I DID IT! Share your latest 1CCs/other triumphs here...

[Shepardus]

More people should play this game and the other Parodius shooters.

Absolutely. Why do people not realise that Gokujou Parodius is the best Gradius game created? I'd probably even like Parodius Da! even more than its sequel if it had a similar medalling system, to keep me on edge when it comes to scoring.

Da's bells work in mostly the same way as Gokujou's - are you talking about the purple capsule bells and the chaining you can do with those, or is it just how there are on average more bells in greater density in Gokujou?

[Sumez]

Actually disregard that comment, I was thinking of something else. I love both of those games. I love all four Parodius games that I have played (even Sexy), and would probaby also love the MSX one if I'd played it

[mirkvid]

1CC'd Metal Slug MVS tonight! I started practicing on January 1st. Feels good, haven't gone for a 1CC in a few years.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Cleared stage 5-E on Dodonpachi Maximum! Hibachi is pretty nasty. There's a way of circling around Hibachi's first attack to avoid all the shots but I couldn't get the hang of it so I sat in front and desperately avoided the gaps. Worked about 30% of the time. Second phase usually wasn't an issue, but it was learning to not get hit during the third phase where I had the most trouble as circling around Hibachi at close range on a touchscreen is tricky. Made it to last phase with a full bomb stock and extra life and just barely squeaked by. Yay for laser type's damage and autobombing.

http://m.imgur.com/sCRFWEk
http://m.imgur.com/IFA2xr3
http://m.imgur.com/vZcyUQQ

Score is awful because I have trouble surviving if I aggresively bomb during the gunwheels section.

Edit: I got the hang of rapidly circling around Hibachi's first attack to dodge it, and shot it to pieces with the Tiger Schwert too. Woo!

[OmKol]

My new clears:
1. Touhou 12, Lunatic - one of the most time consuming clears right now.
2. Danmaku Unlimited 2, Burst, Extreme - but not just clear, a 2.5 tril points run. Maybe I'll try to score even more because I've got hit in stage 4 very stupidly.
3. Satazius, Normal. Nothing special in this difficulty - just one credit feeding run and you will have a good chance to make 1CC. I will try Insane difficulty.

[pandoraXhunter]

So this one took a lot longer than it should be, but I finally 1cc'd Raiden Fighters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UffUehBnzE

[Kyper]

Finally 1CC'd Wolflame on the hardest difficulty setting, took me way more time then I liked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od5gkYiuwEM

[Blinge]

CASH ME OUTSIDE HOWBOW DAH

[monouchi]

Respect Blinge.

[Jonst]

Wow! Nice one blinge, congrats mate!

[Blinge]

cheers guys =]

Bit of a miracle run, really. Died in stage 6, lost my search options and got them back off a random pickup shortly afterwards.
wish i'd recorded it

Thanks to Eaglet and Vludi for encouragement and advice!

[Bananamatic]

steam port arrange A ura 2-all

[Durandal]

doesn't arrange A Hibachi not spawn at all or does it just automatically skip the fight?

[Bananamatic]

doesn't arrange A Hibachi not spawn at all or does it just automatically skip the fight?

delete this

[Chaos Phoenixma]

I watched the replay, and the boss just doesn't appear.

This also means the Humanity's Triumph achievement is broken and can't be legitimately obtained. I actually went and reported the achievement as broken over on Astats just so CAVE can be shamed there as well(if CAVE even can be at this point )

[Bananamatic]

yeah I never got the achievement despite beating the loop like 5 times under different conditions
great port

[kuze]

Just 1CCed Batrider "Normal" course with normal rank and no holding start.

Woot! Time for "Advanced" course.

[InFireX]

I 1cc'd Crimzon Clover WORLD IGNITION on Arcade Original with Type-I.

Video

[Perikles]

Just cleared Kaitei Daisensou/In the Hunt and therewith the last Irem arcade shmup, although I've also cleared all of their console games/ports save the ones on the GB - almost always did the second loop, too, the only exceptions are Air Duel, Gallop and PCE Mr. Heli.

