What is the hardest SHMUP you`ve ever played?

MadScientist · Post by **MadScientist** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:34 am

Sengeki Striker - I've only scraped past the first level a few times and died shortly after that.

Eight Forces - Likewise.

bucklemyshoe · Post by **bucklemyshoe** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:52 am

Shikigami no Shiro II always kills me. I hate the enemy placement in that game soooo much.

Grinning Cat · Post by **Grinning Cat** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 3:09 am

Can't believe no one's mentioned Undeadline yet

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:31 am

Grinning Cat wrote:Can't believe no one's mentioned Undeadline yet

Aww, you beat me to it. Undead Line is among the hardest. The game is hard but doable until the last stage (I actually got to the last stage without continuing after a lot of practice), but good freakin' luck beating it. The final boss was hard with save states.

Note that the Mega Drive version is much harder than the X68K version, although the X68K one has a lot of enhancements and extra levels, so it's probably a better game.

Image Fight 2 is up there with the first one.

The Rayxanber games are all pretty tough, IIRC 2 is especially hard simply because of the lack of powerups in some of the levels. Been a long time since I played any of them though.

Psikyo's Dragon Blaze gets absurdly hard in the last few levels. The opening ones are no cakewalk, but the last few... good god.

indutrial · Post by **indutrial** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:47 am

I'm not a very experienced shmup player, but I'd have to agree with nominating Gradius III (arcade) and the first couple of R-Type games. The former's required 1cc and lack of checkpoints in certain parts will break most players into little bits. Some of R-Type II's bosses are complete insanity to fight. I've recently been digging into lots of Irem's other games, and I think it's safe to say that most of them are similarly nasty as hell. Looking at that Japanese list, I'm reminded of how badly I get reamed every time I play Irem's under-the-radar vertical shooter Fire Barrel (my MAME copy is shitty, but it still plays well enough with no sound). It reminds me of the Sonic Wings games and some of Psikyo's stuff. X-Multiply is no slouch either.

Seeing how high Detana Twinbee! is on that list makes me want to give that a shot. I've played the later arcade game (Yahoo!) and I can imagine that being pretty nightmarish to 1cc, since it pretty much rapes both of your eye-sockets with bright colors while already being considerably busy.

asrgames · Post by **asrgames** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:48 am

Soukyugurentai on highest difficuty, bullets are like the speed of light

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 5:25 am

Cthulhu wrote:
Grinning Cat wrote:Can't believe no one's mentioned Undeadline yet
Aww, you beat me to it. Undead Line is among the hardest. The game is hard but doable until the last stage (I actually got to the last stage without continuing after a lot of practice), but good freakin' luck beating it. The final boss was hard with save states.

Note that the Mega Drive version is much harder than the X68K version, although the X68K one has a lot of enhancements and extra levels, so it's probably a better game.

Bah...Undeadline difficulty is overrated. Genny rev. is difficult until you find the right weapon. The final boss is also pathetic. X68k rev. has a much more scaled difficulty due to rank increasing the further you get in the game. God forbid you tackle the Cemetary last. The difficulty mainly comes from finding the right weapon for each stage. Also, the final stage is 70% luck. If you don't get the "P" in the first item box you're probably screwed. MSX rev. is actually pretty fair, though there are quite a few cheap spots.

My vote is for P47 Aces.

Seelen · Post by **Seelen** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 5:27 am

Gradius V is kicking my ASS right now. Granted, I'm totally new to shooters, but it's just. so. hard. I play Sonic Wings, Blue Wish Resurrection, Touhou stuff, etc, but god -_-

On the upside, it does seem really cool, and when i put in enough gameplay hours, I'll unlock the credits I need to beat it heh.

captpain · Post by **captpain** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:21 am

Seelen wrote:Gradius V is kicking my ASS right now. Granted, I'm totally new to shooters, but it's just. so. hard. I play Sonic Wings, Blue Wish Resurrection, Touhou stuff, etc, but god -_-

On the upside, it does seem really cool, and when i put in enough gameplay hours, I'll unlock the credits I need to beat it heh.

You can't "beat" a game by credit-feeding it

Alec · Post by **Alec** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:34 am

yeah, now that you guys mention it, futari ultra was as hard as fuck.

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:10 am

Isn't Futari 1.0 Ultra considered impossible(unless you count unholy amounts of luck)?

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:27 am

Gmintyfresh wrote:
Mushihime-sama PS2 - It's difficult from the start in my opinion and just get progressively harder.

Interestingly, I found Mushihime-sama to be the easiest of all Cave shooters and the only Cave shooter that I managed to 1cc.

