Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I was playing the PC version at a friend's place. I know someone else who was able to get a hold of a cart that used a dump of the rom flashed onto it and played it that way, but the official PC release plays fine.

As far as I know the official carts haven't been printed and shipped yet because they wanted to give them time to issue any emergency patches beforehand. Any carts you're purchasing are unofficial sellers using a cracked rom that was extracted from the PC port to cash in on something they aren't entitled to profit from (it's literally a new game for god's sake).

Something really important to keep in mind is this is literally a Sega Genesis game made entirely by only two people, so it's both really impressive and understandable that they're giving the PC release time to get extra playtesting and polishing before they burn roms to carts. Yuzo Koshiro's already said as much on his social media.

[LordHypnos]

Hehe I am the same, I always try to route myself first @_@"...

What is even more satisfying... is when I start aiming higher and I watch superplays and I find sections of my route which are 100% the same as the superplay route.

Feels good!~

It is a balance though. Sometimes, it can be very difficult to do major route changes because muscle memory.

The secret to this is to entirely forget the game before trying to improve your score so that you have to relearn it anyway. At least that's how it worked out the one time I've tried to get a really good score in something (Mars Matrix).

Also, slight self-correction

It is cool how solid Konami’s GB shmup ports are. Kind of a shame they didn’t do anything on the GBC. Even just a “DX” version of Parodius would be pretty sweet.

They actually did colorize most if not all of their GB shmups in the GBC Konami Collections It's obviously not PCEngine numbers of colors, but still pretty cool stuff!

EDIT: As for what I've been playing recently:

• Giga Wing - Still my main focus. Have figured out decent routes for S6 and S5 boss, but S5 is still a bit tough for me to route. It's tricky, because on a good day I can mostly wing it, and it's not like... an easy stage to memorize enemy spawns in for whatever reason, but I'm just not consistent enough to get it in a full run
• 19XX: The War Against Destiny - Just a few credits here or there. Fun game that I might want to pursue seriously at some point
• Out Zone - Same as above
• Nemesis GB -Got to final stage a few times. Final stage is hard though. Also checkpoint recoveries are hard, though I've succeeded a few times. I think this one hits a good place in terms of being handheld-friendly but not overly claustrophobic. The small hitbox probably helps with this. Nemesis II GB starts out really hard which is deterring me from playing it as much. Parodius starts out fine, but the sexy lady boss requires super precise tapping, as I mentioned earlier.
• Cotton NGPC - Stage 5 has some really tricky spots, so I might need to come back to this later. Biggest problem is the screen crunch combined with a pretty big hitbox.

[Sweatlord_STG]

Hehe I am the same, I always try to route myself first @_@"...

What is even more satisfying... is when I start aiming higher and I watch superplays and I find sections of my route which are 100% the same as the superplay route.

Feels good!~

It is a balance though. Sometimes, it can be very difficult to do major route changes because muscle memory.

The secret to this is to entirely forget the game before trying to improve your score so that you have to relearn it anyway. At least that's how it worked out the one time I've tried to get a really good score in something (Mars Matrix).

Also, slight self-correction

It is cool how solid Konami’s GB shmup ports are. Kind of a shame they didn’t do anything on the GBC. Even just a “DX” version of Parodius would be pretty sweet.

They actually did colorize most if not all of their GB shmups in the GBC Konami Collections It's obviously not PCEngine numbers of colors, but still pretty cool stuff!

EDIT: As for what I've been playing recently:

• Giga Wing - Still my main focus. Have figured out decent routes for S6 and S5 boss, but S5 is still a bit tough for me to route. It's tricky, because on a good day I can mostly wing it, and it's not like... an easy stage to memorize enemy spawns in for whatever reason, but I'm just not consistent enough to get it in a full run
• 19XX: The War Against Destiny - Just a few credits here or there. Fun game that I might want to pursue seriously at some point
• Out Zone - Same as above
• Nemesis GB -Got to final stage a few times. Final stage is hard though. Also checkpoint recoveries are hard, though I've succeeded a few times. I think this one hits a good place in terms of being handheld-friendly but not overly claustrophobic. The small hitbox probably helps with this. Nemesis II GB starts out really hard which is deterring me from playing it as much. Parodius starts out fine, but the sexy lady boss requires super precise tapping, as I mentioned earlier.
• Cotton NGPC - Stage 5 has some really tricky spots, so I might need to come back to this later. Biggest problem is the screen crunch combined with a pretty big hitbox.

