I have just spotted some sheer half-assed buffoonery in the form of a statement about us shmup fans that reviewer Todd Ciolek of
this X-Button article on Anime News Network (ANN) wrote in his review of Espgaluda II (XBox 360 JP release) from March 17, 2010:
They claim that shooters like ESPgaluda II are meant to be played and mastered to the point where you can finish them on one credit. These people are all insane. If a game relies on players to challenge themselves, there's something wrong, and good designers don't let players walk all over their games.
To me, that is just
utter, insultingly repulsive, brain-dead sacrilege horsecrap right there, because:
- 1) Some shmups are MEANT to be cleared on one single credit, especially with some good, good practice and skill on mastering the levels one by one right from the word “GO!” on the first stage. It takes some time and study of such games as you play them, and that is where your learning experience for each really comes in.
2) Shmups are SUPPOSED to give you some damn good, balanced challenge that slowly raises from moderate to hard and then some as you go right along (especially where the difficulty rank is concerned, too!), giving players and even newcomers plenty of time to get used to the game’s levels and thereby increasing their own skills and even allowing them time to enjoy the game more and more. And yes, this *applies* to bullet-hell shooters, too!! 
And if a shmup is either too easy or has unbalanced, stupidly frustrating difficulty all throughout, then what’s the damn point in having to play it much in the first place, hmmmm!?
As for that reviewer there, somebody oughta get him fired for having the FRICKING nerve to call us insane deliberately... wow, to say that something is wrong with him is an understatement! WHAT A FORSAKEN-ASS NUT-JOB, I must definitely say as far as I am concerned about that reviewer there on that!!!

!!
I mean, listen, I have reviewed certain freeware games from years back (and have even been one of the judges of
SHMUP-DEV Competition 2k7 Round 2 over at the Shmup-Dev forums, previously!

), and known firsthand that the important thing to do when writing your reviews is that you *never* insult a certain gaming audience, even if you have not played a shmup before in your life or don’t know those people, either. BOTTOM LINE, period.
