Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[trap15]

A large part of the difficulty comes from it really being a two player game and the enemy patterns being designed with that in mind. But, like most things in life, it's best when done alone.

But it wasn't designed for 2p. In fact, I believe the original version didn't even support 2p.

[hermit crab]

A large part of the difficulty comes from it really being a two player game and the enemy patterns being designed with that in mind. But, like most things in life, it's best when done alone.

But it wasn't designed for 2p. In fact, I believe the original version didn't even support 2p.

Are you sure about that? The levels are so clearly divided into "two sides" IMO. There are even two helipads for bomb refills between levels. Not to mention that the game is called Twin Hawk and probably for a reason. I find it really hard to believe that the game wasn't designed for two players, even if a single player version was released first.

[trap15]

Ah, good point about the helipads. I guess this was before they made individual 1p and 2p versions. Anyways, yes, I'm pretty sure it wasn't designed for 2p. The division you're seeing is just typical Toaplan design at the time (see Hishouzame for another example), and I'm pretty sure the title doesn't mean much. Daisenpuu is Twin Hawk, and that definitely is 1p only, at least for the JP set.

[hermit crab]

Hmm yeah the "Toaplan-style division" is certainly present in Fire Shark as well, but then again it also supports two players. As does the "world" version of Twin Hawk...

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Uh, wow I was at that mall just the day before yesterday.
Didn't feel like playing Raiden though, but when I'm out there again I'll have to look for you so we can get farther with teamwork!

Haha, I'm down, but I think I'll get some practice in so I don't completely embarrass myself. I credit-fed the hell out of it when I played it.
You at CHQ's often? (I think that's what the place was called). I'll definitely be around there more often once I land myself a job, and get some more expendable income.

You won't have to worry about looking bad in front of me, I've still yet to pass stage 3 on one credit. I'm sure sooner or later you'll be pushing me to do better since I'm really lacking in motivation right now. I'm not at CHQ as often as I'd like to be since I have to take a bus and a skytrain to get there, but I can always make exceptions. Just name your time and date since anyone Else's schedule is better than mine.

Hmm yeah the "Toaplan-style division" is certainly present in Fire Shark as well, but then again it also supports two players. As does the "world" version of Twin Hawk...

Actually, that "Toaplan style division" you're talking about is nothing more than them giving you some extra space so you don't feel like you're flying down a tube. And so that they can hide sniper tanks right beside you. Truxton also has that and is 1 player only for all versions IIRC.

[EmperorIng]

Got 4mill to stage 3 of G-Darius (PSX). I didn't do any laser fights in the game (bosses died too quickly!), but I had a really good first two stages until I foolishly made some bad decisions, lost my shield and life right before Dual Horn, and things went to hell quickly thereafter.

I've also been practicing a bit of RayCrisis, original mode, normal difficulty, but no worthwhile scores yet.

I guess I needed a bit of Taito love to offset the sheer pain Gradius III and Gradius IV have been giving me.

Too bad all this shmupping on a dualshock is giving my thumb a blister. I wish there was a better controller for this type of stuff.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Bombing there, however, may destroy a couple of the lanterns and I dooon't think they count as multiplied if bombed.

If you bomb the lanterns they only seem to give a fraction of the points and don't appear to count towards the 'lanterns killed multiplier' that makes destroying all of them so lucrative. Basically, throwing a bomb there is bad. I do know how to 1CC 1.5 Original, it's just I'm seriously out of practice from playing BL Orig/Maniac that I've forgotten the timing for attacks, enemies taking longer to die and such. My only 1.5 Orig clears so far have had silly deaths in Stage 4 or so and thus not gotten very good scores, so I've been trying to get a no-miss run going, at least up to the middle of Stage 5, because cranking the counter up and keeping it there for Stages 4 and 5 is crucial to scoring.

[Rozyrg]

R-Type Final

Having finally got another PS2 and our Gamestop selling off the bulk of their games for the system super cheap, I bought it again. I enjoyed the game well enough before; but never actually beat it and stopped playing around the time I only had ~30 ships unlocked. Picking it up again, it's become nearly an obsession. I swear I'm hearing that awesome stage F-A music in my dreams now.