The Game Boy games by Konami are SO fucking dope. I read your post and it made me want to play them again. Srsly there is something about the GB, I mean the charme of its games due to their unique look and sound. But that's also true for any hold hardware you like.





I also own the cartridge. I just love how the music sounds in this one and how everything looks. Same for the first Contra on GB.

[LordHypnos]

The Game Boy games by Konami are SO fucking dope. I read your post and it made me want to play them again. Srsly there is something about the GB, I mean the charme of its games due to their unique look and sound. But that's also true for any hold hardware you like.

[snip]

I also own the cartridge. I just love how the music sounds in this one and how everything looks. Same for the first Contra on GB.

Yeah, the music is really fantastic, and they did a really good job on the monochrome pixel art. There's also apparently a special stage you can get (with some difficulty) in stage 4. How cool is that?

On the topic of GB Contra, both Nemesis and Contra are on the Konami GB Collection Volume 1. Imagine having that one back in the day. Looks like it commands a pretty penny nowadays, though.

They also did make parodius about as colorful as they could given the limitations on Konami GB Collection Volume 2


Also this is pretty amusing

[Sweatlord_STG]

It's funny how when you fight that one boss in Nemesis GB, the music is from Parodius.

I just googled the secret stage you were talking about. I knew about this in the PCE version but not in this one:

"There is a secret level in stage 4. Right below the third skull that shoots balls at you, fly to the bottom left of the screen and stay there for two seconds. You will be taken to a secret stage."

Cool! I need to try it out.

[LordHypnos]

Cool! I need to try it out.

It's a bit tricky. there's an enemy in the way who you don't really have a great angle to destroy (I had been just flying past it), then you need to kind of back into the spot. Probably just takes a bit of practice though



(circle added to indicate spot)

[Sweatlord_STG]

Cool! I need to try it out.

It's a bit tricky. there's an enemy in the way who you don't really have a great angle to destroy (I had been just flying past it), then you need to kind of back into the spot. Probably just takes a bit of practice though



(circle added to indicate spot)

Hold on I'll try.

Did you notice stage 2 boss has the same music as the dancing woman in Parodius Da!? Kinda weird and lazy to use that asset in a Gradius game. Wait. Or was it the other way around? :O Both games are from 1990.

[Samildanach]

Cool! I need to try it out.

It's a bit tricky. there's an enemy in the way who you don't really have a great angle to destroy (I had been just flying past it), then you need to kind of back into the spot. Probably just takes a bit of practice though



(circle added to indicate spot)

Hold on I'll try.

Did you notice stage 2 boss has the same music as the dancing woman in Parodius Da!? Kinda weird and lazy to use that asset in a Gradius game. Wait. Or was it the other way around? :O Both games are from 1990.

Nemesis GB was definitely out before Parodius GB. In fact all the Nemesis boss themes are found in previous games, the first being the original Gradius boss music, second being the final boss music from Gradius II and the music for the last three first appearing as the boss music in Nemesis II on the MSX.
All four Konami shooters for the Gameboy are arguably some of the best of the system.

[Sweatlord_STG]

Cool! I need to try it out.

It's a bit tricky. there's an enemy in the way who you don't really have a great angle to destroy (I had been just flying past it), then you need to kind of back into the spot. Probably just takes a bit of practice though



(circle added to indicate spot)

Thanks! I just got there.

It's a bit tricky. there's an enemy in the way who you don't really have a great angle to destroy (I had been just flying past it), then you need to kind of back into the spot. Probably just takes a bit of practice though



(circle added to indicate spot)

Hold on I'll try.

Did you notice stage 2 boss has the same music as the dancing woman in Parodius Da!? Kinda weird and lazy to use that asset in a Gradius game. Wait. Or was it the other way around? :O Both games are from 1990.

Nemesis GB was definitely out before Parodius GB.

