Shmup stinkers

[rocketassistedkea]

O.K devilnamozzy; I understand. It's a pity there's underlying friction, in the art world. In an ideal world, people wouldn't care as about something so frivilous as art...but, well, hey, they do.
Nevermind;0)

Caverns of Mars...yeah....if I'm totally honest about this thing; it's goddamnedawlfullness didn't stop me from booting it up first thing after school, often. Can't for the life of me understand; "why", looking back. Must have had one hell of an imagination.

BioMetal...looks pretty awesome, that's what I thought....but you have MAME; and have to play it now skykid;0) Hahahahaha hahaha...evil cackle.

Here's a game, not a shmup [but still a shooter, or kind of starshipsim/shooter] that BLEW my mind, from 1979, Atari 600/800/130XE....drum roll; 'Star Raiders'.
I'm still waiting for a modern remake. You could fly from one side of the galaxy, to the other...but It'd cost you half ur energy. On 'Warrior' and Captain' difficulty...your enemies photon torpedoes [which looked awesome], would track...as would yours, if you could get a lock. Sometimes your homing shot, would bound off a hit, often it would miss, and curve away...it was the world's first 3-d game to have an xyz axis [Battletank was XY only], by the way. A hit could knock out your shields, making another hit fatal. Or your shields could take many hits, but the concussion or whatnot through your shields, would still damage your systems in unpredictable ways. Most nerve-wracking was having damaged, randomly flickering shields...even today, a remake would be increadibly ambitious-as you'd need to flesh out the galaxy more.
A game lasted around 45 mins, after which you'd either; cleared the galaxy of enemies and won the day, exploded into particles...or all your starbases/refuelling points were lost. It could be quite eerie, flying through space, sub-space radio down...trying to find starbases that you've lost communication with [and have been destroyed...your enemy moved fast]. You also had sub-space engine settings from 1-9 [your fastest opponent was 7, you docked at 1 or 2], and you could fly at maximum sub-light speed absolutely forever, and never reach the end of a quadrant.
It was pretty awesome...and the whole game was only something like 64k-maybe even less. Written by one guy, too;0)

Z

[dunpeal2064]

Randering Ranger R2 is a hybrid, with run'n'gun stages followed by shmup stages and so on so forth etc.

It's fairly impressive.

I know, just don't consider it a pure shmup. I didn't think much to it as a game tbh, maybe I should spend some more time with it.

Yeah its definitely not a pure shmup. I guess I count a game if parts of it are pure shmup, because I count Thunderforce 2. I don't count rail shooters or twin-sticks usually though. But hey, everyone has their own games in and out of the "shmup" definition.

I do want to play it, but will probably go repro, as I agree that the price is a bit outstanding.

[ptoing]

Just gave Rendering Ranger R2 a go on emulator and I have to say definitely a stinker. While the GFX might have been impressive when it came out, they lack personality and look horribly bland IMO. And the gameplay is really bad. Could not be arsed to play past the first level as that already was boring as hell.

[Kollision]

Hybrids are a can of worms, but I have a soft spot for them.
What to say of The Guardian Legend and Konami Wai Wai World 1 and 2?

Now R2 a stinker? No fu*$!# way.

[ptoing]

TGL is nice, also you can play shmup only if you enter TGL as a password, which is cool.

Have not played Wai Wai World.

I just found the leveldesign in R2 about as boring as it gets, and bland, also the music is pretty horrible D: Different tastes.

[Kollision]

You're right, different tastes.
I just object to its "stinkerization".

[Skykid]

You can't recommend RR as it's not a 'proper' shmup anyways, and Wai Wai world is a platform game! Try to keep it OT dudes.

[Treasurance]

TAKE A GOOD LOOK

fixed

[drei :3]

Going by Youtube vids of a complete run, Rendering Ranger looks boooring. In many places throughout the game there is a turret thingy and you just stand there in a safe spot and shoot and shoot and shoot at it until it's gone and you can move on. About as exciting as waiting for an elevator.

