Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[BPzeBanshee]

Xeno Fighters R

This is a worthy fangame to play, though I got some issues with it. Explicitly the frame rate, overpowering Round Laser Jade Knight, slaves and options with Vic Viper, no joystick support, and last release is a year ago. Otherwise the quality of the game overshadows these issues. Raiden is written all over it!

Got up to Stage 4 (failing last three missions) before dying to the boss with Jade Knight.

Framerate is 60 FPS unless your computer has performance issues, like most normal shmups. There's a few tricks to improving framerate though: updating graphics drivers, and making sure vsync is turned off in it's config, and avoiding ships that spew out LOTS of objects (Jade Knight used to do this, Vic Viper still does I believe, and the Raiden MK-II's laser algorithm is performance-intensive).

As for Jade Knight, I love the ship but you can see why it's getting the chop for next release. Joystick support should eventually be coming although for some reason Alluro's XF-R section of Fusion Fangaming claims joystick support can't happen which is bullshit.

[Marc]

Some X-Out on C64. The birth of the Euroshmup. Superb music though.

[Aquas]

Was credit feeding through Cotton (AC) today. Great game! Would love to get a 1cc by Halloween time. Damnit cute'em'ups are too good.

[blackoak]

Been playing this Garegga PCB more lately, getting used to the needle bullets. Taking some hints about rank-control from ket's low rank 1cc: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS3HOWfBWUk

Almost all my deaths come from Black Heart 1&2, though. I really need to just savestate that boss to get a feel for the vulcan, which I understand conceptually from reading the ST, but can never correctly pull off. My main problem, I think, is knowing where I should be under Black Heart when he does the Vulcan--where I should be ideally, and what to do if I'm not in that position. I tend to get hit a lot by it when it first comes out..

[EmperorIng]

For the first time ever, I made it past the bubble stage on Gradius III! On normal difficulty! Hell, I made it half-way through the volcano/cave stage before a really stupid collision in the sand portion muffed up my whole run.

Ha ha, it sure made me feel like a badass to tear that stage two to shreds.

Seriously, for as much as I complain about GIII's difficulty, I love the game (all 2.5 levels I've experienced), and it sure feels nice to make the first bit of real progress in the game (on default settings, no less!) in over a year.

===

I've also been practicing Galactic Attack/Rayforce (up to Area 6 on one credit, arcade difficulty). In that run I was trying to exploit the rank as discussed in the Rayforce strategy thread, purposefully suiciding to keep the rank manageable. The good thing with Rayforce is that I know the game like the back of my hand, and it doesn't really throw any nasty punches at you (except for the pre-boss segment of Area 6, with the regenerating pillars), so nearly every obstacle is surmountable with careful management of your lasers. I was also able to get farther than I thought by focusing on chaining together laser strikes, earning as many extends as possible. Now that I'm playing for "score" so to speak, I am only now noticing how many times the game subtly sets up enemy placements to get as many high-chains as possible. I'm not talking about the obvious flying formations of 8 enemies, either. My score was around 1,8xx,xxx, so close to that next extend (if I had gotten it, I would have made it to the boss, for sure. maybe even to the next level!), but a couple of poor reactions spelled my doom.

===

Also played a bit of Soukyogurentai, bumping up the difficulty to AC. I was able to get to the stage 3 boss on one go, keeping my ship purposefully at the second power-level to make things manageable. The game is a lot harder when you can't credit-feed 5 credits to the end of the game -_-

[Aquas]

For the first time ever, I made it past the bubble stage on Gradius III! On normal difficulty! Hell, I made it half-way through the volcano/cave stage before a really stupid collision in the sand portion muffed up my whole run.

Ha ha, it sure made me feel like a badass to tear that stage two to shreds.

Seriously, for as much as I complain about GIII's difficulty, I love the game (all 2.5 levels I've experienced), and it sure feels nice to make the first bit of real progress in the game (on default settings, no less!) in over a year.

I've also always enjoyed the first 3 stages of Gradius III arcade. Especially the bubble stage. Best bubble stage... I think most people would prefer it over Gradius IV's bubble stage.

[Ed Oscuro]

I've also always enjoyed the first 3 stages of Gradius III arcade. Especially the bubble stage. Best bubble stage... I think most people would prefer it over Gradius IV's bubble stage.

Ha, where were you during September's Game Of The Month?

[Aquas]

I played. Not a lot. My moral has already been crushed by the game in the past.

[null1024]

Thunder Force V [PS1].

Pretty fun. Been playing it for all of 10 minutes. It does seem to have somewhat screwy graphic issues though [especially the forest stage].
I do love that lo-spec PS1 look a bunch, the ocean stage boss is quite pretty.

[mesh control]

I forgot how to play Mars Matrix.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Mars Matrix is AWESOME. Why haven't I played this yet? It's tough to get used to being able to reflect less than in Giga Wing, but it's a ton of fun so far.

