Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Lethe]

Speaking of games with non-normalized diagonal movement, dear lord.

Jigoku Kisetsukan

I looked this up because I wasn't sure if it was what I was thinking of or not (it wasn't). Played it for 15 minutes and felt ripped off despite it being free. This is the kind of thing that makes me feel bad for castigating professional developers over much smaller mistakes.
How the hell are you supposed to do anything when pressing two directions at once spontaneously transforms you into Uotaro? Every time this happens unfocused - which is frequently, because I'm feathering the slow button like God intended - I lose track of where I am and ram into a bullet. Are you supposed to just never move around, hug the bottom tap streaming the world's slowest bullets for the whole run? Why are the bosses even smaller than TH06 ones, so small that the default character has trouble hitting them properly? Why does stage 4 have a vignette effect on the inside of the play area layered on top of the sprites, in a game that's forcing you to bottom-hug???
Oh wait, the creator obviously really likes TH11, that explains why the game's so disfunctional nvm

However, this lead to finding something similar ("original", free, tribute/ripoff patterns) which I did like: 四聖龍神録. It's a bombastic TH10-type game with great controls, extremely simple mechanics, varied stage design and greatest-hits style patterns, plenty of fairly fast and chaotic parts. If anyone else does check it out, start on hard mode and turn it down if it seems impossible, the later parts get anemic on easy mode, and the difficulty curve is all weird and inconsistent no matter what.
There's also a sequel which I very quickly decided I didn't like at all - modeled after TH15 this time, with forced checkpoint mode, and difficulty options that are either "boring" or "good luck beating the first boss idiot". I think some people never realized TH15 was a joke, it's not something you should aspire to surpass.

[To Far Away Times]

Touhou 15 had me drop the series for a while. It's the only mainline Touhou game I don't like, and I'm easy to please. I even liked Touhou when it was an arkanoid game.

[M.Knight]

Haha yeah Jigoku Kisetsukan isn't free from some jank stuff. I played the (unlockable) Dev character and I imagine its movement speed wasn't so high that the non-normalized diagonals became too wild, and I also liked his laptop that you have to drag around to attack enemies.
The main reason I enjoyed that game is that it was refreshing to have a Touhou-style fangame that didn't reuse the same characters, music, locations, etc. you've seen and heard a million times already. It has its own identity and I was pretty receptive to that, even if it isn't the tightest game to play.

[Faith]

Oops ok Faith admit error... will never ever speak bad of Daifukkatsu again lol!!~

Now routing 2-ALL for Version 1.5, and having much fun! Strategy is do Ura route for first loop, then Omote for second loop. Second loop really hurts X_____X!~

Originally did 1-ALL with B-Bomb, but definitely using B-Strong for this 2-ALL lol.

At first, I found... did not really agree with bullet cancel hyper in this game, but actually, I think Cave did it very well... especially with the hyper rank added in!!

Only big complaint is fk laser wheel and even worse if need to collect the bees!!!

Stupid Cave put most of Stage 5 bees in the laser wheel area, so need to route that crap better. But, that is why I do Ura route for first loop, because Ura have more bee to collect, so can ignore most of those bees in laser wheel lol. Also Ura bosses are fun!~ This is more "side hustle" so will be a slow clear. Doing this to relax!~

[stellar_light]

Oops ok Faith admit error... will never ever speak bad of Daifukkatsu again lol!!~

Now routing 2-ALL for Version 1.5, and having much fun! Strategy is do Ura route for first loop, then Omote for second loop. Second loop really hurts X_____X!~

Originally did 1-ALL with B-Bomb, but definitely using B-Strong for this 2-ALL lol.

At first, I found... did not really agree with bullet cancel hyper in this game, but actually, I think Cave did it very well... especially with the hyper rank added in!!

Only big complaint is fk laser wheel and even worse if need to collect the bees!!!

