Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Yeah, scoring in Gradius is like Robotron: Shoot the shit out of everything and try not to die for as long as you can. Though you'll wanna optimize your strategy for getting the most out of each level of course.

You also get a slight point bonus in a few of the games I believe for picking up the powerup orbs, so for optimal scoring you need to collect 'em all. The only Gradius game I've heard of that has really obtuse scoring 'tricks' would be the spinoff series, Salamander, where the second game has a couple absurdly lucrative tricks that pretty much make or break a run's score.

[EmperorIng]

I tried out a bit of Radirgy the first time today on NullDC in my probable-warm-up to buying the Milestone Collection #2 for the Wii.

First thoughts: this game is cool.

[null1024]

Ikaruga [Arcade].

that was the worst
Not the game, the run. Was doing fairly okay, and all 3 of my deaths were due to me moving in one direction, then suddenly I'd move diagonally with no apparent change in my hand's position. So I hit the scenery. Blaaaaah.

I can do better than this. Would have been a pretty great run other than that. Nothing like colliding with the Stage 2 boss...

[Aquas]

I just found a copy of Gradius V at Gamestop, and I have to say that I am absolutely loving this game! I've never been a fan of the Gradius series for multiple reasons, but I really think they got the difficulty right in this game. I am sad that pretty much the only resources on this forum are how to align your options though, as I really want to know all of the strategy and scoring for the game but don't exactly know where to look except for here.

I think I'm going to be playing this one for quite a while.

Great choice! I really enjoyed Gradius V as well. That 80 minute loop never quite feels like 80 minutes ... Type 3 all the way for me.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I just came SO close to finally looping progear. Died on the final boss phase, couldn't bomb again or I'd lose the loop. Worst part is that this was on a run where I died twice on st3 and just decided to keep going. No missed st4 entirely too.

[Crafty+Mech]

Not playing quite yet, but these boards are on their way:

Strikers 1945
Aero Fighters

.. and within the next week or so:

Raiden

Looking forward to some quality Shmup time...

[trap15]

Recently been playing a lot of 1943 Kai, Strikers 1945 II, and Battle Bakraid.

Good games.

[To Far Away Times]

Playing Ketsui right now, and this game is so damn hard.

Stage 5 is a brick wall.

[soupbones]

Recently got myself Dimahoo - loving it so far.

Also went back to Garegga recently and beat my hi score. I still suck at it compared to most players here, but god damn I love that game.

Been playing the heck out of Dogyuun lately and Forgotten Worlds.
Not sure why, but ive been on a Toaplan kick lately.

jon

Dogyuun is favorite Toaplan game... and all time favorites.

[pestro87]

Nothing like colliding with the Stage 2 boss...

Oh man, this has happened sooo many times for me, haha! I rarely collide with it nowadays but when it happens I get so mad!

[null1024]

Dodonpachi Resurrection [Android].
Finally got around to picking this up. Enjoyable.

I wish there was some way to use the buttons on my phone instead of touch control though...

also, turn off auto-bomb without using power style
and there is no reason not to use boost mode because speed isn't limited, ahaha

And then I 1CC'd bomb style normal. Touch control makes it too easy, I can macrododge lots of shit that I'd have to weave right through, and even if I do need to weave through, I have micro-precision.


Lastly, what are the requirements to face the DDP bosses as midbosses? It's been hit or miss whether I see them or not.

[EmperorIng]

Syvalion

Syvalion!

So, how do you trigger the super dragon-ball attack? As far as I can tell, there's only one button? I'm playing it in the first mode of three offered at the title screen (which I cannot read).

Great music. Is it OGR? The Taito Game Sound Collection 3 arranged OST is seriously jammin'.

[pestro87]

Lastly, what are the requirements to face the DDP bosses as midbosses? It's been hit or miss whether I see them or not.

Destroy the silos before the tanks run over them on stage 1. There's about 3 or 4 (I don't remember which off the top of my head) of those tanks before the midboss. This will trigger the DDP midboss for stage 1 and 2 if I remember correctly.

And if you collect all of the bees up until the midboss on the third stage, you'll face the DDP midboss for stage 3. If you keep collecting all of the bees, you'll face the DDP midbosses for stage 4 and 5.

This is just off the top of my head and I haven't played the game in a while but I believe that those are the requirements.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

You also need to make sure not to get hit or bomb (obviously) and also make sure your hyper gauge is full. The game checks whether or not you have a hyper ready at some point before the midboss and if you don't have your hyper ready, the Ura midboss won't appear (as long as you have a hyper stocked just as the tanks start to appear you should be good, grab the bees when they're green/transitioning to gain hyper).

