Worldwide Shmup Open - Game List

[goatdan]

Hey all,

After much previous debate and wrangling on these boards, the Worldwide Shmup Open is coming to the Midwest Gaming Classic for the second year to see who is the best shmup player in a very unique way. Based on long running and very successful pinball tournament rules, the Worldwide Shmup Open pits players against one another on five different games.

Last year, in our first tournament we had some hiccups, but we learned from them and took lots of advice on how to make this into an even more incredible event than it was. As part of this, we will be announcing four of the five games that will be played as part of this year's tournament before the event itself, allowing competitors the chance to practice the games to learn what strategy they will need to compete using. We will also be limiting the rounds -- last year, it was play until you died. This year, we will be announcing the exact rules for each game in advance.

The first game which was just announced will be Raiden III for the Playstation 2. After me and the other guy who will be running the tournament this year searched for a long time, we both settled on this because Raiden was such a huge part of getting us (and many others) into shmups hardcore. For Raiden III, players will play on the "Arcade" difficulty and will be playing Score Attack. We won't reveal the level until you get to the show, and the level will change during the two final rounds, but now you can start to prepare on this game!

We'll be announcing the next game in the next few days, and I'll also update this thread with it. We hope that everyone at least considers coming out to compete. Unlike traditional high score tournaments, this tournament pits you in single runs against other gamers, and the best in the most shmups wins. If anyone wants me to run through more of the rules on here, just ask and I'll be happy to.

Also changed for this year, the winner of the tournament gets cold, hard cash. $300 of it. Runners up in second, third and fourth will also get cash prizes, although they will be smaller. And, if enough people enter, the pot will continue to rise with no cap on it. Entries are $5.00 per game or $10.00 for three entries, and you can enter as many times as you would like.

We're hoping that a lot of people come out this year to compete!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For goatdan,

And is your Worldwide Shmup Open only regulated to console shmup ports? How about including some arcade shmup PCB titles as well (to cater to the seasoned arcade shmup players)?

I understand the logistics of bring in such arcade cabinets along with the proper arcade shmup PCBs -- it would take some time and careful planning to pull something like that off successfully... ^_~

Perhaps, this possible "arcade shmup PCB contest with cash prizes idea" would fare better at the once-a-year California Extreme show where it's catered to the full-sized American arcade game cabinets, some Japanese candy cabinets, the occasional odd-ball arcade game prototypes, some odd-ball Japanese one-off arcade novelties, and good ol' fashioned pinball at their best... ^_~

I'd be pleasantly surprised if Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu PCB were to make a special showing at the 2008 CAX show...but honestly, no Cave arcade PCB titles have made an appearance other than Uo Poko, an arcade puzzler, at CAX shows in the past. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[-Bridget-]

This sounds neat, and I'll likely be there.


Though I have to question Raiden 3 as a choice for a tournament game.... not a bad game, I have it myself and like it well enough, but it's scoring system is...... Well, it never seemed to me that this game's scoring needed all that much skill..... just memory...... hell, if you're doing it right, the game seems to get EASIER because things die so fast they cant fire at you so much.


Just my own opinion on the matter.


I'll probably wait and see what the game list looks like, in full, before I decide wether or not to enter.

Too many of the "pure memorizer" type scoring systems, like this or DOJ, will definitely put me off of doing this.

[PROMETHEUS]

Too many of the "pure memorizer" type scoring systems, like this or DOJ, will definitely put me off of doing this.

Are You Sure ? Y/N

[goatdan]

For goatdan,

And is your Worldwide Shmup Open only regulated to console shmup ports? How about including some arcade shmup PCB titles as well (to cater to the seasoned arcade shmup players)?

Currently, we are limiting it to only console shmups for a variety of reasons, the biggest being the type of tournament that this is -- we have specifically tweaked the scoring system in it so that it will mostly be single level score challenges this year to both help in the way of time and competitiveness. In the future, we may drop some arcade games in the mix (I own a couple JAMMA shmups, and if all goes well I'm planning on picking up some more over the course of this year), but it won't happen this year.