As for pure shmups that suck, I say Thunder Force VI (what where they thinking with that free-range weapon, one might as well put an item in the game for permanent invincibility) and Dux (even without the infamous scoring bug it wouldn't be a good game), and I also vaguely remember a pre-installed hori on my 1-bit-colour Nokia (name forgotten).

[DocHauser]

There are a few recent PS3/PSP Minis that I'd add to the stinker list:

M.O.Z.O.X Space Salvager (seriously, this one looks dreadful)
A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks
Sky Force
Apache Overkill
Ace Armstrong vs. The Alien Scumbags

Flying Hamster and Who's That Flying probably just get a pass by being mediocre rather than truly terrible.

[renardqueenston]

i saw lightning fighters and thought "man, i remember that game kicking ass!" - decided to boot up MAME and give it a go, and sure enough, yeah, it kicks ass! classic gameplay, cool effects, rockin' tunes. cool-as-shit bombs too. love that dragon laser.

i think i have to make a thread parallel to this one about shmups that are just so bad they're good.

[Skykid]

There are a few recent PS3/PSP Minis that I'd add to the stinker list:

M.O.Z.O.X Space Salvager (seriously, this one looks dreadful)
A Space Shooter for 2 Bucks
Sky Force
Apache Overkill
Ace Armstrong vs. The Alien Scumbags

Flying Hamster and Who's That Flying probably just get a pass by being mediocre rather than truly terrible.

Thanks for those, will cast my eyes over em in a bit.

As for pure shmups that suck, I say Thunder Force VI (what where they thinking with that free-range weapon, one might as well put an item in the game for permanent invincibility) and Dux (even without the infamous scoring bug it wouldn't be a good game), and I also vaguely remember a pre-installed hori on my 1-bit-colour Nokia (name forgotten).

Can't speak for Dux, but we're not adding TFIV to the list man. It might have an overpowered weapon but it's still a great game.

Anyone else think Dux is bad (I doubt it is?)

[renardqueenston]

As for pure shmups that suck, I say Thunder Force VI (what where they thinking with that free-range weapon, one might as well put an item in the game for permanent invincibility) and Dux (even without the infamous scoring bug it wouldn't be a good game), and I also vaguely remember a pre-installed hori on my 1-bit-colour Nokia (name forgotten).

Can't speak for Dux, but we're not adding TFIV to the list man. It might have an overpowered weapon but it's still a great game.

Anyone else think Dux is bad (I doubt it is?)

wow, TFIV? come on.

Dux is certainly not a stinker as far as i'm concerned, it's just very usual. like "yeah, this is a shooter"...

[DocHauser]

drei was talking about TFVI, though.

[dunpeal2064]

Wow, this thread is going to crap now. People are just throwing shit out that isn't their taste, but are far from stinkers.

Try to remember what is objective and subjective when considering a game. Dux is not a stinker, because it would blow away all of the other stinkers on the list so far. Thunderforce IV, thats just trolling (although I thought I read 6, not 4, in the original post, which is debatable, but still... hard to call a stinker, just a disappointment)

[mjclark]

Aye-TFVI ( THAT'S 6!) has really pathetic bosses (including a robot chicken IIRC) too and brings shame to the whole franchise but it is very pretty in a Gradius V kinda way.
Weirdly, I have sealed copies of both TF VI and DUX stored away in the unlikely hope that their print runs will be discontinued and they'll both become collector's items.
Again Dux is graphically beautiful but fucking dull to play.
I also have 3 sealed copies of Soldner-X Himmelsturmer which runs true to form in the respect that it is also very pretty but otherwise largely shit.
Ha ha- just realised that I HAVE A MUSEUM OF SHIT

[renardqueenston]

drei was talking about TFVI, though.

crap - i saw VI, saw the IV reply, and got all mixed up

agreeing with dunpeal - VI is just disappointing, not a crappy shmup

[JoJo]

Flying Shark on the C64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lXd2A9P9Vc

Really,this game was just beyond hard, it was almost unplayable with the extreme fake difficulty brought on by the limits on the hardware. The bullets in this game go VERY fast and are very difficult to see properly on the background.

