bullet hell shooters with simple scoring?

[Squire Grooktook]

Not for me, but I'm thinking about holding a scoring contest to give away some spare Steam Keys I have lying around, and am having trouble deciding what game to hold it for. It needs to be something simple and easily attainable since most of these peeps are new to the genre and found Rayforce's scoring system confusing lol.

[Mortificator]

Dangun Feveron?

[Squire Grooktook]

Dangun Feveron?

Yeah, that occurred to me.

That, Dodonpachi, and Esp Galuda are probably the top Cave games I'd consider in terms of straight forward scoring.

[chempop]

Ibara has a very simple system, but executing some of the "milk trix" is pretty non-so-simple.

Same with Muchi Pork.

I'm guessing some doujins fit the bill a bit better, what was the one with purple bullets and rips off a bunch of cave patterns? You control a blue ship perhaps?

How about Eden's Edge and Eden's Aegis?

Dangun Feveron?

Dangun is bullet hell? Serious question, I haven't played much of it, seemed more like a Psikyo-like paced game from what I remember.

[Squire Grooktook]

Ibara has a very simple system, but executing some of the "milk trix" is pretty non-so-simple.

Same with Muchi Pork.

I'm guessing some doujins fit the bill a bit better, what was the one with purple bullets and rips off a bunch of cave patterns? You control a blue ship perhaps?

How about Eden's Edge and Eden's Aegis?

Unfortunately, Muchi Pork is kind of out of the question since most of these guys don't have an Xbox I think. Is Ibara emulated though? Last time I checked I thought it wasn't, or at least you had to be pretty good at tinkering with emulators to get it to run.

Eden's Aegis/Blue Wish Ressurection probably fit the bill. Any other doujin/freeware shooters of note along those lines?

Dangun is bullet hell? Serious question, I haven't played much of it, seemed more like a Psikyo-like paced game from what I remember.

Yeah, that's the thing. It kinda depends how you define bullet hell. It has the pixel sized hitbox and a few dense patterns, so I guess it counts. It does "feel" like a manic shooter though what with the super fast aimed shots throughout most of the game.

[Mortificator]

I guess you could look at Dangun as a Toa-style game with an unusually high bullet count, or as a Cave-style danmaku with an unusually low one.

[CStarFlare]

If Espgaluda fits the bill, Leiria -Stargazer- should as well (it being freeware as an added bonus). It gives many more resources as well.

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is pretty simple despite having plenty of tricks, as are Lotus Land Story and Mystic Square (if you're at all interesting it throwing some Touhou into the mix).

Otherwise, the Eden's/Blue Wish games are pretty good. I've never seen Green Wind given any attention, but it looks similar to X.X's other games.

[Pretas]

Giga Wing.

[Kollision]

Mushi original
just survive and don't lose lives

[Squire Grooktook]

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is pretty simple despite having plenty of tricks.

Yeah, EOSD is probably a pretty good intro to bullet hell. I've never really played it for score myself though, so I'll have to take your word for it being simple enough. But I'll keep that in mind.

Mushi original
just survive and don't lose lives

That's actually a great one I hadn't thought of. Too bad Mushi is pretty hard to emulate in my experience, and like I said I'm the only one with an Xbox unfortunately.

[Pretas]

Mushihimesama was Cave's first SH3 game, and it's not as resource-demanding as later games that use the hardware. I run it on Slowpoke MAME on a laptop with no intrusive problems.

[Squire Grooktook]

Mushihimesama was Cave's first SH3 game, and it's not as resource-demanding as later games that use the hardware. I run it on Slowpoke MAME on a laptop with no intrusive problems.

I hadn't heard of Slowpoke Mame, I'll have to look that up.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Lotus Land Story and Mystic Square both are very playable and quite easy to get the hang of in terms of scoring. The scoring's a lot simpler compared to later Windows-era games at least.

[Squire Grooktook]

I'll have to try them. I recently took the time to set up a Pc 98 emulator, but haven't had a chance to play any Touhou on it yet.

On that note, I'm thinking Flame Zapper Kotsujin might be a good pick also?