It might because I had put a lot more time (and patience) into the first two games than I had ever before thanks to Dimensions; but for whatever reason, Final just clicked with me so much more this time around.

Now if I just hadn't sold Gradius V...

[Drum]

Formation Z. I love the backgrounds in this. Also, I didn't know you could hold down the button for a super shot - pretty cool.

[BIL]

Picked up some MD shooters I'd been after for a while, finally got good condition + complete copies.

Gley Lancer Digging what feels like an Image Fight influence in the powerups, option controls and certain enemies, along with its sense of an archetypal memoriser given a degree of console flexibility via generous firepower and speed control. Excellent pacing provided you play on Hard from the get-go, and a respectable challenge too. "Huge battleship" level is more Thunder Force III tedious than R-Type II menacing, a shame, but the stage's boss rocks with his cluster grenade attack - like Gradius Gaiden's Neo Bigcore ("Formidable Guardians" boss) half a decade earlier. Doesn't hurt that this game looks and sounds splendid and more importantly controls like a dream.

Gynoug Some of the more intense bullet patterns I've come across in a 16-bit original; almost brings to mind Sengoku Ace. Bump the difficulty up one so mini+main bosses can stick around long enough to chuck a few of these out. Interesting use of the Gradius powerup piggybank, with it paying to collect weapons multiple times consecutively (forsaking other types) before activating them for bigger guns. Loud and proud shoutout to "Maximum Speed" stages as well. Unfortunately there's a tendency to pad out levels with repeating waves which NCS had clearly learned to avoid by Gley Lancer, but it's not a game killer. Used to hate the stubby, tiny sprites (where's my Michael Bolton / Fabio angel barbarian stud?!) but they facilitate those furious patterns and allow tons of enemies onscreen with zero slowdown.

After an aesthetically ho-hum first four stages the roiling, pulsating "bloodstream" stage is a total stunner. Instantly one of my favourite organic levels in the genre. No news that the bosses are consistent knockouts as are most of the minibosses. Manual is friggin' rad. Sad this didn't get a Saturn sequel like Assault Suit Leynos, refinement of this gameplay and that aesthetic would've been a welcome horror shooting venture.

Koutetsu Teikoku / Steel Empire Only hori I've played whose action gives me that Gun Frontier / Battle Garegga feeling of taking on monster machines who retaliate with salvos of bullets, rockets and grenades loosed from bristling turrets and cannons, as opposed to say a torrent of wine gums disgorged from beneath a loli's skirt. I like bullets and missiles whizzing past my ship. Lifebar is probably a blaring warning siren to some, but it actually works out well; the devs commendably used the leeway to design levels and bosses that'd approach typical coinop difficulty, were this a one-hit affair. Patterns are well-designed and the game is entirely no-missable on max difficulty, no lame spam here. Strip out the neat Laputa-derived aesthetic and you'd still have a competent hori, but it's more one to get for the excellent presentation knowing the underlying game is sound.

The naval battle stage is a w e s o m e. Rayforce-worthy sense of being a tiny craft entering a vast warzone when you pass your own smashed fleet in pursuit of the secret weapon that sank it.

[EmperorIng]

Ryu Jin a bit on MAME.

Ha ha, man, this game is fantastic. Awesome techno-rock(?) soundtrack, seriously beautiful backgrounds, and it's simple and fun to play, with that awesome BIG powerup.

Reminds me why I love Taito games so much.

[KAI]

Ibara Kuro Black Label

Don't understand a shit about this game, but I'm going after the 5th position on the board.

[mesh control]

Crank rank.

Use stupid scoring gimmicks.

[Aquas]

Back on Guwange a bit. Shit is mad satisfying getting those coins.

[null1024]

Radiant Silvergun [Arcade/MAME].

Why do I even do this to myself, I'm terrible at this game, and the chaining is annoying as hell.
Using MAME 0.128 because later versions run it [and other ST-V games] like asssssssss.

[RNGmaster]

Ok, I got back to Dragon Blaze on some flimsy excuse. I still love this game but I hate recording replays and that's putting me off going for the 2-ALL.

