Armed Police Batrider - yay or nay...?

[Acid King]

This thread was necromancified(yeah new word) by saying that APB is harder than Garegga?!

This is great news. I can easily 1cc APB and hear BG is one of the hardest shmups ever. I must be a shooting god!


(also, by law, all APB threads must contain a post by me)

I haven't spent much time with Garegga, but beating APB in its optimal path and triggering all the bosses is quite a feat.

[ZOM]

^^Oh I agree! But I still have more respect for Garegga, especially if you're not a god at rank-control.
Admittedly, being a god at rank control is also an useful prerequisite for a full APB run, but I still find it easier to control than garegga's rank on later stages... But who am I to talk? Didn't 1CC any of the two yet.

[drunken starsailor]

This is great news. I can easily 1cc APB and hear BG is one of the hardest shmups ever. I must be a shooting god!

Dude, you would rape that game. If you feel comfortable 1CCing APB, than this should take you a couple months if you dedicate enough time to it.

I have not 1CC'd any of Cave's shoot-em-ups, but I prefer to get further in one, then dedicate my time to another one, etc, etc. I can regularly get to the fifth stage in Galuda and Progear, fourth boss in Rade, and the last boss in Guwange.

As for Garegga, the bullets are easiER (Hey, I never said easy.) to discern from Batrider due to the pain-in-the-ass backgrounds, as BulletMagnet mentioned earlier in this thread. With enough practice I was able to become adjusted to them. But in Batrider, I think the enemy formations make this harder as well. I often feel more claustrophobic when I'm playing, because of all the baddies re-appearing on the bottom of the screen; notably in the mall stage. Bosses have more simplistic patterns as well. (In Garegga.)

[Plasmo]

This is great news. I can easily 1cc APB and hear BG is one of the hardest shmups ever. I must be a shooting god!

Batrider's Normal Course is a cakewalk and a very easy 1cc. On the other hand, Advance Course is much harder than Garegga. If you compare these two, you could even say that rank control is irrelevant in Garegga. The amount of rank control you have to do in Advance Course is insane if you want to go for the 1cc. On top of that you get thousands of secrets and hidden bosses to trigger. A full credit takes around 90min to finish. Extends are very hard earned: every 1.5mill (instead of Garegga's 1mill) plus you have to collect them as an item.

Garegga is actually quite an easy game to 1cc. Just use Gain and bomb your way through. Batrider's over the top difficulty comes mostly from it's bosses. If you've thought Garegga's bosses were hard, just take a look at Envy, Grubby, Bashi-R, Glow Squid (MUCH harder than the Garegga pedant!) and of course Discharge (last boss).

[Icarus]

The biggest challenge with Batrider Advance is primarily scoring - if you're going for maximum score, the optimal route and ship configuration is so rigid that any deviation from the perfect formula can affect your scoring by millions or more. That and you're playing the game on the typical Raizing knife-edge, where a single mistake can cost thousands, and a single death can cost millions.

However, you can still play the game to a decent standard with Single Ship Mode and come out with a good score take, as long as you're comfortable with simple rank control techniques common to Yagawa's games. Some ships on Single Ship Mode make the game far easier than it should be (Shorty, Strawman, Tag-T and Miyamoto are contenders).

[Krondelo]

Been playing this game a lot lately, mainly Boss Rush. Still getting my ass kicked.. man this is one of the hardest Shmups I have ever played. I love the variety though.

[mirkvid]

nevermind. Normal-mode shmupping dog here. I really should checkout BG tho. Its been on my to-do list for years now...

anyway the correct answer is "yay".

[xris]

Just played this for the first time, wow. This is the shmup I have been looking for. Super colourful, combined with the game play of BG, lots of variety, a difficulty that will bring you back and push you further, and neat secrets to find and perfect. Flamingos. I have the feeling this is going to become one of those games I'll be playing for a long time. Must resist urge to play this nonstop, I have to 1CC Shikigami before this gets my full attention. Awesome.

[Ed Oscuro]

I am lame. I cannot see what is happening and so never play it.

A simple limb disfigurement shouldn't affect your eyesight. If you have a crippled upper limb then that will also prevent full enjoyment of other games as well, so I feel bad for you. Perhaps you had a stroke.

Uh yeah, game, not so bad really.

The only bg thing about it for me is the board revisions; I have an A and it wasn't all that inexpensive. (But real time option switching is still possible, isn't it? Not a big deal for me regardless, since I have my hands full just trying to keep out of the bullets and lazerz of deaths).

FLAMINGOS

[mesh control]

I need to play this game by the end of the year.

[captpain]

Garegga is actually quite an easy game to 1cc. Just use Gain and bomb your way through.

[Ed Oscuro]

low score is the new high score, didn't you hear?

[lgb]

night raid

[roker]

APB is the first real shmup I've ever 1cc'd

it's also a shit load of fun

if I owned the PCB, I'd already be trying for an advanced 1cc

[Phellan Wolf]

I have never played it and I was wondering myself if there is a home console port of the game since I enjoy Garegga a lot abd also love Ibara, this game looks quite a lot like them.

[kernow]

I have never played it and I was wondering myself if there is a home console port of the game since I enjoy Garegga a lot abd also love Ibara, this game looks quite a lot like them.

No, but its in mame.

[evil_ash_xero]

I guess I could chime in....

Yay, basically. It's Yagawa goodness. I am drop dead terrible at it though. If that is because it's "too fast", or just because I suck, is hard to say.

My biggest gripe with the game is the graphics. I don't like the style. I don't know what they're going for, but i'm not a big fan. I think it may have been able to pull that look off better if it used the same hardware as Dimahoo.

It does have a few nice looking stages, and some wild bosses. It's certainly worth getting, as long as you don't have to sell a kidney or anything.

[clp]

APB is ok , its a lot of fun for the 1cc ppl but tbh i really cant stand the game much , just the whole cut n paste nature of it and the sheer length of advanced especially with bosses makes it a do not want title for me .

[cools]

Don't unlock the bosses o//

[kernow]

I 1cc'd normal course a couple days back, this game is awesomerad.

[robivy64]

this game is awesomerad.

Still not used to this...

[kernow]

[PC Engine Fan X!]

This has been said before in another thread topic, if stranded on a deserted island, which single arcade shmup PCB would you choose? Of course, an Armed Police Batrider PCB would be the logical choice in terms of sheer game play, let alone just for the numerous cool hidden tricks and modes to unlock.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Ed Oscuro]

If I was on an island I would be spending my time building a boat to get back to shore and my APB, but also to Twin Cobra (actually the checkpoint version), Out Zone, Top Gunner (Jackal), SURPRISE ATTACK! and Major Stryker. Still wanting to get ahold of the Raiden Fighters series and Sonic Wings 2 & 3. Garegga's gameplay is quite nice but the colors are rather depressed compared to APB. (Car 54, where are you?)

Besides, can't telefrag or rocket jump in APB or Garegga, can't swing from a whip either.

Actually, if I were on a desert island I'd probably go crazy and start acting out all the parts from the Miami Vice "Calderone's Return" episodes.

[Snake]

Batrider rules. Better than Garegga, which everyone thinks is the G.O.A.T., at least among Raizing titles.

[roker]

Batrider rules. Better than Garegga, which everyone thinks is the G.O.A.T., at least among Raizing titles.

I play and enjoy Batrider more than Garegga, but to me Garegga is the blueprint that defines all vert shmups. You could lose every shmup in the world (MAME, PCB, etc.) then use Garegga to base new games off it.

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

But if I was stranded on an island wtih only one shmup to play for the rest of my life, APB would be my choice, no doubt about it.