The state of shmups today? (Or: Rantings of an old man)

[Exarion]

The top one isn't a clone, it's a copy and i'd be suprised if the game didn't directly copy at least 50% of the code from whichever the most modern touhou game it was at the time. The bottom one looks to be based upon one of cave's games, the items and bullet pattern just looks too similar. For those unfamiliar:

TOUHOU
bullets in many colors
predictive dodging, move where the bullets won't be
bosses have many lifebars that deplete quickly
named attacks of some sort, give bonus for beating without bombing or dying

NORMAL
one bullet color
reactive dodging, avoid the bullets as they come
one lifebar per boss
boss phases come and go without any fanfare

[toaplan_shmupfan]

It turns out that Williams' Moon Patrol was actually licensed from Irem. That game had definitely had lots of strategy and memorization past point J, and that was especially true past the Beginner Course and in all parts of the Champion course. In addition to speed control changes, there was shooting and mine/crater jumping.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Its just that these clones are ten a penney and usually don't bring anything freash to the table.

Pink Bullets got an elaborate scoring system, which R-Type doesn't AFAIK. And DUX got the hyper soaking feature, which according to Plasmo gives the game a Psyvariar-ish feel. That's probably not fresh enough for some poeple though, because the problem is, most people only see the R-Type references and pass on the game before they give it a proper chance and so they miss where these games differ.

Ahh sorry i didnt have PB in mind since its 2force ball" circles the ship making it quite different from r-type, i dont know hardly anything about DUX to really comment on it. But you are right about games been over-looked if they're percieved to be clones. Not just the classics like r-type but modern classics like cave and touhou.

TOUHOU
bullets in many colors
predictive dodging, move where the bullets won't be
bosses have many lifebars that deplete quickly
named attacks of some sort, give bonus for beating without bombing or dying

The above description was a bit too vague, I think a better way to describe Touhou would be

Girls in victorian dresses
Those red and blue pick-ups that destroyed enemies drop
Screen filling mazes of multi coloured bullets, with the bullets themselves made of various (very non cave) shapes like stars.
Bosses are always girls in dresses themselves and are the same size as the player
Stages are mostly made up of boss fights with short interludes of popcorn enemies
Named attacks (called spell cards in the game)

Its worth noting that most touhou clones will use characters from touhou, usually the red shrine maiden or the witch with the big frilly hat. Clones tend to copy the ship of the original game, so R-type clones will have a r-9 looking ship.

Many ppl (inc loads on you tube) think of all danmaku (or all shmups) as touhou which is clearly not the case.

[EinhanderZwei]

Many ppl (inc loads on you tube) think of all danmaku (or all shmups) as touhou which is clearly not the case.

Many ppl? GOOGLE ITSELF returns nothing but Touhou screenshots when you're searching for 'danmaku'!

Also, what really pisses me off, is when the already established shmup franchises start going this 'hey, Touhou is popular, I want to be popular too' shit, which results in such ass-fests as Sengoku Cannon... If the next R-Type will be danmaku, I'm gonna suicide bomb the Irem HQ

[THE]

For the people crying here:

Ask yourself, did you give Last Hope: Pink Bullets a real chance?

You should give discounts to people who bought the first version. PB does look like a huge improvement visually.

What does this all mean? Bout time I order myself some Last Hope:PB (from the videos I've watched, it seems worth it from the music alone!)

So guys, we made our move and discounted nearly all of our products in the shop, now do your move...

Last Hope Pink Bullets is now 19,95EUR

http://www.ngdevdirect.com/

[system11]

That's more reasonable - you have a new order.

[Observer]

The top one isn't a clone, it's a copy and i'd be suprised if the game didn't directly copy at least 50% of the code from whichever the most modern touhou game it was at the time. The bottom one looks to be based upon one of cave's games, the items and bullet pattern just looks too similar.

The bottom one is a screen from Mushihimesama Ultra Mode... it IS a Cave game. The first is indeed a clone of Mountain of Faith called Hollow World of God but similarities end quite fast. It even has an RPG module where you purchase upgrades, besides letting you alternate between two different weapon arrays (with their respective 'focused' fire mode).

http://dixq.net/sr/

The guy not only spent some time with the english speaking community to make an english version, it's a freeware game and you can even download the C++ project files and follow the mother lode of tutorials/information he posted on how to code stuff. If only there could be a translated version of those files and a translated version of STG builder... i-saint did the same with exception: the entire project files are bundled with the game so you pretty much have a 3D engine on your hands to mess with.

[Dragoforce]

A lot off good things have been said and I have nothing real to add. Still.

- I agree with Ghegs

- Darius Burst

- If the shmups genre is taking the direction of Mushi Futari arranged.... I'm going back to the sims.

Last Hope Pink Bullets is now 19,95EUR

http://www.ngdevdirect.com/

I'll have one of those thank you.

[apple arcade]

I was playing Futari Nov-OG and during the first stages I said to myself "wow this is just like Raiden IV" and thought to myself how bored I was and didn't like it.

I like a wide variety of shooters but I guess this saying is true. "Once you go cave, you don't go back".