the best players on shmups.system11.org are....

[NTSC-J]

No one mentioned NTSC-J? For shame

Thanks, man.

Here are the top Western/forum record holders from the Hall of Records thread:

(format: player name - number of Western records currently held)

Code: Select all

1. saucykobold - 15
2. sikraiken - 13
3. DEL - 11
4. TMS - 10
5. third_strike - 7
6. GUS - 6
   NTSC-J - 6
   Smraedis - 6
9. Mills - 5
10.clp - 4
   EOJ - 4
   Kollision - 4

Obviously, this doesn't tell the whole story (the Touhou is Harder guys are noticeably absent), but it's worth a mention.

I also think Azinth is one of the best players on this forum, he should be on the list.

[chum]

trap15, Elixir, sikraiken, DrTrouserPlank

[Hagane]

Yeah, Azinth definitely is one of the best players around here.

[To Far Away Times]

I don't really know all the members here but Iconoclast (I think that was his name) on Neogaf posted the No. 1 score for Futari God Mode a few weeks ago on the 360 leaderboards. Pretty impressive stuff.

Prometheus and Icarus are others that I see who post often and seem to be really good at shmups.

Sorry if I don't know everyone here!

[O. Van Bruce]

I think t's practically impossible to do this because there are 2 factors that makes a shumplayer good and they are like water and oil.

Who would you say it's better? The guy that drills like crazy to claim after 1 month or 2 a decent score or a guy who takes the game for the first time and 1cc the game in 1 or 2 days but it can't score properly? These are extreme examples, of course.

Most of the "good" players here can get an 1cc quickly and that shows their innate skills at shmuping but very few has the patience to drill a lot. Now, would you call talent to drill something until you completely memorize it like the muslims kids learn the Koran?

being good at shmuping comes from practice and that isn't an indicative of talent, that just shows how devoted they are to playing their games.

Please forgive me for saying this but if you would just give me the time and energy I could take any record here, same with any player here.


PD: You can still nominate guys like you are doing... but I think it should be directed to people who has mastered a game and they should remain as "best player on X shmup" not best player at all shmups (which are quite a lot).

[Vamos]

clp here i guess its pretty hard calculating between standard and quantity personally i tend to lean toward standard for example i think that guy who got a WR in homura achieved greater than any of my silly western records in far easier games but yeah lots of variables , i tend to agree with van bruce aswell i think the "top" players here are pretty much the same level it just comes down to whose willing to grind the most .

[Imhotep]

Plasmo, Kiken, Rob, Alamone, Icarus, Randorama, ..

[Hagane]

stuff

And all of this goes out of the window when some people 2-ALL hard games with good scores in a week of play.

STGs are mostly about execution, so no matter how much time you devote to the game you'll still fail to beat the best players if you don't have the necessary skill to execute the advanced scoring techniques.

[Paradigm]

Please forgive me for saying this but if you would just give me the time and energy I could take any record here

No you couldn't.

[trap15]

Please forgive me for saying this but if you would just give me the time and energy I could take any record here

Just like how if you give a monkey an infinite amount of time at a typewriter, it will at some point write a Shakespeare play? :V

[Bananamatic]

Please forgive me for saying this but if you would just give me the time and energy I could take any record here

Just like how if you give a monkey an infinite amount of time at a typewriter, it will at some point write a Shakespeare play? :V

Superplays are more like rewriting a Shakespeare play with your weak hand while being attacked by said monkey

[KAI]

add infinite monkey to the list.

[DJ Incompetent]

B-B-B-But I have trophies!
kekekekekekekekeke

[O. Van Bruce]

Please forgive me for saying this but if you would just give me the time and energy I could take any record here

Just like how if you give a monkey an infinite amount of time at a typewriter, it will at some point write a Shakespeare play? :V

Well, it's not really far away from that what I was saying

[Emuser]

It is pretty difficult to truly gauge who the "best" since there are too many variables to take into account like the number of shmups available, scoring well in a few games vs clearing them all, and more. As many 1cc's as I do have, I'm pretty sure that I don't hold any sort of records in anything other than maybe BWR+ original.

