Sharing Your Hobby

[CKR]

I would like to share my hobby with my daughter and my wife. My wife shows interest because it is something I'm interested in, but in reality she likes the Farmville type games. My daughter is a toddler that's starting to show interest while she sees me play. She watched me play Mushihimesama Futari for ten minutes. In little kid time that is like five days, so I'm hoping she will develop an interest. This is a call to all you husbands/fathers and/or wives/mothers to share any experience you've had with sharing your hobby with the people most important to you. Also, I've heard Jamestown is a fun two player shmup, but haven't tried it yet. Any other two player recommendations would be welcome.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Also, I've heard Jamestown is a fun two player shmup, but haven't tried it yet. Any other two player recommendations would be welcome.

Jamestown is actually up to 4 players, locally. So is Giga Wing 2 (it has a 4P special mode), so if you've got a Dreamcast you could pick up that.

Futari is a very accessible shmup for beginners, especially the Novice mode. Original is extremely easy, and there's an Autobomb, while Maniac and Ultra have enough bullets to be more interesting modes to learn to score in as you get better, while still being much more forgiving than the arcade. Shmups aren't really an easy game to get into. There's some good Xbox Indie titles that are fun for multiplayer. Decimation X3 has very simple mechanics and it's fun, Hypership Out of Control, Score Rush...

The NES has some good shmups for cooperative. Life Force, Jackal and Crisis Force I've had a lot of fun with.

[ACSeraph]

Ikaruga is hilarious with two people. You can find out how strong your marriage really is.

[Damocles]

Ikaruga is hilarious with two people. You can find out how strong your marriage really is.

Ketsui is the same way. The one thing I remember saying:

"BITCH, I SAID BOMB GODDAMNIT!"

No lie. Still with her, too.

[RegalSin]

If you want to get somebody into anything they need peers, were everybody is getting along, having good, clean fun. It could be anything. I am just going to say using joysticks, might be easier then using a game controller, eitherway I had an actual cab inside my home, to play before I was three.

............................................................................................................................................

[CKR]

Ketsui is the same way. The one thing I remember saying:

"BITCH, I SAID BOMB GODDAMNIT!"

No lie. Still with her, too.

Did she quit playing, or keep trying. My wife would quit at that point.

[Damocles]

We have an abusive relationship, so she just hit me. It all works out in the end.

On a serious note, a cab goes a long way toward interesting the younger crowd. My nephew was playing on mine long before he knew that it was made long before he was born.

[ACSeraph]

Jackal

Fuck yea! Add another vote for Jackal!

Ketsui is the same way. The one thing I remember saying:

"BITCH, I SAID BOMB GODDAMNIT!"

No lie. Still with her, too.

lmao

I'll have to give Ketsui a spin in 2P mode sometime.

Ikaruga is practically a versus shmup because of the way the suicide bullets work. Playing it to see who can survive the longest while actively trying to fuck each other over is an amazingly fun way to play the game.

[chempop]

Not entirely sure I'd wish this hobby upon any loved ones

[rancor]

My 3 year old is just getting into games. He likes Ketsui the most of the shooters, but he always asks to play Sengoku 3 on MVS... Still hope to steer him in the right direction, I suppose.

[Hibachi]

That is a good start Rancor.

My nephew is 8 and likes the Cave iPhone ports so as he got a 360 for christmas, I've bought him dodonpachi resurrection for his upcoming birthday. He did flinch at Ketsui though when he had a go and is more into the credit feed and blowing stuff up but I'm hoping it may turn into something more.

Although the Xbox dpad may not encourage him to play for score.

[O. Van Bruce]

My mother would cut my balls if I ever tried to show ANY videogame to my sisters. She thinks they are evil incarnate so I grew up wrestling the time and place to play. It's even sadder when you know your mother used to be hardcore enough to beat Contra 3 on the hardest difficulty without dying

[Blinge]

Ikaruga is practically a versus shmup because of the way the suicide bullets work. Playing it to see who can survive the longest while actively trying to fuck each other over is an amazingly fun way to play the game.

Haha omg, why haven't I thought of this. Will definitely give it a try.

I've tried a couple of times to initiate people. One friend wasn't having any of it, he coudn't stand DoDonPachi, but eventually picked up Jamestown on a steam buying spree and kept playing and getting good at it because unlocks and achievements appeal to him. Some positive feedback from the game itself rather than having to join a forum & post scores/video your gameplay or something for a bit of recognition. Another mate took one look at the Mecha/futuristic style of DDP, heard the wailing guitars and loved it immediately.

But it's easy to get existing nerds into shmups. I put Under Defeat (probably not the best choice) on while a couple of girl-friends were round once, handed one of them a controller. She instantly yelled "I hate this kind of game!". Halfway through stage two she was saying "no, i like this.. why do I like this game? It's annoying me that i like this." Spammed bomb a lot though, like all of them at once. And if she sees me playing anything she says "why aren't you bombing? you have to use them all, that's how you play." If she ever has a go at a new shmup she'll straight away ask which button is bomb...

Haha, at the risk of starting a gender argument..Maybe try some cute 'em ups like the Twinbee series for your daughter? I think their difficulty curve can be forgiving enough. Something colourful and fun looking like Futari.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Haha, at the risk of starting a gender argument..Maybe try some cute 'em ups like the Twinbee series for your daughter? I think their difficulty curve can be forgiving enough. Something colourful and fun looking like Futari.