Stupid Cave put most of Stage 5 bees in the laser wheel area, so need to route that crap better. But, that is why I do Ura route for first loop, because Ura have more bee to collect, so can ignore most of those bees in laser wheel lol. Also Ura bosses are fun!~ This is more "side hustle" so will be a slow clear. Doing this to relax!~

Yessss, DFK 2-ALL is super fun. Ura for as much of loop 1 as you can and then Omote loop 2 is indeed the way to go. And yea, doing the second loop completely flipped how I feel about DFK's hyper system--the decision-making is so much more cohesive when you can't rely on your hyper rank to be reset to zero at the start of each stage, the revenge bullets during hyper make that rank a real threat to worry about, and there's much more urgency in controlling the rank when you know that an accidental auto-bomb is a resource that you could've used to lower rank instead. Even if I still prefer the DFK Black Label approach of being able to jump to loop 2 difficulty from the beginning, DFK 1.5 feels like it was meant for two loops with how much more naturally its systems unfold when they're not having to all be awkwardly stuffed into a 1-ALL.

[Faith]

Decided that first new STG to play for 2026 will finally be... Bullet Hell Monday X_X!!!~

Super mega hyper underrated gem. I remember I saw people look down on it in past... because it was first a mobile game @_@"...

Really very poor judgement to think that!~

From my understanding... the PC ver is not really a port, but made for the platform!!~

Playing it you would never know its roots were mobile... and it is really such a refreshing game! There are bullet patterns I had not seen before in other STG (some, make me say "borrocks" out loud >.<!~), and of course... being Crimzon Clover's biggest fan... super love the giga visual overload in this game lol. You can see, even in YouTube videos of it... YouTube compression really just gives up lol. But yes, really enjoying it very, very much. Music is lovely too! So far, been doing the "missions" mode... which is actually great to learn how to manage some interesting parts of game. Very happy so far!~

Oh, this game has best implementation of "arcade slowdown" ever! It is not "jerky," but there is a quick smooth transition when the arcade slowdown comes. Very well done!!

[Gamer707b]

I've been playing shmups on and off for the last few months. Been a while since I've played a shmup with seriousness, but I've been itching to get back to them. Went back to Darius Gaiden on Saturn working on a survival clear. I also want to get back to R-Type Delta. I've been wanting to clear it forever. Love em both, especially Delta. Every time I want to order a game, I remind myself of my never-ending backlog.

[bobhasashotgun]

So New Years Eve I fractured my right hand wrist. Which sucks, however, I remembered that most arcade shmups are two button games. Theoretically, if I map those buttons to the left triggers on my ps4 controller and use the d-pad I should be able to play these games one hand. So I gave Thunder Dragon 2 a go, and because it has such simple controls, it worked surprisingly well!
I guess I'll be spending at lot of time with that game while I recover.

[Faith]

So New Years Eve I fractured my right hand wrist.

Wish you a quick + full recovery!~ Hope not serious >.<"... sometimes such injury can last a long time, even after "recovery."

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I guess I'll be spending at lot of time with that game while I recover.

There's a number of good games you could play, even PC games using a stick with your left hand and your thumb on a button or map controls to another stick with your feet.

For simple one handed games, I'd also recommend Omega Fighter or Halley's Comet, all of the GG Aleste games, Rapid Hero, etc. Basically anything that encourages full rapid fire constantly, has no charge shot, and has at most one more button for bombs.

[Steven]

Gley Lancer has an automatic shooting option, so you can more or less play the whole game exclusively with the d-pad if you want, especially because I believe you can change speed and option behaviour with the game paused... but it's been a while and I don't entirely remember if you can do that stuff when paused. Pretty sure you can.

Alternatively, go for the Sonic Wings Reunion no shoot no bomb no miss counterstop lol

[Faith]

Alternatively, go for the Sonic Wings Reunion no shoot no bomb no miss counterstop lol

lol. Haha. Is this the game with the crazy multiplying pacifist bonus so people found out best way to score high is just never shoot?

