Easiest arcade shmups that noobs can 1cc or complete easily?

[heisenbergman]

Consider casual gamers who have never played an STG before.

What arcade shmup is so easy that it could be recommended to these gamers and there would be a significant chance that most of them can either 1cc it; or if not that, at least beat the whole game without spending too much credits, time and effort on it?

If no such arcade shmup exists, what do you think comes closest to this?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Formation Armed F and Terra Force I both found and cleared in like a day or two. Really, they were startlingly easy compared to what I've come to expect from arcade shmups.

[BIL]

Thunder Cross (JP version, not overseas) is definitely on the easier side for an arcade STG. It's also pretty fun, like an arcade version of Gradius V's Type 3 gameplay, with the usual great Konami music of the era.

[KAI]

Karous is easy, go for it.

[Pretas]

Pretty much any PC-Engine shooter will make for an easy 1CC on default settings. Winds of Thunder is the biggest exception that comes to mind; the game has nasty bosses and a very unforgiving power-down mechanic, even though you can stockpile health, bombs and shields from the shop.

[chum]

Twin Cobra 2, DeathSmiles, Battle Bakraid's Normal Course, Lethal Thunder, and Fighting Hawk. These are all easy, but they're not all good, hah.

[Vyxx]

DeathSmiles

[heisenbergman]

Pretty much any PC-Engine shooter will make for an easy 1CC on default settings. Winds of Thunder is the biggest exception that comes to mind; the game has nasty bosses and a very unforgiving power-down mechanic, even though you can stockpile health, bombs and shields from the shop.

I find Cho Ren Sha 68K to be terribly difficult to beat.

I can easily 1cc Blue Wish Resurrection Plus on Heaven now even if it took me several days to learn how to do so and I had auto-guard on. Haven't gotten back to that game on default settings, though.

[Hagane]

Deathsmiles is extremely easy. Shippu Mahou Daisakusen and Sengoku Blade have easy first loops. The Mushis on Original are another good option.

[KAI]

Mushi 1 Original is hard.

Pink Sweets

[chum]

Sengoku Blade

This game kicks my ass. I put in many credits, tried all the characters out and I'm happy if I can just get to 1-6.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I find Cho Ren Sha 68K to be terribly difficult to beat.

Play with autofire, and use bombs before you get hit. Bombing while you have a shield will preserve the shield, but if you lose the shield and get shy with the bombs, a bad hit'll cost a life and any saved up bombs. It's also important to keep your power up as much as possible, max power is a good bit stronger than at the weakest. You can grab all three items in a group if you fly in the middle and wait for them to swirl around quickly (tricky, but it pays off). Don't do this when 1UPs appear, grab the 1UP and don't risk getting something you don't need by accident.

Everyone's saying Deathsmiles... do I just really suck at it? I find having to worry about multidirection shooting really tricky for me. I still haven't gotten a clear on it, though I haven't invested as much time on it as I ought to have, and I'm playing as Follett, who probably isn't the easiest to clear with due to her dragon's close range breath...

[heisenbergman]

Sengoku Blade

This game kicks my ass. I put in many credits, tried all the characters out and I'm happy if I can just get to 1-6.

Okay, definitely not Sengoku Blade, lol.

[heisenbergman]

I find Cho Ren Sha 68K to be terribly difficult to beat.

Play with autofire, and use bombs before you get hit. Bombing while you have a shield will preserve the shield, but if you lose the shield and get shy with the bombs, a bad hit'll cost a life and any saved up bombs. It's also important to keep your power up as much as possible, max power is a good bit stronger than at the weakest. You can grab all three items in a group if you fly in the middle and wait for them to swirl around quickly (tricky, but it pays off). Don't do this when 1UPs appear, grab the 1UP and don't risk getting something you don't need by accident.

I'm actually aware of all of this, thanks. Can barely make it past 1-3 :p

[Hagane]

Weird. Sengoku Blade was my first 1CC, and I got it in two weeks, with very little experience in the genre. I'd recommend it to any beginn. Katana and Aine are the best picks. Play agressively and speedkill a lot. Junis is not a good scorer but it's a good beginning character for survival. As long as you don't pick Sho you should be good haha.