I understand the logistics of bring in such arcade cabinets along with the proper arcade shmup PCBs -- it would take some time and careful planning to pull something like that off successfully... ^_~

Perhaps, this possible "arcade shmup PCB contest with cash prizes idea" would fare better at the once-a-year California Extreme show where it's catered to the full-sized American arcade game cabinets, some Japanese candy cabinets, the occasional odd-ball arcade game prototypes, some odd-ball Japanese one-off arcade novelties, and good ol' fashioned pinball at their best... ^_~

Actually, the MGC features all of this stuff too. We don't have as big of a section for arcade games specifically, but this tournament is *nothing like* a straight up score tournament. The quick version of the rules is that after the initial qualifying rounds, the games hinge on the players being able to make their best single run on only one attempt. To put it nicely, the pressure is on, as you have to try to score every point possible while not dieing to maximize your points.

I can play through a shmup 10 different times, and get an absolutely spectacular score 5 times, a mediocre score twice and a crappy score three times. If I get a crappy score, there is a good chance it will bump me out of first place.

Competitors have to play on four different games after the qualifying round -- one of which is a "mystery" classic game, and the others will be announced. One game will get eliminated from a choice of five, but you have to pull off four good if not great runs to win.

The tournament is based off the highly successful and implemented worldwide pinball tournaments, although we did some considerable tweaking this year to fix a lot of the issues that rose in last year's tournament, such as the finals taking far too long. We think we've got a great way to pull this off this year, and we hope you'll all join us!

[goatdan]

This sounds neat, and I'll likely be there.


Though I have to question Raiden 3 as a choice for a tournament game.... not a bad game, I have it myself and like it well enough, but it's scoring system is...... Well, it never seemed to me that this game's scoring needed all that much skill..... just memory...... hell, if you're doing it right, the game seems to get EASIER because things die so fast they cant fire at you so much.

I agree with you totally here, however theoretically any shmup that is done in the style of Raiden III is going to be like that, and we decided when we were doing this that we really wanted to get different game "disciplines" in the tournament. We purposely haven't picked anything that is total memorization (you can still score well on Raiden III without memorizing it, maybe just not perfectly). The final grouping of games I think is a good mix of twitch and "light memorization" (what I'd call Raiden-like games).

Ultimately, some ground rules (and the reason why) that me and the other person putting this together this year laid for ourselves was that the games had to be:

1) US titles only -- This would make the contest slightly more accessible to those people who don't currently import game. This isn't to say that import games suck, as I have about 20 import shmups on the shelf beside me that rule, but we didn't want people to not know the games picked.
2) No rape-able games -- Simply put, everything we picked we played and played and played to make sure it didn't have any glaring issues with gameplay. Also, the rules in place now where when you complete the level or round you are playing means that you get a bonus for each ship, which makes dieing to get more points not worth doing.
3) Titles with the ability to play shortened modes -- This gives us the ability to use just a single level instead of the whole game which will make qualifying faster, and to switch which levels we pick in between rounds of play, giving the players a new challenge while not introducing totally new games. Last year, we switched games which gave people who had seen the games we switched too -- especially if they had memorization involved with them -- a HUGE and in my opinion unfair advantage.
4) Titles with a high risk / reward structure -- While the scoring system for Raiden is most definitely simple, and you can plan for where the shots fall, making it through some of the levels while holding on to all of your bombs and picking up as many of the medals as you can is still very difficult to do. Those who risk it and can pull it off are rewarded with much higher scores in this title. We looked for games with similar risk / reward structures.

I'll probably wait and see what the game list looks like, in full, before I decide wether or not to enter.

Too many of the "pure memorizer" type scoring systems, like this or DOJ, will definitely put me off of doing this.

We do plan on announcing another game in the next couple days. After that, the final two announcements will happen probably once a week in the lead up to the show. In my opinion, one is more of a memorizer, one is purely a challenging twitch game, and one is a high risk and reward type game. The classic games which will not be announced until the show (and will be the one game that will rotate, because their play mechanics are *extremely* simple) will be a twitch game too.

