Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[ryu]

I managed to kill myself in Gradius stage 6 by crashing into the ground. And consequently discovered that you can milk the boss when you're not using the laser weapon. If only every stupid death could end up this rewarding

[XoPachi]

I love when I figure out the lynch pin of a new STG. I realized how Kaikan actually wants to be played and I've been on this game for the last 3 hours tonight.
Reminds me of when I was playing GunVein and kept running out of bombs when scoring. I looked at how few resources you can hold, noticed that death carries no penalty, but that I was seriously losing a lot of score waiting to build the next bomb. And then it just clicked "Ooooh, he wants me to kill myself!". That was satisfying.

[ryu]

DESTROY VIOLENT ANTIBIOTICS

KIDNEY STONES CAN'T BE DESTROYED

lmao I can't take Life Force seriously no matter what. What a crappy game

[To Far Away Times]

What? Life Force kicks all sorts of ass. Pink astroids - ahem… “kidney stones” - not withstanding.

I like it more than any Gradius game and the OST is such a banger.

[ryu]

What? Life Force kicks all sorts of ass. Pink astroids - ahem… “kidney stones” - not withstanding.

I like it more than any Gradius game and the OST is such a banger.

Yeah Salamander's music is good, much better than in the first Gradius title and it gets even better with Life Force. But it doesn't hit my tastes very well so I don't really get into the OST much. Same with the visual presentation. I always thought the first stage in Salamander looked ugly, so it didn't come to my benefit that they made every stage look similar in Life Force.

Beyond that I find it difficult to excuse this game's technical and design issues. I would have liked to see Life Force improve on so much more than just the missing extends and stupid stage 4 boss. But instead so many issues remain, and instead of fixing those they just made the game even less appealing to me with the graphical overhaul and dumb narrator comments.

[XoPachi]

I am so close to clearing Mushihimesama. I am SO close, oh my fucking god.
I had no lives going into the last stage because of a goofy mistake in stage 4 and then the damn WATER STRIDER. But I tore through it only to get snagged by Aki halfway through the fight. I'm gonna get this clear before April is out. I'm using bombs, fuck it.

[To Far Away Times]

Aw man, so close. You got this.

Mushi’s a weird one in that I think it’s harder in the middle than at the end. Stage 3 and 4 are harder than stage 5, imo. I usually end up dying in stage 3 going for the extra life.

Those dragons on stage 4 always get me atleast once too, maybe twice if I try to play like a hero and don’t use bombs.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Don't give up, XoPachi!!
Re: stage 3/ extra life/ harder than stages 4 and 5: yeah, as of now the extra life is unobtainable for me if I don't use smart bombs; I used to know how to move to at least not die, but I have no idea how to get the extra life without smart bombs and without losing a life. Also, stray bullets are a problem in st3, I get hit by the random bullet a lot more often in st3 than in any other stage.

[ryu]

Darius Plus
Surprisingly this one seems to be even more strict on the rank control than the Arcade game. Those cubes that spawn during boss fights are much more dangerous here because of the very small play area, they seem to spawn even more frequently, from behind as well and appear to move in an erratic manner. Just blows my mind because the stages themselves are much, much easier than they are in any of the other ports. Why make the bosses this hard then?

Slap Fight MD (both modes)
I get it ... and I don't. This is incredibly fun at times, and just as dull at others. Not sure for how much longer I can bring myself to give this one a chance because the boring bits are really boring the hell out of me. I'm surprised the highscore thread got all that activity from players.

[To Far Away Times]

Raigo: Stato Fighter is awesome. Kinda gives me a Thunderforce or Gate of Thunder vibe (without the weapon switching). A button to turn your ship around and fire behind you is pretty novel for a 1991 game. Nice FM synth too.

[ryu]

Raigo: Stato Fighter is awesome. Kinda gives me a Thunderforce or Gate of Thunder vibe (without the weapon switching). A button to turn your ship around and fire behind you is pretty novel for a 1991 game. Nice FM synth too.

Looks nice. Is there a way to play it outside of mame? Is this just Strato Fighter on Arcade Archives?

I started Hishouzame a few days ago. My first impression wasn't that great but as I'm warming up to it I appreciate more and more how much it pulls out of its simple mechanics of just shoot and dodge. It's really impressive. Not to mention it's the first game from the '80s (out of the ones I played so far) that seems to have no jank at all.

[Lander]

More Zanac, once again.

I've been trying to pull off the Randar Bomb on the FDS version; a.k.a. the one-shot chance to convert a whole screen of enemies into 1UPs early in the game.
Bit different to the FC release, since the early-game difficulty and powerup distribution are both less aggressive. On one hand there's less wiggle room if you die or miss a #6 pickup, but on the other, the max level lines up nicely with the Area 3 ocean section that spawns a horde of slow, tanky mobs.
Alas, this close. Kept all the plates spinning, but the AI was a little too pissed on the final stretch where you have to keep hold of the single max-level bomb and dodge like a maniac.

Settled for doing it in Zanac Neo in the end, and being pleasantly reminded of how well-presented that game is. Though I do miss some of the rough edges that got rounded off (rest well, scout drone) being able to level all the weapons independently is so nice for strategy and recovery.

