Ode to WARASHI: What is your favorite?

[chempop]

How do the Warashi arcade titles stack up against one another? Are you a fan? Has this topic been done?

DAIOH









SIENRYU







SENGEKI STRIKER









TRIGGERHEART EXELICA

[trap15]

DAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH

[chempop]

lol

I've only played Daioh and Triggerheart, guess which one I like... got a Sengeki on the way, I hope it's good.

[Mortificator]

Sengeki Striker is bare bones, but it there's something about it that makes me want to play more credits. I guess it gets my vote (POLLS STILL BROKE?) at the time.

I've waffled back and forth between whether Daioh or Shienryu is better. Right now I'd go with the latter, but it still feels like a poor alternative to Raiden DX.

Triggerheart, I would probably enjoy more without lolis.

[louisg]

I've played Daioh, Triggerheart, and Shienryu. I think Daioh may be the best out of those in terms of consistent gameplay and professional presentation, but Triggerheart is a fun game too. But maybe I only like Daioh because I haven't gotten as far as it as in Shienryu, which falls down halfway through.

[chempop]

Just played my first few credits of Sengeki. I think I got the impossible USA version
It's pretty fun though, not entirely sure how the gambits work yet. Barebones indeed, is it infinitely looping???

[edit]

Seems like it's a 2 loop game. One thing that is troublesome is how after the second stage each death sends you back to the beginning of the stage you are on. That doesn't seem very fair

[blackoak]

I've only played Shienryu, but I liked it (except for the last boss, which seemed way too long/annoying). What's the connection between Sengeki Striker and Cyvern? Just the hardware?

Daiou has always sounded fun, I need to remember to try it.

[BulletMagnet]

What's the connection between Sengeki Striker and Cyvern? Just the hardware?

To the best of my knowledge they were developed by two different groups, though I've no idea if members of one team ever ended up on the other.

On topic, I wish I knew more about exactly how Sengeki Striker works; I like what I've played of it but know I'm missing some major stuff.

[chempop]

At first I was just tap-tap-taping the shot button and letting my options do their thing. They basically shoot their weak shot and stay near you, then sometimes they do their stronger attack and move away from your ship (thus not protecting you). My hand was getting tired so I installed my auto-fire circuit, now the options behave differently! When I am holding shot the options don't shoot at all, instead they just stay near my ship, then when I start tapping they instantly do their strong attack.

I'm going to have to play around some more it figure out what the hell is going on with this.

[BulletMagnet]

If memory serves, when you're firing your options at first shoot "normal" shots along with you, but after a few moments they stop firing altogether; if, at this point, you stop shooting for a moment they unleash their "special attack", and when they're done the cycle starts over. It's sort of an odd riff on "charged" attacks.

That part I (think I) get; scoring, fuhgeddaboudit.

[Ed Oscuro]

So many good games to choose from...I'm kind of wishy-washy on picking just one.

I didn't know they were responsible for Triggerheart Excelica...

The only game of theirs I have is Sengeki Striker.

[Ruldra]

Only played Daioh but it's awesome. Brutal ranking system though.

[chempop]

Daioh was one of the first PCBs I just had to track down, came up just short of the 2-All after if lived in my cab for months.

Triggerheart never clicked with me and I sold my DC version long ago, but I give them a lot of credit for incorporating such a unique mechanic with the harpoon.

I've never played Shienryu, it's one of the last Saturn games I've yet to add to my collection. From the screenshots, I am pretty amazed with the background art in particular.

[Ed Oscuro]

How can you call yourself a shooting games fan if you've never played Shienryu or even Sengeki Striker? Get at it, lads. Although for Striker please note the Asia region is much harder than Japan - very interesting all the same.

[Pretas]

I think they're all about equal.

Daioh (US version) is a run-of-the-mill Toaplan-style shooter that happens to bear a neat free-form weapons system.

Sengeki Striker (Japan version) is an indistinctly bland, fairly easy game with lots of satisfying big lasers to shoot.

