Favorite Shmup things

[Andy 5]

Not favorite shmups, favorite shmup things.

-Good-quality pixel art and graphics.

-Cool ship designs.

-Lots of weak "popcorn enemies"

-Lots of tougher enemies.

-maybe a few totally insane, bad*ss enemies that take your first couple lives, but ultimately fall to your ship's guns.

-Levels that take place inside a huge enemy base or, better yet, an enormous enemy aircraft or ship.

-Visible characters to pilots your ships, complete with short diologue scenes before and after the game.

-Diologue scenes that vary with any given combination of characters you choose, like in Gunbird or Sonic Wings 2.

-Levels that take place in a large temple or ruins, complete with eerie, flame-spitting statue heads

-Creepy-as-heck organic bosses that give you shivers for a good while after, then die at the hands of your guns oozing blood and goo.

-Stationary or semi-stationary final bosses that take up up to 3/4ths of the screen, then when you kill them, the whole enemy base you're in goes kablooie.

-Bosses like that that have multiple stages, each one even harder than the last.

-Catchy music...either like most shmup music (Air Buster, R-Type, Blue Hawk,) solo-heavy metal (DoDonPachi) or funky, electronic 2-step beat with heavy square wave usage (as in many Treasure games.)

-Cool-looking shots and sounds

-Transparancy effects...not just silly dithering

-and much more...

What do you like in shmups?

[worstplayer]

Explosions.

[sikraiken]

I like how Progear requires you to restart a level in the 2nd loop unless you're at the boss of that level. It makes you appreciate when you're actually able to get through an entire level (up to the boss, atleast) without dying.

[Twiddle]

That's actually a joke at horizontal shooters that send you 2 minutes of playtime back to the checkpoint.

It's not actually very funny.

[Andy 5]

I like how Progear requires you to restart a level in the 2nd loop unless you're at the boss of that level. It makes you appreciate when you're actually able to get through an entire level (up to the boss, atleast) without dying.

Actually, level restarting before you get to the boss is a pretty good effect. I agree.

[bsidwell]

-Diologue scenes

No.

Actually, level restarting before you get to the boss is a pretty good effect. I agree.

FOR GOD'S SAKE NO

[Rob]

I like how Progear requires you to restart a level in the 2nd loop unless you're at the boss of that level. It makes you appreciate when you're actually able to get through an entire level (up to the boss, atleast) without dying.

How does that work? So can you just keep dying before the boss, getting an extra life and "milk" the stage?

[theevilfunkster]

-Diologue scenes

Fuck no, much less story sequences please. If I want that shit, I'll play an RPG.

[Super Laydock]

Nice thread topic!

-Levels that take place inside a huge enemy base or, better yet, an enormous enemy aircraft or ship.

-Visible characters to pilots your ships, complete with short diologue scenes before and after the game.

-Diologue scenes that vary with any given combination of characters you choose, like in Gunbird or Sonic Wings 2.

-Levels that take place in a large temple or ruins, complete with eerie, flame-spitting statue heads

-Creepy-as-heck organic bosses that give you shivers for a good while after, then die at the hands of your guns oozing blood and goo.

-Stationary or semi-stationary final bosses that take up up to 3/4ths of the screen, then when you kill them, the whole enemy base you're in goes kablooie.

-Catchy music...either like most shmup music (Air Buster, R-Type, Blue Hawk,) solo-heavy metal (DoDonPachi) or funky, electronic 2-step beat with heavy square wave usage (as in many Treasure games.)

-Cool-looking shots and sounds

-Transparancy effects...not just silly dithering

-and much more...

What do you like in shmups?

I dunno I just fancy them a lot....
And those things are all rasons that make me like them.. a lot.

ATM listening to Gradius and Salamander OST in the mix and they make me lean towards the catchy music part in combination with epic looking enemies and huge explosions...

[Rob]

-Diologue scenes

Fuck no, much less story sequences please. If I want that shit, I'll play an RPG.

I barely even want "diologue scenes" in an RPG. Keeping them well away from shooting games is critical.

The answer is obviously reflect barrier.

[shoe-sama]

The thing I like the most about shmups are teh bulletz lulz

[MathU]

I like how Andy 5 asked what things you liked in shmups, and a bunch of pretentious turds did nothing but criticize the things others liked.

[shoe-sama]

a bunch

lol

[Arvandor]

-Explosions
-Awesome weaponry (I like Batsugun on this reason alone)
-Bullet dodging
-High difficulty
-Insane replay value
-Good pick up and play. Can pop one in for 10-20 minutes and not care if you have to leave in the middle of something.

[ROBOTRON]

-Good graphics
-smooth gameplay
-nice difficulty curve
-Good music
-interesting stages
-different/weird themes

I hate repetition even if the game is good.

[sikraiken]

I like how Progear requires you to restart a level in the 2nd loop unless you're at the boss of that level. It makes you appreciate when you're actually able to get through an entire level (up to the boss, atleast) without dying.

How does that work? So can you just keep dying before the boss, getting an extra life and "milk" the stage?

From what I can remember with how the scoring works, once you die, you're ability to score decreases dramatically. You get 5M per life at the end of the game. It is not beneficial for your score to suicide and redo a level since it's impossible to make up those points you lose (plus you lose even more than 5M in the long run I think). Also, once you reach the 2nd loop, you are unable to get any more extra lives. I think the defaults on the Japan board are 3M then every 4M after. You can have a maximum of 9 lives.

