Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[blackoak]

Finally getting down to Ketsui. I put in several hours of practice over the last few days and I'm starting to understand why (some) people say this is one of Cave's easier clears. I don't think the bullet patterns or central mechanic is particularly easy, but the point extends are gimmes and the two stage extends aren't too hard to pull off either after a little practice. With so many bombs I can't see a clear taking too long. More intriguing is trying to access the loop... I've been savestating and can now technically do most of the patterns without bombs, but putting it all together seems insane.

Anyway, love the patterns in this game... now I know what people mean about it being relentless. From the st4 on, its just a focus-devouring onslaught. I definitely see what Ichimura meant in the interview about wanting to make a more "rhythmic" kind of game. I love the left-to-right flow of a lot of sections, and how you have to flow "with" a lot of the patterns or you get overwhelmed quickly. Bosses are fantastic too.

[Eaglet]

Yeah absolutely. Getting in the Ketsui flow gives me a similar experience to when i get into a creative jam with my pals when everything just fits together.
This unfortunately makes your mistakes feel all the more devastating.

[BIL]

I love MD Same! Same! Same! so much ^___^

What a cool little port. Provided you treat Hard as the default it's a hell of a good time. No nonsense.

[Acid_Rain]

Playing some more Futari BL. Getting my ass kicked on maniac.

[EmperorIng]

after watching the SDOJ 360 mode, I played a little bit more of Guwange to wash the taste out of my mouth.

Hey, I uh, got to stage 4 on one credit! That's not bad, right?
Still have no clue how the hell the game works, outside a vague feeling in my gut that is saying "chain everything"

[Softdrink 117]

I've been brushing up on Ketsui and DOJ a little, but most of my focus right now is on Ibara and Garegga. Ibara, in particular, has been incredibly frustrating and rewarding to learn. Really looking forward to playing it on PCB once I'm back with my cab.

[null1024]

DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou [Arcade/MAME].

Fired up White Label for the first time in forever. I kept thinking to myself during the first boss that it should have died already, haha. Made it just past the stage 3 midboss before running out of lives. Thought I could dodge a pattern and failed at it, with a bomb in tow, blah.

On the other hand, I almost never make it that far in BL, so I'm happy and will probably keep playing WL. Stage 3 is scary though, it resembles stage 4 of most other Cave games, haha.

[P0L1]

Today i have 1cc touhou 6 (normal ) !!! Nobody cares about it but i am very very happy

[VideoGameRescue]

For me, Trouble Witches Neo and I am going to start up on some Bio Hazard Battle tonight since it came in the mail. I have yet to play this one, so I am hoping it is good

[NeoStrayCat]

Went on impulse and got Galaga Leigons DX, just a very short pick-me-up to complete, lol.

Right after, yet another Kong BotD game again, and its "Bullet Heaven" (Based around the Epic Battle Fantasy series or something like that.)

[null1024]

Batsugun [Arcade/MAME], died at the start of the third stage, bleh.
DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou [Arcade/MAME], and now I can barely make it to the St.2 boss, what the hell. Had about 5 actual runs this morning, restarted 4 others because I died somewhere in stage 1...

[trap15]

Just been playing tons of Hishouzame and Kyuukyoku Tiger recently. God damn, what absolutely amazing games.

[ACSeraph]

Got killed by a carrier right in front of TLB in Mushihimesama PS2 arrange because I suck balls. Thats the farthest I've ever gone on one credit in a Cave game, but come on at least let me get murdered by the boss I fought so hard to reach!

[EmperorIng]

Just been playing tons of Hishouzame and Kyuukyoku Tiger recently. God damn, what absolutely amazing games.

I've gotten close to looping Twin Cobra - the closest I've gotten to looping any shmup ever (that can be looped in any event).

The lack of checkpoints makes it 500x more palatable to me.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

checkpoints are why I don't play much Gradius/Parodius even though i like them. I just need to deal with it someday as I would like to get better at some of the games at least.

I played some Judgment SilverSword earlier after not playing it for many months. It ended up with me doing 3 different runs ending on Area 20 Hard, Divine Flow Special Mode, and Divine Flow Normal Mode. Complete garbage play, but i was also quite distracted at the time as well. Need to work on that Hard mode.

[EmperorIng]

Checkpoints are easier to deal with in Gradius/Parodius/Life Force games, on average because the games are not manic Toaplan shooters, and a skillful recovery is the whole point. This is contra Toaplan verts (and Irem R-Type games), which are very much a "do everything right the first time" style of play, which can get fatiguing.

Speaking of which, I just beat the final boss of Twin Cobra just now, beat my high-score record, only to have a stray turret bullet take out my last life just before the second loop started. What the fuuuuuuuck. Couldn't they have had a "On boss killed > destroy all bullets" line of code in there somewhere? I feel cheated.

[hail good sir]

one

[Obscura]

Air Gallet, just made it to stage 4 for the first time.