That's actually not a bad idea. There are some solid cute 'em ups out there (Harmful Park)... I'd steer clear of Parodius though unless you made sure it was set to easy! Parodius games look cute but they are brutally rough with the rank and checkpoints...

[Kollision]

My wife loves Bullet Soul for its colors and explosions, and also because she can get reasonably far into the game.
She also likes DOJ because of the first stage's music.

I tried bringing a friend from work to the genre recently, first by making him download Mushi on his cell phone. He seemed a bit interested then backed away laughing at my face when I suggested Deathsmiles. He asked me "what are you playing now" and when I showed him Cotton 2 I figured my efforts weren't going anywhere and I quit.

[emphatic]

My daughters (6 and 8 years) enjoy playing NEO-GEO games on my EGRET II. Their faves include Blue's Journey (cute platformer), Top Hunter (run & gun) and Twinkle Star Sprites (awesome VS shmup). My son's way too young now, but I hope to challenge him to play for score when he's old enough.

[z0mbie90]

Your one of the coolest dad ever!

Ive been trying to get some friends playing STGs but they just think they lame, short, old or just to hard

[CKR]

I showed my wife DeathSmiles and she thought something was wrong with me. She doesn't like the loli aesthetic, at all. Then, I thought maybe she'd be interested in Pink Sweets. By the time I got to the first boss, she was laughing at me hysterically. She has always been interested in fantasy, so I think Mushihimesama Futari might be the way to go. I have an hdmi cable that goes from pc to my living room, so Jamestown could also be fun to try three player coop when my daughter gets old enough.

[broken harbour]

I've gotten my wife into Raiden 4 a bit, since it's not ultra hard, and easy mode is... well pretty easy.
I'd try non bullet hell games to start, my wife watches me play Futari and he kinda just glazes over with everything going on.

If your into twitch games that aren't necessarily shmups there's a few good platformers out there Like Rayman Legends or New Super Mario Bros Wii that allow up to 4 player simultaneous play, and are still difficult enough to be interesting. Actually, the best group video gaming experience I ever had was with liquor, friends, and New Super Mario Bros Wii.

[D-KMR]

If I'm ever showing friends games, I show them the ones where there are no/limited continues.
I find non-shmuppers seem to appreciate the genre more that way. Shame it's mostly older ports which have this.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Yeah, a lot of newer games just expect you to use as many/little credits as you want. Some games have a Score Attack mode that sets everything to defaults and disables continues, though.

I showed my wife DeathSmiles and she thought something was wrong with me. She doesn't like the loli aesthetic, at all.

Shame, it's a good beginner game for the genre, and it's pretty decent in co-op, too.

[royalfan84]

I have 2 young boys ( 7 and 8 ) and they plays some of my shmups on and off; of course I encourage them to. It's pretty easy to get them interested at a fairly young age especially if they can play with infinite continues. The 7 year old plays them slighly more than my older boy; but he plays video games in general more often. They've played a solid amount of Raiden III and Akai Katana. And my younger plays DDP Res quite a bit and loves it(probably because of all this constant explosions and beatiful visuals). Surprisingly my 8 year old prefers playing R-Type Dimensions more than any of the others.

I've also gotten 4 or 5 friends interested in the genre. I have them over a couple times a month to strictly play shmups. They've gone from knowing next to nothing about these games about 6 months back to now starting to purchase their own copies of games like Ikaruga, Gradius, and Raiden Fighters Aces.

[nesrulz]

Like the topic title.

[royalfan84]

And I also agree that I prefer playing shmups with no\limited continues also. Whether it comes to showcasing for newcomers or playing myself..

[Aleksei]

I've played MBL Deathsmiles with my girlfriend and we got to level 4 before she had to add another credit, of course we were bombing and powering up like crazy.

[Marc]

My eldest is a nine year old girl and doesn't give a shit. My boy is four and loves is when we break out the arcade stick and I let him credit feed. He asks why I don't carry on, I'm trying to explain the 1cc thing without making my kid feel like he shouldn't be having fun.

[japtor]

We have an abusive relationship, so she just hit me. It all works out in the end.

On a serious note, a cab goes a long way toward interesting the younger crowd. My nephew was playing on mine long before he knew that it was made long before he was born.

Yeah I find just having a cab randomly around the house gets people curious if nothing else. Leave it on and let the attract mode do the rest.

[neorocker]

He asks why I don't carry on, I'm trying to explain the 1cc thing without making my kid feel like he shouldn't be having fun.

Maybe something along the lines of "once you get really good, you try to do the entire thing without losing" and an emphasis on practice? It could carry over well to other hobbies too insofar that a lot are "you kind of have to fumble your way through the first few times but then you can totally rock it!"

[Pretas]

Everyone I've played cooperative STGs with gets bored/frustrated quickly and asks to play something else, usually Smash Bros.

Unless it was Ikaruga. It seems to be the only such game that's able to immediately hold most people's attention, because of the pretty 3D graphics and the forgiving straightforwardness of the polarity system.

One time my friend's brother who exclusively plays Madden and Call of Duty was really getting into Senko no Ronde for an hour or two, though.

[O. Van Bruce]

Everyone I've played cooperative STGs with gets bored/frustrated quickly and asks to play something else, usually Smash Bros.

I suppose that when playing with others we seek recognition from the other part and stgs played cooperatively ask for a lot of time and effort to create recognition from the others.

Add to the mix that stgs can be more difficult played on cooperative than single player.