Yeah, but the questions is was Nemesis GB out before the first Parodius? Or rather the first Parodius that had this song? Iirc the first Parodius was on MSX but I'm not sure whether it contains the song in question. The first Parodius arcade game came after, but that one definitely had it.

It's a bit tricky. there's an enemy in the way who you don't really have a great angle to destroy (I had been just flying past it), then you need to kind of back into the spot. Probably just takes a bit of practice though



(circle added to indicate spot)

Hold on I'll try.

Did you notice stage 2 boss has the same music as the dancing woman in Parodius Da!? Kinda weird and lazy to use that asset in a Gradius game. Wait. Or was it the other way around? :O Both games are from 1990.

In fact all the Nemesis boss themes are found in previous games, the first being the original Gradius boss music, second being the final boss music from Gradius II and the music for the last three first appearing as the boss music in Nemesis II on the MSX.

Yes I know, but as you said yourself these songs are all from other Gradius games, not from an entirely different series (Parodius) that has an entirely different theme.

Which game is your avatar from?

[LordHypnos]

I think I remember a boss track that I recognized from Life Force NES (different arrangement of course), might have also been in a gradius game though

[Sweatlord_STG]

I think I remember a boss track that I recognized from Life Force NES (different arrangement of course), might have also been in a gradius game though

Yeah probably, I can't remember right now from the top of my head. There are also bosses or alterations of them in Gradius games, but I think it fits in because Salamander/Life Force are part of the Gradius series.

I don't know what it is but this topic reminded me of how much I like the GB. I also had a GG at the time, which was technically superior, but there is just something magical about the limitation of the GB. I don't need to name any games as you know them already, but there is just something so pretty and charming and appealing about them (which is true for any old system as they all had their own unique hardware that made the games look and sound distinct). It really makes me want to take out my SFC right now so I can play these games on CRT via the Super Game Boy 2. Gargoyle's Quest, Contra, Bubble Bobble Junior, Gradius 1&2, I love all those games. And there are actually dozens or even hundreds of good games on the GB imo, I think its library is one of the best besides MD, PCE, SS and PSX.

Just look at this.

[LordHypnos]

I think I remember a boss track that I recognized from Life Force NES (different arrangement of course), might have also been in a gradius game though

I'm pretty sure this is just wrong, nvm

Yeah, GB has a really excellent library. Probably one of the best of any handheld system. Perhaps some of the later ones exceed it, but it was very popular for a very long time, and got tons of games.

[Marc]

Zero Wing. It's..... crap. It feels very 'Euro'. Tedious stage design, drab, awful visuals, boring weapons..... Worst Toaplan game I've played so far.

[Steven]

lol Zero Wing has beautiful graphics, as you'd expect from Hayashi Miho and Ogihara Naoki, the two best artists who ever worked at Toaplan.

It's also way, way, WAY better than Tatsujin Ou.

[Marc]

I think it's the lack of animation that does me, it just feels lifeless. Only had a brief mess with TO, but that too seems to suffer with the 'default weapon is piss weak' problem

[Steven]

MD Zero Wing has less animation than the arcade version, but in general I think the MD version is possibly the best version of the game. MD version has a score exploit against the last boss that doesn't exist in any other version, though. Still, Zero Wing was never meant to be released at all; it was a training project for new recruits, hence Hayashi Miho's involvement, as that was her first game. She did a bunch of stuff for this game, including the stage 7 boss, which is named Miporin after her. Tomizawa Toshiaki was new at the time as well, and although he worked on Horror Story before Zero Wing, he also got put on Zero Wing and did just under half of the game's music.

But yeah, if the game seems undercooked, that's probably why.

[Sweatlord_STG]

MD Zero Wing has less animation than the arcade version, but in general I think the MD version is possibly the best version of the game. MD version has a score exploit against the last boss that doesn't exist in any other version, though. Still, Zero Wing was never meant to be released at all; it was a training project for new recruits, hence Hayashi Miho's involvement, as that was her first game. She did a bunch of stuff for this game, including the stage 7 boss, which is named Miporin after her. Tomizawa Toshiaki was new at the time as well, and although he worked on Horror Story before Zero Wing, he also got put on Zero Wing and did just under half of the game's music.

