What the hell does MANIC mean?

[DJ Incompetent]

This glossary definition:

Manic Shmup: (also Bulletsprayer, Dodge-em-Up) A type of shmup which is characterized by very high numbers of bullets and/or enemies being present on the screen at one time; forces the player to rely on quick reaction time and on-the-spot dodging skills, rather than memorization of where things are within a level, to survive. Due to the highly restricted amount of safe space for the player to move around in, manic shmups almost always feature relatively small hitboxes, usually located near the very center of the player’s craft..


Doesn't match what people are saying in http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29029 :
Manic = Fast bullets
Bullet Hell = Many bullets


And hell, I thought it always meant a difficult, consistently high tension shumup as enemy attacks are large and non-stop.

So which is it?

[null1024]

I've always said maniac == bullet hell.

[UZI]

Manic is the general term. People always like to invent their own category or terms. Bullet hell or whatever you call it are synonyms. In Japan they call it Danmaku (bullet barrage).

Same thing for metal. Now we have vicking metal, vampire metal, pirate metal, and soon space metal or ultra techno hardcore metal...it will never stop.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Psikyo flavored shmups have those crazy super lighting fast bullets that are hard to avoid at all costs, especially on the 2nd loop.

Even the old school shmup PCB titles like Vapor Trail and the USA version of Daioh when on the 2nd loop, the bullets move faster than the player's jet fightercraft. The bullets have an unfair advantage but the player might have an autofire hack up his or her sleeve to take out pesky small fry and larger mid-stage/end-stage bosses.

Even Takumi's trademarked scatter-fire patterns are crazy like that featured in the GigaWing trilogy series, Mars Matrix and Night Raid PCB interations.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Dave_K.]

Very Difficult Constantly High Tension Gameplay

^ You got it on the nose here. A higher level term than bullet hell / danmaku when referring to shmups. For example I consider Robotron the first manic arcade game.

[Thunder Force]

Several years ago I think the definition most here would have agreed upon, is that Manic and Bullet Hell were just synonyms of each other. But the language seems to be mutating, and these days it might be harder to find consensus.

[lgb]

that's because no one cares about the glossary definitions

surprisingly (as in "I'm not the only one"), "manic" has sometimes meant quick bullets and "danmaku" (see? hypocrite) has generally meant tons

and it's logical as well; Touhou isn't exactly very "manic" (going by the actual definition of the word, and this works because everyone plays on Easy/Normal) but the very concept of the game is "danmaku" (going by the actual definition of that word)

hell, why don't we change that glossary; nothing is set in stone and it's supposed to follow what people use, right?

mind, I've made up so many terms and changed so many fucking things in these games that a lot of what I have to say needs to be analyzed and questioned (especially if it doesn't make sense), but I can assure you that the above is reasonable

[Ed Oscuro]

MANIC means: When you go into a thread about what the proper name of something is and expect it to be life-changing.

Especially when we have two topics about essentially the same thing...I'm all for being able to find things in a database, so if you're not sure what people like to use then paste all the terms in there.

[The Coop]

It's just another maaanic Monnndaaaaaaay...


All right, so it's Thursday, but that's not how the song lyrics go.

[evil_ash_xero]

You know, at first I thought "Psikyo" because to me that is manic, with it's super fast bullets. But then I thought about it, and the first time I heard of the word "manic shmup", it was with DOJ. And CAVE kind of equals "the manic shooter" in most people's eyes.

I would just say manic/bullet hell, and just say screw it.

After that we have the other types, such as memory type games, and classic shmups...

[t0yrobo]

I'm starting to think that we should just arbitrarily pick manic or bullet-hell for the category title. They're both so similar that having both would only cause confusion. Even going by what's been voted on it doesn't work out as a very clean definition since even in games with slower bullets there's "constant high tension' because there's so much shit on the screen.

[lgb]

obviously if you begin to mold them into different categories, the confusion will go away

personally, I'd just not have categories to begin with, but that certainly is not going to happen

[RGC]

What shmup genre has pink bullets on stages 2 and 4 midboss? I WANT A WORD DAMNIT!

[Ixmucane2]

I think both "traditional" and danmaku styles of shmup can be manic in the sense of constant high difficulty, and both styles can also be easy and/or slow, not manic at all.
The two dimensions tend to be confused because they are partly aligned: most old games are designed with waves, lulls and milestones while curtain fire provides straightforward ways to create constant danger.

The horribly easy browser game PixelVader is an example of definitely danmaku shooter that I don't think anyone would consider manic: the regenerating lifebar and the bullet-canceling recharging bomb replace proper dodging with not being hit too much or too fast.

[ave]

It's the kind shooter that requires a lot of devoted playing to get good scores.

In modern shooter terminology I guess "manic" refers to any shooter that demands a lot of skill from the player: he must be a maniac at the particular game to master it. Mushihimesama is a manic shooter for its loads of fast bullets, but I'd call Battle Garegga a manic shooter as well since there are also shitloads of fast bullets and, later in the game, mighty impressive bullet patterns to be seen.

Actually I hate the term "manic" because it's so ambigous - I always prefer to avoid if I can

[cools]

See, I'd split Sama (danmaku) and Garegga (manic).

Not once in a Raizing game will the screen be so full of bullets that you can't see much else

[ave]

Not once in a Raizing game will the screen be so full of bullets that you can't see much else

Which doesn't mean they are not there, they are just too hard to spot

[kengou]

Manic for me means fast gameplay, high tension on the player, quick thinking and a lot of skill needed to survive. Not necessarily a lot of bullets.

DDP DOJ is for me the ultimate example of a manic shmup. It happens to have a ton of bullets as well as the "manic" characteristics.

Most Psikyo games I would categorize as manic, even if they have fewer bullets that are much faster. In fact one game that has decidedly few bullets but is VERY manic (after stage 2 or 3, at least) is Donpachi. Those bullets are awfully fast and you really need to keep on your toes!

Conversely, there's games with a ton of bullets that I wouldn't call manic. Touhou is definitely one of them. It's bullet-hell but not manic because most patterns and overall gameplay tends to be slow. Also most horis seem to be not manic.

[Thunder Force]

In modern shooter terminology I guess "manic" refers to any shooter that demands a lot of skill from the player

Manic for me means fast gameplay, high tension on the player, quick thinking and a lot of skill needed to survive. Not necessarily a lot of bullets.

Definitions like this doesn't work for me, because it could be said about many old school twitch shooters with a reasonably high level of difficulty, e.g. Twin Cobra, which are not usually considered manic shmups.