Imagine playing Shooting Game and not Shooting @________@"...

[m.sniffles.esq]

So my Karous for Switch finally got through customs, and while the LE book and remix CD are very nice, the port itself is very bare-bones. No new modes, no unlockable bibelot (and the previous rs34 releases were pretty stacked with these), global leaderboards don't go beyond top-ten. It has tate like the original, but no reverse-tate.

That said, the game itself is still really good, and the new hi-resification is attractive (except they've muted the colors a bit of your ship and sword so it can be easy to get lost when things get chaotic.

Speaking towards:

Imagine playing Shooting Game and not Shooting

One of the BIG things people would complain about was "You can just hide in the corner and clear" and I believe they may have changed this (someone asked if a local leaderboard bug could be replicated that required getting an 'All'. I was on the ropes in the third stage so tried to hide for the remainder and a popcorn killed me. I attempted again a few credits later and met the same fate. I wonder if this will effect any 'superplayers' or whatever that make heavy use of that safe spot.

[bobhasashotgun]

Thanks for the well wishes and recommendations!

Fortunately the fracture isn't too severe and doesn't require and surgery to mend.

I think I'm going to just stick with Thunder Dragon 2 for now. I've been meaning to spend more time with that game and this a good excuse to do so. Plus I managed to beat my old high score today. It wasn't much of a high score, but improvement is improvement.

[M.Knight]

One of the BIG things people would complain about was "You can just hide in the corner and clear" and I believe they may have changed this (someone asked if a local leaderboard bug could be replicated that required getting an 'All'. I was on the ropes in the third stage so tried to hide for the remainder and a popcorn killed me. I attempted again a few credits later and met the same fate. I wonder if this will effect any 'superplayers' or whatever that make heavy use of that safe spot.

I haven't played the new port yet, but AFAIK, the corner safespot is only a thing for one of the midboss 4 attacks. And maybe that one doesn't work anymore on the new port? When standing still and beating the game you don't need to go in the corner, just the starting position works. (except for stuff like midboss 4 of course)

Now another factor that may have gotten you killed there is that your weapon level affects where in the enemy spawn table you start in each stage. If you go full cheese clear, you will not gain many levels and will actually mostly see the same early-game enemy waves even in later stages. However, since you played "properly" and then reverted to not attacking, enemy types have been updated in the meanwhile and perhaps some later ones will hit you even if you don't do anything.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Ohhhhhhh... I see

To be perfectly honest, I've never attempted the 'hide' clear before (I mean, why would I be playing a shooting game to not shoot things???), and have only heard people complaining about it (nor have I ever watched a video, because I wouldn't watch a video of someone doing nothing). So I probably misunderstood the entire thing. I didn't even realize you don't get new enemies if you don't level until now.

[M.Knight]

To be fair it also took me quite a while before realizing the wave spawn thing. I believe it must have been when watching the GOTYO/Eiden superplays where they abuse the bullet converter to get levels so high that they get the same late-game spawns in mid-game and late-game stages I believe Illvelo does the same thing but not sure to what extent you can manipulate that stuff, and it's not like you could skip the midboss rush in stage 5 or get it earlier.

I did the Karous hide clear early on but mostly to get the clear and no longer having to worry about it. This is a score game after all so better focus on that asap I was thinking. But yeah if you never really felt like doing it, there's no pressing need to. You're surely already enjoying the game way more this way anyways haha.

[Steven]

Alternatively, go for the Sonic Wings Reunion no shoot no bomb no miss counterstop lol

lol. Haha. Is this the game with the crazy multiplying pacifist bonus so people found out best way to score high is just never shoot?

Imagine playing Shooting Game and not Shooting @________@"...

lol that's right~

I knew this game would be useful for something!

I tried playing Hishouzame without shooting once. It did not go well.

