Depressing STG Realizations

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

You're speaking to a man who is seriously going for a 2-all. When he says "dying" I think he means literally "any survival mistake whatsoever."

Ahh right, ignore me then. Apologies to ResumeDPosition, I misunderstood. Good luck with that 2-all!

[MX7]

Depressing Realizations:
I don't really like STGs any more
There will probably never be another good STG released

Less depressing realisations:
There are so many amazing late 80s/early 90s shooters left to discover
I've started discovering other genres that are still active
Spend time saved by not playing shooters playing guitar, programming, securing an awesome job, having fun with other people, reading, watching films etc etc.

[Adderall]

I get depressed after rotating my monitor when I think of all the games I want to play the way it was before....

[Bonus!]

One of my most depression STG realizations was that your typical 5th stage takes more time to master than the previous four put together. This was quite a downer the first time I encountered this phenomenon when I was thinking that I was close to a 1CC.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

One of my most depression STG realizations was that your typical 5th stage takes more time to master than the previous four put together. This was quite a downer the first time I encountered this phenomenon when I was thinking that I was close to a 1CC.

DDP is a noteworthy exception to the rule. Its final stage is noticeably less difficult to get through than the previous one, although the final boss is no joke. Espgaluda's 5-2 isn't really too difficult either unless you try to score in it, in which case you usually save up kakusei for the last section where all the Alices show, and it's very costly to screw it up. 5-1 is tougher (the last section with mass popcorn + turrets) and not as lucrative score-wise.

[Leandro]

there will never be a Truxton 3

[Drake]

My entry to this thread is this thread itself.

[Never_Scurred]

That I could never love KAI the way he loves me (sorry, but my heart belongs to Skykid)

That Cave's greatest game (Ibara) will never get the port it truly deserves

That Cave's greatest game (Ibara) will never get the love it truly deserves from the shmup community

That whenever someone leaves a troll Touhou comment on a non-Touhou video, I will never know if they are serious, or trolling

[jasoncslaughter]

I'll never be as good at any shmup as I think I could be - it's a sad combination of delusional narcissism and a general lack of free time.

Also, on the subject of Ibara: I'll never love this game as much as I want to, no matter how hard I try.

[Skykid]

That I could never love KAI the way he loves me (sorry, but my heart belongs to Skykid)

I got reciprocity for ya.

[chempop]

It's not even 7:00am monday morning, I have a million things to do this week for work , and I'm posting on the shmups forum.

[Zengeku3]

- That I'll probably never get decent at these kinds of games.
- That I'll probably never meet a loli who plays STG
- That all my friendly shmupping relationships are with people that live far away from where I live. Denmark doesn't seem to have many shmuppers.

[nasty_wolverine]

- That all my friendly shmupping relationships are with people that live far away from where I live. Denmark doesn't seem to have many shmuppers.

I live in India. I think I am the only one who plays shmups in the entire country.

[Bonus!]

I live in India. I think I am the only one who plays shmups in the entire country.

You do realize that there are over a billion people in India, don't you?

[nasty_wolverine]

I live in India. I think I am the only one who plays shmups in the entire country.

You do realize that there are over a billion people in India, don't you?

All english speaking shmup players eventually browse this forum, I put up a post when I joined looking for fellow indians, bumped it later too. No response from someone from India, but lots of people surprised at me being from india and playing shmups and enquiring about the gaming scene here. Never found any mention of shmups in indian gaming websites, posted stuff in facebook groups about shmups again with no responses.

So I probably am the only one, or they dont like sociallizing over the internet.

[Bonus!]

All english speaking shmup players eventually browse this forum, I put up a post when I joined looking for fellow indians, bumped it later too. No response from someone from India, but lots of people surprised at me being from india and playing shmups and enquiring about the gaming scene here. Never found any mention of shmups in indian gaming websites, posted stuff in facebook groups about shmups again with no responses.

So I probably am the only one, or they dont like sociallizing over the internet.

You make a lot of assumptions. I'm quite certain that only a fraction of people who play shmups frequent this forum, and of those who visit, only a fraction register an account, and of those who register an account, only a fraction is active.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Shmups are much more of a niche genre than you think. Finding other people who are seriously interested in them is quite difficult, and India may not have the same kind of arcade scene that you find elsewhere in Asia and North America, which is what got a lot of people interested in shmups. Not that arcades with shmups are really easily found in North America anyways.