I also started fiddling with SOCD cleaning for my leverless controller, since Neutral mode was beginning to cause a noticeable amount of deer-in-headlights deaths.
Switched to Last Input Wins (what on earth is First Input Wins for, Guile players?) and it's been smooth twitchy sailing since. Its bustedness for fighting game usage only continues to become more apparent.

[BIL]

Raigo: Stato Fighter is awesome. Kinda gives me a Thunderforce or Gate of Thunder vibe (without the weapon switching). A button to turn your ship around and fire behind you is pretty novel for a 1991 game. Nice FM synth too.

Looks nice. Is there a way to play it outside of mame? Is this just Strato Fighter on Arcade Archives?

That's Raiga, yep! One of three killer Tecmo releases last year, in addition to Senyjo (great caravan Cabalesque), and Wild Fang (their customarily fine-tuned Ninja Gaiden followup, raucously ULTRA VAIORENT ).

I hope they'll get to Final Star Force and Pleiades this year. Maybe even Phoenix, if the IP gods are kind... Taito being on fine form with Hamster makes me hopeful, there. Off to a good start with Silkworm, which is - as usual for Tecmo - a far more idiosyncratic affair than its gunmetal aesthetic lets on. Got that CHAIN BODY RAM straight outta Compile. The whimsical adventure of two men and a jeep, RAMMING IN THE NAME OF THE LORD

[XoPachi]

Made a genuine effort at Futari Ultra today until my eyes got tired.
Anyone who can beat this deserves very large quantities of money. Because what the fuck.

[ryu]

That's Raiga, yep! One of three killer Tecmo releases last year, in addition to Senyjo (great caravan Cabalesque), and Wild Fang (their customarily fine-tuned Ninja Gaiden followup, raucously ULTRA VAIORENT ).

Great, thanks! That's another one for my list then.

Looks like Hishouzame is going to take me a while, maybe more so than Darius. The difficulty spike in stage 4 is absolutely insane.

[Lander]

Off to a good start with Silkworm, which is - as usual for Tecmo - a far more idiosyncratic affair than its gunmetal aesthetic lets on. Got that CHAIN BODY RAM straight outta Compile. The whimsical adventure of two men and a jeep, RAMMING IN THE NAME OF THE LORD

Ah, spiritual father to SWIV on the venerable Amiga, and its Super and Mega home ports - or FIREPOWER 2000 to residents of burgerland.
Jeep always was the man's man's way to play; TOTAL GROUND SUPERIORITY... Trains and pits notwithstanding.

A surprisingly faithful - if Irem slow - topdownification too, now I'm regarding the source material in detail; much more recognizable than the drastically anemic speccy port I dredged up - and promptly threw back in! - back in the day.

I had always assumed the wiggly Transform-a-Snack copter was an original invention. How delightfully Tecmo to haphazardly glue a rotor onto a SCIENCE HAS GONE TOO FAR plasma entity

[XoPachi]

Don't give up, XoPachi!!
Re: stage 3/ extra life/ harder than stages 4 and 5: yeah, as of now the extra life is unobtainable for me if I don't use smart bombs; I used to know how to move to at least not die, but I have no idea how to get the extra life without smart bombs and without losing a life. Also, stray bullets are a problem in st3, I get hit by the random bullet a lot more often in st3 than in any other stage.

Aw man, so close. You got this.

Mushi’s a weird one in that I think it’s harder in the middle than at the end. Stage 3 and 4 are harder than stage 5, imo. I usually end up dying in stage 3 going for the extra life.

Those dragons on stage 4 always get me atleast once too, maybe twice if I try to play like a hero and don’t use bombs.

Your boy did it!

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Don't give up, XoPachi!!
Re: stage 3/ extra life/ harder than stages 4 and 5: yeah, as of now the extra life is unobtainable for me if I don't use smart bombs; I used to know how to move to at least not die, but I have no idea how to get the extra life without smart bombs and without losing a life. Also, stray bullets are a problem in st3, I get hit by the random bullet a lot more often in st3 than in any other stage.

Aw man, so close. You got this.

Mushi’s a weird one in that I think it’s harder in the middle than at the end. Stage 3 and 4 are harder than stage 5, imo. I usually end up dying in stage 3 going for the extra life.

Those dragons on stage 4 always get me atleast once too, maybe twice if I try to play like a hero and don’t use bombs.

Your boy did it!

[To Far Away Times]

Your boy did it!

Hell yeah!

[Ice Beam]

Still playing Ultimate Tiger, a Raiden-like made by legendary shmup developer Romstar. Managed to do the time-out trick on the level 7 boss.

This game irritates the hell out of me. The item acquisition is annoying, especially when you have to dodge shit yellow. Any enjoyment I feel playing it is dwarfed by irritation, similar to my feelings toward Gradius. Compared to Kyuuyoku Tiger, Gradius was shorter, and the checkpoints less numerous. So, when I died, there's a small number of checkpoints to master to continue the game.