[ivansirijillo13]

I'm playing Dodonpachi DOJ Black Label, practicing for the 1CC but I don't find it very fun to play coming from Ketsui, I can't seem to find a way to get consistent, sometimes I die on the stage 5 boss and most times at level 3 or something like that, maybe I'll drop it and play something else for a while

[Faith]

I'm playing Dodonpachi DOJ Black Label, practicing for the 1CC but I don't find it very fun to play coming from Ketsui, I can't seem to find a way to get consistent, sometimes I die on the stage 5 boss and most times at level 3 or something like that, maybe I'll drop it and play something else for a while

For many DDP games, usually, just need to find the mode that you like. Like, for Daifukkatsu, there are like... a million versions lol. Many different arranges. Hey, actually, that reminds me!!! Since you like Ketsui, do you know of Daifukkatsu Black Label Arrange AKA Ketsuipachi??? It combines DDP and Ketsui, you even play using Tiger Schwert ship, and have Ketsui chips! Maybe this is 100% what you need! Go search video of it, it is a very very cool mode. This is what you need, I think haha X_X!~

[Steven]

Hot tea and Super Space Sniper™



First STG this year, and first one since I got crushed by Halley's Comet at Taito Hey in under 20 seconds on December 23. I was not feeling good on that day and it showed.

Last year I felt like complete shit for most of the year and almost never wanted to play STGs, so I only played them during a period of about two or three weeks out of the whole year when I felt good enough to play. For some reason, today was a day where I suddenly thought "WTF am I doing?!?! I need to be playing Out Zone right the hell now." I am extremely rusty and can barely clear even super easy games like this one, but fortunately, the only reason that I game overed was because I had to go to work and had to intentionally stop playing on 2-4. That's probably a good sign. Maybe I'll counterstop this game this year. I said I'd do it a year and a half ago, but then I didn't do it. Maybe now is good, but first, rehabilitation must happen.

Not sure if I'm going to play this game like NOW now, because it's often very cold in my room with the Astro because there is a vent just above the Astro that I cannot close, so that room is permanently exposed to the outside air temperature, but it felt good enough today to be in that room long enough to play. Might have to wait until it's warmer. In the meantime, I wonder if ShotTriggers games are still stuttering on PS5. I really hope not. I really want to get back into playing these games this year.

[Acid]

Hellsinker. Still in the process of getting fluent with the move set of Minogame.

[ivansirijillo13]

I'm playing Dodonpachi DOJ Black Label, practicing for the 1CC but I don't find it very fun to play coming from Ketsui, I can't seem to find a way to get consistent, sometimes I die on the stage 5 boss and most times at level 3 or something like that, maybe I'll drop it and play something else for a while

For many DDP games, usually, just need to find the mode that you like. Like, for Daifukkatsu, there are like... a million versions lol. Many different arranges. Hey, actually, that reminds me!!! Since you like Ketsui, do you know of Daifukkatsu Black Label Arrange AKA Ketsuipachi??? It combines DDP and Ketsui, you even play using Tiger Schwert ship, and have Ketsui chips! Maybe this is 100% what you need! Go search video of it, it is a very very cool mode. This is what you need, I think haha X_X!~

I did not know about that mode, sounds amazing! Thank you! I kept playing DOJ, got the game a little more and had more fun with the black label version at the end, managed to get a 1-All so that was cool but I will definitely try that Ketsui mode on Daifukkatsu

[EmperorIng]

I had something come over me today, which was to actually boot up my dreamcast instead of just relying on flycast. So I dug out my copy of Giga Wing 2 (since I've been obsessed with Takumi games the last month or so), and managed to get a nice 1cc on the ol' machine on my trinitron, like a good proper dadgamer



71 quadrillion! In ages past that would put you in the realm of legends, but nowadays the ceiling for the game is higher than that! Marus has an 80quadrillion best, while my best is currently 75 (and the world records are in the high 80s). Still, getting relatively close to my old best is a good sign when the run here had so many mistakes. I haven't posted my goals in the new goals thread yet but I definitely wanna shoot for that 80q ceiling!