Hope to see you there!

[-Bridget-]

Too many of the "pure memorizer" type scoring systems, like this or DOJ, will definitely put me off of doing this.

Are You Sure ? Y/N

Completely.


Much as I *love* Cave, I absolutely cannot stand DDP's chaining system.... that goes for the first DDP, or DOJ.

I ignore it utterly when playing that.



But for Raiden 3, it's not even just that that's what bugs me about it..... the part that bugs me is how you can kill the funky heck outta some things before they even get on the screen..... how is that impressive? As some have said on here, Raiden 3 seems more built towards it's double-play mode.

That, and unless they have one dang good TV for this, the game's bullets are oddly hard to see.


Dont get me wrong, it's a nice game, I enjoy it myself, I just dont think the "kill things really freaking fast" scoring system is the best idea for a tournament.



Anyway, it's really just my own opinion..... I just wanted to offer a different viewpoint on it.


In actuality, my entry will really just depend on "do I have the money for this, and is it worth it". I'll only enter if I think I might have a chance based on the games chosen.


But I'll be saving up for that whole event, oh yes. I plan on buying many awesome things while there

[PROMETHEUS]

But you said DOJ is, like Raiden 3, a pure memorizer, which means it's very easy to do good at when you have memorized it. Which strikes me as just slightly wrong.

[postman]

Triggerheart on the 360 would be a perfect game for the compo, with a very unique scoring system and possibilities for very high scores for those who know what they are doing..........

[goatdan]

We just announced the second game. Geometry Wars Galaxies for the Wii. The thinking is that we wanted to have a game that was a little different from the standard games that people think of when they look at shmups, and Geometry Wars Galaxies, in my opinion, is one of the greatest and most intense non-scrolling shmups ever made. I literally play the absolute hell out of the DS version (I'm currently ranked 84th on it), and have been seriously thinking about picking up a Wii just because of it.

This is the twitch game that I mentioned before. Due to its slightly random nature, you literally can't memorize it, but you can get better and better at it, and it should prove to be a great tournament game!

We'll be announcing the final two games in the next couple weeks. One will be a respected retro game, and the other will be a more recent and well respected bullet hell shmup. We figure that this will cover all skills that it takes to play shmups well.

Hope to see you all at the tournament!

[postman]

Anyone have results from the tournament?

Did DJI take it again this year?

[Old_Nijhazer]

Anyone have results from the tournament?

Did DJI take it again this year?

I was not there, but I asked someone who was there and from what I heard, DJ did indeed win the tournament again-- barely. The word is that the final game was Space Invaders, and Boric (who came in third last year) almost beat DJ, but couldn't quite pull it off.

Considering the absolutely ridiculous score DJ got on Triggerheart Excelica during Shmup-off Fridays this past week, I'm surprised anyone came close, honestly. Mad props to everyone who competed.

[DJ Incompetent]

Anyone have results from the tournament?
Did DJI take it again this year?

Considering the absolutely ridiculous score DJ got on Triggerheart Excelica during Shmup-off Fridays this past week, I'm surprised anyone came close, honestly. Mad props to everyone who competed.

The big change was the non-arena and non-slider shmups were competitions of a single stage. That evens things enough on its own. The plot-twist for me was I had no idea Mars Matrix Score Attack gave you infinite lives. That mistake almost cost me everything...


Anyway, this tourney for an organization standpoint was pretty cleaned up...especially the part where it took 1/5 the time required of last year.
I would recommend it now paired with the improvements of awesomeness to the MGC, even if it wasn't a flat-out 1CC competition.


<cocky bastard>

'forum should work up the balls to leave your state next year. You know I don't deserve this title...

</cocky bastard>




Worldwide Shmup Open: 1st
Smash Bros. Brawl Tournament: 2nd
'A' Division Pinball Tournament: Semi-Finals


Thank you goatdan for the putting this on. Your patience for running this kind of madness is appreciated. Also, I have way too many great memories coming home from this. It was truly the perfect vacation.


Also, "winning Hot Sauce". WTF-of-the-year