STGT 2010 - Cyvern and Xexex thoughts

[Ed Oscuro]

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=%22missing+rom+or+chd%22

Sorry Kiken, when your forums join date is earlier than mine you have no excuse for not knowing this. (And if you wanted a more helpful response you know you have to specify which version of MAME you're running and where you got the files.) Glad to see my response lit a fire under you though.

[Sandlegs]

Xexex i'm not too fond of. I do not enjoy games where you smash into walls. Also, there really doesn't seem to be any good weapons
Last but not least, i want the tentacle rape monster to do its job, but it seems to get stuck in corners, and i think somewhere in the second stage it just disappeared into the ceiling. but maybe i am hallucinating.

[sikraiken]

Cyvern - I don't like boss leeching.

Xexex - I don't like checkpoint leeching.

Also, Flint is dumb as rocks.

[ShadowWraith]

I don't like games that loop or milking bosses, so I wasn't too fond of Cyvern. Xexex I found a lot of fun because it was very relaxed wrt. scoring, and the boss milking wasn't too bad.

[Ed Oscuro]

For what it's worth, I hope we're done with ugly anime people. "Hey guys, you're going to see this same ugly dude at least three intermission screens in a row!" AWESOME

He was prettier than the princess though. *rimshot*

Aaaand for some reason the little Flint-pets reminded me of Sparkster.

[shadowbringer]

Cyvern: I didn't like how the banish powerups can sometimes get in your way when you don't want to pick them, or vice-versa :p (also, it's easy for me to mess up and die with bombs in stock, especially when trying to milk on bosses and when fighting the 4th boss)

Xexex: I consider this game much more difficult than X-Multiply, because there's a lot more things that can kill you if you're not prepared against them (for example, trying to let too many of the molecules laid by flying saucers on stage 2, being greedy on stage 3, trying to get to the safespot on the 4th boss, or not being prepared against the enemies at the beginning of stage 5); I've spent too much time restarting (stage 3 would be the greatest problem for me, there were a lot of varying factors for why I was dying on it, then I decided to try to not be greedy on it and not abuse vertical scrolling, and that made the stage so much less difficult. Too bad I didn't knew about this earlier )

[Sixx]

Cyvern: Me like.

Xexex: Me hate.

[Aquas]

Xexex... i want the tentacle rape monster to do its job, but it seems to get stuck in corners, and i think somewhere in the second stage it just disappeared into the ceiling. but maybe i am hallucinating.

Yeah it happened to me too, in the 2nd loop no less, completely screwing me over. I think she sees a shiny quarter hidden behind those balls.

[Nifty]

I'ma do these this year. I only really play shmups at STGT time anyway so my library is pretty small.

Cyvern is very well-made for the most part, but I can tell it would have sucked if it was my first tourney game ever. Then again I'm still no good at Varth so... I don't mind 'slow' shmups, and it helps that the hitbox is small, if awkwardly placed. I liked the scoring system (easy medal chaining!) and regular extends, although enemy/boss-milking could be annoyingly inconsistent with the way they gained a heap of life due to rank. Also didn't like how stage 2 was harder than stage 3, but it was interesting having bombs basically being for invincibility abuse rather than being the boss-wreckers that they often are. Overall I felt most of its mechanics were implemented effectively and weren't overly obtuse, and that most of the enemy/boss patterns weren't too bad once I had them figured out. Might even try to complete the first loop one day.

Was not overly impressed by Xexexexexex as my first horizontal shmoop. I hate powerup-dodging in general, and random 1ups are just silly. Don't like random offscreen bullets, don't like running into walls (especially when parts of the game require precision), and don't like dying once on a hard part and then being poorly-equipped to get through it. I do like shielding mechanics, but not when they hide at the back of the screen and take their sweet time getting anything done. On the plus side, the enemy/boss milking was fairly intuitive, and all of the bosses were ezy. Sort of the opposite of Cyvern actually. I also like having multiple weapon options, but I don't know why people like the homing laser because it sucks The search laser was far more useful, although I spent most of the game with the spiral laser because of its width. I don't really hate the game as such, but I have to say this is probably my second-least favourite STGT game out of this year and last year so far (ahead of RFJ but fuck that game seriously).