Feels great to add another developer after Toaplan to my list of clears, and several other developers are likewise on their last legs, albeit some dastardly foes remain in some of their camps. We will see how that turns out eventually. Anyway, I thought I might expound some of my thoughts on the Irem portfolio. As far as the arcade games are concerned, here's how I would rank them in descending order of personal preference (which is sometimes quite a bit different from what I perceive to be the better games):


R-Type II > Gun Hohki > Image Fight > R-Type > X-Multiply > Mr. Heli > Dragon Breed > Thunder Blaster > Youjyuden > Gallop > Fire Barrel > Air Duel > R-Type Leo > Kaitei Daisensou


I love everything from R-Type II to Dragon Breed, like or really like the next three, the rest I find acceptable. There's no outright terrible or even decidedly below average game in there, the last spots are more due to failed expectations or personal predilections than anything else. A few disjointed remarks:

- While I'm clearly more a fan of the older Irem games, Gun Hohki is the lambent exception to the rule. I don't associate Irem with interesting scoring systems (I don't mind marathon looping, checkpoint milking is not to my liking, however, neither is stalling the clock à la Dragon Breed, Kaitei Daisensou or Mr. Heli) but they demonstrated that they could do just that with Gun Hohki. The second loop becomes remarkably challenging and the archetypical staple of "living memorization" is still prevalent, of course (as opposed to "dead memorization" as it is present in Saint Dragon where you just sit in specific safespots for half a stage without any variation or personal note), yet the strict restraints of checkpoints are lifted which works very much in favour of the scoring system and moreso light-hearted atmosphere.

- The second loops of R-Type II and Image Fight are the best second loops in existence (well, there's also Xexex!), they will make one quiver in fear. Nothing says Irem just like an implacable phalanx of yellow crawlers, coming from all sides, littering the screen with bullets.

- X-Multiply is the opposite of that. It features the most accessible Irem checkpoints while taking away all your upgrades (Thunder Blaster and Youjyuden are more lenient in overall terms). I actually pulled off a checkpoint recovery in the final stage of loop 2 without any prior practice, I did not even think that possible. It just might be my candidate for the best Irem game, together with the first R-Type. A stupor mundi, it is.

- Dragon Breed is the easiest 2-ALL (not counting Fire Barrel), but has some of the worst checkpoints, too. Funny how that works. One of the hardest section in that game involves a narrow spot where you have to take special preparations in order not to lose your golden dragon which is paramount in this game. It has furthermore the best artistic direction of all of them as far as I'm concerned, which is saying something.

- Thunder Blaster was the biggest positive surprise. The first two stages are a breeze, leaving you thinking it might be a push-over like Fire Barrel. Then you proceed to find out it's actually the trickiest Irem 1-ALL by far! The final three stages remind me a lot of a metamorphosis of Image Fight's Penalty Area, if less devastating. You constantly have to fend off enemies from the sides as well as from behind without any pods that can shoot in that direction, forcing the player to find some creative strategies with the charge bomb. Lots of visual references to Image Fight, too, from the meteorite shower to the larger enemies.

- Air Duel brought to mind an inferior Gun Frontier as I was playing the latter; the carpet bombs, wide straight shot and colossal enemy aircrafts as well as the same year of release were rather striking. One of the bosses might've been the inspiration for Gunnail's highway boss and the larger planes look rather raizingesque in my view, so it was mayhap a bit of an influence for games to come, at least aesthetically. It also marks the dividing line from "old Irem" to "new Irem" for me insofar as it is the first one to eschew checkpoints. Fire Barrel plays (and looks) extremely similar but it also significantly easier which is a good thing in this context.

- Kaitei Daisensou is a decent game, it just bores me to death. I always get impatient and then lose a life as a result, which is not something that ever happens in Mr. Heli. I especially don't see why it was necessary to have boss fights that drag on forever, it's not as if you're doing anything demanding or varied. It's obviously integral part of the experience to steer an inexorable behemoth, therefore I shan't complain too much.

- Same with R-Type Leo: solid game, feels not at all like Irem, much less R-Type. The obtuse "milking" against the two spheres before the final boss is also ludicrous, probably wasn't intended.

- Despite some flaws, Gallop was an interesting experience. I might look deeper into it at some point in time, not quite certain whether the second loop was designed as hermetically tight as the equivalents in other Irem games, my first impression was rather dismal. Useful footage for this game seems to be scarce, unsurprisingly.

[Shepardus]

You clear developers faster than I clear games

Reminds me that I should put some more time into Gun Hohki - I liked what I played of it but keep getting distracted by other stuff.

