Rayforce is coming to iOS

[SFKhoa]

Preview video here.
I was hoping for a remake of some sort, but it looks like a straight-up port (with touch-screen controls, that is).

[Dave_K.]

Nice! I think the controls should be pretty well suited for touch pads with autofire, laser/lock button, and ship movement via your finger.

Still would have been nice to see an arrange mode version for iOS.

[MathU]

Again I have to ask myself why anyone would be excited to play a high-skill arcade games on a crappy touchscreen with no buttons. Especially a game as demanding and punishing as Rayforce. Good Lord.

[Paradigm]

Again I have to ask myself why anyone would be excited to play a high-skill arcade games on a crappy touchscreen with no buttons. Especially a game as demanding and punishing as Rayforce. Good Lord.

For fun?

Ya know, that thing games are supposed to be about.

[mesh control]

[antron]

Again I have to ask myself why anyone would be excited to play a high-skill arcade games on a crappy touchscreen with no buttons. Especially a game as demanding and punishing as Rayforce. Good Lord.

For fun?

Ya know, that thing games are supposed to be about.

good point. but does it belong in the shmup section? not sure.

personally, I don't want the genre to morph into something it wasn't, just because this happens to be what everyone has in their pocket.

[louisg]

good point. but does it belong in the shmup section? not sure.

personally, I don't want the genre to morph into something it wasn't, just because this happens to be what everyone has in their pocket.

I don't know that it's really morphing any more than shmups morphed when consoles were the target. I've got a couple of the Cave iOS releases and they do play very well. If it weren't for the way that I have trouble getting into portable releases in general, I'd be playing them a lot.

IMO touch controls do feel good for shooters. You can see a path through bullets and just draw a curve with your finger. It's a different set of pros and cons vs. a stick or pad, but I don't think it's signaling the end of the genre as we know it or anything.

[moh]

man, Layer Section kicks my ass even with perfect a joystick set-up on my saturn. Playing it on iOS would be impossible.
I think the cave games make for better iOS ports since the hitboxes are so small that they dont require pin-sharp movements. The hitbox in Layer Section is actually pretty big..

I guess I'll have to wait and see how it turns out!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Interesting to hear that Ray Force/Gun Lock/Layer Section/Galactic Attack is making an appearance on iOS. Will Taito release the sequels of Ray Storm/Layer Section II & Ray Crisis in the nearby future as well for iOS?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[null1024]

Yeah, I love RayForce with all my heart, but a game with such a big hitbox with touch control can't be very good. It isn't just quite big, isn't it nearly the entire ship [and after saying this, I realize how damn Cave games have spoiled me ]?

I could be proven wrong though.
Although, I'd hope it would be tweaked a little to compensate for any touch issues.
And yeah, it would be quite sexy to see an arrange mode.

[also, I don't have an iDevice anymore ;-;]


@PCFX:
RayStorm actually would be really nice to see. You could even have the controls in the area where the player can't move to.
I don't like RayCrisis enough to want it ported to anything.

[MathU]

The hitbox in Rayforce actually isn't that big. It's about the size of your little blue cockpit rectangle. The thing is the game likes to swarm you with huge rotating bullets which can be deceptively difficult to dodge. It generally uses large projectiles compared to the size of the playing field, so everything always feels cramped.

And I would rather they make an arrange mode for a real game system instead of wasting it on this.

[Zeron]

Obviously they should have ported Gunfrontier instead

[NzzpNzzp]

A X-Lay that can move faster than a snail.

Not sure I can comprehend this.

[Eaglet]

I think this might be easier.
One of the hardest things about Rayforce is that the bullets are big and your ship moves so slow.
Being able to reflex through all patterns might actually be possible now.

[MR_Soren]

Again I have to ask myself why anyone would be excited to play a high-skill arcade games on a crappy touchscreen with no buttons. Especially a game as demanding and punishing as Rayforce. Good Lord.

It's actually a really good touchscreen and it will probably only require one button to be played effectively. The Cave iOS ports (except perhaps Deathsmiles) control quite well and are fun to play. I don't see why this would be different.

I'm surprised at how negative people get about these announcements. I have to assume most of the complaints come from people who have never played one of these games and/or hate Apple. I would think that exposing more people to shoot-em-ups is a good thing for all of us.

These mobile games aren't going to hurt arcade or console development, but they can increase the potential audience and demand for future console and arcade releases.

[moh]

Again I have to ask myself why anyone would be excited to play a high-skill arcade games on a crappy touchscreen with no buttons. Especially a game as demanding and punishing as Rayforce. Good Lord.

It's actually a really good touchscreen and it will probably only require one button to be played effectively. The Cave iOS ports (except perhaps Deathsmiles) control quite well and are fun to play. I don't see why this would be different.

I'm surprised at how negative people get about these announcements. I have to assume most of the complaints come from people who have never played one of these games and/or hate Apple. I would think that exposing more people to shoot-em-ups is a good thing for all of us.

These mobile games aren't going to hurt arcade or console development, but they can increase the potential audience and demand for future console and arcade releases.

well I love cave games and apple, but i guess what worries all of us is that it will take away from arcade/console development since the phone ports get so much attention =[

[MR_Soren]

Again I have to ask myself why anyone would be excited to play a high-skill arcade games on a crappy touchscreen with no buttons. Especially a game as demanding and punishing as Rayforce. Good Lord.

It's actually a really good touchscreen and it will probably only require one button to be played effectively. The Cave iOS ports (except perhaps Deathsmiles) control quite well and are fun to play. I don't see why this would be different.

