Most inessential Psikyo vert.

[Rob]

My problem with Space Bomber is how boring some of it is. The stages where the objective is just to hit a string of enemies, while basically dodging nothing. The boss stages are fun.

[Strider77]

It's glorified space invaders

[landshark]

My problem with Space Bomber is how boring some of it is. The stages where the objective is just to hit a string of enemies, while basically dodging nothing. The boss stages are fun.

That last boss (stages 6-2/6-3/6-4) is crazy.

I still find the game fun. Trying to find that right point to get the 100k bonus.

[Rob]

I'm not sure why you dislike it so much.

Tried it again, all ships (except the hidden one). Everything I posted still applies. Very very bland levels, worst ship selection since Sonic Wings.

[Frogacuda]

samurai ace, gunbird and strikers are all more inessential than 1999.

Strikers is not inessential. You have to admire game with the courage to tell the story of World War II the way it really was; that it wasn't about Hitler or Musolini, but a race of giant alien crab monstors that live under the moon's surface, and it pays tribute to the real heroes, who somehow managed to fly their propellor planes through space to save us all.

[Pirate1019]

Strikers is not inessential. You have to admire game with the courage to tell the story of World War II the way it really was; that it wasn't about Hitler or Musolini, but a race of giant alien crab monstors that live under the moon's surface, and it pays tribute to the real heroes, who somehow managed to fly their propellor planes through space to save us all.

I laughed out loud.

(LOL for you instant messenger types.)

...Wait. WWII wasn't about Hitler?

[Icarus]

Hell no. Giant monsters, transforming mecha, and impromptu space travel with propellor-based aircraft.
Didn't you read your history books? ^_-

[Rob]

Strikers 1945 is less inessential than Strikers 1999, which is completely inessential.

Strikers 1945 II is the essential one.

[Pirate1019]

My teachers must have lied to me when they said that archaic things like propellar air crafts could never conquer the final frontier. Pfft. I'll bet there is air in space too. My schooling has done me a lot of good.

[Frogacuda]

My teachers must have lied to me when they said that archaic things like propellar air crafts could never conquer the final frontier. Pfft. I'll bet there is air in space too. My schooling has done me a lot of good.

The space-crab lobbies make sure that stuff doesn't get taught in our schools. Only Strikers has the balls to tell the real story.

[Pirate1019]

The space-crab lobbies make sure that stuff doesn't get taught in our schools. Only Strikers has the balls to tell the real story.

Ahh it all makes sense. I knew it would lead to politics.


Anyway, of the Psikyo games I've played: GunBird, GunBird2, Samurai Aces, and Strikers 1945II. Yeah, a lot I know. The 'least essential' one in my opinion would have to be Samurai Aces.

Now, withold your judgement upon me until I elaborate.

I have only played 4 of Psikyo's games. I'm all for a 'Back to Basics' approach with a simple control scheme and everything (I really enjoy Cho's Noiz2a). But Psikyo's games seem stuck in the middle for me. They can't decide between the maximalist or minimalist approach, so they try to find a happy medium in between but just manage to make games that (for the most part) have the primary powerup and bomb items, but almost no scoring system to note. I may not be a fountain of knowledge when it comes to shmups, but the scoring systems are one of the most core aspects of the game.

The above applies to every Psikyo game I have played, and from what I read, most of the others as well.

The problems that make Samurai Aces the least essential to me are:
The settings seem bland to me
Very little if any difference between ships/characters (at least in my eyes.)
Very empty and void of anything interesting.
Even less of a scoring system than the rest of Psikyo's games (I think...)

Now, if you remember that this is all coming from one of the only american kids born during or after the year 1990 that gives two shits about Shmups or has even heard about psikyo, let alone played any of their games, then feel free to take my two cents and throw them in the trash and then scold me for bothering to pick up two of Americas most useless currency.

(I enjoy writing long winded forum posts that make me sound knowledgable. Eat me.)

[Rob]

That seemed reasonable to me. Samurai Aces is the first Psikyo game, so the most basic gameplay-wise. The scoring system is indeed a joke (in GB too, those 200pt. coins are embarrassing). Auto power-downs also hurts a lot. The charge shots are fairly worthless.

The things it has going for it:
-It is playable.
-Theme/graphics is not bad.
-One of their better soundtracks.

I think recap once said this game won some arcade shooter of the year award...

[Ghegs]

I think recap once said this game won some arcade shooter of the year award...

It was oxtsu, but yeah, in '93.