[SCOOP]

Perikles - interesting info about Irem shmups from a perspestive of a person who cleared them all. Could you also do a difficulty ranking in descending order? I think 1 loop observations would be good since there are games like In The Hunt which have only one loop and the other thing is most of the players go for 1 loop only, I guess.

[Perikles]

Beat the first loop of freaking Battlantis which is one of the most triumphant clears I've had so far - definitely in the top 5 of hardest 1-ALLs I've gotten and decidedly tougher than, say, Gradius III. Not a game I will ever return to, but it is just glorious to have it on the list.

Perikles - interesting info about Irem shmups from a perspestive of a person who cleared them all. Could you also do a difficulty ranking in descending order? I think 1 loop observations would be good since there are games like In The Hunt which have only one loop and the other thing is most of the players go for 1 loop only, I guess.

I'll just mention all of them (always with autofire in mind):

Image Fight (2 loops) = R-Type II (2 loops) > Gun Hohki (2 loops) > R-Type (2 loops) > Thunder Blaster > X-Multiply (2 loops) > Gallop (1 loop) = Mr. Heli > Dragon Breed (2 loops) > R-Type (1 loop) > R-Type II (1 loop) > Air Duel (1 loop) > Image Fight (1 loop) > R-Type Leo (with checkpoints) > Kaitei Daisensou > X-Multiply (1 loop) > Dragon Breed (1 loop) > Gun Hohki (1 loop) > Fire Barrel (3 loops) > Fire Barrel (2 loops) > Youjyuden > Fire Barrel (1 loop)

The Air Duel 2-ALL would probably rank somewhere in the Thunder Blaster/R-Type 2-ALL vicinity, Gallop I can't say for certain because the 2-4 boss seems extremely difficult and I haven't even played 2-5 myself, but I'd guess it's higher than the R-Type 2-ALL or possibly even Gun Hohki 2-ALL. I doubt it's near the hardest two entries which are much harder than everything else.

A few notes:

- The Japanese versions are usually (always?) harder than the Western releases. Most of the time, it's not a significant difference, especially when going for a 1-ALL. However, the World Image Fight 2-ALL is about as hard as the R-Type 2-ALL in my opinion while the 2-ALL of the Japanese version is definitely the hardest clear together with the Japanese R-Type II 2-ALL. If you decide to go through one or even both of the Penalty Areas it's only going to get much harder.

- Dragon Breed is not easy to put in such a list. It's mostly fairly simple even in the second loop, yet requires some time for familiarisation due to the quirky golden dragon controls and the peculiarities that come with it. Checkpoint recoveries are also rather harsh.

- Most people will probably be surprised to see the 1-ALL of the original R-Type ranking higher than, say, R-Type II or Image Fight. That has mostly to do with the fact that the first R-Type is much harder on recovery even though it is not immediately apparent. If you die somewhere after stage 4 you'll face the final boss with just one bit. The only way to beat it with that equipment is with a bunch of speed-ups as far as I know, I've never seen a checkpoint recovery in the final stage itself. R-Type II and Image Fight on the other hand have rather straightforward recoveries in the first loop. I also think that most people just invested a lot more time into the first R-Type which is why they think it is comparatively easy.

- Air Duel is not difficult in the ordinary sense, yet extremely punishing. Since it is pretty easy to misjudge some situations and die ignominiously for what is probably a terminated credit, I'd place it higher than some of the other, technically more demanding games.

[pegboy]

Are you going to put together another 1cc difficulty list for all this stuff? I'm curious where you'd rank Battlantis, the Japanese wiki has a 1-ALL at 24, which seems really low.

[Perikles]

I'm curious where you'd rank Battlantis, the Japanese wiki has a 1-ALL at 24, which seems really low.

I get the impression that the Japanese wiki has a general tendency to rate fixed verticals strangely low. Cosmo Gang: The Video, a really vicious game I'd place somewhere in the late 20's, is ranked with a mere 7! Galaga '88 has a 15, and I'm almost sure this refers to a clear of the highest dimension, which is also way too low. I know I'm pretty bad at this sub-genre, but then again I have the impression that most people struggle quite a bit with those games, too.

Are you going to put together another 1cc difficulty list for all this stuff?

