power down instead of losing all weapons
-regaining lost power ups after dying by catching an item
-special items for two player mode
-special team up moves in two player mode
-a shield that doesn't have a larger hit box than the ship
-three or four player modes
-bosses that have multiple forms
-special hidden instant full power power up

[zimeon]

My list would be:

A replay save All shmups/racing games should have this. Period.
Separate Score listings Although the shmups I play the most (Shrine Maiden games) have this very feature, I have never considered this as important, but now that I think of it, it is.
Multiplayer Bullet magnet said it all. A two-player mode just makes introducing other people to the game so much more fun. And even shmups you don't like that much and don't care for scoring in much can become really fun if you play two people. However, I do not consider this a "little thing". I bought GigaWing2 for the sheer sake of the 4-player mode.
Silly characters and humour I always prefer when a games doesn't take itself seriously. A Puyo Puyo-story is perfectly enough for a shmup. And I do prefer shooting characters instead of ships, revolving squares or the like.

A fun thing is, the Shrine Maiden shmups do have most of the things you are looking for: Replay save, separate score listing, boss life bars/timers, highest score listed at the top of in-game screen, bright bullets that are easily visible, bosses that flash when about to die (although it's the boss's X coordinate indicator that starts flashing), stage select (on practise) visible hitbox (when moving slowly), instant lifesaver bombs (you can even bomb directly after you've been hit), no missile trails, no decreasing power level, has sound test, a single power down when hit, regaining lost power ups by collecting items... well, that's about it. No 2-player mode, no shield, no boss multiple forms...

[Shatterhand]

- Your shot/power levels won't decrease by themselves, forcing you to pick up another power-up to restore it.

I have seen this only in Psikyo games. (Oh, and in Sonic Wings, which is not from Psikyo, but well... I guess everyone knows the connection between both games).

I always thought that the automatic power-down was supposed to make rank management a tad easier.

If I am not mistaken, those games don't have the "Power Down" feature from Strikers 1945 or Sengoku Blade.

[Davey]

Silly characters and humour I always prefer when a games doesn't take itself seriously. A Puyo Puyo-story is perfectly enough for a shmup.

Unfortunately, you appear to be in the minority.

As for multiplayer, I couldn't care less. I think there's plenty of other genres out there better suited for multiplayer.

[OmegaFlareX]

-Oh, and I really love it in tate-able games when it starts off in tate on the title screen after auto-loading the memory card.

Definitely. I just got Shienryu for Saturn, and it annoys me to no end to have to select tate mode from the option menu every time I turn the game on. Shame on Warashi. Even the US version of Layer Section saves your screen mode.

[system11]

I have a great love for games where bosses and medium sized enemies are visibly damaged. Little plumes of smoke and flame are always appreciated, even if the boss doesn't have seperately destroyable sections. I -particularly- like wrecked armour exposing mechanical sections. It makes them seem more powerful - soldiering on against you despite the damage.

[sffan]

Since scoring is so important for shmups, especially if you're playing against a friend to see who gets the highest score, all shmups should allow you to see your score at the end of a game.

This seems like common sense, but most or all of Cave's games don't allow you to see your score at the end unless you make the top 5. This is really retarded since scoring is so central to Cave games in particular.

Well, I guess this is more of a beef or complaint, rather than a "little thing" I would like to see.

[SheSaidDutch]

I haven't got much to that alreadly hasn't been said,

Cutscenes- Please include an option to disable them at the options screen

[BulletMagnet]

A nice list of features we've compiled thus far. Perhaps I oughta make up a single list of these, just for my own amusement.

[FRO]

BOSSES/ENEMIES THAT "FLASH" WHEN THEY GET DAMAGED OR HIT IN A WEAK SPOT

I know this sounds like a no-brainer feature that every shmup should have, but I still run into some once in a while that don't have this. How else are you supposed to tell if your shots are doing damage?

I agree with this to an extent, though there are different ways to handle this. I have seen several shooters (such as the Thunderforce series) that show a "mini-explosion" on the outside of the craft when your firepower strikes it - the TF games typically have a blue-colored mini-explosion when the firepower is just deflecting, whereas a red-colored mini-explosion is present when you are doing damage. It's slightly less intrusive than the "flashing" that takes place on other games (i.e. the 1st boss on Trouble Shooter flashes incessantly when you hit the weak spot - almost makes for a seizure fit, even if you're not epileptic).

There are other methods shmup developers could use, primarily the "life bar" method, ala Final Fight or Streets of Rage where each enemy w/ more than a couple hits have a life bar, but that's usually only applicable for bosses, mid-bosses, or vs shmups like Change Air Blade. Too many life bars would begin to either become intrusive (like the bars over all the heads of folks in the cell phone commercials) or with lots of fire would be changing the bar so much it would become hard to watch.

