The shmup achievements that should'a been

[8 1/2]

I'm always a bit disappointed with the selection of achievements in most shmups. It seems to me that only Futari really got it right. Here's a list of some that I never seem to see.

"It's a wonderful life"
Stay alive without dying for three full stages.

"You're coming with me"
Kill a boss with the shrapnel that explodes outward from your own death

"Diary of a wimpy kid"
Clear the game without picking up a single weapon power-up

"Arms race"
Get the Max Bomb Bonus

"Under-achiever"
Clear a rank-based game without ever maxing out the rank meter

"No thanks, I'm fine"
1CC a game with infinite extends with a very low score (low number of extra lives earned)

[DMC]

I like it when achievements serve as hints to good scoring/survival techniques. For example, in futari, I think, there was an achievement where you were supposed to time your bombing so that you prolonged invicibility.

I also like in Pink sweets, I think there was an achievement for losing a max medal, which hints to a rank-managing strategy.

More things like that!

maybe a "you had a good 1-life credit going, only to abruptly lose all lifes at once and now there isn't any feedback from the controller so you probably smashed it on the floor-good for you, now you have to return to the regular xbox controller, good luck with that- achievement".

[Bananamatic]

This isn't Dodonpachi - Die with a full bomb stock

[Drum]

Everybody should just rip off Astro Blaster.

[Udderdude]

Omega fail: Game over while the TLB has 1 pixel of life left.

[Blackbird]

Generic:

Untouchable - Complete the game without dying/getting hit once.

Unstoppable - In games were you can take more than one hit before dying, (by picking up power ups, you have a life bar, etc) take many hits, but never die.

Meatshield - Soak a large number of bullets in few seconds while having invincibility frames.

I Am Going To Kill You And Kill You And Kill You - Destroy the first boss of the game three consecutive times without dying to that boss (you can do this achievement in separate runs).

Say Goodbye To Your Kneecaps, Chucklehead - Destroy all the parts of every boss in the game in one run.

Shoot The Core - Destroy a boss without damaging any part except it's body (the part you need to destroy to defeat the boss).

M-M-M-Monster Kill - Destroy a ridiculous number of enemies with a single bomb.

Morning Rescue - Complete the game before the internal clock says 12:01 pm.

Falcon Punch - Defeat a boss with a melee attack.

The Bullet That Misses - Evade a bullet that came within 1 pixel of your hitbox.

Round Two, Fight! - Reach the second loop.

The Loop Master - Complete both/all loops.

DoDonPachi:

Plasma Death - Destroy every boss while using Hyper mode.

No! Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal! - Reach the second loop in any DoDonPachi game.

The Horror, The Horror - Defeat the Colonel.

In Short, It Comes Down To Spirit - Obtain a new personal best score in DoDonPachi.

Deathsmiles:

Lolicon - Turn the console on with Deathsmiles in the console's drive.

Under Defeat:

Above Defeat - Complete both loops of Under Defeat.

Ve Vill Savor The Joys Of Var Limitlessly, For Ze Next Var, Und Ze Next, Und Ze Next - Obtain a new personal best score in Under Defeat.

Touhou:

What Sick Man Sends Babies To Fight Me!? - Clear the game on any difficulty setting.

[TodayIsForgotten]

I'm always a bit disappointed with the selection of achievements in most shmups. It seems to me that only Futari really got it right. Here's a list of some that I never seem to see.

"It's a wonderful life"
Stay alive without dying for three full stages.

"You're coming with me"
Kill a boss with the shrapnel that explodes outward from your own death

"Diary of a wimpy kid"
Clear the game without picking up a single weapon power-up

"Arms race"
Get the Max Bomb Bonus

"Under-achiever"
Clear a rank-based game without ever maxing out the rank meter

"No thanks, I'm fine"
1CC a game with infinite extends with a very low score (low number of extra lives earned)

No
Hell No
No
Yes
No?
Whats the point when you can just make it the 1cc? (basically a redundant achievement when coupled with under-achiever)

This is the reason why most achievements are dumb. Unless you want to do those. Then do those. In skill based games I want to get the highest score I can possibly get and use as little bombs as possible while not dying...at all. I don't want to do silly things i'd never do in a game. And i certainly don't want to do something that someone may think is cool.

[Elixir]

"1cc the game"

Radirgy/DFKBL/MMP/PS/Otomedius X/Bullet Soul all lack this, plus others. Seriously, what the fuck?

