Jets'n'Guns Gold now on steam

[Laurel_McFang]

Released just today Steam is picking up the indie shmups:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/262260/

Jets'n'Guns is a heavy piece of ground shaking rock blasting action with graphics and special effects that will blow you eyes out! Enjoy yourself in almost-insane action adventure of saving the universe from the deadly threat of more than 270 unique monsters in the campaign of 43 levels. Stand as one-against-many armed with tons of different weapons of a devastating armament fitted into one of the awesome spaceships.

Game features:
43 levels full of thrilling action, shooting and demolition
more than 270 unique enemies including 16 boss monsters
70 different weapons
upgrade your ship with 20 special devices
superior graphic and particle effects enhancing the destruction
more than one hour of breathtaking original soundtrack
new scenario in every level (deep space, jungle, undersea, lava planet...)
fly in 12 different vessels, even in a horrible boss ship
combination of weapons give hundreds of possibilities how to equip your ship
sounds and sound-effects just like from a Hollywood movie

This one made a few a lists I noticed too.

It's 50% off right now so like 3.50 usd.

[Captain]

For what its worth, this is the best euroshmup I ever played.

[colour_thief]

Is it actually good though, on an absolute level?

Be honest.

[Captain]

Is it actually good though, on an absolute level?

Be honest.

Its Ok. Has a horrible start and becomes extremely good later.

[Lord Satori]

If you don't buy it, God will kill 10 puppies.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It looks pretty, but I have absolutely no idea how big that hitbox is, if the controls are any good (the movement looks a tad slippery?), and the gauges at the bottom left are mystifying to me. I've no idea if one's supposed to be a health indicator, special weapon meter, or what. The enemy shots (the few I saw, doesn't look like much is attacking in that trailer) also seem to be really, really small, and the colours aren't contrasted to stand out against the background (yellow thin shots on an orange background).

It looks like the diverse weapon selection's pretty cool, like a modern equivalent of Tyrian 2000.

[Captain]

Hitbox is the ship without the wings, and movement is only slippery in the sense it moves in a curve instead of straight directions for a second, this is just another style and it's still smooth.

One gauge is health and the other is weapon heat, basically power from Tyrian.

Enemies start shooting quite alot later in the game, it has progressive difficulty, and you can forget the health gauge on the higher difficulties (which need unlocking).

[Austin]

I wanted to play this back in the day, but couldn't find it locally and it seemed wildly overpriced for what it was. For $3.50 though, I will give it a shot. I still like those early '90s DOS PC styled shmups, and this looks kind of like those.

[The Coop]

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-JNG/jets-n-guns-gold

It's also on Gamer's Gate, for those who DRM-less stuff.

[MathU]

Does the Steam release actually have DRM or is it just being sold over it?

[captpain]

Free would be too expensive.

[The Coop]

Does the Steam release actually have DRM or is it just being sold over it?

You can only play the version from Steam if you have Steam installed. The game won't start without it. The Gamer's Gate version doesn't need anything of the sort to run.

[Jeneki]

What are the suggested weapons to buy and power up, to not feel tremendously underpowered? Even popcorn enemies are taking so many hits I have to let most of them fly past.

Also I'm getting quite a bit of input lag on the 360 controller. Using keyboard has a little less, but it's still very noticeable Not enjoying this much so far. At least it didn't cost much.

[MathU]

You can only play the version from Steam if you have Steam installed. The game won't start without it. The Gamer's Gate version doesn't need anything of the sort to run.

Ouch, that sucks. No idea why you would waste your money on this version then.

[Lord Satori]

What are the suggested weapons to buy and power up, to not feel tremendously underpowered? Even popcorn enemies are taking so many hits I have to let most of them fly past.

Also I'm getting quite a bit of input lag on the 360 controller. Using keyboard has a little less, but it's still very noticeable Not enjoying this much so far. At least it didn't cost much.

Use your mouse. As for weapons, figure it out yourself. Not every game should hand you things on a silver platter in order to be good.

By the way, I was in the Beta-testing group for this game. I didn't have to pay a dime.

[Jeneki]

As for weapons, figure it out yourself. Not every game should hand you things on a silver platter in order to be good.

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? I already tried out a bunch, and didn't find anything that makes the game fun. Hence, asking for advise. It's not hard concept.

[Lord Satori]

Have you tried upgrading any of them?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Also I'm getting quite a bit of input lag on the 360 controller. Using keyboard has a little less, but it's still very noticeable

Is this actual input lag like the movement's not registering for a second, or is there acceleration on the movement, so the ship doesn't move at full speed immediately?

[Lord Satori]

Like I said, its better if you use your mouse. I can't play this game using the keyboard.

[AimeeSH]

Also I'm getting quite a bit of input lag on the 360 controller. Using keyboard has a little less, but it's still very noticeable

Is this actual input lag like the movement's not registering for a second, or is there acceleration on the movement, so the ship doesn't move at full speed immediately?

It's not input lag. The movement is difference depending on which ship you are using and on some ships you can upgrade it's movement abilities. Some have better acceleration and top speeds then others.

As for steam it's up to the developer and/or publisher to integrate steamworks.
If they do integrate steamworks the game will now need steam to run but it allows them to have things like cloud saving, achievements, trading cards, valve's matchmaking & netcode system, VAC anti-cheat, micro-transactions systems etc.

