Shmups for beginners

[louisg]

Guy who said Lords of Thunder is easy:

you are crazy

I 1CC'd Lords of Thunder on my 2nd attempt. That was the Sega CD version, though. Maybe the PC Engine version was harder.

Yeah, the Sega CD one is easier in my experience. On emulator, I got to the last stage with keyboard. With the PCE version (US edition), I have yet to 1cc it.

[Arcade Legends 3]

I began with Demon Star, for PC. I was 14-year old and quickly managed to 1cc the game.
At 15 I played through MAME solely on two STGs.
Now I play STGs with better quality, and can recommend these:
- Battle Bakraid: Unlimited Version;
- G-Stream G2020;
- Vasara;
- Storm Blade;
- Ashura Blaster;
- Blazing Star;
- and Raiden Fighters 2 - 2000.
The beginner must be aware of two things: not to befall in love with CAVE and not to be misguided by the memorizers of Psikyo. Because of the memorization, Psikyo's games are easy to progress - but once that is done, the gameplay becomes trivial, there is not anything interesting in it anymore. Do not play memorizers!
Also one should obtain arcade controller soon. Keyboards and joypads are bad - stick brings a whole new attitude towards the gameplay; if one has not used a stick - or has been forgot about it, he must spend 15 euros on something solely to try out the right attitude. For 2-button games, "Speedlink Competition Pro" is actually good.

[ptoing]

The beginner must be aware of two things: not to befall in love with CAVE and not to be misguided by the memorizers of Psikyo. Because of the memorization, Psikyo's games are easy to progress - but once that is done, the gameplay becomes trivial, there is not anything interesting in it anymore. Do not play memorizers!
Also one should obtain arcade controller soon. Keyboards and joypads are bad - stick brings a whole new attitude towards the gameplay; if one has not used a stick - or has been forgot about it, he must spend 15 euros on something solely to try out the right attitude. For 2-button games, "Speedlink Competition Pro" is actually good.

Anything other than what I prefer is BAD!!!!!!

[KNekoSpy]

Who said Salamander is for beginners? That's a scary thought. I can 1cc the NES game but forget arcade, ever.

[BIL]

Salamander's not a good recommendation. The dozen or so safespots/tricks you should know for a confident 1-ALL are all easy to execute, but you won't figure them out without either taking considerable ass-kickings by the relevant chokepoints or reading a guide. After that point, yes, it's a short and easy 1 loop clear by arcade standards. Gradius Gaiden is easily the best game from that series for beginners since it's pretty mild on defaults but also packed with interesting and varied levels and bosses to figure out.

[Gus]

For me the games that really hooked me on the genre and made me stop thinking they were made for Japanese pros only were the easier bullet hell that had lots of style and scoring systems anybody could easily experiment with. Stuff like Deathsmiles, Radirgy, and Shikigami 3. Also fuck old-school horis.

[BPzeBanshee]

I began with Demon Star, for PC. I was 14-year old and quickly managed to 1cc the game.
At 15 I played only Aero Fighters and Gun.Smoke.
Now I play STGs with better quality, and can recommend these:
- Battle Bakraid: Unlimited Version;
- G-Stream G2020;
- Vasara;
- Storm Blade;
- Progear;
- Blazing Star;
- and Raiden Fighters 2 - 2000.
The beginner must be aware of two things: not to befall in love with CAVE and not to be misguided by the memorizers of Psikyo. Because of the memorization, Psikyo's games are easy to progress - but once that is done, the gameplay becomes trivial, there is not anything interesting in it anymore. Do not play memorizers!
Also one should obtain arcade controller soon. Keyboards and joypads are bad - stick brings a whole new attitude towards the gameplay; if one has not used a stick - or has been forgot about it, he must spend 15 euros on something solely to try out the right attitude. For 2-button games, "Speedlink Competition Pro" is actually good.

The only thing I can agree with this is with Raiden Fighters 2 as a game to play, and not to be stuck in one tier of shmups (love with CAVE vs "memorisers of Psikyo"). The rest is pure baloney.