[Blackbird]

@Elixir: There are a significant section of "achievement-oriented" gamers that buy games just to get the achievements/achievement points. The pretty much "farm" easy achievement games to get as many points as quickly as possible. By the same turn, they also choose not to purchase games where the achievements are notably hard to get, lest they fail to keep their 100% achievement status. I have a feeling this is why few games have difficult achievements, and many of them are so easy that they can't really be called achievements at all.

[Sumez]

The scary thing is, the kind of people Blackbird mentions actually exist, and there are a lot of them.

[wariomona]

(@ above two posts)

That's the problem. I wish gamerscore didn't exist. Achievements are good for bragging but the gamerscore stuff drives people insane. (Why play a crap game just because you can "complete" it real quick???)

I agree that every shmup needs a 1cc achievement, limited to default settings

[Sumez]

Achievements is a great idea in general, especially for games like shoot'em ups, where the challenge has always been something that's not "out in the open" to the typical western gamer - so with achievements, the developers are able to tell these people to "go complete the game in one credit" or "go get a score higher than this or that", and if they are really good, issue more simple achievements that help explaining the score system and other tricks the player can make use of, like DMC suggested.

But yeah, the gamerscore thing is just wrong. Achievements should always be a per-game thing. Compare how you are doing to everyone else in each particular game, not a measure how much of your life you've wasted playing Xbox in total.

[TodayIsForgotten]

@Elixir: There are a significant section of "achievement-oriented" gamers that buy games just to get the achievements/achievement points. The pretty much "farm" easy achievement games to get as many points as quickly as possible. By the same turn, they also choose not to purchase games where the achievements are notably hard to get, lest they fail to keep their 100% achievement status. I have a feeling this is why few games have difficult achievements, and many of them are so easy that they can't really be called achievements at all.

I highly doubt this is why achievements are easy. Have you ever looked at 90% of achievements and seen the lack of thought? I think dead rising had one like play the game for 72 hours straight. Probably most developers can't be bothered thinking of things to do in a game that was originally created for enjoyment because their thinking was they'd do what they want, anyhow?

The problem with the current generation of kids and some adults that fall into achievement whores and then definitely the generation coming up think developers first make achievements then create a game. Its a sad day when people refer to getting all achievements as completing the game. Could you imagine if a game came out with achievements that had nothing to do with beating the game? and then you have people bragging how they completed it because they got all the achievements? Wait for it.

Achievements should be skill based and make damn sense as to why you're doing it. Yes, sadly there are quite a few people who only buy games because of achievements. They aren't playing games, simply playing achievements. Two different things nowaday. Sadly, achieving takes a backseat with sites likes Trueachievements and X360a when people are constantly looking for glitches, workarounds and settings that can help them achieve something - stripping the meaning of achievement.

[8 1/2]

Not to argue your point really, but the 72 hours one in Dead Rising wasn't just to play the main game. It was to survive in the unlockable mode, where your health is always going down and you have to keep finding food/killing bosses to survive. So it wasn't just "waste your time" so much.

[Jeneki]

Another example of a really good achievement is the max medals achievement in Raiden Fighters Aces. The only way to make 100k point medals appear is to actually learn how the game works. It gives the average credit feeder a reason to learn some real game mechanics beyond "shoot stuff, use a bomb when in trouble".

[TodayIsForgotten]

Not to argue your point really, but the 72 hours one in Dead Rising wasn't just to play the main game. It was to survive in the unlockable mode, where your health is always going down and you have to keep finding food/killing bosses to survive. So it wasn't just "waste your time" so much.

Thanks for the clarification. I had only heard this from others and this was when the game came out.

Totally agree with the above comment and the other comment about achievements that force you to learn the game. Seems achievements and gaming isn't exactly sync'd and probably won't ever be, either.

[DJ Incompetent]

Who can I pay to make this happen?

Credit Feeder - 199G
"Players who have this achievement without the One Credit Clear achievement went to the options menu and chose 'Unlock Gamerscore Points'. Thank you for purchasing our game just to boost your gamerscore. If you do not have the other achievement, you are part of 'the problem'. Good day.

One Credit Clear - 1G
"Thank you for playing our game with the seriousness. Obtaining this achievement automatically unlocks the other achievement. Use this gamertag on our official developer's forum and we will listen to all your feedback on our videogames from now on. Somebody also owes you a beer."

[TodayIsForgotten]

Who can I pay to make this happen?

