XBLIG pivot database: search for good indie shmups

[Xonatron]

Thought you would all find this interesting.

The XBLIG pivot database is an awesome XBLIG searching tool.

For example, it can find all the top shmups on XBLIG, per user ratings. Selction the "shooters" genre and then choose the ratings range you want. Let me know what interesting gems you find.

I just used it to search all 4-player shmups. I bragged in a blog post that we created three of the top seven rated 4-player shmups, the other four being Hypership Out of Control, I Made A Game With Zombies, Square Off, and Zombie Estate. Keep in mind you have to use the Xbox LIVE "shooters" genre, which might result in non-shmups. But now I'm interested to play all of these with friends.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Any news on whats happening with porting score rush onto the PC? Have you had a chat with valve for publishing on steam yet? From what I understand Valve can be very fickle when it comes to allowing shmups on their label. It seems that even though Steam is full to the brim with multi-directional shooters / Geometry wars clones but when it comes to traditional verts and horizontals they dont have a clue what theyre doing and these games are very thin on the ground and of very poor quality.

[Xonatron]

Interesting. Does Steam have any scrolling shooters? I know Zeit2 was just put on there. I can't go into details of our business but I know that Steam is very hard to get onto nowadays... We want our games on PC though.

[Jeneki]

Does Steam have any scrolling shooters? I know Zeit2 was just put on there.

There's three scrolling shmups I know of: Zeit2, Who's That Flying, and Razor 2. (not counting arena shmups since you specified "scrolling")

But yea, Xona stuff would put them to shame.

[Xonatron]

Razor 2 doesn't look that bad!
http://store.steampowered.com/video/34920?l=japanese

Polished, but maybe not so much in the gameplay.

[Xonatron]

Who's That Flying has a suprisingly Castle Crashers feel to it...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/57700/

It's no good??

[Jeneki]

I bought Razor 2. I like the powerup store system, however the enemies get more hitpoints in each level, which defeats the purpose of upgrading weapons (all it really does is make any non-upgraded weapon useless since they can't do enough damage). Also the level design is very repetitive; the same enemy attack waves repeat through the whole level with no variation at all, even during the boss fight. It also has some technical issues such as going crazy when you use plug in a 360 controller, but I'm sure that will be patched eventually (the developer claimed to be looking into it on the Steam forums).

I haven't picked up WTF yet, but I'll likely get it the next time I place an order. Screw it, I'll grab it tonight, I want to get the new Painkiller as well.

[DJ Incompetent]

I'll recommend Who's That Flying. It's not all that worthy of a scorechase game, but it's a new concept that's done pretty well. The story made me chuckle as well.

Challenge Mode is where it's at.


Thanks for the find, Mr. Doucette.

[TodayIsForgotten]

I thought WTF was sorta boring. It had a fun and cool concept but it wasnt anything original. If that game can get on steam and sell whatever it sold, in theory no reason why Xona Games couldnt get on there and actually do well.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

The reason I say Valve is fickle is that it seems that Rockin Andriod has tried to get their games on steam in the past and I remember an interview article where they were asked if they would return to publishing for the PC as they have gone PS3 exclusive. They said that they would love to return to the PC if they could publish on steam and asked fans to pester Valve. This makes it quite resonable to guess that RA has tried getting their games onto Steam in the past and Valve has knocked them back.

As Xona's games are graphically simlar to whats already on steam ill guess that theres little chance in valve not liking your games. And I too believe anything by Xona would put other shmups on steam to shame aswell

Razor 2 although looking really nice is just a really badly designed euroshmup (I remeber the games steam forum page been full of ppl feelling cheated as they were expecting R2 to be like a traditional arcade shmup, which it wasnt). Zeit2 has TAGES DRM so I wont even approach it. WTF I havnt played but the fact you cant die is really off putting. Personally I would like to see Score Rush or Final Form's Jamestown as both them games are 4 player and would benefit from steams strengths as a great place to play online games

[Evilmaxwar]

I hate steam, i much prefer Impulse (stardock) as a game distribution platform. Sadly they are not as big/reliable as steam but at least they are not full of s**t like steam. Also sad is that they pretty much have nothing scrolling shooter wise.

[TodayIsForgotten]

Seems like it could be a feasible approach for someone to buy some bandwidth, servers and start their own service. Hell. I would give it a try if i had the money.

[Evilmaxwar]

Ever tried impulse? Its got all the good qualities you want, you have the impulse browser with user friendly functions and smooth game browsing, easy payment with paypal and you can download your game whenever you like. Only drawback is sometime transfers are slow, or servers have been down a couple times.
-Unlike steam you can install the game where ever you want and it becomes standalone.
- No need to login all the time. You only open impulse when you need it. So no ugly ram leeching Grey box soiling you desktop when you dont want it.
- User friendly support,
- One account , steam has 1 main account, 1 forum account , and if you need customer support, YOU NEED A FRIGGIN third account.
-What you do on steam when the disk where you installed it is full ? You need to uninstall everything and copy/reinstall everything on anotehr drive, what a stupid hassle,
-Buts buts... steam has Achievementz!! ' yeah really? i was just awarded the "not been on steam for 6 months" achievement

I hate steam so much i vowed myself to never use it again , Ill probably put the lie to myself someday because i will want to play a game too much but in the meantime screw this STEAMing pile of crap.

sry i realize it is becoming off topic, but i absolutely had to make a rant about steam.

[Xonatron]

I actually never mind off topic posts. That's where conversation flows sometimes! It's interesting that Razor 2 was disappointing. Without playing it, I think I completely get what you mean. Especially from the trailers. It feels like the first time I started checking out PC game portals back in the early 2000's and ever shmup was polished but lacking. No Thunder Force II style, that's for sure. And always under powered weapons with no sense of accomplishment. Is that how Razor 2 is?