Shmup difficulty?

[Antiximo]

I've been curious as to what games are known to be much easier than others. Obviously 'bullet maniac' forms of shmups would be much more difficult than basic shmups like 1944.

What in your opinion is one of the easier shmups to play? The most difficult you've played?

*bonus question - What would be good starter shmups to play for practice?

[NR777]

Obviously 'bullet maniac' forms of shmups would be much more difficult than basic shmups like 1944.

Not necessarily true. "Bullet Hell" shmups tend to give the player's craft a very small collision area, so once you've gotten used to that difficulty is actually comparable. If you're talking Mushihimesama Futari Ultra, though...that mode is a motherfucker.

[Antiximo]

Obviously 'bullet maniac' forms of shmups would be much more difficult than basic shmups like 1944.

Not necessarily true. "Bullet Hell" shmups tend to give the player's craft a very small collision area, so once you've gotten used to that difficulty is actually comparable. If you're talking Mushihimesama Futari Ultra, though...that mode is a motherfucker.

That's actually the type of things i was referring to >_<

[Dragoforce]

THE HARDEST VIDEO GAME BOSS EVER!!!!!! .......

Truxton 2 and Gradius III are harder than any manic shmup I ever played. The conception that many bullets automaticly equals higher difficulty is perhaps one of most annoying thing we have mainstream game journalism and youtube to blame for.

1944 is not basic at all, surely you mean 1941-43?

Edit: All shmups are good for practice, except the easy ones that don't teach you anything. Go for Batsugun if you want an easy, but not super-easy 1CC.

[MathU]

A lot of Touhou games are pretty easy on default difficulty.

[xris]

Easy bullethell: Shikigami 2
Other easy stuff, Ikaruga (on easy), Triggerheart.
Medium: Batsugun, Gekirinden
Hard: Shikigami (I wanna clear this.)
M'f'n soul crushing: Last Resort

[Sasupoika]

There are difficult traditional shooters and difficult manic shooters.
DOJ is hard as balls, Image Fight is hard as balls. It does not depend on genre, but the game itself.

[Skykid]

Easy bullethell: Shikigami 2

It ain't that easy.

[moozooh]

Use this topic as a reference: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=16948

[cools]

I've been curious as to what games are known to be much easier than others. Obviously 'bullet maniac' forms of shmups would be much more difficult than basic shmups like 1944.

What in your opinion is one of the easier shmups to play? The most difficult you've played?

*bonus question - What would be good starter shmups to play for practice?

Armed Police Batrider.

[clp]

armed police batrider and battle bakraid are good starters if you play normal course however playing these for score makes them very difficult , karous is easy as pie for the 1cc and any touhou on normal setting is pretty easy despite what the nutty pedo fanboys would have you believe .Hard games for me any psikyo game second loop is pretty much the definition of anal rape also air gallet is a good demonstration to anyone as to why less bullets can be way harder than bullet hell so yeh its all down to game design .

[Jeneki]

See this topic for more ideas: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29630

[AraraSPAMWitch]

Other easy stuff, Ikaruga (on easy).

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[xris]

Hey, he 1CC Ikaruga on easy! Get your torches! Yeah, I did. It was fun. You couldn't, be sad. Have you ever even noticed the rank in the game? And, I have clears on hard in some games, so what.

[ncp]

Hey, he 1CC Ikaruga on easy! Get your torches! Yeah, I did. It was fun. You couldn't, be sad. Have you ever even noticed the rank in the game? And, I have clears on hard in some games, so what.

........what

[lgb]

Ikaruga on Easy is a joke. On the other hand, chaining is a bit more difficult in places.

Obviously 'bullet maniac' forms of shmups would be much more difficult than basic shmups like 1944.

For one, "bullet hell" shmups actually have the potential to be easier for a variety of reasons. For two, I would never ever consider 1944 a "basic shmup".

A lot of Touhou games are pretty easy on default difficulty.

Which is either Hard or Lunatic, not Normal as most would think; probably Lunatic. I don't exactly call that "easy", especially when it's already hard enough for >95% of Touhou fans to just beat Normals (which is their fault because they don't actually play the games).

[TrevHead (TVR)]

how correct is the assumption that modern shmups can be easier to 1CC then older shooters but modern shmups are genrally harder to play for score as many older shmups have simple scoring systems.

[ncp]

Which is either Hard or Lunatic, not Normal as most would think; probably Lunatic.

Yeah it's called "normal" and the cursor defaults to it on every game because it's not the default difficulty.

[moozooh]

how correct is the assumption that modern shmups can be easier to 1CC then older shooters but modern shmups are genrally harder to play for score as many older shmups have simple scoring systems.

Nope. The correct assumption would be: a doujin game on defaults is easier than an arcade one.

[gs68]

Thunder Force III / AC / Spirits. Don't talk about how you're doing until you can 1CC it on Normal, unless you want TF fans to come to your house and put a .45 in your brain.

[Marurun]

Thunder Force III / AC / Spirits. Don't talk about how you're doing until you can 1CC it on Normal, unless you want TF fans to come to your house and put a .45 in your brain.

That was one of the first shooter games I ever played. 1CCing it on normal was awesome when I finally did it.

To stay on topic though. You should really just try any of the games mentioned and see if you like them or not. The games I played ages ago were shooters such as Thunder Force, Musha Aleste, and Fire Shark; they're still pretty tough for being fairly old. While newer games, such as Cave manic shooters, seem almost easier to me because the hitbox is smaller and you can predict the wave of bullets more easily because of the larger patterns(or maybe I'm just weird). If you like it, just play it.

[gs68]

I swear, the next person who says "omg it's a bullet hell so it's hard even on easy mode" should be forced to play Image Fight. I'm not joking, I'd like to see the look on their face when I tell them it doesn't have a lot of bullets and then throw them into the game.

[lgb]

make them play staff mode on the pc-e version

herk

[captpain]

It's a complete waste of time to try to make blanket statements about which type of shmup is harder than the other. Judge each game on its own.

[sunburstbasser]

Sengeki Striker kicks my butt constantly.

For an older game, Rezon does as well. If you haven't played it, it's a really blatant copy of R-Type, maybe harder but definitely not as good.

I've only dabbled with Karous so far, but I can see why it isn't considered really hard. Playing for score is harder than killing enemies.

[gs68]

It's a complete waste of time to try to make blanket statements about which type of shmup is harder than the other. Judge each game on its own.

This. I'm tempted to touch up the bullet hell page on a website I frequent to remove references to "bullet hell = inherently hard". But given its audience it isn't worth the effort to explain how that's a misconception.

[neorichieb1971]

I just recently bought Alcon on PCB. There is hardly ever more than 10 bullets on the screen but damn is it hard.

Personally I feel games that have bullets only coming from the top are much easier than those games where shit comes out of the sides and the bottom.

[sunburstbasser]

I just recently bought Alcon on PCB. There is hardly ever more than 10 bullets on the screen but damn is it hard.

Personally I feel games that have bullets only coming from the top are much easier than those games where shit comes out of the sides and the bottom.

I think this is why side-scrollers tend to be difficult. Any game modeled after Gradius or R-Type will have enemies coming from all parts of the screen, and while the bullet count is generally not that high most of those bullets are aimed right at the ship and generally pretty fast. And this on top of scenery to avoid.