I'm surprised at how negative people get about these announcements. I have to assume most of the complaints come from people who have never played one of these games and/or hate Apple. I would think that exposing more people to shoot-em-ups is a good thing for all of us.

These mobile games aren't going to hurt arcade or console development, but they can increase the potential audience and demand for future console and arcade releases.

well I love cave games and apple, but i guess what worries all of us is that it will take away from arcade/console development since the phone ports get so much attention =[

They have different people doing the ports. In the grand scheme of things, ports make it more worthwhile for them to do another arcade game because they have more ways to make money off of it.

Spend a pile of money developing new arcade game.
Sell boards to distributors and fans. Hope to break even or make a little.
Sell merchandise. Profit.
Sell console port. More profit.
Sell mobile ports. More profit.

We're currently in a period where Cave has already slowed their arcade development, apparently due to reduced demand. They've also made it clear that each new arcade game could be the last. However, the phones are not to blame. If anything, they give the people at Cave one more profit opportunity which can help them justify the expense of creating a new arcade game to the executives who need to be convinced.

It is a good thing.

[Estebang]

Again I have to ask myself why anyone would be excited to play a high-skill arcade games on a crappy touchscreen with no buttons. Especially a game as demanding and punishing as Rayforce. Good Lord.

For fun?

Ya know, that thing games are supposed to be about.

http://www.the-ghetto.org/content/i-play-for-fun-the-four-dumbest-words-in-video-games

[MR_Soren]

I agree with the general idea of the linked article, but I don't think it is applicable here because the phrase was not used as a justification to not play seriously.

The iOS games can be played seriously and competitively. They have leaderboards, and still require skill and practice to do well. This particular game can't be played as though it is "Rayforce the arcade game". This is "Rayforce the mobile game that is inspired Rayforce the arcade game." A different, but potentially enjoyable game in it's own right.

[Austin]

Here's to hoping it uses that iArcade stick or whatever it's called.

[louisg]

http://www.the-ghetto.org/content/i-play-for-fun-the-four-dumbest-words-in-video-games

Somewhat true, but the premise that everyone plays games for fun is flawed. Some people play because they want to be the best. We assume they're having fun, but maybe not everyone is. There is a point past which video games become work (which may or may not still be fun). This is true of a lot of hobbies, but we push on because we want to see how the finished product comes out. With videogames, the finished product are bragging rights or just plain satisfaction.

Anyway, the phrase "I play for fun" can refer to the refusal to do whatever it takes to beat a game or be the best (e.g., redo the same save state a million times in a row)-- if it gets to be too much into the work category, they find another approach that's more fun for them or play something else. I want to point out that it doesn't necessarily mean that a game you "play for fun" is bad. This is more descriptive of an approach (as I mentioned) than descriptive of the game.

I do agree that it's used too often as a "turn off your brain" phrase. E.g.: person A mentions terrible movie, person B rips it to shreds, person A says, "hey man, it's a popcorn movie" as if to imply that, because it was never designed to be good, it's immune to any criticism thrown at it.

And yeah, phone games aren't going anywhere. The times, they're a-changin'. The older I get, the more I don't care. After all, nothing will measure up to the 16-bit era, will it?

[BPzeBanshee]

I for one am looking forward to seeing this. Will it be going worldwide or is there going to be market locking involved? I've heard there's things that are made exclusive to some countries in the Apple Store and I'm guessing it works much like XBLA's region-locking bullshit.

[ケツイ]

I hope to be able to play it on my old 3G

[Ruldra]

I'm surprised at how negative people get about these announcements.

And I'm surprised at how so many of you are excited about them.

I honestly have no idea how you guys can play shmups on a cellphone. Very small screen and bad controls, you just can't play them properly at all. I was dying all over the place when I attempted to play an easy shmup, I can't imagine what it'd be like playing Rayforce on it. That game is hard as nuts.

[Despatche]

Forums, tell me about these iShmups and an iPad.

[Marc]

I'm surprised at how negative people get about these announcements.

And I'm surprised at how so many of you are excited about them.

I honestly have no idea how you guys can play shmups on a cellphone. Very small screen and bad controls, you just can't play them properly at all. I was dying all over the place when I attempted to play an easy shmup, I can't imagine what it'd be like playing Rayforce on it. That game is hard as nuts.

But the fact remains that some of us do play them, some of us think the controls are actually very well implemented, and some of us really enjoy them. Get over it.

Would I rather play a shmup on my phone than my home setup? Of course not. But getting in an hours practice on my lunch break, on the device that's always with me anyways, is another way to enjoy my gaming, and hopefully help me improve at home. Believe it ot not, I actually find some of Cave's bullet patterns much easier to comprehend on the small screen.

[spadgy]

These mobile games aren't going to hurt arcade or console development, but they can increase the potential audience and demand for future console and arcade releases.

This! I see the number of shmups on iOS as an evolutionary-diversification of the genre that doesn't cancel out the existing console and arcade stuff. It just might generate a bit of interest (and perhaps even development budget) in shmups, which can only be a good thing.

And Bug Princess was hugely fun, so I'm open-minded to Rayforce being good.

And I think touch screen controls of the quality of the iPad make iOS shmups are very good. It delivers a different experience, but it's still a shmupping experience.

[Elixir]

It's such a sadness, that you think you've seen Dodonpachi Daioujou Ultra Mega Black Mode on your fucking telephone.

Get real.

[MathU]

The reason crappy phone ports make me mad is I think about how they could be porting them to a real handheld game system but don't.

[kidpanda]

glad i have my gunlock pcb to keep me company still kinda neat they are releasing it