Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[crackfox]

Been playing some Border Down...
That second boss is really pissing me off....
Managed to beat him a couple of times but some of his bullet patterns are pure evil...

[R-Gray 1]

Border Down is beautiful...excellent...exciting!!! ...Old school essence

[ShmupSamurai]

Guwange, used to think that ESPRa.de was my favorite Cave shmup until I played this sucker!

[Siren2011]

Indeed, ShmupSamurai. Guwange is one of my favorite games of all time. That samurai who turns into a gorilla demon thing is pure awesome. I recall a particular session when I was fighting him, with full health and all bombs, and I got a godly shot of adrenaline that made me extremely giddy with pleasure. I've never felt anything like it, really (It was BETTER than orgasm-- even an overwhelming orgasm). The superb audio in that fight added to the excitement, I think (that sound when a phase ends and he gets knocked back). It made me wonder how many others have gotten the same result when playing a difficult STG... It is fascinating how games are capable of giving such pleasure to the players, and I am interested in the science behind what occurs in the body during one of these extra-tense moments. Unfortunately, not only do I lack the proper theoretical skills to analyze this phenomenon, but no one to my knowledge has written anything on the subject. But anyways, that and hell (final stage) were my favorite parts. Being possessed by a shikigami is an awesome concept, and it fit perfectly with the game's mechanics. I wonder what the game would have been like if only one of them could slow down bullets, and the other two characters' shikigami had completely different properties. Maybe something for CAVE to munch on when making Guwange 2?

Right now I'm FINALLY enjoying Ibara. After playing Battle Garegga long enough, I am now comfortable with getting to the third stage in Ibara. Rank-heavy games are the best! I highly recommend to anyone who hates Ibara to give Garegga a shot first, play for a year or so, then start up a game of Ibara again. You should then click immediately with the game.

I also increased emulation speed for Ketsui, so the game is a bit harder now. I really like it now.

EDIT: Does anyone know if CAVE personnel actually read this forum? It wouldn't surprise me at all.

[RNGmaster]

EDIT: Does anyone know if CAVE personnel actually read this forum? It wouldn't surprise me at all.

What evidence do you have that they do read the forum?

I've been playing more ESP Ra.De, and managed to get to Garra despite arriving at Stage 5 with 3 lives, but the 1cc still semms off a ways. Also enjoying Star Prince in Retro Game challenge on the DS.

[Siren2011]

Umm...none. I was just curious.

[RNGmaster]

Umm...none. I was just curious.

I wasn't trying to be harsh there. Good question though - I wonder if CAVE's level of activity on Twitter extends to their other fan communities. But they don't post actively (or at least, nobody has ever claimed to be a CAVE employee here) on here or CAVE-STG, so we may never be sure.

[sriq]

Just got a 1cc in Mushihime-sama 1.5 on Arrange mode Original. I know, I know, that's small time, but! It's my first 1cc not playing on Novice mode. I've also been practicing on Guwange, trying to get my score to 25 million for the achievement. I'm pretty new to shmups in general, but I think I'm improving at least!

[crackfox]

Bought Einhander from ebay....
Finally got round to playing it....
It's pretty awesome...
Enjoying it very much...

[mesh control]

Giga Wing 2

Haven't touched it since my score admission back in October(?). I don't know what happened, but I have no desire to pursue a 1cc with the game as i once did. It feels a lot slower than I remember, boring too.

Right now I'd rank it fourth on my list of favorite Takumi games.

MM>GWG>GW>GW2, don't care about Nite Raid.

[RNGmaster]

ESPGaluda PS2 arrange is brutal.

[dunpeal2064]

Trying out Syd Mead's Terraforming for the first time on the Duo. Not sure how I feel about this game so far. If price was not concerned, I would rate it fairly decent. However, for the price it usually goes for, I don't know if I'd consider the game worth it. Might just end up trading it.

Who knows, maybe I'm just in the wrong groove for the game or something, it just feels very... Darius. Which I am not huge on.

[Observer]

Been playing either Crimzon Clover or Espgaluda (via Mame) and I think I should go back and play some Diadra Empty too, it's the horizontal equivalent of Crimzon Clover in terms of wtfbbq numbers everywhere and projectiles. Bam, bam! Hammering the lock-on button and unleashing glorious laser-guided ordnances.

I smell another broken USB pad!

[Thunderprince]

On a huge Toaplan binge at the moment, currently enjoying Batsugun, Grindstormer and Tatsujin 2. Batsugun is definitely my favorite though, it just feels so shiny and new but still old school. Tons of bullets but none of the convoluted chaining or bullet cancels or gems or gold or options or rank to worry about, just blissful shooting and dodging and feeling like a GOD while you do it.

[HIGHSPEEDDIRT]

Playing some Atomic Robokid on the genesis, and am still trying to make the number go up on Deathsmiles still. That's about it for me lately.