And Bakraid's not a game for beginners, unless you're talking Training Course which is probably understandable.

For a game like Raiden Fighters that's more friendly to beginners I recommend Xeno Fighters R which has a development thread on this very forum. It's accessible while keeping with the RF tradition.

[Paradigm]

And Bakraid's not a game for beginners, unless you're talking Training Course which is probably understandable.

Bakraid's Normal Course is one of the easiest arcade shooter 1CC's out there. It's enjoyable to play for survival, looks and sounds great and has a nice bit of variety to it. It's a great choice for beginners.

[Despatche]

Who said Salamander is for beginners? That's a scary thought. I can 1cc the NES game but forget arcade, ever.

Salamander's not a good recommendation. The dozen or so safespots/tricks you should know for a confident 1-ALL are all easy to execute, but you won't figure them out without either taking considerable ass-kickings by the relevant chokepoints or reading a guide. After that point, yes, it's a short and easy 1 loop clear by arcade standards. Gradius Gaiden is easily the best game from that series for beginners since it's pretty mild on defaults but also packed with interesting and varied levels and bosses to figure out.

Hard games tend to teach "good habits" (difficulty, among other things), easy games tend to teach bad ones; that goes for developers too. Even so, people like Tsuneki Ikeda and Shinobu Yagawa take inspiration from games like Slap Fight and Salamander, and pray to games like Ikaruga every now and then. Less pointless popcorns and seemingly fearsome bosses, more devious enemy placements, and no euroshmup nonsense; less Compile, more Toaplan, and as few Tyrians as is needed. I'm not asking for every game to be hard here; as far as recommendations go, I will admit that Salamander and Life Force might be pushing it, but I will say that Salamander 2 is definitely not.

While I'm here, I may as well throw out another DDP rant, since DOJ is most definitely the sort of hard game everyone should be playing, when everyone wants you to play DDP anyway. I would always recommend Daioujou over Dodonpachi any day, to anyone, under any circumstances. Just on the surface, the first loop of DOJ is not much harder than DDP's, contrary to popular belief. Then it goes on to fix everything wrong with DDP and then some, with Black Label fixing everything wrong with DOJ. Not only that, but DOJ actually has pretty good ports (yes, even PS2, never mind that this old version of DOJ retains one particular flaw from DDP); they're forcing you to skip through a visual novel just to get a decent port of DDP, and there probably won't be any nice goodies of any sort other than uh... Kinect. Wonderful.

If DDP is eligible for "beginners" in the first place, DOJ is far more worth it in nearly every way (I think DDP has better graphics, for example), and I have no idea why I'm the only one advocating this.

[BPzeBanshee]

And Bakraid's not a game for beginners, unless you're talking Training Course which is probably understandable.

Bakraid's Normal Course is one of the easiest arcade shooter 1CC's out there. It's enjoyable to play for survival, looks and sounds great and has a nice bit of variety to it. It's a great choice for beginners.

Yeah, I meant Normal. Advanced isn't by any means but having the options there do make the game remotely plausible for friendly choice.

Frankly I'd go Batrider over Bakraid, but thats cause I personally find Normal Course for Bakraid to be harder, therefore suggesting the former to be easier.

[BIL]

Hard games tend to teach "good habits" (difficulty, among other things), easy games tend to teach bad ones

Agreed, but Salamander will mostly only teach you how to clear Salamander, being a deceptively moderate game with an increasing number of "memorise or die" spots. Gradius Gaiden and Gradius V* are better introductions in that they're relatively easy, very well-designed shooters that can generally be cleared with smart tactics alone, not figuring out (or looking up) specific tricks to not die.

*unfortunately sometimes regarded as a real tough nut here, despite the microscopic hitbox, instant respawns+retrievable options, generally slow pace and massive, dick-waving firepower. Maybe it's the shiny graphics and boomin' OST.

[zaphod]

I find batrider way too brutal, especially at first poweron, which is the state MAME gives you.