It's pretty embarrassing to have to bomb against a stage 1 boss, but that one pattern in his second form... ouch. Actually, "ouch" describes a lot of the boss patterns in this game.

Still, sooo much fun. I wish I knew of more games that were like this; I've never seen such a great balance between fast aimed shots and complex patterns. It hits that "semi bullet-hell" spot absolutely perfectly.

[Marc]

MOTHERFUCKER. For some reason I was under the impression that Akai Katana had five stages and thought I'd just gotten the clear. Majorly bummed out when I git ST6. This is the last one right? Still, hitting the St5 boss regularly and gotten my high score to some 134-odd mill, so quite happy with this session.

[AntiFritz]

Shin and Zetsu mode have an extra stage. Arcade mode is just 5 stages plus final boss stage.

[cj iwakura]

Just took on Under Defeat. Good god, that final boss.

Why the heck doesn't the pre-start screen show you the different copters? The last one with the rockets is amazing, and I had to go to 'character select' to find it.

[Danny]

Just took on Under Defeat. Good god, that final boss.

Why the heck doesn't the pre-start screen show you the different copters? The last one with the rockets is amazing, and I had to go to 'character select' to find it.

Thanks for reminding me, I own that game and really should get back to playing it.

Right now I am on the Raiden Fighters waggon again. Mostly been playing RF2 as the Flying Ray, such an awesome ship!

[cj iwakura]

Just took on Under Defeat. Good god, that final boss.

Why the heck doesn't the pre-start screen show you the different copters? The last one with the rockets is amazing, and I had to go to 'character select' to find it.

Thanks for reminding me, I own that game and really should get back to playing it.

Right now I am on the Raiden Fighters waggon again. Mostly been playing RF2 as the Flying Ray, such an awesome ship!

The music in UD is truly phenomenal. I dig the artwork too. I got the limited edition with the digital artbook, so I probably ought to post some excerpts here somewhere.

Posted in the shmup art thread.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

I've started rotating out my shoot 'em ups again. Tonight it's been Pink Sweets, Muchi Muchi Pork, and Raiden IV. I forgot how fast the bullets are in Raiden IV. Tried out dual mode for the first time also.

[DocHauser]

Been playing Xeno Fighters R recently. I just cleared it with Miyamoto on Arcade/Normal difficulty, finishing on Stage F-C, then Stage WTF (with Black Heart from Garegga).

When I checked out the high score thread, I thought I had a pretty great score with 194 million, but then I realised that everyone else was playing on Expert difficulty. Oh well.

[AimeeSH]

Akai Katana as of late.
Namely the slash mode.

[ACSeraph]

Man I suck so hard at Akai Katana. I should really learn2play it.

I tried out Twinbee on 3DS last night. That game is really easy but fun. Looks cool in 3D too. Also picked up Rekka on 3DS, that game is amazingly good. Its like Ibara/Pink Sweets for NES! I can't even believe they could get a game like that running on the system.

[null1024]

Man I suck so hard at Akai Katana. I should really learn2play it.

I tried out Twinbee on 3DS last night. That game is really easy but fun. Looks cool in 3D too. Also picked up Rekka on 3DS, that game is amazingly good. Its like Ibara/Pink Sweets for NES! I can't even believe they could get a game like that running on the system.

My experience with Twinbee 3DS: get an insane amount of lives in the first 2 levels by bell chaining constantly [first time I did this, I was flabbergasted at how many lives I had!], and by the third I start dropping the chain too much, and by the fourth, I have 5 lives and dropping.
I love that game though, used to have one of those red N64 controller Famiclones that they used to sell in malls somehow, and that was one of my favorite games on it. When I saw it on the eShop, I knew I had to get it.

[ACSeraph]

^
Yeah that's about how my first run of it went. Once you die for the first time (in my case in stage 5) it becomes a bit difficult to get back on track since you lose your powerups. I didn't quite understand exactly what was going on with the bells so I gotta look that up in the strategy section. I'll probably be playing this one a lot.

Also seriously how did they get away with selling those 1000 games in one famiclones?

[VixyNyan]

DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu Black Label (Retail version)
(with the included Arrange mode aka Ketsuipachi mode)

Played on the various modes to accomplish random things.

I haven't attempted and focused my senses for the Hivac (DOOM) or Hibachi runs yet. I doubt I could ever reach Zatsuza anytime soon.

On v1.5 retail version (EU + JP), I did reach Golden Disaster at least.

The things I done this week.



Red Mode on all 5 Element Daughters, Reach Alternate Route with Bomb style and Strong Style, find the Danger enemy while hypering, and get 10000 HIT in Black Label.
I know these aren't that tough for most of you, but I feel proud of these.
I picked Ship C Strong Style on Stage 4 (BL Regular mode) for the 10000 HIT, I got up to 13000 HIT before reaching the boss, shooting away bullets while hypering.

I heard that you only need to do a "no continue" (1CC) run on Arrange mode to reach HIVAC, is it true or are there other requirements too?