[BIL]

I'm feeling pretty good about my gaming hobby in general actually. ^__^

But sometimes, I get sad when I remember that one day DTP will leave us for good. ;W;

[nasty_wolverine]

You make a lot of assumptions. I'm quite certain that only a fraction of people who play shmups frequent this forum, and of those who visit, only a fraction register an account, and of those who register an account, only a fraction is active.

If thats true, I am the only Indian on this board, and I have no way of contacting my shmup playing indian brethrens. Sad story either way.

@BareknuckleRoo: We did have a arcade scene here in India about 10 years back, they were either NES (I played contra nes version on a cab growing up) or Genesis modded into cabs, or neogeo games, mostly fighters. My KoF love comes from playing 98 on cabs. Sadly, those arcades have been refurnished with light gun games and vehicle simulators. And all the cool kids here now play counter strike or call of duty. Or tekken if they like fighters.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Sadly, those arcades have been refurnished with light gun games and vehicle simulators. And all the cool kids here now play counter strike or call of duty. Or tekken if they like fighters.

That's actually pretty much what we have around here too; there's a lot of lightgun games and racing games, a couple of whatever fighting game is popular recently, and DDR because that's always popular. Finding a shmup or a less common fighting game (I've never seen a KoF in the 'wild') is incredibly hard, and usually the cab isn't well maintained then. I did see a cab with a coin-op version of the NES super mario bros a few years back though.

[Bonus!]

Shmups are much more of a niche genre than you think. Finding other people who are seriously interested in them is quite difficult.

I can only offer you anecdotal evidence to the contrary: Some weeks ago I was playing Progear during lunch break on my private laptop, and one of my colleagues comes by, saying that this looked like an interesting game. We briefly chat, and then he asks me whether I've heard of ZUN and Touhou. Bottom line: people (adults) don't talk about gaming that much here in Europe since there still is the perception of it being something for kids and teenagers, and if you don't have a hook for a conversation, like playing a Cave shmup on your laptop, you may never know that your colleague is into, say, Touhou.

I do share your view that STGs are a niche genre, but there is at least some awareness among people who are more interested in games.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Touhou isn't really a good example of the popularity of the genre in general, as it is more or less the exception to the rule. It's gained a massive fan following even from people who don't seriously play the games or other shmups in general, mostly because they like the art/music/whatever. The fact that that 'Bad Apple!!' black and white video actually got mentioned on the news might've helped too. You are way, way more likely to encounter someone who has heard or seen a Touhou game than you are to find someone who knows what a 'Dodonpachi' is.

It's kind of like playing a platformer like Rozenkreuzstilette and having someone come up to you and ask you if you've heard of Capcom or Mega Man before. Except that Cave style shmups came before Touhou.

[Bonus!]

I just learnt something new then. I'm only vaguely familiar with Touhou, and I had no idea how popular it was. I just watched the Bad Apple video and was quite baffled that it had over four million views.

[Vyxx]

That people vote Garegga the greatest STG of all time yet Ibara is the closest sequel you could ever get, and it barley makes the top 25 of all time.

That Ibara will never have a true, accurate port for people to enjoy...

That once I get good enough at a STG to play for score, I find myself unable to just play for survival ever, even just for fun, and it often ruins games for me.

[louisg]

That people vote Garegga the greatest STG of all time

Oh, I would've stopped right there

[Ed Oscuro]

It's gained a massive fan following even from people who don't seriously play the games or other shmups in general, mostly because they like the art/music/whatever.

It's got a massive following from people who don't play the games period

Rozenkreuzstilette

That's a new one on me.

I see the second Google hit is for TVTropes.

[brentsg]

-Getting old and losing reaction time sucks..
-Having to choose between kids hanging on me when I play, or playing at midnight... sucks. (both are fun, neither is all that productive)

Enjoy these games while you can kids!

[Wonderbanana]

There will never be a sequel to either Hishouzame or Same!Same!Same!.

Well you just depressed me with that one

[louisg]

Not true; someone could make a kick ass fan-sequel to Same!Same!Same!.. c'mon shmups Developers forum, don't let me down here

[Skykid]

That game developers have ditched pixel art altogether.