I don't remember who made an example earlier, but I DEFINITELY fall into the category of: player who can clear a list of shmups pretty quickly, doesn't really go for many top scores or replays/videos around. It can't be avoided that if a person sticks to one game rather than bunny-hop from game to game on a daily basis that they will probably excel in their one game.

Ben.shinobi with Radiant Silvergun is a good example, there is no way in hell that anyone can match his score unless they grind some SERIOUS practice in and learn all the secrets. I will never for the life of me understand why people say that its an easy game to clear when its pretty obvious that you need to really grind away at it to learn it well. Either that or RSG may just be my weakness :/

But regardless, I wouldn't know how to properly gauge who is best at all, just because of how many factors can be taken into account.

[ArrogantBastard]

this thread is stupid

[moh]

This is a thread that belongs on neo geo :[

[Ed Oscuro]

this thread is stupid

I want to say "but it got you to come back" but at the same time I don't want to contradict what you're saying...hmm.

[Paradigm]

It is pretty difficult to truly gauge who the "best" since there are too many variables to take into account like the number of shmups available, scoring well in a few games vs clearing them all, and more.

Scoring high in even a single game/mode ranks way higher than simply clearing a bunch. It takes far more skill, time and effort.

[RLRBS]

There is a superplayer in everyone of us.
Be the best you can be.
Do your best you have ever done.

[To Far Away Times]

It is pretty difficult to truly gauge who the "best" since there are too many variables to take into account like the number of shmups available, scoring well in a few games vs clearing them all, and more. As many 1cc's as I do have, I'm pretty sure that I don't hold any sort of records in anything other than maybe BWR+ original.

I don't remember who made an example earlier, but I DEFINITELY fall into the category of: player who can clear a list of shmups pretty quickly, doesn't really go for many top scores or replays/videos around. It can't be avoided that if a person sticks to one game rather than bunny-hop from game to game on a daily basis that they will probably excel in their one game.

Ben.shinobi with Radiant Silvergun is a good example, there is no way in hell that anyone can match his score unless they grind some SERIOUS practice in and learn all the secrets. I will never for the life of me understand why people say that its an easy game to clear when its pretty obvious that you need to really grind away at it to learn it well. Either that or RSG may just be my weakness :/

But regardless, I wouldn't know how to properly gauge who is best at all, just because of how many factors can be taken into account.

Super congrats on having the BWR+ record.

I wish I could stick with one game, but the 1CC challenge is by far the best part for me. What's a really good shmup to play for score? (No DDP chaining here...) Akai Katana Shin? Espgaluda? Those seem like fairly easy games with some flexible scoring mechanics.

[CptRansom]

Once you start seriously playing for score, I don't think any STG is "flexible".

That being said, the best one to play for score is the one with the scoring system you like the most. If you hate chaining, obviously avoid anything with DonPachi in the title. Sorry for the non-specific answer, but it's the truth.

[ArrogantBastard]

im still the best at progear

[Ed Oscuro]

im still the best at progear

Sorry to hear about that, how long is your prognosis if I might ask?

[Cagar]

Add VixyNyan to the list, I think that she has most achievements, so definitely worth a mention.
She also got that futari god-clear pretty fast.

[AntiFritz]

Add VixyNyan to the list, I think that she has most achievements, so definitely worth a mention.
She also got that futari god-clear pretty fast.

I wish someone mirrored that video, I didn't see it so never got what all the fuss was about

[PROMETHEUS]

(I basically only keep track of Cave scores and can only really gauge the difficulty of Cave/similar danmaku games. Don't know much about Touhou.)

Personally always considered number of records pretty much irrelevant, quality of best few records very relevant. Doing a hundred medium feats isn't harder than doing just 1 or a few, it only takes more time, not more skill. It takes a ton less skill than doing 1 incredible feat. HFD is shmup god for me even though I only ever heard of him for his DOJBL records, at least as good as any other famous shmupper if not better.