[ciox]

Mars Matrix owns. It's just that you're only supposed to use the reflector for the smallest amount possible in most levels, otherwise you'll get trapped without a reflect ready, kinda frustrating since you always want to hold that thing down to hoover up bullets and then aim them. (moving in the opposite direction)

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Okay, where's the hitbox? I thought it was at the cockpit Giga-Wing style but now I'm not sure anymore, seems quite a bit bigger.

[mesh control]

...and every level means also a form change, but the hitbox is will always be centered on the cockpit, basically.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... ars+matrix

[trap15]

Okay, where's the hitbox? I thought it was at the cockpit Giga-Wing style but now I'm not sure anymore, seems quite a bit bigger.

The explosion of your ship is off-center, which makes it tough to properly gauge. It is indeed centered on the cockpit, and not all that big.

[CIT]

Been going through a Super Famicom phase lately. Got Super EDF and Phalanx 1CCs down, now I'm trying to tackle R-Type III. IMO it is the best hori on the system.

Have the perfect route for stage 4 now, but the boss is still a major roadblock. Luckily stage 5 is a bit easier than 4.

[EmperorIng]

I got 338,400 getting to 1-4 in Gunbird 2.

I did better than I expected, in terms of coin chains and actually surviving, though I didn't get any gem-heads, since I can't be assed to remember where the hell the triggers are.

If I could have been assed to remember, I might have actually had a decent score...

EDIT:
Score! I just nabbed a complete copy of GigaWing on the Dreamcast for $15!

[Erppo]

I recently started a Twitter just for this purpose and for keeping track of my daily scores in whatever I play. If someone actually cares, feel free to stalk.

[jonny5]

Deathsmiles

Only played like 4 credits on it, but I 1cc'd it the other day(with a hangover )

Definitely an easy game if I can 1cc it, but now I will start working on score,I cleared it with like 59mill and 4 lives in stock.

[fenyxofshadows]

Dodonpachi Ressurection on android...

I managed to 1CC the first loop on normal (bomb B and strong B), so I'm trying to do the same with hard (which is the original arcade difficulty). Then, I'll work on unlocking the open loop 2 and killing Taisabachi.

[ShmupSamurai]

Thunderforce II and Zen Ichi....fourth boss is still an a-hole.

Also, looking to grab a copy of Akai Katana soon!

[Marc]

Just git the 6th (I think, I got a route selection screen) stage on Sonic Wings Special with some 297k. Still can't warm to it for some reason, despite loving the Strikers series. The horribly cropped screen doesn't help. After being spoiled with the quality Cave ports, it's quite a shock at times to go back to some if these earlier efforts and see how bare-bones they could be in terms of options. Or lack of.

[EmperorIng]

TATE really opens the game up, at least in the saturn port. I was pretty impressed with just how much bigger the screen real-estate is.

Then again I played it in "ghetto TATE" so there ya go

[Eaglet]

Almost all my deaths come from Black Heart 1&2

BH1's vulcan is nothing special, just make sure you know the "rules" for where it sweeps and always go a bit further than you expect in your strafing.

For BH2 make sure you move up close to the source of the vulcans as soon as you can and follow the dancing where the sway is at it's lowest.
You're pretty much fucked if you don't.

[gameoverDude]

Dragon Saber (AC)

Working toward a 1CC. Stage 5 is sometimes a problem with its speed zone and the damn iron walls in the first portion. Some of the boss difficulties are out of order. The final boss isn't that taxing- and stage 7's is damn easy once you know what (not) to do to it. Stage 4's is manageable but takes a bit of work (wind charge shot is fine for clearing out the bats).

Megaten's BGM comes out a winner here, as always. Zawell's theme is reused on the final boss, but I don't mind- it's one of my favorite tracks, and here the arrangement is superb. Stage 4's theme is phenomenal.

[ShmupSamurai]

Air Gallet...

God I suck, can't seem to no-miss clear Stage 1, of all things!!

[EmperorIng]

Last Friday, my copy of GigaWing showed up. I have GigaWing 2 and love it, so I thought I'd give the original a shot.

Man, I was not expecting the tonal shift being so complete from its sequel.

The game is actually rather off-putting, considering how used to scoring I am from GW2's setting up Volcanons methods... GigaWing 1 seems a lot sparser in comparison. I don't know if I necessarily like it like that!

It seems to be operating under a whole different ball-game, and again it must be restated just how much changed in just about every single aspect between GigaWing and GigaWing 2.

Once I get Mars Matrix, I'll finally have me them great Takumi Three, as it were. But first I still gotta get me that modchip ordered.

[Aquas]

Cotton, Deathsmiles, Air Gallet

Yep. 'Dem Halloween SHMOOPS. Cotton is quite marvelous.

[ShmupSamurai]

Just got my copy of Akai Katana for Xbox360 today!

Got my ass handed to me repeatedly by 2nd boss...

Also, Lasers don't kill you instantly?...weird..

[Ed Oscuro]

TODAY I OVERCAME MY FEAR

of the first boss attack in air gallet

you better get ready, stage 2 sucker. Had enough of you ghostin' me with them lasers. I'm gonna bleed ya, real quiet.