But yeah, if the game seems undercooked, that's probably why.

I've never played Zero Wing much yet, but I remember people saying the MD version was better than the arcade version for some reason, iirc. Or was that Hellfire?
It does seem a bit weird at first glance. So there are two buttons I think? Shot and grab. You can grab small enemies, then throw them away as an attack, but this gimmick seems useless? Please explain Steven-kun.

[Steven]

Arcade 1P Hellfire > MD Hellfire (which is different enough to be a different game) > arcade 2P Hellfire

MD Zero Wing has way better music than the arcade version thanks to Iwadare Noriyuki and enemies don't have super bloated HP like they do on the arcade version, so it's much nicer to actually play. Arcade extend score is so high that you get like two score extends per loop, which combines with sub-par checkpoint recovery design to make it one of the harder Toaplan games because you're pretty much fucked if you die in the wrong place and have only a tiny amount of chances to recover, but scoring is different on MD and I don't remember how it works out, just that you can milk the last boss (I think infinitely) because it gives enough score to give an extend on MD, which doesn't happen on arcade. Don't worry about Zero Wing's tractor beam except for on stage 4, or to grab an enemy to hold it as a shield if you lose your bomb. I also would not recommend the PC Engine version at all because it's super slow and boring.

[pegboy]

I kinda liked Zero Wing, it's crusty as hell but the music is incredible.

[Sweatlord_STG]

Arcade 1P Hellfire > MD Hellfire (which is different enough to be a different game) > arcade 2P Hellfire

MD Zero Wing has way better music than the arcade version thanks to Iwadare Noriyuki and enemies don't have super bloated HP like they do on the arcade version, so it's much nicer to actually play. Arcade extend score is so high that you get like two score extends per loop, which combines with sub-par checkpoint recovery design to make it one of the harder Toaplan games because you're pretty much fucked if you die in the wrong place and have only a tiny amount of chances to recover, but scoring is different on MD and I don't remember how it works out, just that you can milk the last boss (I think infinitely) because it gives enough score to give an extend on MD, which doesn't happen on arcade. Don't worry about Zero Wing's tractor beam except for on stage 4, or to grab an enemy to hold it as a shield if you lose your bomb. I also would not recommend the PC Engine version at all because it's super slow and boring.

Oh. I didn't realize I could use them as a shield, although it's quite obvious Doesn't that mean I should just always hold an enemy while shooting?

[Steven]

I kinda liked Zero Wing, it's crusty as hell but the music is incredible.

I have days where I have a lot of fun with Zero Wing. Second half of the game is pretty good, too, as the game really picks up once you get to Submarine Tunnel. Of course you can skip most of that with the warp that's unique to the arcade 1P version, but that's no fun and it feels like cheating.

As for the music, this is pretty much obligatory at this point every time the music is mentioned: https://youtu.be/X1wpqKazoWM?si=wHMQFvC-Wc6hLifd
^ that is one of Tomizawa-san's tracks, but Tomizawa-san's goal with that one was to make it as much like Uemura-san's music as possible, and everyone likes it, including Uemura-san, hence the new arranged version.

Oh. I didn't realize I could use them as a shield, although it's quite obvious Doesn't that mean I should just always hold an enemy while shooting?

Basically if you don't have a bomb, grab an enemy and hold it and that's your shield until you get a bomb. If you see a bomb, pick it up and hold it as long as you can, unless of course you are on stage 4 and need to pick up the Pipirus to get a ton of points. You basically should play that entire stage using nothing but the tractor beam until you get to the boss so you don't kill them by mistake and lose the points. Don't throw enemies off the screen because you won't get any points from it. If you're going to throw an enemy, throw it into something so it is destroyed and you get points.