So when I spot a really incredible run I keep track of that player. That's why I always viewed MMM as the very best player on these boards (mostly because of his Ketsui score) that I wanted to try to be as good as. Then Gus came around with God and Ultra high records and I think he is on the same kind of level, and to be very honest so am I imo, but maybe it's just my competitive ego or confidence ! ;p
It's not easy to tell which is a bigger challenge scoring 3B in Futari Ultra or 5B God ALL, 400M Ketsui Ura 2-ALL or 547M DDP 2-ALL or 2,XB DOJBL 2-ALL... I don't really care. Can only sort of "accurately" compare players when they try their best to get #1 in the same game.

I know there are great players in different games that may or may not be danmaku, take different skills to succeed in, or that I haven't checked out seriously, so I only speak for the stuff I know best (a bunch of Cave games I like and understand best).

Ultimately I think it is good to know to recognize how certain feats are much harder and impressive than others, however trying to determine who is the best player can't be done most of the time. A list with no order of a bunch of players makes sense as long as they are playing the same kind of game. It doesn't make much sense to compare a Raizing focused player to a Cave focused player, or a Ikaruga player, or a Psikyo player...

So I would make lists like that in alphabetical order :

Cave/Danmaku skills (dodging randomized danmaku patterns + some methodical scoring play)
Gus for Futari God and Ultra
MisterMonkeyMan for Ketsui
ProMeTheus for DDP & DOJBL
x91 for Ketsui
Touhou players may be in that category, I have too little knowledge of touhou to judge.

Methodical skills (executing a very precise sequence of actions very accurately, some dodging)
AST-POW for Ikaruga Normal
ben-shinobi for Radiant Silvergun
Plasmo for Ikaruga Hard
...?

Psikyo skills (very similar to methodical but mostly involved in dodging, have to execute very precise memorized hand movements with perfect timing through extremely fast and tight, though predictable, patterns)
Azinth for Gunbird 2
Mills for Strikers 1949
Necronopticous for that other Strikers
NTSC-J for Gunbird 2
stuminator for Dragon Blaze
...?

Raizing skills (keeping an unstable game system in balance, some dodging)
Icarus for Garegga, APB
Ket for Garegga
Plasmo for Garegga, APB
DMC for APB
...?

Something like that. There could be tiers within each category and more players added... Even the categories put in alphabetical order because I can't put any above another, though danmaku dodging is my personal preference. Sorry to any great player that I haven't noticed or forgot to list here!!
Within each category some games are significantly or much harder than others and sometimes it's easier or harder to do a 1CC/2-ALL or this or that kind of score... so it's complicated!

In my mind I see most old school games as much easier and based on simple memorization, but some seem to have some hard spots and I may be wrong... My experience is based on Blazing Star and Pulstar which I know for a fact are extremely easy games compared to even the easiest Cave (I've done Pulstar 1LC and I have good experience of Blazing Star). Once memorized, any noob with no skill can 1LC Pulstar, there is almost no difficulty, only memorization. I still love Pulstar/Blazing Star and other oldschool for their atmosphere and general art though, I think that's why they still shine and always will.

I like this topic because it's kind of controversial in a way and I'd love to read what other great players think about how good they think they are and how they see the others and stuff. I wrote this thinking "let me just dare write exactly what I think" eheh.

Also want to say I have noticed Erppo, Naut, Third_Strike and Sapz as very good players in Cave category, I haven't yet seen something from them on the level of the other few I listed but I have not seen all videos and/or may have misunderstood some.

[chempop]

Thank you, I appreciate (some of) the responses. I knew when submitting the OP it wouldn't be a popular topic, but I figured it was worth it anyway, if for nothing else than to discover some of the lesser known players (and their greatest feats). I'll update the OP list when I have the time to sort through all the shitposts.

[CStarFlare]

Touhou players may be in that category, I have too little knowledge of touhou to judge.

Heartbeam is probably worth mentioning. Don't think I've seen him post for anything but Touhou, but he's got #1 on most of those boards.

[RNGmaster]

Zetzumarshen deserves a mention for his multiple Touhou WRs, I think.