The lack of Sol Divide in this thread is worrying me. I'm not saying Ace or Gunbird are their best games, but I'd say they were definately essential. They were their first shmups and the company used them as the base for the Psikyo-formula as they slowly (a bit too slowly, maybe) built towards the largely undisputed geniouses of Dragon Blaze and Gunbird 2.

Sol Divide is the bastard child that has nothing to with the previous or future games. And unlike their other games which take a step away from the tried-and-true formula, it sucks. So, inessential.

[Rob]

Yeah, I did say "vert" in the title to limit it to their main line of games. Whenever they strayed from it they tended to fail pretty bad. Pilot Kids is never mentioned. Zero Gunner 1 seems to be disliked. Sol Divide is garbage.

[Ghegs]

Yeah, I did say "vert" in the title to limit it to their main line of games.

So you did. I just woke up and managed to not see it. Nevermind, then.

[mulletgeezer]

Auto power-downs also hurts a lot

Have you ever seen the flyer for Aero Fighters that lists the key features of the game, one of them being "Full Power for Limited Time"? This explains a lot about the evolution of Psikyo games, or rather the lack of it

[Icarus]

If only Psikyo had the same quality Engrish as the Neo Geo batch of shooters.
"Full Power for Limited Time?" "GET IT MORE!"

[mulletgeezer]

Indeed. I love all that stuff, one of my fave features of Blazing Star was the retarded "Collected all Panels" and i remember the box blurb for Last Resort had something like "Journey to shooting world! Take off and destroy enemies with various shooting!" We should really set up us the major archive of shmup engrish one day.

[Icarus]

Seriously, if Psikyo mixed the gameplay of an improved, more fun Gunbird with the Engrish of Twinkle Star Sprites, I think I'd have a new game in my top ten. TSS had the best gameplay on the Neo with the most comical interludes ever, an awesome two-hit combo.

A shmup Engrish archive would be funny. Probably dominated by Zero Wing and Neo games though. ^_-

[Strider77]

was Zero Gunner 1 on sega's model 2 board? anyone have links to vids and pics of it.... I've never seen it but I thought I remembered it was on the model 2...[/quote]

[Macaw]

I think the Gunbird/strikers scoring system wouldve been more interesting if the bonus for successful medal chaining constantly got bigger instead of reaching max after 4 or so medals. Now that wouldve made the games a whole lot more addictive...

[Icarus]

I think the Gunbird/strikers scoring system wouldve been more interesting if the bonus for successful medal chaining constantly got bigger instead of reaching max after 4 or so medals. Now that wouldve made the games a whole lot more addictive...

A good point, but I don't think it would have fitted in with Psikyo's absurdly low scoring for a modern game ethic. Usually I like to feel that I've achieved something if I perform a new scoring technique and get a good amount of points added to my score. With Psikyo however, you can do all sorts of daring maneuvers and only tag about 1,000pts extra to your score. I've have several credits in a row on many Psikyo games where this is the case.

If you dropped the bullet count by about 50%, you could claim that Psikyo is a retro game, the scoring potential is so low. Then again, even Star Force players can score 10mil, 6mil more than the WR holders in the majority of Psikyo games, and on later levels it has roughly the same amount of bullets. ^_-

[Rob]

I don't know, about a specific number length, there's always something special about a million, since it applies to almost all Psikyo games (as a first goal, and every successive million is a milestone). The bulk of multi-million, billion, etc. point scores almost devalues the size of scores. Except for Takumi. They know what's up. If you're going to make a ridiculously high scoring potential, go for the gold!

improved, more fun Gunbird

And they called this game affectionately 2.

With Psikyo however, you can do all sorts of daring maneuvers and only tag about 1,000pts extra to your score.

Nah. If you have someone just shooting through the stages in GB2 or DB and someone playing for score as well, you can tell. After the first three or four stages there'd be about a few hundred thousand point difference.

You have to be consistent with the coin chaining in GB2. If you mess up a coin, you lose at least 4,500 pts. every time. Missing a coin (not touching it at all) is a potential 4,000 loss. Etc. It could've been a little more. But I also like how it feels just enough to feel "important" though not the focus. It feels like a solid extra layer while clearing the stages. Like a technical bonus.

[Icarus]

The bulk of multi-million, billion, etc. point scores almost devalues the size of scores.

Not when there's enough scoring techniques to make a million. There are enjoyable score-based games that give you enough to do to make your score, and every trick is worth a good amount, which makes it worth the effort.