Also maybe it's just me but I feel like this year has been a lot less competitive so far in terms of scoring strength. Of course I'm a better player now, but even if they held the first two weeks of last year again now I wouldn't have done much better at them. I await the silliness that the remaining weeks will churn up >_>

[VorpalEdge]

Overall, I think I'm positive on Xexex now. Stage 5 is a lot of fun, and 4 is slow and easy enough that I can just watch the scenery and see my score shoot up. The homing laser is awesome. The rest of the game ranges from 'ok' to 'meh' to 'lame', but those two levels pull it through for me. The extra lives thing is stupid, but I made peace with that by never checkpoint milking. Certainly does mean I'm never going to play this game for score again though.

[Edge]

About Xexex/hori complaints:
I am really glad that a horizontal shmup was chosen. The game may have it's flaws, but you know, what a good gameplay mechanic or scoring system is also depends on personal preference. For example I don't find Raizing shmups very fun, because of the tedious rank control and very unintuitive scoring secrets (random(!) flamingoes, destroying all boss parts at once). But I never bitched about how awful these games are during a prior STGT. And I really don't find them THAT awful, they are just not my cup of tea.

So I think comments as "I don't like games that..." are completely pointless.
And the exaggerated bitching about how awful that game was is pretty childish. Some people need to grow up and learn to respect other person's opinions.

I think the STGT is about getting to play a wide field of different games. Try to be more open minded for different approaches of shmup design, a good shmup does not have to have a Yagawa- or Ikeda-ish approach.

[ED-057]

Cyvern: I had some fun with this game. It is less annoying than garegga/etc. With more time to practice stage 4 I probably could have improved my score.

Xexex: This game has issues, but it wasn't too bad. It's funny that people are complaining about useless weapons though. I felt the same way, but I think I have seen every weapon being advocated by someone, except maybe the standard pee shooter and the ground laser (I myself favored the ground laser) so they must not be that useless after all.

[clp]

About Xexex/hori complaints:
Some people need to grow up and learn to respect other person's opinions.

I think xexex is garbage , but im sure your grown up enough to respect my opinion . I dont think anyone complained about it being a hori ? and just go look at the list of awesome horis we could of played in mame .....

[Shatterhand]

I haven't played Cyvern this year, but I played it in a weekly competition about.. 4 or 5 years ago? SHit, time flies...

It's an awesome game, the score system is simple and deep at the same time.

I had never played Xexex before, and I honestly loved it. The random extends e "Avoid Speed-up at all costs) are extremely annoying, but I *really* loved the level design.


It's a shame that, in the week I have more free time is the week we are giving a break

[third_strike]

About Xexex/hori complaints:
Some people need to grow up and learn to respect other person's opinions.

I think xexex is garbage , but im sure your grown up enough to respect my opinion

It's a shame that, in the week I have more free time is the week we are giving a break

This!

[KennyMan666]

It took a while, but now I've written my post about Xexex on the blog. Link in signature. My Cyvern thoughts are of course also there.

[sunburstbasser]

Cyvern-loved it. This is a game that I've played off and on quite a bit. Finding some of the secrets was a great feeling, and learning how to use the system was actually a lot of fun. I didn't like that even knowing what was coming, I'd get killed. I guess I don't know how to get past those parts yet.

Xexex-I really like old Horis. This one has many of the best elements of Irem and Konami games in one, with a few unique touches as well. Also, when was the last time the tentacles were on YOUR side? Not quite my favorite Hori (Darius Gaiden FTW!) but my favorite Konami shmup.

[esreveR]

Also, Flint is dumb as rocks.

This.

Though R-Type's Force wasn't particularly smart when you shot it out either.

Xexex is generally okay, but I think they overdid the graphical effects, and the actual sprites aren't the best, really...I'm just not a big fan of Konami shmups or something (I couldn't even follow Gradius...)

As for Cyvern, I love that game but it bugs me a ton that I can't rip sprites from it (The tile viewer is basically a bunch of multicolored pixel crap that I can't understand to save my life. Even CAVE's first-generation hardware at least had some bits recognizable...). Other than and crap music and graphics (Seriously, pre-rendered is stupid, guys, get real) I find this game rather entertaining.

[TonK]

Xexex was way ahead of its time and is an absolutely gorgeous shmup, although it does have it's problems.

Agreed.

It's a shame that the PCB is so finicky, otherwise I would have it in my collection. All XEXEX PCBs will experience sound failure at some point (and a majority already have).

Do you know how to fix sound broken PCB's?