Anyhow, I was trying to do a Rob clear to show how ez he is to use, and I made it to 1-7 with no lives no bombs. Hey, I figure, while I'm recording the replay, why not goof around. So I get the two bombs and make it to the final boss. Totally forget that Rob's bomb leaves you vulnerable if you leave its radius. Somehow cleared anyways.

I think Touhou has allowed me to violate the laws of hitbox.

[KidQuaalude]

Mad Planets (MAME)
One of my all-time favourite games, playing it with Joystick to move and trackball to rotate/fire. Plays like a dream with this setup.

Tempest 2000 (Atari Jaguar)
Bought a modded jag controller with a spinner recently so I can finally play this game the way it was intended

[Anesthetize]

I finally got around to picking up the US port of Akai Katana. Pretty fun so far, but haven't quite finished figuring out the scoring systems. Any recommendations as to which mode to work on first?

[soupbones]

I finally got around to picking up the US port of Akai Katana. Pretty fun so far, but haven't quite finished figuring out the scoring systems. Any recommendations as to which mode to work on first?

I think it's called "Slash" - which is the default mode IIRC.

It took me an hour or so to fully "get it", but once you do - it's amazing. There are tutorial videos in the game that are very helpful -

[soupbones]

This month goes down as a "re-discovery" month for me...

I decided to put my Speed Rumbler PCB back in the cab - Originally I regretted this purchase last year, and havent touched it since. But after watching a video, I realized I was playing it wrong.

I was originally playing this game like Jackal or Commando - trying to kill everyone and everything. When I realized the point is to race through the levels as fast as possible, it became a whole new game... and now I'm having a blast.

Next up was DDPR for the X360. This game simply didn't click with me - and I quickly regarded it as the only Cave game I hated. But after giving it another go and learning the scoring system, I love it.

Again, shelved this game for almost a year before realizing how awesome it is.

And that's my story.

[CStarFlare]

Trying to cruise my way through the PCE version of Tokimeki Memorial to get a shot at Force Gear. I got far enough to unlock the Twinbee minigame, but after getting a game over I can't figure out how to exit and get back to the main game. It's probably not worth it.

If anyone happens to have an Ootake save file/state for the game with Force Gear unlocked, let me know. I can only find Magic Engine saves. :/

[AweOfShe]

Finally conquered Stage 3 in Mushi Futari... But now I have to practice against the final boss. I still got a ways to go.

[jepjepjep]

Battle Garegga

I got to stage 7 and black heart mk II for the first time.

[EmperorIng]

RayCrisis: Series Termination (PS1) - 3,046,800

Getting better at the game, I think. Not too much - sometimes I make sloppy, stupid deaths all over the place, and I can't consistently get my rating to anything above B- (mostly it's in the C+ range). But at the least I'm starting to grasp the ins and outs of the system of hyper-lasers and smart-bomb usage.

I just wish the perspective wasn't skewed a la Under Defeat... : / This game has too much going on to afford that.

[Obscura]

Some people here count this as a shump apparently, so I'll go ahead and post it:

Metal Slug.

I've been working on this on a "casual" level for several months now; I used to be able to clear this in my teens, and every few years I go back to it again and pick up another clear. These days, I'm really awful; that "two layer bridge" in stage 6 is consistently costing me all of my lives

Of course, that's interspersed with a lot of Dragon Blaze.

[Mortificator]

Chaos Field. It's too bad none of its ports seem to have a boss select.

[Dylan1CC]

Alternating between Radiant Silvergun and Soukyugurentai for a good mix of epic, methodical scoring and manic shmupping.

[null1024]

Alternating between Radiant Silvergun and Soukyugurentai for a good mix of epic, methodical scoring and manic shmupping.

Nice blend. RSG makes me want to pull out my hair though, and it makes me wish the game was just a complete boss rush [seriously, they are so much fun, it'd be like Alien Soldier in shmup form]. I gave up on Souky a bit ago, I should go back to it.


Playing Progear [Arcade/MAME]. Just had the dumbest run ever. It just feels bad when you somehow manage to lose all your lives before the first boss for no good reason.

[ciox]

Chaos Field. It's too bad none of its ports seem to have a boss select.

Agreed on the select thing. Underrated game.

[BeefJerky]

PS1:
DoDonPachi
R-Types

Yummmmmmmm.