[AGermanArtist]

Had to pause to enthuse about some super cheap games I've just picked up on Steam.
I bought Red Blue Cell after loving the demo, so I tried GanaBlade's demo, and bought that and love it (Steam reports no controller support, but it does - my 8-bit-do works just fine), tried the G Warrior demo and of course I bought that too and now Zombies Attack is in my Wishlist having also loved that demo. Looks like we have a new Terarin situation here. These are great games

[Starfighter]

I'm currently giving Progear a real try. I've only tried it for a few minutes before, never even seeing anything past stage 2. This time I've decided to try and go for a 1CC (well, at least the first loop), so I've gathered some homework on it (BareKnuckleRoo's gem cancelling guide, the STG Weekly #46 episode, Mark and Juju Kenobi's review, Aktane's quick start guide, CatPat's retrospective episode, various superplay videos and of course text based information on here and on the shmups wiki). I'm not confident I'll reach my goal mainly because it's a horizontal shmup (I just can't dodge anything in those, every dodge forces me to stop thinking about anything else and just focus on my ship and the two or three bullets near me and I lose all birds eye perspective) but I sure want to really give it my best!

Edit: Oh, and I noticed that the US version (which is also present on the Capcom collection, so I'm tempted to go for that) is supposed to have weaker enemies and fewer bullets. Does this make things easier or is it one of those cases where a lower difficulty paradoxically makes it harder (more intense bullet patterns can sometimes force the player into a better rhythm and help with faster reaching score based extends etc)?

Edit 2: I also have to figure out how to pick the "A+B+2P start forward gunpod formation type", I mean it's clearly explained but I have to figure out which buttons are P2 buttons etc on my stick. Perhaps they're on the keyboard. Or maybe I should just leave the Capcom collection and go for regular MAME where I already know how to edit P2 binds.

Edit 3: Okay so I assigned a button on my stick to be the P2 start button and followed the instructions. The gunpods are different, they now line up behind me. Weren't they supposed to line up in front of me?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I'm currently giving Progear a real try.

Good luck on the 1CC! If you build up enough gem meter by the end of stage 3, you'll have enough that you'll get a decent number of extends. It's harder than Mushi or Galuda, but not that much harder if you're bombing and going for the 1-ALL, just try to no miss no bomb to the Stage 3 boss which helps get you a nice big gem meter due to getting 2 max bomb bonuses, and then start bombing as needed from there.

A) re: difficulty in the Capcom Collection, difficulty is actually higher than intended in the US version (or was, I don't know if it's been since patched) for reasons discussed here: viewtopic.php?p=1578528#p1578528

Basically, they didn't realize that the JP default of 4 is programmed to be roughly equivalent to the US default of 2, and they decided to up the default US version difficulty to 4 to make it the "same"... which results in the English version being way harder with far faster bullets than intended because changing the English version from 2 to 4 puts it two difficulties higher than what the default was. So to get the proper experience, you have to play the Japanese version in the collection.

They might well have done the same thing with Giga Wing's US version in that collection, but because the slider seems to have no noticeable impact nobody's complained about it.

B) Your gunpod formation is adjusted by using Shot and Bomb to pick a gunner, by holding the Start button that does not change their costume (if you're playing 1P then it should be 2P and vice-versa), or if you do both of these together. So, to get the forward attack formation as P1, select your pilot by pressing and holding Shot, then continue holding Shot while on the Gunner screen. On the Gunner screen, press and hold P2 Start, then press Bomb, so that when you select your Gunner, you're holding Shot, Bomb, and P2 start all together. Hope this makes sense.

I'm not sure how the arcade collection handles P2 start for gunpod select. If that's not available, Nail's rear formation (Shot + Bomb) is decent too as it gives more spread above and below you than the default without really compromising your damage output.

[LordHypnos]

Capcom Arcade Stadium Stuff

Personally I felt like the EN version of Giga Wing on that collection was really noticeably harder. I didn't notice anything when I was playing 19XX: The War Against Destiny on EN, but I'm not very familiar with that game. I have since switched my ROM versions to JP, and Giga Wing feels normal that way. This was fairly recently on the Steam version of the collection.

As a side note, it's a bit sad that the score attack mode only allows you to play as 1P, as I've been practicing Giga Wing on 2P. Also no replays, which is unfortunate. At least the games were extremely inexpensive at $1 each, earlier this year (currently $2 so still inexpensive).