This strategy guide pretty much covers it and everything else you'd want to know about DFK. <3

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Sky Smasher! game is ludicrously fast paced and overwhelms the screen with tons of enemy planes from all directions. Checkpoints are fairly easy to recover from and the bomb is actually fast enough to save you from costly mistakes too. Very nice Toaplan style game despite coming from a no name developer.

[Deca]

I've been back on DOJBL since I cleared PCB Lunatic. Dodging, bullet awareness, and overall confidence have improved very noticeably after all the time spent on PCB. I'll definitely be spending a lot more time on Touhou games in the future!

Aside from that I've been back on a bit of a TGM kick, playing a bunch of 2 in mame. 3 seems to have input lag issues...it just doesn't feel quite right to me compared to 2. I should probably just grab Heboris again.

[spadgy]

Having been tantilised, hooked, infuriated and enthused by the newly updated iOS version of Raiden Fighters Jet, I'm now playing the real thing on 360, with a stick and everything, and lusting for the PCB. What a game!

I also just downloaded Velocity for my Vita. Time to see what it has to offer...

[SuperSoaker360]

Playing Ketsui, shooting for the Omote loop on Type B. NB-first loop.
I'm pretty sure I'll kill myself before I ever loop. Ketsui makes me its bitch.

[BPzeBanshee]

Having been tantilised, hooked, infuriated and enthused by the newly updated iOS version of Raiden Fighters Jet, I'm now playing the real thing on 360, with a stick and everything, and lusting for the PCB. What a game!

I also just downloaded Velocity for my Vita. Time to see what it has to offer...

Is Raiden Legacy still buggy as hell? No one answered me when I asked in the associated threads.

[superpretendo]

Practicing DDP DOJ on a TATE computer monitor while I get my New Astro City sorted.

[Crafty+Mech]

My Strikers 1945 pcb arrived in the mail yesterday, put in 4-5 hours already!

[Giest118]

After I release v0.8 of Trig Wars 3 Redux, I think I'm gonna finally get off my ass and actually 1cc MushiFutari Maniac. I got close in my last round of attempts at it.

[null1024]

Gradius V [PS2].

hnnnng
Really damn good. I should probably play it with a controller that has a more responsive d-pad than the DualShock 2 [an old-fashioned SCPH-1080 would work wonders]...

[ProcoTaito]

Dariusburst: Another Chronicle....Again.

[CStarFlare]

Ran across a PCE shmup called W Ring: The Double Rings and it seems really interesting. There are a lot of hidden bonus items, and even "extra" stages to uncover, where you go into alternate version of the stage which is harder but worth more. I've found reference to an extra stage 5 and I stumbled across the extra stage 1, so I imagine there's one for each stage. I'm entertaining the notion of a TLB if you go through them all, but that's probably asking too much from a Naxat game. It's unfortunate that the Extra sides replace the main stages since there's not much emphasis on uncovering secrets that I can see, and realizing that there were tons of secret items was one of the first things that piqued my interest. Also, the game has 15 different difficulty levels - not sure if this is impacts starting rank (or if there is rank) or if it's a steady difficulty level. But difficulty 15 seems pretty vicious.

I haven't finished it yet, but I suspect that they gimped the game's value for scoring runs by including the requisite massive endgame bonus.

[Giest118]

*gets to last phase of Queen Larsa on Maniac, no lives left, two bombs in stock*

*gets killed by the part with the random retarded fast bullets, still with the two bombs in stock*

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUCCCCKASDIASJDOASD

All I had to do was press the damn bomb button and I would have won.

[null1024]

DoDonPachi DOJBL [Arcade/MAME].
yaaaay, do just fine and then die three times in a row

fuck my life

Gradius V [PS2].
Pulled out a PS1 controller, did much better, lots and lots of bosses/midbosses/whatever. And the game seems most designed for Type 2, omnidirectional options are really useful.

[Giest118]

Sunk eight hours into MushiFutari Maniac today.

Fuck stage 4.

Fuck it.

Fuck stage 4.

And fuck its boss too.

And fuck the placement of the extend item too. What assmaster decided that such an important factor in the game's balance should come after you've already proven you don't need it?

I'm not giving up! This shit's personal now!

[To Far Away Times]

Sunk eight hours into MushiFutari Maniac today.

Fuck stage 4.

Fuck it.

Fuck stage 4.

And fuck its boss too.

And fuck the placement of the extend item too. What assmaster decided that such an important factor in the game's balance should come after you've already proven you don't need it?

I'm not giving up! This shit's personal now!

Keep going! I spent waaay too long on my Futari Original clear. It was over the course of a couple of years. I don't even want to imagine Maniac, lol.

[Last R-Typer]

R-Type Delta, doing a no-item run on hard mode