I'm still pretty new to the genre, but..

[apple arcade]

I think the biggest reason people don't play for score is that they don't know how.

Either they don't know the scoring mechanics, or can't put together a route or just can't get it right.

When I got Futari, I started out just playing for survival, dodging as much as I could. Then I kept watching superplays to see what the pros were doing to make it through. I started emulating them (somewhat) and noticed that I was actually getting the first score extend. So I started trying to figure out the scoring system. My first guess was that you had to blow up bigger enemies with laser and smaller with shot. This was obviously wrong but I did recognize you seemed to get more gems by being closer to an enemy when you killed it. After a while of not being able to figure out how things worked I just checked the strat sections on here & stg. With a full understanding I saw my score improve and improve. Now sometimes I'll tell myself "I'm just going to play for survival this run" it never happens. I find myself reluctant to hit that bomb button and most of the time traveling my scoring route.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

any shooter i play longer then a couple of days ill read up on what makes it tick, it makes a world of difference for improving your game.

[rockyraccoon5]

You know what's really hilarious and more fun than you would think is playing one of these games without shooting. I'm not sure how many games feature this outside of Ikaruga and Mars Matrix, but it's fun to see your score being 0.

[Rob]

I think there's a Giga Wing 2 0 point (all clear) replay somewhere. Probably harder to do than getting a high score.

That style of play inspired Night Raid, I think.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

You know what's really hilarious and more fun than you would think is playing one of these games without shooting. I'm not sure how many games feature this outside of Ikaruga and Mars Matrix, but it's fun to see your score being 0.

isnt there a special name for these type of runs? probably no hit or something like it, ill think ill check bulletmagnet's shmup glossory. Ive never bothered playing like that myself but i remeber watching a you tube vid of some1 doing it with Kamui and it looked very hard and alot of fun.

[croikle]

I think there's a Giga Wing 2 0 point (all clear) replay somewhere. Probably harder to do than getting a high score. .

Yep, right here. Multiplier starts at 0, so as long as you don't pick up any medals you get no points.

[Aquas]

You know what's really hilarious and more fun than you would think is playing one of these games without shooting. I'm not sure how many games feature this outside of Ikaruga and Mars Matrix, but it's fun to see your score being 0.

isnt there a special name for these type of runs?

Pacifist.

[rockyraccoon5]

WHY IS THE INTRO TO IKARUGA SO FUCKING LONG, it's cool the the first time but when you try to do the chaining stuff it's like come on now really do I need to see this for the 100th time

[Herr Schatten]

WHY IS THE INTRO TO IKARUGA SO FUCKING LONG, it's cool the the first time but when you try to do the chaining stuff it's like come on now really do I need to see this for the 100th time

That's because Treasure think that games need to be epic. At least there are no unskippable cutscenes in Ikaruga.

[Udderdude]

WHY IS THE INTRO TO IKARUGA SO FUCKING LONG, it's cool the the first time but when you try to do the chaining stuff it's like come on now really do I need to see this for the 100th time

That's because Treasure think that games need to be epic. At least there are no unskippable cutscenes in Ikaruga.

Ikaruga is an unskippable cutscene.

Yeah, that's right, I went there. >_>

[lgb]

bump

You know what's really hilarious and more fun than you would think is playing one of these games without shooting. I'm not sure how many games feature this outside of Ikaruga and Mars Matrix, but it's fun to see your score being 0.

speaking of Mars Matrix, Night Raid actually has a score ranking for this

[ZOM]

Keeping Night Raid's score-counter to 0 would be the ultimate challenge.

[SFKhoa]

Hence the near zero high score ranking was born.

[genjuro]

Hello. I've been reading this forum for a few years mainly as a source of news/info on modern shmups. I figured this would be a good topic to jump into. I know a lot of people here think scoring vs credit feeding is a lame subject to discuss, but I find it fascinating.

Essentially, I guess i would fall on the non-scoring side of shmups. Hear me out.

I've always had a love for anything arcade-related. Like many others, I'm sure, CAVE got me into shmups. For many years prior to discovering bullet hell, Galaga was always my favorite game and i would bypass Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct to play the shitty old Galaga cabinet any time i went to the arcade. I didn't really understand why back then, I just loved it.

I've always been into emulation and MAME and that's how i discovered the more modern shmups. Dodonpachi and Giga Wing really hooked me. Then, after researching this CAVE company, I found ESP Ra.De and that's when I really fell in love with these games. It was never the scoring that drew me in, it was the visuals. Well that, and the intensity of the experience. I guess i'm the creative type (art student in college, prof. graphic designer now) so maybe that's why im more drawn to the visuals of these games than the skill/score. Who knows.

That said, I do also appreciate bullet-dodging and am always working to improve my skills. I find bullet patterns beautiful. I enjoy it when a great bullet pattern gets the best of me. So i guess i would say that i'm more of a survival type player than anything at this point. Sadly, I've pretty much played every shmup there is to play (not including doujin, a couple unemulated, unported gems, and the very newest stuff) so the experience of discovering the visual beauty of a new shmup is rare now.

The bottom line for me is that when a new shmup comes along, my first priority is experiencing the entire game, regardless of skill. I want to see all of the visuals the game has to offer (sprites, backgrounds, patterns, polygons, etc.) That makes me a credit-feeder on ports that have unlimited credits, and a frustrated gamer on ports that don't. That said, limited credit games, or games with levels that start over after each credit have forced me to improve my skills, for what it's worth. I find that the most enjoyable overall experiences come from the console ports that give you an extra credit every time you play, or when you log an hour of playtime, etc. This at least rewards replaying with the eventual ability to see the whole game, if i suck too much to do it normally.

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate those players who can 1CC or get the high-score. I have a lot of respect for anyone who can start over at the beginning or put the game down after their 1 credit is gone. I am rarely able to do that, because I just enjoy the experience of playing through the game too much to stop. However, as the prospect of enjoying new shmups games gets more and more rare as time goes by, maybe I will end up falling back on scoring mechanisms for a whole new reason to enjoy these games that I love so much. We'll see.

But, in ten years of playing, buying, collecting, researching and loving these games, I don't think I've EVER cared what my score was. Maybe that's stupid, but it's the truth.

[Udderdude]

But, in ten years of playing, buying, collecting, researching and loving these games, I don't think I've EVER cared what my score was. Maybe that's stupid, but it's the truth.

If you aren't playing modern shmups for score, you're missing half the experience right there. They are designed from the ground up to be played using the scoring systems, so ignoring that is ignoring half the work that was put into designing them.