Kyuukyoku Tiger is ten long, slow scrolling levels, and losing a ship is devastating in the later levels. I like Tiger Heli better, even though it's also a checkpoint game with a slow moving helicopter. However, with TH, you already have what you need to beat whatever checkpoint you respawn at, since your initial weapon will always be the same. Yes, the little drone helicopters are useful, but losing them isn't a big deal. There's also less checkpoints than with KT.

In KT, having a level ten blue weapon, getting killed, and then starting a checkpoint with a level 0 red weapon is tragic. The difficulty of the game drastically increases. It's like it was lying to me while I was playing it.

This is what I felt while playing it. When I'm not playing it, I think, "shit, I want to play Kyuukyoku Tiger."

[XoPachi]

Single loop clear of DFK 1.5. I'm not really celebrating much all things considered, but for a first try after years of not playing, it's a nice feeling. Was on the Ura loop.

[jehu]

K. Tiger is gaming crack for me, too. When I learned the recoveries - especially the stage 5, two checkpoint haul back - it made me feel like every credit was a potential winner. Getting back on your feet can be a bitch, but the lives are so plentiful that it really gives you a fighting shot to get your shit together. And yeah it sucks if you lose your level ten blue shredder, but you can fight back for it - tooth and nail, yes, but it's not impossible.

Still playing Ultimate Tiger, a Raiden-like made by legendary shmup developer Romstar.

Bait.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Radirgy 2: Nutzoid game. It's like they squished Radirgy, Karous, and Illvelo together and even added a dash of Chaos Field because why the fuck not? Even the music is somewhat perplexing (started off sounding like chiptunes, now sounds like a normal Radirgy soundtrack even though I have no idea how or why this change occurred. Perhaps later it will start sounding like Autechre or something for equally mysterious reasons?). Got shipped the SE by mistake, and it come with a large plastic button that makes a random sound when pressed.

I'll say this much, it sure ain't boring.

[nogden]

Still playing M2’s DOJ.. chasing a black label 1cc, hard stuck at mid level 4. Great game though. Bouncing between this and Stardew Valley atm.

[ryu]

More Hishouzame. Almost got through stage 5, but I got sniped almost point blank by a tank pretty much the moment it spawned. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with these games.

[Steven]

80s Toa = memo or game over. Hishouzame gets super super SUPER easy once you know when and where everything spawns. Until then it will probably kick your ass hard. Last year one of my friends visited and he couldn't clear stage 1, although I don't think he'd ever played a game like it before. Then I made him play Out Zone and he was like HOLY FUCK THIS IS AMAZING I WISH I HAD KNOWN ABOUT IT EARLIER.

Anyway, I have been playing Darius II recently. I kind of like this game! Not playing it seriously or anything, or even if I will, just messing around for now. I have been playing the 2-screen version, although I am still not sure if I prefer the 2-screen or 3-screen version more. I think this is better than the arcade version of Darius in most ways, although I am not particularly fond of HOW HUGE EVERYTHING IS. I found this to be even worse on the PC Engine CD version due to the half-size screen space. Other than that, I quite like it.

[Klatrymadon]

Getting back into Sanvein, having finally found a SuperLite 1500 copy (at about the intended price) to replace my old PAL one. It may have been intended as a simple throwaway distraction but it's had more longevity than almost any other PS1 game for me. The mixing and matching of body and weapon parts and the unique power-up system (shot level is determined by how many adjacent zones you've cleared) make it more robust than it might appear, and the frantic Wario Ware pace of the thing gives it a breeziness that makes it feel endlessly replayable. It's effortlessly one of the most aesthetically thrilling games on the console, too, and on a shoestring! I can't recommend it enough to anyone with even a passing interest in the console's deeper cuts.

[Kiken]

Getting back into Sanvein, having finally found a SuperLite 1500 copy (at about the intended price) to replace my old PAL one. It may have been intended as a simple throwaway distraction but it's had more longevity than almost any other PS1 game for me. The mixing and matching of body and weapon parts and the unique power-up system (shot level is determined by how many adjacent zones you've cleared) make it more robust than it might appear, and the frantic Wario Ware pace of the thing gives it a breeziness that makes it feel endlessly replayable. It's effortlessly one of the most aesthetically thrilling games on the console, too, and on a shoestring! I can't recommend it enough to anyone with even a passing interest in the console's deeper cuts.

I enjoy Sanvein, but I think it does have a tendency to become a little repetitive given how quickly you need to clear out each room and then repeat the process 30 or so times per stage. But the presentation is cool and its got some solid music.


I've been playing Einhänder on stream again and developing some improved strategies. Recently got my copies of Radirgy 2 and DOJ Rinne Tensei on Switch. DOJ is..... DOJ (still not a fan of this game yet I own 3 different ports of this game). Radirgy 2 is more of Radirgy Swag and Illvelo Swamp... which is why I've just been playing classic Radirgy instead.

[XoPachi]

Revisiting SuperNova.

This game is really close to me. It was the first video game I'd ever play and it was released the week I was born.

[Nahar]

Completely stumped at Progear. Really fun, but tough as nails!