As far as my own shmup playing recently goes, I've continued to work on Giga Wing, and even got a pretty solid 27 trillion score, but I'm still way too inconsistent in a lot of places. I do really appreciate about the Takumi games that they're multiplier-based scoring leads to small improvements in scoring route/technique leading to pretty significant gains in the actual score number. This means that I already have beaten out a fair number of quick and dirty 1CCs by a lot, because I'm scoring at all, even though I have not yet 1CC'd, myself. This is satisfying even though it's an artifact of the multiplicative nature of scoring, lol.

Also, now that I have a route, and have optimized it a little bit, I find S1 and S2 to be consistently very fun just like Mars Matrix S1, in spite of having to repeat it many times. When I started playing Giga Wing, the early stages felt kind of annoying to have to slog through to get to the fun stuff. I still am less crazy about S3, but I think that's partly due to Ruby having a really rough S3 compared to others.

I've also continued to play some handheld shmups including Parodius GB. Made some progress on that. I can usually get past the sexy lady now. I keep dying on S3 just due to a combination of a lot of stuff on screen and narrow passageways. Probably need to memorize enemy spawns. I have been able to recover a few times and make it to S4 though. I still think Konami did a good job balancing their games for the small screen and limited color pallette.

I've also made some progress on Cotton NGPC. I had been stuck on the midboss of S5, which shoots out spread patterns at close range that you don't really have the time or space to react to, then it jumps up and down to limit your space further. I think I've figured out a safe spot for the first spread, which allows me to hit it with red magic once, then I can hit it with red magic again to kill and cancel the second spread, so now I just need to get good at figuring out where that spot is. This does mean that I need to make sure that my magic queue has 2 red magics right at the beginning when I fight that, which seems to be doable so far. I have managed to no miss S5 once in a full run. The final boss of that stage can also be quick killed with 1x red magic. S6 bosses seem to have more spread patterns, so that's fun. It does have some cool patterns, that I can actually dodge, as well, though.

I haven't played it much yet, but Nintendo's Solar Striker seems pretty cool. Definitely not the most complex thing designwise, but the visuals are very clean, and the action is more fun than the GBC 1942 as far as really basic shoot and dodge games go. Not really on the same level as the GG Aleste games, but there's something to be said for the more basic weapon system. No power-ups to dodge, for example.

[Starfighter]

Good luck on the 1CC!

Thank you!

If you build up enough gem meter by the end of stage 3, you'll have enough that you'll get a decent number of extends. It's harder than Mushi or Galuda, but not that much harder if you're bombing and going for the 1-ALL, just try to no miss no bomb to the Stage 3 boss which helps get you a nice big gem meter due to getting 2 max bomb bonuses, and then start bombing as needed from there.

I heard something similar in one of the videos, I'll make sure to get a grip on this gem/ring thingy. At the moment I'm just using focused shot until something explodes big enough to generate rings/gems and then I switch to rapid fire until something explodes big enough to generate rings/gems etc... Not really knowing what I'm doing but I try not to worry as I'm still early in the process - I've put in perhaps an hour at this point. But with my "aaah what am I doing, let's try alternating between the shots and just try to stay alive" approach I reached my first extends pretty quickly so I imagine it's really going to pay off once I learn it properly.

difficulty is actually higher than intended in the US version

This kind of makes sense... Because I switched to the japanese version during my last run and made it to stage four without any issues (on the US version I started dying at stage 2 boss and onwards), I was like "Is this really supposed to be harder? Why am I doing better? Am I Neo in The Matrix now?".

Your gunpod formation is adjusted by using Shot and Bomb to pick a gunner, by holding the Start button that does not change their costume (if you're playing 1P then it should be 2P and vice-versa), or if you do both of these together. So, to get the forward attack formation as P1, select your pilot by pressing and holding Shot, then continue holding Shot while on the Gunner screen. On the Gunner screen, press and hold P2 Start, then press Bomb, so that when you select your Gunner, you're holding Shot, Bomb, and P2 start all together. Hope this makes sense.

