Favourite Amiga shmup?

[Shatterhand]

Yes, let's go on forever. That's the point

And what the hell is "ENOUGO" ?


Of course Lemmings would be on my list. But I am now too lazy to post something

[MJR]

Your admiration for uridium2 confuses me, so much even, that I might have to give it another go..since I have it installed on my A1200.. I have a vague memory that I actually enjoyed the shooting section, but when I had to control some robot to shoot the core, I came bored so quickly that I rebooted immediately..

hmph.

But what about stardust and super stardust?

[Shatterhand]

both are great.



The robot sections are pretty easy, and then the "bonus round" that comes after it can be skipped.

[bcass]

The Amiga Stardust games were too difficult for their own good IMO.

That core section of Uridium 2 is totally optional (almost like a bonus stage). Hold your fire button to instantly activate the transport and fly into it to end the level. I wouldn't try playing Uridium 2 with a joystick either. Use a joypad (although I used to use a modified Atari 800 XL so I could use keys).

[Shatterhand]

The core can be skipped too? My memory was telling me you can only skip that when the core is destroyed.

[MJR]

That core section of Uridium 2 is totally optional (almost like a bonus stage). Hold your fire button to instantly activate the transport and fly into it to end the level. .

that is good to know

[bcass]

The core can be skipped too? My memory was telling me you can only skip that when the core is destroyed.

Actually, I think you might be right. I was only playing the game last week too...

[General Zod]

I opted other.

Hybris and Battle Sqaudran. Epic games! R-Type and Xenon series were great too but for me the best Shmup on the Amiga was Project X - The story waits for a power up!

[MJR]

I opted other.

Hybris and Battle Sqaudran. Epic games! R-Type and Xenon series were great too but for me the best Shmup on the Amiga was Project X - The story waits for a power up!

Whoa, I could have agreed with you on everything else except with project X - unless it was some irony I missed

Project X was epic fail. Great graphics, monotonous and unfair gameplay.

[Fenrir]

unfair gameplay.

Let's go deeper in that matter.
I'm not saying that Project X is a perfectly balanced game, of course, but it looks like the hate bandwagon is a tad too crowded. Mind you that I played X maybe for years almost everyday, and the only thing I can see is that the power-up system is totally unforgiving and the hitbox is a tad too big if compared with the general quickness of the enemies... until you get the speed p-up, that is.

In many japanese, multi-celebrated shmups there were similar flunks imho (*coughrtypecough*). Didn't find it monotonous though. Most of the waves need to be tackled in a very different way, the attention level is definitely very high all around the stages, not everything can be tackled with the same strategy. Blood Money is a monotonous shmup
Why is it monotonous?

Maybe this subject needs to be broadened?

ps. is it me or "Epic fail" today is used like salt on chips?

[MJR]

unfair gameplay.

Let's go deeper in that matter.

OK.

Many games that can be labeled more or less 'unfair' get easier the more you play them. You can get used to project X. I did get used to project X. I even 1'cc:d it.
After 15 year break I tried it again and nearly threw up (that is documented on another thread).

I explain why;
First, inclusion of inertia vs. firepower.
In my opinion, when you add inertia on a shmup, you make playing unnecessarily difficult (unless you have a thrust/gravitar clone) You take away the possibility to properly affect where the ship goes, and when. Yes, you can get used to it and hone your skill to the point where you can predict to a point where it will move, where, etc. But is it fun? Hell, no. Not to me. Or maybe only if I had nothing better to do. That was the case when I completed it many many years ago, it eventually felt sometimes fun when you forgot the frustration.

Second; attack patterns.
Generally horizontal shmups (except defender and its clones) use memorizable patterns.

Usually you mix up enemies with different endurance and speed onto patterns where player is forced to use both memorization and instant reflex to decide what is the best way to proceed.

With skillful attack pattern design, you may get different possibilities to navigate through level, or then there's a huge challenge on finding a 'safe spot'.

Project X has enemies that are fed continously on a repeated pattern. At some wawes (like in lvl1) it may even require some skill but it gets repetitive very fast. Pattern design is very scarce. Usually you find one safe spot and then it's just standing still for a long time and holding your button. Later levels, you find right spot for each attack wave, and then again it is the same boredom all over again.

When you consider how lacking the attack pattern design was, it is no surprise that the designers tried to make it more difficult by inserting the inertia vs. weapons to the gameplay. But that is applying difficult from the wrong end of the stick. If you consider yourself a professonial developer who is trying to make a living, then you don't want add difficulty just by making your ship harder to control, unless you wish to piss off the average player.

Even if we wished to make an elitist conclusion and say f@ck the average player-real shmups should be hard, which is fine to me, we are still left with the repetitive and boring attack patterns.

When everything else in the game was made so well, you just have to come to the conclusion that designers at Project X team didn't understand shoot'em ups very well. They copied the surface, but forgot to analyze what makes them exciting underneath. Very common sympton of the 80's/early 90's bedroom programmers.

Of course, you'll always find some occasional person who wants to play it and even enjoys it. Maybe it is the difficulty and graphics that combined give some feeling of reward. I can understand that. I even completed shadow of the beast 2 with no cheats, when I had nothing better to do.

But does not make Project X an above average game. I would prefer even uglier shmup with better gameplay. You are of course entitled to your own opinion, but I tried to explain mine