Shienryu is a ho-hum Raiden clone with very impressive art and animation.

Exelica is a poor man's G.Rev-style shooter with boring stages and lacking boss designs, but saved from utter mediocrity by its cool harpoon throwing gimmick.

[Ed Oscuro]

Daioh (US version) is a run-of-the-mill Toaplan-style shooter that happens to bear a neat free-form weapons system.

The only thing I don't like about Daioh is the bit of apparent randomness (not real randomness, but a huge pain to deal with) in the shot selection, and I think there's also a bit of sprite flicker. Its art is far ahead of many other games of the time.

Sengeki Striker (Japan version) is an indistinctly bland, fairly easy game with lots of satisfying big lasers to shoot.

Play it for score or play the Asia version, and this criticism evaporates completely.

Shienryu is a ho-hum Raiden clone with very impressive art and animation.

Definitely competent though, and reason enough to play it there. I agree it might not break many peoples' top 20 lists, but there aren't truly all that many "Raiden clones" worth bothering with to begin with, so it's a nice new version in the genre.

[KAI]

X-celica, hate the rest.

[chempop]

How can you call yourself a shooting games fan if you've never played Shienryu or even Sengeki Striker? Get at it, lads. Although for Striker please note the Asia region is much harder than Japan - very interesting all the same.

There are just too many good games to have played them all I suppose. Shienryu has slipped through my hands countless times, always being outbid on or second in line for a reasonably priced copy. It really is odd that I don't own it by now.

Pretas, sounds like you aren't a big fan lol.

[Pretas]

I'm not a fan of the late Warashi, but their games are very playable and decent enough. I sank a good amount of time into Daioh US and Exelica XBLA at one point. Milestone is the only modern Japanese STG developer I can't stand, and they're gone now too.

The PS1 version of Shienryu can be had as a PSN download for very cheap. I believe it has lowered difficulty compared to on the ST-V/Saturn, though.

[chempop]

Milestone is the only modern Japanese STG developer I can't stand.

Same here, although I did have a bit of fun with Chaos Field on gamcube for a while. Then I got Galuda and never played it again.

[KAI]

[brentsg]

Shienryu was one of my favorite Saturn games.

[BIL]

Always thought of Shienryu as a Tatsujin clone first and foremost, with the speedups and instant bombing moving its feel away from the more restrained Kyuukyoku Tiger/Raiden. I own all the STV shooter ports for Saturn, not out of collectorism but since they're brilliant home versions of quality STGs. Shienryu is the least distinguished of the bunch in terms of originality, but it's certainly a very solid game of the Toaplan school.

Haven't played the others enough to comment, but Shienryu makes me want to. It's a shame THE went with that insipid fanservicey look, the anchor mechanic makes me want to pick it up at some point.

[Despatche]

kinda hard to acknowledge "all weapons on all buttons" as something even remotely related to daioh

[NeoStrayCat]

Triggerheart is what got me here in the first place (of course a certain 8-bit comes to mind first), but yeah, still go for a weekly run or 2 on the XBLA version on/off times. :3

[Despatche]

oh yeah, this topic also needs the dezaemon series and shienryu explosion

[ACSeraph]

Triggerheart is pretty much my number one favorite shmup, but its only good with auto-swing off. Something about grabbing a poor bastard, spinning around the stick, and throwing it into a swarm of enemies in a blazing blue trail of death is just godly.

[eatfrog]

So whats the status on warashi these days, are they still active? website seems to be down since 2011.

[Ghegs]

I haven't played their games terribly much, but damn if Shienryu's Stage 8-1 isn't cool. You first have a rematch against the orange mech you fought before, and then the TLB arrives in a rather surprising fashion. Cool stuff.

[chempop]

oh yeah, this topic also needs the dezaemon series and shienryu explosion

I was going for arcade releases, but yeah, Athena/Warashi is also responsible for

Biometal - SNES
Dezaemon series
Strike Gunner STG - JAMMA
Shienryu Explosion - PS2

I think that's everything.