If there's interest for a rating, sure. I've still a handful games left I'd like to clear or at least put more effort into before I decide that my struggles are in vain (most notably some more Konami games, Raiden DX and Varth; I also think I might be able to beat Valtric...), but I could try to create a compilation of my own (not sure whether to only include arcade games on that one or also the console stuff?). I'll do it when I reach 400 1CCs (which is 17 games away) at the latest, probably earlier than that.

[SCOOP]

Thank you very much, Perikles. You delivered even more info than I expected. I think it is gonna be useful for many players ( if they find it ). I am looking forward to read more of your experiences with other companies in a future.

[pegboy]

I'm curious where you'd rank Battlantis, the Japanese wiki has a 1-ALL at 24, which seems really low.

I get the impression that the Japanese wiki has a general tendency to rate fixed verticals strangely low. Cosmo Gang: The Video, a really vicious game I'd place somewhere in the late 20's, is ranked with a mere 7! Galaga '88 has a 15, and I'm almost sure this refers to a clear of the highest dimension, which is also way too low. I know I'm pretty bad at this sub-genre, but then again I have the impression that most people struggle quite a bit with those games, too.

Are you going to put together another 1cc difficulty list for all this stuff?

If there's interest for a rating, sure. I've still a handful games left I'd like to clear or at least put more effort into before I decide that my struggles are in vain (most notably some more Konami games, Raiden DX and Varth; I also think I might be able to beat Valtric...), but I could try to create a compilation of my own (not sure whether to only include arcade games on that one or also the console stuff?). I'll do it when I reach 400 1CCs (which is 17 games away) at the latest, probably earlier than that.

Well I know that I personally have interest in your lists lol, saves me a shit load of time (that I don't have sadly) from having to clear all these games, especially the ones like Battlantis that make me want to quit the genre entirely. Someday it would be cool to see a combined list with all the console and arcade stuff, just to see how they stack up with each other. For a lot of those obscure games your playthroughs are the only (legit) ones I've ever seen. Most of them on youtube are just TAS garbage.

Maybe even take the stuff you haven't played yet from the Japanese wiki, and just make tweaks here and there based on your knowledge. I realize this all would take a ton of time but it would be incredible to see. I wish I could contribute more to the effort but most of my game time has devolved into Super Mario Kart Time Trails.

[Square_Air]

Are you going to put together another 1cc difficulty list for all this stuff?

If there's interest for a rating, sure. I've still a handful games left I'd like to clear or at least put more effort into before I decide that my struggles are in vain (most notably some more Konami games, Raiden DX and Varth; I also think I might be able to beat Valtric...), but I could try to create a compilation of my own (not sure whether to only include arcade games on that one or also the console stuff?). I'll do it when I reach 400 1CCs (which is 17 games away) at the latest, probably earlier than that.

I'm certainly interested, and I believe there are many others in the community that are as well. Your insight is very much appreciated.

[Vludi]

I also think I might be able to beat Valtric...

Oh that would be fantastic to watch , such a peculiar yet vicious game, those multisegmented bosses from Valtric and Argus are something else.

[BIL]

If there's interest for a rating, sure. I've still a handful games left I'd like to clear or at least put more effort into before I decide that my struggles are in vain (most notably some more Konami games, Raiden DX and Varth; I also think I might be able to beat Valtric...), but I could try to create a compilation of my own (not sure whether to only include arcade games on that one or also the console stuff?). I'll do it when I reach 400 1CCs (which is 17 games away) at the latest, probably earlier than that.

Well I know that I personally have interest in your lists lol

Seconded! Whatever you decide, it'll undoubtedly be worth the wait. I know I'll be rifling through your writings for years to come, as it is. ;3

[Perikles]

I've still a handful games left I'd like to clear or at least put more effort into before I decide that my struggles are in vain (most notably some more Konami games, Raiden DX and Varth; I also think I might be able to beat Valtric...), but I could try to create a compilation of my own (not sure whether to only include arcade games on that one or also the console stuff?). I'll do it when I reach 400 1CCs (which is 17 games away) at the latest, probably earlier than that.

Mission accomplished - got the Konami games, Raiden DX, Varth and an assorted number of other games out of the way (including some Dooyong games ) for a grand total of 400 1CCs. I'll probably work on Valtric in a sporadic manner so as to not despair. Didn't think I would find this many games, frankly, that was immensely satisfying. The list will come soon.