Yeah, I understand completely, and followed these instructions precisely, but the gunpods ended up behind me anyway. I suspect the P2 Start bind isn't working correctly, I'll mess around with it a bit more later this evening. And if all else fails, the gunpod behind me formation was pretty sweet as you say, so it's no big deal if that's the case.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I suspect the P2 Start bind isn't working correctly,

Unfortunate if true. Her formation where it's hold 2P start only and the pods go ultrawide is also quite handy. They also rotate in a unique way, rather than moving to the front or staying still they always spin around the ship to face whatever direction they want to, so when firing upwards one will be to the left of your sprite and one will be to the right, meaning even when using the focus shot you always have a very wide spreadshot that can kill incidental enemies you're not locked onto.

As a side note, it's a bit sad that the score attack mode only allows you to play as 1P, as I've been practicing Giga Wing on 2P. Also no replays, which is unfortunate.

Annoying, but don't feel too bad. 2P side technically deals a bit more damage with its shots, but you deal so much of your damage from reflecting and that seems to be the same for both sides? At best you'll get kills on bosses like half a second sooner, you're really not that much weaker on 1P side.

[LordHypnos]

Annoying, but don't feel too bad. 2P side technically deals a bit more damage with its shots, but you deal so much of your damage from reflecting and that seems to be the same for both sides? At best you'll get kills on bosses like half a second sooner, you're really not that much weaker on 1P side.

I'd definitely believe this. I can certainly get through a lot of stuff on 1P using my current route, but there are a few parts that are noticeably tougher, like the train section of Ruby's S2. I also haven't played as many credits of it, so time will tell what kind of scores I can get on 1P.

Also, I suspect that I should be using the shield more on the train, but it's a balance of making sure that I milk some gold without timing it out (or dying, for that matter). I usually get around +1000 to +1100 chain on the train.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I'd definitely believe this. I can certainly get through a lot of stuff on 1P using my current route, but there are a few parts that are noticeably tougher, like the train section of Ruby's S2. I also haven't played as many credits of it, so time will tell what kind of scores I can get on 1P.

There's a really easy trick to the train if you're just concerned about survival: whatever side you're on can't shoot at you if you're too close to them vertically, about halfway up the screen is safe. Position yourself about halfway between the top and bottom of the screen, line up with the left hand train, and shoot away while dodging the attacks from the right. Then, use a reflect to move over to the right, sit on top of the train while halfway up from the bottom, and blow up all the traincars. Just be sure to move away when you get to the medallion as it's clever enough that it doesn't care how close you are and will happily gun you down at pointblank range. Not sure if this helps for scoring though or if it's better to get the trains to shoot at you for more reflectable bullets.

[LordHypnos]

I'd definitely believe this. I can certainly get through a lot of stuff on 1P using my current route, but there are a few parts that are noticeably tougher, like the train section of Ruby's S2. I also haven't played as many credits of it, so time will tell what kind of scores I can get on 1P.

There's a really easy trick to the train if you're just concerned about survival: whatever side you're on can't shoot at you if you're too close to them vertically, about halfway up the screen is safe. Position yourself about halfway between the top and bottom of the screen, line up with the left hand train, and shoot away while dodging the attacks from the right. Then, use a reflect to move over to the right, sit on top of the train while halfway up from the bottom, and blow up all the traincars. Just be sure to move away when you get to the medallion as it's clever enough that it doesn't care how close you are and will happily gun you down at pointblank range. Not sure if this helps for scoring though or if it's better to get the trains to shoot at you for more reflectable bullets.

That's good to know. Without being able to watch the video or try it out right now (just based on the description), I'm guessing this would probably negatively impact the chain, as the cars drop quite a few medals, and being in the middle seems like you would miss out on destroying the lower cars. I generally find the bullets easy enough to dodge at this point (though they go down more slowly on 1P, which is what makes it harder).

I usually try to take down the entire left train as quickly as possible, then do a little bit of milking on the right train car. That's really the part where I feel like I could probably optimize it more. It seems like you get more bullets to reflect when you move away from directly on top of the trains, but that also puts you at greater risk of either destroying a car that isn't on the bottom of the train, and therefore losing all the medals inside of the ones below it, or of timing out the train.

There's also probably something to be said for chains made up of smaller-value medals giving you greater gains to the multiplier, and also the (probably not insignificant) point values of the train cars, but that's a further level of optimization than I've done so far.

I definitely do appreciate your advice