Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[XoPachi]

I played the demo for that new Tatsujin game coming out. It was a surprisingly good bit of fun. I'm not terribly versed in the original 2 Tatsujin games, but Extreme at least feels and plays like a quality, genuine classic game. The visuals have that look I associate with "mediocre retro throwback" or bad remakes but it thankfully did not live up to that. When you get fully kitted out, it starts to remind me of caravan games which is a lot of fun. The music also grew on me as I wasn't feeling it at first.

Story mode seems to just be the same as the game's easy difficulty but it just has these animated comics (which is kinda neat). Arcade mode feels very old school minus the new EX feature which is a nice way to kill things quicker in a game with an a full 16:9 aspect ratio. You aren't spending a ton of time on one husky enemy on one side of the screen. You're moving around a decent bit. It also seems like items are a bit more generous although checkpointing is a little weird as they put you back to item caches but you often cannot hit some of them when you spawn. You keep your full weapon power too but I'm not sure if there's a limit on this, like if you die repeatedly, you drop in power. You do lose speed though.

The options menu sucks though. Like really bad. You can change music volume and sound volume. And that is it. You set your resolution and language when you launch the game. Options are not even accessible in the main menu. You have to be in game to access it. Maybe it's just a weird demo choice and the full release with have it on the main screen with far more robust selection of settings. But I don't think I've seen that before so I hope it is just a demo oddity.

Not that my opinion has weight, but it left a very good impression on me and I'll be picking it up when it releases.

[Jack Emerson]

Playing the progear DLC for DariusBurst. Lots of fun. If you like progear and you like Darius, you will like this. It was a little confusing to me as too what is included. But you get the progear ship and a set of 3 new missions (CSMode style). And you can play the ship in other DLC stages. I counted 40 missions that were available to play this ship on immediate install.

[LordHypnos]

Been playing a lot of Fast Striker lately. I never quite got to the point of 1ccing it when I played it way back in 2015. I've also improved my high score by a lot, like 2 trillion points, but haven't practiced the last two stages much. Also my Dreamcast is acting up (hopefully just the video cable, I think I'm missing the blue channel, currently awaiting a replacement).

In addition to that, I'm playing Monolith, which I'm quite enjoying, though I've got a few annoyances. Mostly just the fact that it's still very aiming-focused, even if it's less aiming-focused than perhaps some games are. Also I feel like sometimes you get a room that just doesn't have enough space to dodge enemy patterns. I also dislike the tendency for certain bosses and mini-bosses to try to ram you, it feels like you have to move away from it perfectly to avoid getting hit, because they are basically moving the same speed as you. Overall, though, it's a very fun game. Controlling the ship with the left analog stick (because the X360 d-pad is absolutely atrocious) is surprisingly precise, though it might still be better with a d-pad. I would say that I wish that the d-pad on my Hori Gem Pad wasn't wrecked, but the game doesn't seem to register that controller anyway.

Aside from those, I was playing a lot of Radirgy for a while, but I think the weapons system is just a bit too complicated for me. Still a very fun game. I've thrown in a few credits of Neko Navy as well, which actually has a somewhat similar scoring system to Radirgy.

[Stevens]

What up Hyp!

Good to see you round again. No shooters lately for me - knee deep in the Lies of P DLC, but I am really looking forward to Earthion.

[DarkSlayer]

Good shmups that can communicate a story without needing much in the way of words are a rarity. I think the cinematics in Rolling Gunner are also really good at that. The ending sequence in particular is amazing.

I don't mind text either though; Drainus is a great game whose story mode has a fair bit of dialogue, but it and Giga Wing aren't too bad as they're one button to skip. If I have to mash through text or hold a button for a period of time it's a bit tedious to replay (holding Ctrl to skip text in Touhou isn't as graceful as just a button to skip the text, though using the text as a chance to take a quick break can be nice too).

I also like how in Giga Wing's airport stage, right before the boss, they took the time to draw an elaborate and detailed city background, only to blow it up and have it redrawn as a smoking crater, just to really piss you off and emphasize what you're fighting against. You don't even see the background in the boss fight or much beforehand, you're in the clouds once you're at the boss, so they drew two entire backgrounds just for one dramatic cutscene.

Yes rolling gunner is definitely a good one for visual storytelling. Not a shmup, but I love Rez for the same reason, you feel like you have traveled a journey. A psydellic and physical journey!


Terra diver is another good one, must be something about the pseudo 3D games like RayForce/TerraDiver. that gets the devs thinking along these lines and outside the box in terms of stage design/story telling

Apart from devil blade, what are some other recent Shmups that do this well?

O yer, I have been playing more Gunvein recently. Some of the most mesmerising patterns in a Shmup yet

[Faith]

I think I have a problem.

Just reached over 500 hours played in Crimzon Clover.

I cannot let go of Arcade Unlimited. It is like... I have fallen in love with my torturer.

Just got my 10th 1CC for this mode today, been trying to adjust my route a bit to make it more marathon safe, haha.

This mode will never be marathon safe.

Really think only the top god tier players of this game can just start a run and guarantee a 1CC.

You know sometimes in STG's when you die one time... then it just becomes an avalanche of cascading deaths. This is one game where it happens to me the most.

Just one miss derails the whole route and makes recovery a challenge.

In the middle of this chaos, I just started playing Kaikan! Super recommended, it is quite silly but the graphics and music are both great.

I think I will start Like Dreamer soon too.

Need something a little bit... less serious... to relax.

To me, Crimzon Clover is a very serious game: very precise, very sharp, very purpose-built; and with a very tight, very specific, and very intense vision.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I'm really close to an Espgaluda 2 clear. It's one I found maddeningly hard compared to the far more tame original. I'm getting a lot better at it but I still have to be very focused to clear is as the difficulty is much more like Mushi Maniac than Mushi Original would be. Stage 5's popcorn enemies in the horizontal scrolling sections somehow always get me and I have to be willing to just bomb them outright.