Bakraid i actually feel I have a chance at the single life clear.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

Beginner shumps, I recommend:

Vertical:

• Xevious (Namco/Atari), also introduces separate bombing mechanics.
• 1943 (Capcom), draining lifebar.
• Sky Shark/Flying Shark (Toaplan/Taito), fast aimed bullets including spread shots, limited bombs but they damage a large radius.
• Twin Cobra (Toaplan/Taito), fast aimed bullets, weapon changing, instant respawn in the US arcade version, boss attacks at the end of each stage (not in the middle of the stages like Sky Shark/Flying Shark). Collecting the same color weapon change as the one in use does not power up, need to collect the S symbol to power up.
• Truxton (Toaplan/Taito or Toaplan/Midway), weapon changing, power up stocking (need to store 5 P symbols to power up), behind the back attacks in the air. Much faster bullets than either Sky Shark/Flying Shark or Twin Cobra.
• Outzone (Toaplan/Romstar)--uses a lot shot patterns seen in previous Toaplan shmups, not just the bosses but even some of the in stage tank like enemies in the later stages.
• Ajax (Konami)--reintroduces the separate bombing mechanic but now the bomb can also be powered up, only one super attack per life.
• Raiden or Raiden II (Seibukaihatsu, licensed to Fabtek in the USA)--like a Toaplan shmup but enemy boss patterns are more aggressive with narrower bullet gaps. Also features, instant respawn by default on most machines, rather than start back checkpoints. Powering up requires collecting the same color, collecting a different color does NOT power up until Raiden III.

Horizontal:

• U.N. Squadron (Capcom)--horizontal shmup with a powerup shop after each completed stage
• Carrier Airwing (Capcom)--similar to U.N. Squadron but lifebar constantly drains similar to 1943's lifebar.
• Last Resort (SNK)--hard R-type style game, checkpoints.
• Gradius V (Treasure/Konami)--choose instant respawn or checkpoints, learn that powerup system most effectively, quite the memorizer too.
• Darius Gaiden (Taito)--sort of dependent on the black hole bombs, long and often intense boss attacks even if the patterns repeat

Isometric:

• Viewpoint--plays a lot like a vertical shmup turned 45 degrees clockwise, different kinds of bombs, excellent graphics, lots of narrow gap shot spreads during many boss attacks, great soundtrack.

Note: In mentioning these, I don't necessarily intend for all of them to be 1cc'd, just pass a good number or stages to gain near mastery of the game mechanics. Since all of these have fast aimed bullets and large hitboxes they encourage bullet dodging rather than bullet grazing.

[BPzeBanshee]

I find batrider way too brutal, especially at first poweron, which is the state MAME gives you.

Bakraid i actually feel I have a chance at the single life clear.

In that sense Bakraid is at least easier to just setup off the bat. I find Batrider a more fun game that I'd recommend but then again stuff like the special menu trick for lowering the rank is counterintuitive to that, good thing Yagawa was smart enough to fix that madness with Bakraid at least. The Training mode and Normal mode shouldn't be terribly difficult on Training/Normal courses as is though surely.

[guldberget]

I started out with Deathsmiles for XB360 and I found the rank option to work pretty well since I could up the ante as I got better at the game. Another Cave game that I think is good for me a as a beginner is Mushihimesama Futari Black Label Original mode because of the very easy to understand scoring system combined with the relatively low diffculty level (by Cave standards). For example I find Pink Sweets to have too much focus on controlling rank than I can handle as a beginner, but that´s just me I guess.

I also made the mistake of playing Mushi Futari 1.5 in novice mode a lot when I first got it. I picked up a lot of bad habits there that I had to "un-learn" when I made the transition from novice mode to arcade mode. The things I got away with in novice mode just didn´t work in arcade mode. So now I tend to play shmups on the arcade difficulty setting (if one exists) from the beginning, even though I get beaten down badly, and use any novice modes soley as optional challenges for myself such as clearing them with no deaths and using no bombs. I guess I´m contradicting myself here but I found the rank choosing option to be a help with learning in Deathsmiles and the novice mode in Mushi Futari 1.5 to be contraproductive.