Chum, if you are having such a hard time I guess it's because you play too passively. If I could get the 1CC being a complete beginner, you should have no trouble.

[chum]

I get point blanked by stuff too often when I get in close. It's a matter of memorization, really, you have to know how to play your character and the stage layouts in order to 1cc the first loop.

[KAI]

These are stupidly easy:
Spriggan
SUPER ALESTE
Two Tenkaku
ZANAC NEO
EXCEED3rd JADE PENETRATE - Black Package
VALHELLIO

[AntiFritz]

Deathsmiles is extremely easy. Shippu Mahou Daisakusen and Sengoku Blade have easy first loops. The Mushis on Original are another good option.

Kingdom Grandprix is easy? I've always found it really hard, especially staying near the top of the screen to try to come first.

[ACSeraph]

Deathsmiles on level 1 with no EX stage as Rosa, and Mushi Futari Black Label as Reco are the easiest I've played at arcade. Final stage of DS1 is kinda hard though.

If we are talking console games, Deathsmiles IIX is even easier than the first game on level one, and both Otomedius Gorgeous and Otomedius Excellent are extremely easy (at least for me).

Sengoku Blade (and also Ace) are easy-ish to clear if you have the right mindset and know what to do; ie know where the threats are going to be coming from and get right in their face to kill them quickly. But if you aren't used to that play style it is very difficult I think.

[Nifty]

Gekirindan is a good starting point. Has some variety and tricks to learn, but isn't very demanding.

[Domino]

Hyperduel

[Pteriforever]

Hmm. BWR+ Heaven is just about as easy as it gets, unfortunately. I do have some suggestions though:

The first step up would be something like Crimson Phoenix, it has a few moderately tricky patterns but it's short and it gives you lots and lots of resources, you can /almost/ bombspam the entire thing if you like. Then there's MyLittlePegasus: Kizuna DoPonyPachi's first loop, which is full-length but has really fun mechanics which suit beginners well, it was one of my first 1ccs. You've also got all of the Touhous on Easy, which have simpler patterns than the above but are stingier with resources and have more frustrating mechanics.

[Hagane]

I get point blanked by stuff too often when I get in close. It's a matter of memorization, really, you have to know how to play your character and the stage layouts in order to 1cc the first loop.

Not really, first loop is very light on memorization for survival. Read my guide, once you get used to playing aggressively it's a very easy 1CC. Erppo cleared it in a day. I cleared it in a couple of weeks being a total beginner. It's not hard or memorization intensive at all, particularly with Katana / Aine. Things can get really hard if you optimize scoring or go for the 2-ALL though.

Kingdom Grandprix is easy? I've always found it really hard, especially staying near the top of the screen to try to come first.

If you go for first place it gets marginally harder, but otherwise it's one of the easiest 1CCs. Pick a character with a good homing shot (like Miyamoto or Nirvana) and you shouldn't have much trouble.

[chum]

Kingdom Grandprix first loop clear is laughably easy, I could see it being done blind.

@Sengoku Blade, well from the time I put into it it does seem to me that it is highly important that you know when the big enemies appear so that you can take them out immediately, It's also important to know exactly what types of bullet patterns different enemies fire and exactly when they will fire them so that you know how much leniency there is. I found that this was hugely important at the end of the game and I simply didn't have tight enough strategies to manage a 1-all. For bosses, you must memorize a strategy because otherwise you will get killed if you play aggressively. I used mainly Aine and almost managed a 1-all after practicing a bit and putting in a couple of credits, but I still failed whereas in many other shmups I would have succeeded with this method. overall, I would definitely not call the game easy, I would say most of the arcade games I've cleared are easier. Some of the games I mentioned above were blind 1cc's for me (Twin Cobra 2 and Fighting Hawk) surely those are way easier than something I couldn't clear after playing for several hours (and I know the game wants me to be aggressive, I've cleared Dragon Blaze first loop which is similar enough)

[Hagane]

You don't have to memorize much. With Aine you can kill large enemies (the ones you should be focusing your speedkills on) on reaction. He charges his sword in like a quarter of a second, and a couple of hits are enough to down nearly any regular enemy. If a boss troubles you, bomb. It deals ridiculous damage to anything, especially if you do it from up close. One is enough to kill most bosses.