All you do in Psikyo is shoot stuff, occasionally get a coin/medal. Oh, Tech Bonus this boss if you can. OoooOoOoOOOoooooooooooo... That was worth... what? 50,000pts? Wow.

And they called this game affectionately 2.

I'm one of the few that thinks Gunbird 2 isn't all that either. Just something about the Gunbird series that never really interested me.

Nah. If you have someone just shooting through the stages in GB2 or DB and someone playing for score as well, you can tell. After the first three or four stages there'd be about a few hundred thousand point difference.

I shoot for score all the time, and even when I'm playing at my best and using new techniques, my score is only ever 1k higher than the last. Low-scoring-limit games just don't give me the thrill of the chase.

[Rob]

I shoot for score all the time, and even when I'm playing at my best and using new techniques, my score is only ever 1k higher than the last.

In GB2 I notice differences of 50,000-100,000 by the end of 3 if I'm doing bad or good (good 520,000 or more... stage order also makes a bit of difference, damn Japan stage). Unless you can get a 70+ coin chain every time, you should notice more than a 1k difference. In that game. DB is the only other of their regular games to offer much of a difference, since you can get gold coins from every enemy. Clumps of 200pts., but it adds up. +working in the gold idol +boss bonus

[Strider77]

All you do in Psikyo is shoot stuff, occasionally get a coin/medal

I've never realized until I came to this board how many folks purely play shooters for scoring. I see how that's fun for folks and gives it a competitive side. Honestly the reason I play shooters, the main reason, is because I like to shoot stuff, lots of it and be heavily assaulted in return. The biggest reason is just that for me, I don't need fancy score multipliers to be satisfied. I enjoy trying to one credit more than high scoring. It's that white knuckled aspect that keeps me coming back and wanting more of these types of games. I'm seeing that most folks hate psikyo do to scoring reasons.

I've enjoyed their games for the most part especially Strikers just b/c I like their look and I think they are fun. Plus I'm a big fan of shooters that give me a lot of "popcorn" enemies to blow up. I hate it when EVERY enemie in a shooter takes alot of hits before it blows up. Sure its totally fine with me to have larger enemies that take longer to blow up. Soukyugurentai is a really good example of a good balance for me, then again it's one of my favorite shooters ever....

Keep in mind I'm not hating on those who like scoring gimmicks, I just never realized how important it is for folks.

[Pirate1019]

That seemed reasonable to me. Samurai Aces is the first Psikyo game, so the most basic gameplay-wise. The scoring system is indeed a joke (in GB too, those 200pt. coins are embarrassing). Auto power-downs also hurts a lot. The charge shots are fairly worthless.

The things it has going for it:
-It is playable.
-Theme/graphics is not bad.
-One of their better soundtracks.

I think recap once said this game won some arcade shooter of the year award...

I actually got it right? I am flattered. I also learned something, I never knew that those coins even had anything resembling a combo system affiliated to them, I though they were just little 200pt pickups.

I've never realized until I came to this board how many folks purely play shooters for scoring. I see how that's fun for folks and gives it a competitive side. Honestly the reason I play shooters, the main reason, is because I like to shoot stuff, lots of it and be heavily assaulted in return. The biggest reason is just that for me, I don't need fancy score multipliers to be satisfied. I enjoy trying to one credit more than high scoring. It's that white knuckled aspect that keeps me coming back and wanting more of these types of games. I'm seeing that most folks hate psikyo do to scoring reasons.

I guess I have to try to walk that line between playing shmups for score or playing for the survival aspect. Both ideas are appealing to me. Maybe that's why I never achieve anything in Shmups. I have to split my efforts between the survival aspect (1cc a game) or the scoring/chaining aspect (highscores) so I end up getting nowhere (sort of like my opinion on psikyo's shmups). My highscores are pathetic and I can never clear a game on less than 2 full credits plus a few lives on my third.

[Rob]

I never knew that those coins even had anything resembling a combo system affiliated to them

They don't. Only GB2 and Strikers 99 have a combo system for bonus items (99 just barely has one).

[Pirate1019]

eh, whatever. When I play any psikyo game I tend to concentrate on the survival aspect rather than scoring aspect. Now, some other shmups, (arcade and homebrew) are a different story.

[Rob]

If you clear one Psikyo game (1st round anyways) there's pretty much no thrill left in doing it in another Psikyo game. Eventually you'll want to chain all of the coins on GB2's USA stage.