[DarkSlayer]

I have been playing Night Raid by Takumi on ps1. Somehow only found out about this game today, it’s pretty wild and energetic! I kinda like the rock soundtrack I can’t lie.

One of those games where you need to blur your eyes and take in the whole screen at once. Short and sharp, I love the pacing as well.

I can’t workout, when you do the special attack and lauch the ghost ship that smashes into enemy ships, can you control/direct where it goes or just watch?

I think I prefer it to giga wing, it feels much less sluggish

Still not as good as the dc/rom hack version of mars matrix but that’s a pretty high bar

[bobhasashotgun]

I have been playing Night Raid by Takumi on ps1. Somehow only found out about this game today, it’s pretty wild and energetic!

I haven't tried that one myself, but apperently you can just cheese the game by hiding in the top left corner. I imagine that's one of the main reasons why the game just sorta slipped into obscurity.

[DarkSlayer]

That explains, I was very surprised to find out it came out AFTER mars matrix. I though it preceded both mars matrix and gigawing, not quite got the production quality of those games.

Really digging stage 4

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I can’t workout, when you do the special attack and lauch the ghost ship that smashes into enemy ships, can you control/direct where it goes or just watch?

The Hug Launcher (yes that's the name) is such a cool name for a special attack. So, how it works is that when you press the button, it shoots straight forward and tries to latch onto an enemy. It then automatically bounces back and forth off enemies, with you invincible the whole time. It tries to bounce off enemies nearby as much as it can, but I think there's a max number of hits to it. Also, if you look at the bottom of the screen, you'll see a meter appears when you fire it. The trick is rapidly rotating the arcade stick recharges this meter which affects how long it'll bounce for, so fire it then spin the arcade stick in circles to maximize how long it's out.

Also note that tapping shot causes the bullets to focus in rather than firing in a spread.

[DarkSlayer]

The Hug Launcher (yes that's the name) is such a cool name for a special attack. So, how it works is that when you press the button, it shoots straight forward and tries to latch onto an enemy. It then automatically bounces back and forth off enemies, with you invincible the whole time. It tries to bounce off enemies nearby as much as it can, but I think there's a max number of hits to it. Also, if you look at the bottom of the screen, you'll see a meter appears when you fire it. The trick is rapidly rotating the arcade stick recharges this meter which affects how long it'll bounce for, so fire it then spin the arcade stick in circles to maximize how long it's out.

Also note that tapping shot causes the bullets to focus in rather than firing in a spread.

That is probably the coolest special attack name in a shmup


Ok nice, so fire it off and go ham on the joystick in circles. Think I played a triangle service game with a similar idea!

Thanks for the explanation

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Hug Launcher (yes that's the name) is such a cool name for a special attack. So, how it works is that when you press the button, it shoots straight forward and tries to latch onto an enemy. It then automatically bounces back and forth off enemies, with you invincible the whole time. It tries to bounce off enemies nearby as much as it can, but I think there's a max number of hits to it. Also, if you look at the bottom of the screen, you'll see a meter appears when you fire it. The trick is rapidly rotating the arcade stick recharges this meter which affects how long it'll bounce for, so fire it then spin the arcade stick in circles to maximize how long it's out.

Also note that tapping shot causes the bullets to focus in rather than firing in a spread.

That is probably the coolest special attack name in a shmup


Ok nice, so fire it off and go ham on the joystick in circles. Think I played a triangle service game with a similar idea!

Thanks for the explanation

Takumi released Night Raid as a dedicated Taito G-Card kit for use on the Taito G-Net arcade motherboard with support for two player co-op + points counter GUI shown on-screen in "real-time." When Takumi released the PSX port of NR, they cut out the two-player co-op feature thus making it an single player stg excursion at best + points counter GUI was removed as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~