[bsidwell]

- A scoring system that can be readily comprehended by normal people, OR
- A scoring system that can be safely ignored by people who aren't interested in playing for score yet

[Rob]

Also, once you reach the 2nd loop, you are unable to get any more extra lives.

Ah, that explains it. I wonder why they went with the level restarts. Restricting extends to the first round seems cheap. They should've just limited the amount of extends.

[Turrican]

-a gameplay that grabs you;
-a wonderful, inspiring atmosphere;
-a music score so good you won't be ashamed when your friends listen to it on your iPod.

Not necessarily in this order.

[zinger]

Shot powerup
Rank
Nudity

[tada]

- Shmups that flood the screen with items, sometimes so much that it slows down (i.e. Giga Wing series)
- Awesome music
- When dying isn't the end of the world. I really hate having to start all over because I made one little mistake. This is why I like Mars Matrix; at most, you lose one full GHB gauge (and your combo, but I suck too much to keep them going for long) if you die.
- Small hitboxes. It takes all the fun out of squeezing between bullets if the hitbox is more than about 10x10 pixels.
- A little difficult, but not so difficult that I am discouraged from even trying to get better. *cough* Ikaruga *cough*

[Andi]

2 player mode!

[sfried]

- Multiple weapons (not really a requirement, but more of a preference)

- Pumping music

- Varying levels and level design

- Surprises! (Good shmups usually have this. Great shmups know how to implement them well into gameplay)

- No-penalty bomb usage (Suck it, ZUN!)

- Great bosses battle designs (usually has varying limbs and attacks, as well as varying attack points.)

- Awsome ship designs

- Shit blows up!

- Bonus points for varying paths (different from loops), and other little hidden secrets within the playing field

I think I'll quote from other people from here:

I hate repetition even if the game is good.

A scoring system that can be safely ignored by people who aren't interested in playing for score yet

Basically, easy to learn, a bit more difficult to complete, and very hard to master.

[JoshF]

- No-penalty bomb usage (Suck it, ZUN!)

It's actually a reward in reverse.

[tada]

- No-penalty bomb usage (Suck it, ZUN!)

Truth. I actually like being rewarded for good bomb, or other special technique (i.e. reflect barrier) usage. Many of the shmup ideas I have floating around in my brain revolve around this (or the scoring, at least). Unfortunately, I have nowhere near the programming/art/music skills to put them together.

[sfried]

- No-penalty bomb usage (Suck it, ZUN!)

Truth. I actually like being rewarded for good bomb, or other special technique (i.e. reflect barrier) usage. Many of the shmup ideas I have floating around in my brain revolve around this (or the scoring, at least). Unfortunately, I have nowhere near the programming/art/music skills to put them together.

It should be that a player should be rewarded for intelligent bomb usage, but should NEVER be penalized for using bombs in other situations, such as getting out of a tight spot, or even if it means just wasting it. None of that NO SPELL CARD crap.

A good idea would be to implement a simultaneous enemies destoryed combo to up the meter. If a bomb is used in such a way to end a combo in a bang (imagine Einhander's combo meter coupled with bombing capability), it could potentially end up getting you a higher score than not using any bombs at all. Needless to say, wasting bombs << saving bombs <<< using bombs wisely.

[Arvandor]

I don't mind games that discourage bomb use score-wise, since it ties in with a risk versus reward style that I greatly appretiate. Nothing's stopping you from whoring out bombs like a madman to get that Dodonpachi 1cc, but to get a good score? Yeah...

[sfried]

I don't mind games that discourage bomb use score-wise, since it ties in with a risk versus reward style that I greatly appretiate. Nothing's stopping you from whoring out bombs like a madman to get that Dodonpachi 1cc, but to get a good score? Yeah...

As I've said earlier: Wasting bombs should get you a lower score than just saving them. But using bombs in exceptionally "tasty" areas can wield you nice bonuses that should be greater than just keeping all your bombs going through the whole level. There are three tiers of mastery at work: learning how to use bombs (to get you out of tight places), how to conserve them, and knowing when to purposefully deploy them to get even higher scores. The whole point that there is still a risk/reward, only it does not feel like a penalty for goofing off. You can still end up with optimally high score, leaving it up to the player if he/she wants to hone them even further, or feel satisfied with what he/she has. It's better than nothing.

I hate it when there are forced methods of scoring in place at shmups. In fact, I hate "penalties," I like "bonuses."

The point is to encourage people playing simply for survival to get scoring. Not the other way around. Besides, what's the use of bombs if you simply put them there not to be used? And if you say "survival", wouldn't shields be more appropriate?

[Arvandor]

Well... I've always understood, that while there are things in shooters that I really don't like, other people probably like those same qualities. Having such diversity can only be a good thing, really. Makes it so there's something everyone can enjoy, and lots of things everyone can complain about

For those who don't like to be penalized for such things as bombing, there's games like Gunbird 2 (which gives you points for dangerous bombing) or ESPgaluda which has no penalties. For those who like being penalized for merely existing, and shooting, and bombing, and thinking too much, and tapping right on the stick, and ... well... You get my point... There's Battle Garegga -_^

But yeah, I understand what you mean. It's just not something that bothers me personally is all. Not like the "you die you're screwed" syndrome.

[eight]

Explosions.

Woah, I was gonna post exactly that and nothing else.