Most of the time if a game doesn't have steamworks the steam user forums will have a lot of posts asking for them to implement it so they can get trading cards and what ever else they give.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It's not input lag. The movement is difference depending on which ship you are using and on some ships you can upgrade it's movement abilities. Some have better acceleration and top speeds then others.

Ships having different speeds is fine. There's plenty of games out there with single ship speeds based on what ship you select, games with a slowdown/speedup button you can hold, or tap to gear shift between speeds. But acceleration? You mean that if you tap the movement button you don't go at top speed immediately? Fuck that shit.

Devs, don't do that. Realism in shmups is stupid, and if you need to accelerate on movement, it makes it ridiculously annoying to tap dodge. That also implies inertia, which is usually a garbage euroshmup mechanic.

[AimeeSH]

It's not input lag. The movement is difference depending on which ship you are using and on some ships you can upgrade it's movement abilities. Some have better acceleration and top speeds then others.

Ships having different speeds is fine. There's plenty of games out there with single ship speeds based on what ship you select, games with a slowdown/speedup button you can hold, or tap to gear shift between speeds. But acceleration? You mean that if you tap the movement button you don't go at top speed immediately? Fuck that shit.

Devs, don't do that. Realism in shmups is stupid, and if you need to accelerate on movement, it makes it ridiculously annoying to tap dodge. That also implies inertia, which is usually a garbage euroshmup mechanic.

Yes the ships have 2 stats for movement, Engine and Agility. Other stats include Hit points, Max Heat, Heat Sink and hitbox size.

For example:
The WanderWurst W-1 ship with base stats for example has:
Engine: 250
Agility: 800

vs
The Crocker Cr-2 ship has:
Engine: 330
Agility: 2400

Engine is it's max movement speed while agility is how quick it can reach its max movement speed. So if you wanted to be at max speed with no speed up time then you would want to use ships with high agility. Agility also allows you change direction faster. IE To change from moving left to moving right. So yes its like you said, it implies inertia.

[Jeneki]

Have you tried upgrading any of them?

Yeah, that's the plus symbol right? The low firepower issue comes into play three or so levels in; the first few I don't really have much issue with. Bombs definitely seem to help at least, as I've had better luck getting above enemies and dropping some love. Unfortunately bombs are very difficult to use against the faster moving enemies that pop up later on.

On the plus side, some of the hidden missions are hilarious. And the tetris minigame is evil.

On the down side, I have to admit I cringed a bit when I read the second level tip, "Don't waste your time evading every bullet. Your armor can take some damage." Also, I'm not sure how I feel about using the mouse to play a shmup and the acceleration issue ... I'll just say I'm not the target audience for that.

Seems like the game is a poster child for this topic.

[AimeeSH]

Have you tried upgrading any of them?

Yeah, that's the plus symbol right? The low firepower issue comes into play three or so levels in; the first few I don't really have much issue with. Bombs definitely seem to help at least, as I've had better luck getting above enemies and dropping some love. Unfortunately bombs are very difficult to use against the faster moving enemies that pop up later on.

On the plus side, some of the hidden missions are hilarious. And the tetris minigame is evil.

On the down side, I have to admit I cringed a bit when I read the second level tip, "Don't waste your time evading every bullet. Your armor can take some damage." Also, I'm not sure how I feel about using the mouse to play a shmup and the acceleration issue ... I'll just say I'm not the target audience for that.

Seems like the game is a poster child for this topic.

I've been using a keyboard to play after trying a 360 pad and a arcade stick. Once you get one of the faster ships movement gets a lot easier. Namely once you get the Crocker Cr-2 ship. That WanderWurst W-1 ship (Hotdog Van) feels like your playing on ice.

I thought the same thing about the firepower but it's a not so much of an issue after you upgrade your weapons a bit. Problem is during levels 3 - 6 as you haven't got enough money to upgrade much yet. After that your firepower feels fine. Note I'm playing on the normal difficulty and I think I'm about 16 or so levels in.

[Lord Satori]

it makes it ridiculously annoying to tap dodge.

Um... you aren't supposed to tap dodge. There's no such thing as grazing in this game. It either hits or misses. You get no rewards for just barely dodging a bullet. The only way to score is to kill shit, or collect shit.

By the way, I'm not sure if you guys know this, but its not as if the game just came out. It's been out for at least 8 years. This game is also an expansion/remake/whatever of the original Jets'n'Guns which has been around for even longer than that.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Um... you aren't supposed to tap dodge. There's no such thing as grazing in this game. It either hits or misses. You get no rewards for just barely dodging a bullet.

Who said anything about grazing? Fine tune control over movements applies to tap dodging as well, and acceleration/inertia both get in the way of that. Hell, acceleration on movement from a standstill also makes wide movements annoying!

For what its worth, this is the best euroshmup I ever played.

Says it all really. Even the best euroshmup I guess still has that "ugh, euroshmup" feel.

[Captain]

Its Ok. Has a horrible start and becomes extremely good later.

This sums up every single thing you have posted.

And heres a tip, buy the radiator at the second level and upgrade and multiply that, its as good as it gets for a long time, also notable is how broken the acid gun is on the crocker, provided you're good at close range.