[chempop]

Futari Black Label God Mode - call me crazy but is this easier than 1.5 Maniac? I think so mainly because of the ridiculous slowdown, stronger firepower, and bombs that seem to damage bosses more. Maybe I'm nuts?

[Deca]

Futari Black Label God Mode - call me crazy but is this easier than 1.5 Maniac? I think so mainly because of the ridiculous slowdown, stronger firepower, and bombs that seem to damage bosses more. Maybe I'm nuts?

Once you get through the first stage I feel like it eases up significantly, honestly on a good day I enjoy God Mode quite a bit.

[Matskat]

EEEEBOMBAH!

er...Ibara....PS2 port...waiting on delievery of the PCB.
Shit, I cannot wait.

When I'm not bombing, I've been playing Dimahoo and Pink Sweets- total Yagawa kick lately.

[LSU]

Mushi Futari is getting most of my gaming time.
(Finally got a 360 to sit beside all the older consoles.)

[RNGmaster]

Did a save state to practice for future reference. The pink ball phase on Garra is just brutal, and the HANDS, dear god the hands... I was chipping away at that lifebar for a minute, died, looked up, and saw that it was only half-gone. What the hell, CAVE?

[ChairTax]

Gave up trying to score well in Mars Matrix about a month ago. Picked it up again today after playing nothing but Pink Sweets for the last week and managed to snag a new high (which is still embarrassingly low).

I've got a Japanese 360 on the way (finally), some I'm mostly getting pumped for DFK BL.

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Playing both SNES R-Types. Super has a lot of slowdown and no checkpoints. Third Lightning has really annoying bosses and the 1st stage is incredibly boring and goes on forever. I think Super is the better of the two.

[ShmupSamurai]

JUST got my hands on a Hyperduel rom about a week ago, and having a blast(when the rank system's not kicking me in the balls, that is). Makes me wish there were more Gates of Thunder/TF 3/4 clones out there.

Technosoft seems to have crafted the formula of the 'perfect shmup', as other companies quickly picked up on TF3 and thus Gates of/Lords of Thunder, Android Assault: the revenge of Bari-Arm(longest and coolest shmup name EVER) and even a series of DOS shmups(anyone remember RangerFox, DragonForce, and Assault Dragon: The 5th Day?) came into existance.

[Matskat]

THIS :

[R-Gray 1]

Just last weekend :


Touhou Mystic Square my first experience with a Touhou game nice game....beaten.

Mars Matrix great experience!!!! better than the first time when i played mushi, espgaluda or dodopanchi

[Matskat]

Just last weekend :


Touhou Mystic Square my first experience with a Touhou game nice game....beaten.

Mars Matrix great experience!!!! better than the first time when i played mushi, espgaluda or dodopanchi

Mars Matrix...everything else is tee ball.

[RNGmaster]

Just last weekend :


Touhou Mystic Square my first experience with a Touhou game nice game....beaten.

Mars Matrix great experience!!!! better than the first time when i played mushi, espgaluda or dodopanchi

You already posted this a page earlier.

[R-Gray 1]

Just last weekend :


Touhou Mystic Square my first experience with a Touhou game nice game....beaten.

Mars Matrix great experience!!!! better than the first time when i played mushi, espgaluda or dodopanchi

You already posted this a page earlier.

this is a good reason to don't visit this page while im busy on Pc without games

by the way....in the future i would like to play psyvariar or other Touhou

[BPzeBanshee]

Did a save state to practice for future reference. The pink ball phase on Garra is just brutal, and the HANDS, dear god the hands... I was chipping away at that lifebar for a minute, died, looked up, and saw that it was only half-gone. What the hell, CAVE?

I've seen videos of how to deal with those parts of Garra in action on YouTube, I highly recommend you take a look at it.

I'm amazed you could even GET that far to be honest, my personal consistent best is getting to the Stage 4 boss and sometimes not even that.

Speaking of which, I'm gonna play ESPRade right now.

[RNGmaster]

Did a save state to practice for future reference. The pink ball phase on Garra is just brutal, and the HANDS, dear god the hands... I was chipping away at that lifebar for a minute, died, looked up, and saw that it was only half-gone. What the hell, CAVE?

I've seen videos of how to deal with those parts of Garra in action on YouTube, I highly recommend you take a look at it.

I'm amazed you could even GET that far to be honest, my personal consistent best is getting to the Stage 4 boss and sometimes not even that.

Speaking of which, I'm gonna play ESPRade right now.

I've 1cc'd up to the hands before, but this is save-states we're talking about here. I spent yesterday compiling savestates for every troublesome pattern in the game, and being able to retry made my performance better, to say the least. I won't try to pass save states off as a legit run, but they're really helpful for practice.