The video looks easy but grab VICE 64 and the .d64 file and believe me, it ain't. Nice music tho, as is most SID stuff.

[Skykid]

Wow, this thread is going to crap now. People are just throwing shit out that isn't their taste, but are far from stinkers.

Don't worry about that, I have a super shield up to deflect the erroneous suggestions, forged through 12 pages of erroneous suggestions!

Basically I'm pretty wary of all suggestions now, so I either mame it up or do youtube investigations before adding anything.

And SORRY, I mis-read the TF as 4. My bad. I know 6 is meant to be a bit lacklustre, but does it really stink? Really?

[Treasurance]

how come Ketsui and Crimzon Clover aren't on the list

[drauch]

how come Ketsui and Crimzon Clover aren't on the list

how come you ask stupid questions

[TVG]

Flying Shark on the C64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lXd2A9P9Vc

Really,this game was just beyond hard, it was almost unplayable with the extreme fake difficulty brought on by the limits on the hardware. The bullets in this game go VERY fast and are very difficult to see properly on the background.

The video looks easy but grab VICE 64 and the .d64 file and believe me, it ain't. Nice music tho, as is most SID stuff.

The vid looks nice enough for a toaplan game on the c64.

Maybe the difficulty is fucked up though, but as far as ports from these era go I've seen worse.

[renardqueenston]

how come Ketsui and Crimzon Clover aren't on the list

how come you ask stupid questions

it's okay, he hates everything and can't stand to have fun

[Herr Schatten]

Flying Shark on the C64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lXd2A9P9Vc

Really,this game was just beyond hard, it was almost unplayable with the extreme fake difficulty brought on by the limits on the hardware. The bullets in this game go VERY fast and are very difficult to see properly on the background.

The video looks easy but grab VICE 64 and the .d64 file and believe me, it ain't. Nice music tho, as is most SID stuff.

The vid looks nice enough for a toaplan game on the c64.

Maybe the difficulty is fucked up though, but as far as ports from these era go I've seen worse.

Exactly.
Anyway, there's another, even better, port of the game on the C64 going by the name of Sky Shark. I couldn't find a video, though.

And SORRY, I mis-read the TF as 4. My bad. I know 6 is meant to be a bit lacklustre, but does it really stink? Really?

No. It's a perfectly acceptable game.

[drauch]

how come Ketsui and Crimzon Clover aren't on the list

how come you ask stupid questions

it's okay, he hates everything and can't stand to have fun

Because 1,000 other people in this thread didn't already mention popular titles like Battle Garegga, Thunder Force III/IV, Darius Gaiden, Mushihimesama, ETC as a joke or whatever. Sorry, but this proverbial dead horse has been beaten to death in this thread. Thanks for the "rolling eyes" smiley emoticon to demonstrate your sarcastic reply; that one always hurts.

I HATE FUN.

[Treasurance]

"everything" spells "mainstream"

i like doujins and handhelds

[Skykid]

And SORRY, I mis-read the TF as 4. My bad. I know 6 is meant to be a bit lacklustre, but does it really stink? Really?

No. It's a perfectly acceptable game.

I figured, thanks Schatten.

I'll get round to checking out some of those earlier suggestions in a bit, way busy atm.

[drauch]

"everything" spells "mainstream"

i like doujins and handhelds

You kind of remind me of myself at your age. Except I wasn't as terrible.

[Treasurance]

"everything" spells "mainstream"

i like doujins and handhelds

You kind of remind me of myself at your age. Except I wasn't as terrible.

btw Sunshine is the best Mario game, not joking

[RNGmaster]

"everything" spells "mainstream"

i like doujins and handhelds

So... what is Crimzon Clover if it isn't a Doujin?

Totally seconding Starcannon with you, btw. That game is the worst shmup I've ever played.