Seelen · Post by **Seelen** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 8:07 am

captpain wrote:
Seelen wrote:Gradius V is kicking my ASS right now. Granted, I'm totally new to shooters, but it's just. so. hard. I play Sonic Wings, Blue Wish Resurrection, Touhou stuff, etc, but god -_-

On the upside, it does seem really cool, and when i put in enough gameplay hours, I'll unlock the credits I need to beat it heh.
You can't "beat" a game by credit-feeding it

Yeah, yeah... one day...one day...

and I'm making headway with sonic wings, I can usually get to the 3rd-4th stage without even dying

(of course it gets intense at that point)

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:05 pm

clp · Post by **clp** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:14 pm

dragon blaze is definitely worth a mention , Ibara is a funny one on minimum rank its very doable on higher rank its basically like driving an artic lorry through daioujou,s bullet patterns .

Post by **Shatterhand** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:31 pm

Note that the Mega Drive version is much harder than the X68K version, although the X68K one has a lot of enhancements and extra levels, so it's probably a better game.

The X68K version , from what I heard , is the MSX version with graphics and sound enhancements. The Mega-Drive game is a new game "inspired" by the MSX original.

I consider the MSX version to be a lot better than the Mega-Drive one, so I am pretty sure the X68K completely kicks ass.

fireleo4 · Post by **fireleo4** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:49 pm

I took me a fucking long time and a few joypads to beat this monster.

Also ranked:

Pulstar
Lightning Fighters
Twin Eagle II

Diabollokus · Post by **Diabollokus** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:51 pm

Another mention for undeadline genesis version, that game really kicks me around, found shikigami no shiro 2 on the DC to be quite fair.

Gradius V is tough near the end, first 3 levels I can normally 1 life, asteroid stage onwards gives me trouble though.

I've been meaning to pick up a PAl PS2 version of dragon blaze for sometime now, this thread has just got me thinking about it.

Aquas · Post by **Aquas** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:19 pm

'Cause it hasn't been mentioned, 2-LOOP of Gradius IV. I got the 1cc 30 hours in, but 50 hours later and I still haven't 2-looped it. It can be done, though. The re-arranged stage landscapes and buffed up boss fights make it a pretty fresh challenge.

BIL · Post by **BIL** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:29 pm

I think Gradius IV is actually considered the hardest of the series, once you get into looping it. I know tviks has said this before, in this thread.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 6:19 am

Shatterhand wrote:
Note that the Mega Drive version is much harder than the X68K version, although the X68K one has a lot of enhancements and extra levels, so it's probably a better game.
The X68K version , from what I heard , is the MSX version with graphics and sound enhancements. The Mega-Drive game is a new game "inspired" by the MSX original.

I consider the MSX version to be a lot better than the Mega-Drive one, so I am pretty sure the X68K completely kicks ass.

I've read the X68000 version is "zoomed in" compared with the MSX2+ ver., so it's probably like a new experience.

Undead Line is currently the only game I'd want a Turbo for. I'm keeping my 2+ though, despite the slowdown in this game.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 7:30 am

Concerning the MSX and X68k revs of Undeadline:

- X68k splits the difference between the sky-high MSX camera and the zoomed-in Genny camera.

- Levels share the same theme (except for Mold and Spore), but layout is, for the most part, completely different. Bosses are also almost entirely unique. The final boss is completely different in each rev.

In short, X68k plays like a souped up MSX, with the Genny/MD version being a stripped-down straightforward shooter. Think of X68k as Super R-Type to R-Type 2. Due to rank, X68k seems much more brutal than the other two as well.

FIL · Post by **FIL** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:20 pm

Dragonblaze has to be up there somewhere, that game has bummed me in the gob countless times.

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 2:41 pm

Futari Ultra, I guess.

Zeether · Post by **Zeether** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 3:13 pm

AC Gradius III.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 3:13 pm

ST Dragon wrote:
Gmintyfresh wrote:
Mushihime-sama PS2 - It's difficult from the start in my opinion and just get progressively harder.
Interestingly, I found Mushihime-sama to be the easiest of all Cave shooters and the only Cave shooter that I managed to 1cc.

which mode? original maybe.....you did NOT 1cc ultra

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 7:04 pm

Krod Mandoon: The Rise of Dongalor

Can YOU figure out how to start the game? (Thank goodness for flashblock also, more viewing space)

Shame the initials entry didn't work :(

AraraSPAMWitch · Post by **AraraSPAMWitch** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:13 am

divine sealing

Erinu · Post by **Erinu** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 6:33 am

Raiden 4 Loop 2

The bullets are so fast that you have to memorize the game or interpret where the bullets might come, nothing like DOJ loop 2 at all.

szycag · Post by **szycag** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 6:37 am

P47 Aces seconded. I can't even stay alive for a minute in that game.

shmups.system11.org

What is the hardest SHMUP you`ve ever played?

Gaiares MD