The longest shmup? (1st loop only)

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:15 am

Let me tell you something. There is almost nothing more euphoric than getting sick enough that you have to stay home and then taking too much Ny-Quil before playing an epic-length shmup. It's a crazy, otherworldly sensation when your brain goes numb and your head fills up with bees. Maybe that's just me.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:00 pm

This question has been asked here before, you guys are all wrong.

The longest 1loop shmup ever is Gulkave, developed by Compile and published by Sega on the SG-1000 and MSX (you guys knew it HAD to be a Compile shmup.)

The game has bloody 32 stages, each stage may take up to 5 minutes, sometimes even more. I don't know anyone who had the endurance to finish this beast (I am not even talking about a 1cc, the game gets pretty hectic after level 16), but I doubt the game can be finished in less than 2 hours...

Oh, and it's a horzie, unlike most Compile shmups.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:11 pm

But Space Giraffe beats that with it's 3½ - 4 hour 1cc.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:13 pm

I never played Space Giraffe... so ok, I'll just believe you

Gulkave is still pretty long though...

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:27 pm

Here is a complete set of videos of Space Giraffe being played from level 1 to 100:

level 1-20
level 21-40
level 41-60
level 61-75
level 76-90
level 91-100

Total play time is 2hrs 32mins. However, note that the videos show the game being played in Super Ox Mode (super hard mode) which is faster than normal mode so it takes less time to go through. Also, I think the bonus stages have been left out of the videos, so there's probably another 30 mins or so missing from the total play-time.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:33 pm

Those are some distracting graphics.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:18 pm

Yeah, not helped by the Google-video compression either...

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:22 pm

This game is pretty confusing. o_0

shoe-sama · Post by **shoe-sama** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:02 pm

that's no shmup D:

wtf only 13 different ship positions

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:43 pm

If Tempest is considered a shmup (which it is - it's in the shmup reviews archive), then Space Giraffe is a shmup.

Zeether · Post by **Zeether** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 4:53 pm

Space Giraffe looks like T3K but with more distracting graphics.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:25 pm

Psychedelic is the word you're looking for. It's loosely based on Tempest, but it evolves the inital concept by quite some margin. Best Western-shmup ever developed IMO. Don't be put off just because it looks a bit different from what you're used to. There's a wealth of gameplay subtleties in it that put most full-price games to shame, and at it's heart is a rock-solid shmup.

PFG 9000 · Post by **PFG 9000** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:32 am

Hmmm. I've never considered Tempest 2000 a shmup, and I don't consider Space Giraffe a shmup either. It would take several hours for somebody to play all the way through Tempest 2000. But I don't see anybody bringing that one up here.

Tempest is a shmup only in the same sense as Doom and Arkanoid are shmups. That is, they aren't.

FIL · Post by **FIL** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:41 am

Tempest and Space Giraffe are tube-shooters.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:21 am

Well, Temepest is in the Shmup Reviews Archive for all to see. If it isn't a shmup, then it wouldn't be there (not that I think the people who created that site have any more right to define what people call shmups than anyone else). Tempest, Tempest 2000, and Space Giraffe are pretty much the pinnacle of what I think of as shmups - the ethos and the mentality. The reason I think that Tempest 2000 isn't mentioned so far in this thread is because I doubt it's atually possible to complete on 1 credit. People who think Space Girafee isn't a shmup obviously haven't either played it, or haven't played it for any decent amount of time. As far as I'm concerned, 'Tube Shooter' is just a sub-genre of the shmup genre anyway.

Moleculoman · Post by **Moleculoman** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:25 am

Einhander on Hard is around 41-45 minutes, if you don't lose a fighter. Not that long really.

shoe-sama · Post by **shoe-sama** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:31 am

wharz my aimed bulletz?

SuperGrafx · Post by **SuperGrafx** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:49 pm

Fireshark. It has something like 99 levels, that's what EGM said way back when.
Though in my experience, the levels begin to repeat around level 35 or so.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:10 pm

1942 takes about 70-80 minutes to clear all 32 stages, depending on how many times you die and go back to the checkpoint.

Zanac Neo is about one hour. Darius Gaiden Extra is probably about 2 hours, considering normal DG takes 30 mins, IINM.