Credit Feeder - 199G
"Players who have this achievement without the One Credit Clear achievement went to the options menu and chose 'Unlock Gamerscore Points'. Thank you for purchasing our game just to boost your gamerscore. If you do not have the other achievement, you are part of 'the problem'. Good day.

One Credit Clear - 1G
"Thank you for playing our game with the seriousness. Obtaining this achievement automatically unlocks the other achievement. Use this gamertag on our official developer's forum and we will listen to all your feedback on our videogames from now on. Somebody also owes you a beer."

haha. This reminds me. There are also people who bitch if their gamerscore is odd. Come...onnnnnn.

[iconoclast]

Not to argue your point really, but the 72 hours one in Dead Rising wasn't just to play the main game. It was to survive in the unlockable mode, where your health is always going down and you have to keep finding food/killing bosses to survive. So it wasn't just "waste your time" so much.

For further clarification, there are two achievements like that in the original Dead Rising: one for surviving 5 days, and one for surviving 7 days. Of course, the clock moves at an accelerated speed, so to survive for 7 days, you 'only' have to play for 14 hours (you can pause, but not save).

As for the topic, I don't really have anything to add, besides the fact that I hate some of the stupid achievements that some shooters have. Like in Futari, there are achievements for destroying every lantern on stage 5, earning a 1up from picking up a bomb/power up, and getting a Game Over while the stage 5 1up is still on screen. Ugh.

[Deca]

Yeah I've always been fairly disappointed in STG achievements, not that achievements aren't usually disappointing.

It's such a good way to put all these weird little challenges in the game you'd never have any reason to do normally, but they usually all just boil down to finishing hard parts of the game or playing for a really long time.

[Sumez]

Its a sad day when people refer to getting all achievements as completing the game.

Really? I thought the great thing about achievements was exactly the fact that they enlighten people about the fact that "completing the game" is more than just reaching the end credits.

[Sumez]

Not to argue your point really, but the 72 hours one in Dead Rising wasn't just to play the main game. It was to survive in the unlockable mode, where your health is always going down and you have to keep finding food/killing bosses to survive. So it wasn't just "waste your time" so much.

Also, it's 72 IN-GAME hours, not real-time, and it's not meant to be played straight, you can save and return to the game.

[TodayIsForgotten]

Its a sad day when people refer to getting all achievements as completing the game.

Really? I thought the great thing about achievements was exactly the fact that they enlighten people about the fact that "completing the game" is more than just reaching the end credits.

It's quasi. It's not accurate at all. Why do i have to do something so ridiculous as most achievements are to "complete" a game? When did just beating the game become irrelevant?

It's like saying you beat Futari without dying. But then there is an achievement where you have to beat the game without using bombs, not dying...since you didn't do that you didn't complete the game? even though you 1cc'd it?

Completing a game isn't what developers have to put for text popups. They are merely suggestions. Nothing more.

or what if you beat a game with 1cc but you didn't get the other achievements. Then you obviously didn't beat the game, right? (:

[Udderdude]

Add a meta-achievement for all other achievements where you have to beat the game first. Problem solved ;D

[TodayIsForgotten]

Add a meta-achievement for all other achievements where you have to beat the game first. Problem solved ;D

I like this guys thinking.

[8 1/2]

Not to argue your point really, but the 72 hours one in Dead Rising wasn't just to play the main game. It was to survive in the unlockable mode, where your health is always going down and you have to keep finding food/killing bosses to survive. So it wasn't just "waste your time" so much.

Also, it's 72 IN-GAME hours, not real-time, and it's not meant to be played straight, you can save and return to the game.

No, you can't save. You can pause, but you're not allowed to turn it off and come back later. Quite the 360 destroyer in the early days of RROD.

[gameoverDude]

If I get an achievement, good. Total gamerscore matters less though. IMO PSN's trophy system is better, with an achievement being labeled as Bronze/Silver/Gold based on difficulty.

It's mildly annoying to see the achievement popup during a game- I'd rather see my newly gained achievements shown after the Game Over screen, the ending credits, a stage clear, or after a Quit/Save.

I think a better name for a "You're coming with me" achievement is "I'll take you to Hell with me!" (that was awesome to hear the final boss say this in Salamander 2 with his final breath). If Fire Shark ever appears on PSN or 360, this would be a good one- since instead of just immediately exploding, you get a final chance to bomb while you're going down from a hit.