Actually on that note too, this might be a bit off topic, but are there any other good pc 98 shmups I should be aware aside from the above? I try to find this out whenever I get a new emulator working, heh.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Hopefully it's T98-Next. It's the only PC98 emu worth bothering with (T98 has higher system requirements than Anex, but the music quality in Anex is horrid, you shouldn't use it unless your computer is so bad that it can't run T98 without lagging, which would be pretty bad).

[Squire Grooktook]

I actually set up both lol.

[CStarFlare]

Kotsujin is fantastic, I wouldn't call it bullet hell though.

I've heard good things about a gradius clone for PC-98 that I've forgotten the name of.

[chum]

Kotsujin is Bullet Hell. The hitbox is way smaller than your ship and the screen is completely flooded with bullets on the two highest difficulties (nevermind the fact that the highest difficulty is probably impossible)

It's also excellent and the scoring is simple and mostly survival based. There is some Medal chaining but it's not Yagawa-style.

EoSD scoring is not simple - forget it.

[VideoGameRescue]

I am another to say Blue Wish Resurrection. The scoring system is pretty simple in that one

[KAI]

Radirgy

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

Ketsui

[gs68]

Cho Ren Sha 68K. Don't get hit, don't use bombs (unless they help you not get hit), max out powerups and bombs and then stay in the middle of the powerup triangles for triple bonuses (unless that will make you get hit), and get all the 1-ups.

[Squire Grooktook]

Kotsujin is fantastic, I wouldn't call it bullet hell though.

Kotsujin is Bullet Hell.

Yeah, I think I have to agree with Chum here. I know everyone has a different definition, but my personal one for bullet hell is basically "Does it have a pixel-ish sized hitbox? Does it have enough bullets on screen that it forces you to make use of it?" if the answer is yes on both counts, I'd call it a bullet hell.

I've heard good things about a gradius clone for PC-98 that I've forgotten the name of.

Oh yeah, Garudius '95? I'll definitely have to play that.

Cho Ren Sha 68K. Don't get hit, don't use bombs (unless they help you not get hit), max out powerups and bombs and then stay in the middle of the powerup triangles for triple bonuses (unless that will make you get hit), and get all the 1-ups.

Yeah, that was definitely on the list. Plus it's freeware.

[oboewan42]

Judgement Silversword has a relatively simple scoring system as it is. Play on Easy (which takes away the multiplier) and you have a scoring system that boils down to "kill shit, get points".

EDIT: I also recommend Vasara 2 (charge-shot everything, kill banner carriers for prestige bonuses)

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Even Normal is pretty simple because you'll want to get as far as you can without dying or shielding. You get some massive multiplier at the end if you don't use the shield and don't die while doing it.

Works the same way in hard, but not using the shield on that mode would be quite unrealistic.


Also, the stage bonuses are based on how much time you take to beat the stage, so it'd also pretty much be don't die, don't use the shield(unless on Easy), speedrun the game to the best of your ability.

But JSS is a pretty simple scoring system definitely. Good game too.

[Seppo Hovi]

Imperishable Night and Perfect Cherry Blossom were the bullet hell games I started scoring with.

[To Far Away Times]

Mushi Futari BL Original and Espgaluda.

Not so difficult games with straightforward and fun scoring mechanics that take a lot of skill to master.

[O. Van Bruce]

Most Psikyo games. Scoring is pretty much getting the medals when they are glowing.

[CStarFlare]

Since Kotsujin is in the running, it might be worth looking at Burning Dragon Plus. Scoring is simpler than Kotsujin (just collect everything, some boss milking is possible but I think it's kind of a small benefit) and the hitbox seems pretty small. Bosses have parts that you can pick off and can get pretty nasty if you try to milk them, but that's obviously a very optional thing.

[Squire Grooktook]

Since Kotsujin is in the running, it might be worth looking at Burning Dragon Plus. Scoring is simpler than Kotsujin (just collect everything, some boss milking is possible but I think it's kind of a small benefit) and the hitbox seems pretty small. Bosses have parts that you can pick off and can get pretty nasty if you try to milk them, but that's obviously a very optional thing.

I looked it up. Looks fun, I'll be sure to try it out. Thank you.