What's the longest time you've spent on a shmup?

durias · Post by **durias** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 11:54 pm

From some of the things I'm reading here, sometimes it takes years to beat certain games? Yow! I have my work cut out for me.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Tue May 01, 2007 12:38 am

I'll probably never stop putting time into the shmups that I do play since chances of me 1CC'ing them or getting a score I'm satisfied with are close to nil.

Veracity · Post by **Veracity** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:32 am

You might find this an interesting thread, if you've not seen it. One does not merely 'beat' a shmup [/sean]. Seriously, turning it into unpaid work (which it more or less is, obviously, but it's advisable to fool yourself otherwise) is a sure-fire way to lose interest. If you want an analogy with other modern genres, I think 2d shooters bear closer comparison with relatively open-ended sandboxes than narrative-heavy stuff that you experience once and discard.

If you (not unreasonably) can't play without goals, identify some that seem attainable and entertaining and go for them - if a 1cc seems out of reach, turn the difficulty down, focus on clearing in 3 credits, no-missing a particular stage, getting a flash score on an early stage where the game's not trying too hard to kill you so it's easier, whatever. Even once you can 1cc a game, there's usually plenty of scope for improvement if you're still interested. Shooters are 'finished' when you're tired of them (temporarily or otherwise), not when you achieve some externally-imposed milestone. All in my not especially humble opinion, naturally.

durias · Post by **durias** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:38 am

@ Veracity

Well said/typed.

I especially appreciate this observation of yours: "Shooters are 'finished' when you're tired of them (temporarily or otherwise)."

And the tread you pointed me to is super interesting.

Very cool.

DEL · Post by **DEL** » Tue May 01, 2007 8:30 am

I noticed that I didn't reply to the previous thread on this topic.

I guess 2 years on Truxton/Tatsujin is the longest time I've spent on a single game. 1st loop was 2 weeks, 2nd loop was the third week, but the Counter Stop @7 loops+ came after a year (as far as I can remember).

Border Down 6D ALL was 10 months (est.400hrs), which could have been drastically reduced if I'd had access to Jap replays before the 8th month

.
The Border Down WR holders are at 4/5 years and counting...

Mills has 12 years chalked up on Strikers 1945. He always keeps his hand in on that game, just incase he ever comes across a 2.2mil+ replay so that he can fill in the gaps and chase the WRs.

PROMETHEUS · Post by **PROMETHEUS** » Tue May 01, 2007 10:03 am

Dodonpachi : ~200 hours
EspRaDe : 45 hours
Pulstar : 45 hours
Guwange : 45 hours
Cyvern : 26 hours
Blazing Star : 25 hours
Gunbird 2 : 5 hours
Giga Wing : 4 hours
Donpachi : 3 hours
Battle Bakraid : 3 hours
Aero Sonic Fighters 3 : 3 hours
Vasara : 2 hours
Dimahoo, Dangun Feveron, Dragon Blaze, Storm Blade, R-Type : 1 hour
1944 : Loop Master, Air Gallet, Armed Police Batrider, Batsugun, Raiden, Air Duel, Gradius 3, Gunbird : Around 30 min

This is all shmups I played ^_^!

ave · Post by **ave** » Tue May 01, 2007 10:05 am

Ikaruga: it says 320hrs on DC, 90 on GC.

I don't know about the other shmups, but it'll propably be 20-30hrs for each dodonpachi Daioujou, DoDonPachi and ESPGaluda as well.

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Tue May 01, 2007 10:34 am

I had like 60 or so hours between the two versions of Ikaruga. I've been playing ESP Ra.De. on my cab almost every day since late August of last year.

bay · Post by **bay** » Tue May 01, 2007 3:50 pm

i spend most of my dedicated time when there is something going on with a shmup, a highscore week, etc.

as i rotate the games i play frequently to keep it diverse, i can't really say i've invested more than 48 hours in any shmup i own.

kinda sad, but it allows me to go "hey, lets try and trump that last score" and doesn't let me feel burnt out on one game.

futurebiblehero · Post by **futurebiblehero** » Tue May 01, 2007 7:31 pm

Being a little new to the genre (or at least new to falling in love with it), 30-40 hours on Shikigami no Shiro II is the most I've currently spent.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Tue May 01, 2007 8:27 pm

GB2, Mars Matrix - 200+ hours
ZG2, GW2, Strikers 2 - 100+
DOJ, Gradius V, Gradius Gaiden, G Darius, Darius Gaiden, TF3, TF4, TF5, Einhander, R-Type Delta, Batrider, Guwange, Dragon Blaze, Shiki 2, Psyvariar 2, Giga Wing, Giga Wing Generations, Rayforce, Blazing Star, Raiden DX, Border Down, any Compile game by playing it once lol - 25+
a ton - 5+

e-peen++

durias · Post by **durias** » Tue May 01, 2007 8:48 pm

bay wrote:...something going on with a shmup, a highscore week, etc.