Another method I thought of is an audible method - when your shots make a damaging impact, they make a specific noise, whereas if they simply deflect or do no damage they make another. Does anyone know if this has been implemented in a game yet? I can't think of one.

There are a TON of other shmups where this also isn't really an issue - many that enemies take damage no matter where you hit them.

[BulletMagnet]

Another method I thought of is an audible method - when your shots make a damaging impact, they make a specific noise, whereas if they simply deflect or do no damage they make another. Does anyone know if this has been implemented in a game yet? I can't think of one.

My gut is telling me that I've seen (er, heard) this done before, but I can't recall which shmup it was...

[cigsthecat]

- Games where sound isn't required to play the game properly. Most of the time I'd rather hear my own music. Better yet, let me turn off the music but leave sound effects on.

[BrianC]

BOSSES/ENEMIES THAT "FLASH" WHEN THEY GET DAMAGED OR HIT IN A WEAK SPOT

I know this sounds like a no-brainer feature that every shmup should have, but I still run into some once in a while that don't have this. How else are you supposed to tell if your shots are doing damage?

I agree with this to an extent, though there are different ways to handle this. I have seen several shooters (such as the Thunderforce series) that show a "mini-explosion" on the outside of the craft when your firepower strikes it - the TF games typically have a blue-colored mini-explosion when the firepower is just deflecting, whereas a red-colored mini-explosion is present when you are doing damage. It's slightly less intrusive than the "flashing" that takes place on other games (i.e. the 1st boss on Trouble Shooter flashes incessantly when you hit the weak spot - almost makes for a seizure fit, even if you're not epileptic).

There are other methods shmup developers could use, primarily the "life bar" method, ala Final Fight or Streets of Rage where each enemy w/ more than a couple hits have a life bar, but that's usually only applicable for bosses, mid-bosses, or vs shmups like Change Air Blade. Too many life bars would begin to either become intrusive (like the bars over all the heads of folks in the cell phone commercials) or with lots of fire would be changing the bar so much it would become hard to watch.

Another method I thought of is an audible method - when your shots make a damaging impact, they make a specific noise, whereas if they simply deflect or do no damage they make another. Does anyone know if this has been implemented in a game yet? I can't think of one.

There are a TON of other shmups where this also isn't really an issue - many that enemies take damage no matter where you hit them.

That reminds me. Truxton has flames on parts of the boss to show damage. I think more games should do something like that. Visible damage is such a cool little detail.

[ED-057]

Another method I thought of is an audible method - when your shots make a damaging impact, they make a specific noise, whereas if they simply deflect or do no damage they make another. Does anyone know if this has been implemented in a game yet? I can't think of one.

My gut is telling me that I've seen (er, heard) this done before, but I can't recall which shmup it was...

There are games that have this feature (though maybe not applying to all enemies). For starters: Contra, Gradius 3, Space Megaforce...

[BulletMagnet]

Just thought of another minor thing I don't think anyone has mentioned yet: being able to speed up the "continue countdown" by tapping or holding down a button. I'm always sitting there going "c'mon, c'mon" when I play a shooter (usually an older one) which makes you sit there the whole 10-20 seconds before it'll let you start over: being able to speed up the process, while mostly common nowadays, is something I always appreciate.

[Ghegs]

BulletMagnet's latest entry reminded me of something: in some games, when entering your initials to the high-score list, using the button you've configured for rapid fire enters your initials as "GGG" (if the first letter is G, like with my initials GHE) without any chance to correct it. I can't always remember to switch from using the rapid button to the normal shot button. It's most definately a nitpick, but still.

[Shatterhand]

Another method I thought of is an audible method - when your shots make a damaging impact, they make a specific noise, whereas if they simply deflect or do no damage they make another. Does anyone know if this has been implemented in a game yet? I can't think of one.

My gut is telling me that I've seen (er, heard) this done before, but I can't recall which shmup it was...

There are games that have this feature (though maybe not applying to all enemies). For starters: Contra, Gradius 3, Space Megaforce...

I think most, if not all Compile shmups do that. For sure, Zanac, Aleste, Aleste 2, Aleste Gaiden and Super Aleste all have this feature.

[captain ahar]

Just thought of another minor thing I don't think anyone has mentioned yet: being able to speed up the "continue countdown" by tapping or holding down a button. I'm always sitting there going "c'mon, c'mon" when I play a shooter (usually an older one) which makes you sit there the whole 10-20 seconds before it'll let you start over: being able to speed up the process, while mostly common nowadays, is something I always appreciate.

flat turned off Darius Gaiden for this same reason today. also i don't like that game.