The only tough part of the first loop is stage 5, and that's only really if you want to no-bomb it. That will require some practice, especially if you want to maximize score (you need to keep rank down to get all the coins and kill all the Samurais). But even then, you mostly need basic tap dodging since every popcorn in the game shoots aimed bullets. Only a few enemies shoot static patterns, and you shouldn't be trying to dodge them, you should kill them as soon as you can. Read my guide and watch Saucy's replay. If you cleared the first loop of Dragon Blaze this should be a walk in the park.

Personally I used Katana most of the time, and even though her charge shot is slower, it kills pretty much anything that's not a boss on a single hit. I just speedkilled any large enemy with it and the 1CC came quickly with a very halfassed strategy.

[MathU]

Gradius
R-Type Leo
Kingdom Grandprix (first loop anyway, the game gets considerably more difficult on the second)
Karous (if you're not playing this for score you're practically missing the point though)

Those would be the easiest in my mind. I think Giga Wing and Darius Gaiden are also both pretty low on the difficulty spectrum for simply clearing, but they may be a bit more debatable. In Giga Wing you just have to learn to abuse the reflection mechanic and bomb when you're recharging. With Darius Gaiden make sure to use all your Black Hole Bombs because they do humongous damage to bosses in addition to clearing the screen of projectiles. Also know where the two hidden extra ship icons are in the game... Also pick a route that ends in one of the easier bosses.

Someone please chime in on Darius Gaiden because I'm probably a bit biased. I should really get back to work on my guide.

[chum]

You don't have to memorize much. With Aine you can kill large enemies (the ones you should be focusing your speedkills on) on reaction. He charges his sword in like a quarter of a second, and a couple of hits are enough to down nearly any regular enemy. If a boss troubles you, bomb. It deals ridiculous damage to anything, especially if you do it from up close. One is enough to kill most bosses.

The only tough part of the first loop is stage 5, and that's only really if you want to no-bomb it. That will require some practice, especially if you want to maximize score (you need to keep rank down to get all the coins and kill all the Samurais). But even then, you mostly need basic tap dodging since every popcorn in the game shoots aimed bullets. Only a few enemies shoot static patterns, and you shouldn't be trying to dodge them, you should kill them as soon as you can. Read my guide and watch Saucy's replay. If you cleared the first loop of Dragon Blaze this should be a walk in the park.

Personally I used Katana most of the time, and even though her charge shot is slower, it kills pretty much anything that's not a boss on a single hit. I just speedkilled any large enemy with it and the 1CC came quickly with a very halfassed strategy.

If you need to read a guide, then it isn't easy. I think you're underestimating the difficulty of the game since you put a lot of time into it, personally. Bosses have different forms. You don't just take out an entire boss with a bomb, you need several. Taking out big enemies immediately isn't always as simple as you're trying to make it sound. There's lots of stuff going on sometimes. I'm not suggesting that the game is as hard as Dragon Blaze (I put more time into Dragon Blaze, It's definitely harder) but I can certainly think of many easier arcade STG!

Someone please chime in on Darius Gaiden because I'm probably a bit biased. I should really get back to work on my guide.

Easy with Autofire.

[Hagane]

I didn't put much time into it when I cleared it, and even then it became apparent how the game was meant to be played. I first picked Aine, then switched to Katana as soon as I shot the first charge attack. As I said, it took me two weeks of an hour or two a day to clear it, and back then I was a complete beginner at the genre. It was my first 1CC ever. One bomb from Aine is enough to kill a boss phase. At most it takes two, if the boss is really resilient. Speedkilling big enemies is very easy in the first loop, since all popcorns shoot slow aimed bullets.

It's a very easy clear (easier even than Sengoku Ace), you just aren't playing it with the right mindset. Again, read the guide, watch Saucy's clear. At your level it should take you a week, tops.

[MathU]

Easy with Autofire.

I wasn't referring to the autofire cheat though, despite however much people love to use that. With THAT then yeah it makes the game a total joke.

[ebarrett]

Espgaluda.