Sounds cool! Where do you hear about things like these? Does this forum initiate stuff like that? With the return of some older shmups by way of the Wii, it'd be great to do something like Xevious Week: High Score = Old School Ruler. Hmmm...

ghibli99 · Post by **ghibli99** » Tue May 01, 2007 11:13 pm

For better or for worse, at one time (meaning not taking weeklong or month/yearlong breaks), I've probably put in more hours on Radiant Silvergun than any other shooter. At the time when it came out, the combos, scrapes, dog tags, etc. all got the better of me, and I was a serious junkie, and although there were times where I just played it as a straight shooter, chipping away at it to master each stage to maximize score was really fun. This game catches a lot of flak, but I don't care, I think it was one of the pioneers for the new generation of shooters.

Lifetime, however, is probably R-Type. That game still intimidates me for some reason, no matter how well I have the levels memorized. It's like Shinobi... I know every pattern every step of the way, but there are times where I'll still somehow catch a stray bullet in 1-1 or get bopped in the head with one of Ken Oh's fireballs in 1-3. Weird how some games are like that.

Skyline · Post by **Skyline** » Wed May 02, 2007 7:55 am

Although this is just a guess, I'd say about 90 hours have been clocked into Gigawing, combining MAME, DC and CPS-2.

35 hours on Trizeal.

Everything else? Dunno...

My friend David probably played Radiant Silvergun for a good 80 or more hours in these past two months. He did manage a 1CC, hell almost one-lifed it.

Kaiser · Post by **Kaiser** » Wed May 02, 2007 8:22 am

Many hours on Mushi arrange, probably 80-100+ (6 months)

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Wed May 02, 2007 6:33 pm

Gradius: 1-2 hours for a 1cc
Gradius V: 50+ hours - up to 2-4
Dimahoo - 30-50 hours - up to 9 million
Strikers 1945: ~20 hours for a 1cc
Strikers 1945 II: ~10-15 hours for a 1cc
Strikers 1945 III: ~200 hours (a few plays every week or two for almost 4 years) - up to 2-6

Ayanami · Post by **Ayanami** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:40 pm

Can't say for sure how much time I have put into some games, I know quite a bit. My Gradius V has me timed for about 50 hours though.

TKGB_Mental_Gear · Post by **TKGB_Mental_Gear** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:46 pm

I'm a beginner shmuper so the most I've put is 30 min. for Battle Garegga.

Sensato Kurai · Post by **Sensato Kurai** » Thu May 03, 2007 2:33 am

Wow, I never figured one could spend hundreds of hours on a single shmup. I find this simply amazing!

I don't think I've ever spent more than 50 hours on any shmup. The ones I've played the most must be Ikaruga, Gradius V, Donpachi and Chaos Field, about 30-50 hours each. I clearly haven't master any of those yet though and, at this time, I do realize that it could take hundreds of hours to do so. I'll keep training...

SPACE HARRIER · Post by **SPACE HARRIER** » Thu May 03, 2007 5:42 pm

From 1979 till the day I die...

Post by **Shatterhand** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:05 pm

Since I got Aleste 2 (around 1989) up until about year 2000 I used to play Aleste 2 a lot. I've 1cc it hundred of times. I have no idea of how many hours I clocked on it..

durias · Post by **durias** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:37 pm

SPACE HARRIER wrote:From 1979 till the day I die...

That's why I dig the shmup!

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:21 pm

PROMETHEUS wrote: Armed Police Batrider Around 30 min

APB deserves at least two hours of test playing before being discarded!

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 7:31 pm

Practicing Thunder Force V: Total time 90 hours. On a single session: 9hrs.

stuminator · Post by **stuminator** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 4:54 pm

I've logged well over 100 hours on Donpachi.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 2:02 am

About 3.5 hours on Raiden II once. That's it! As much as I love shmups, I just can't bring myself to spend much longer then that on one.