Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[trap15]

It's cream your pants good

[Hagane]

Sengoku Ace

I've been trying to decide what I want to be my next 1cc and I can feel it with this one, I want to take it out. This game trolls like crazy though; so ridiculous that the powerups and bombs move faster vertically than you do. There doesn't seem to be much info on the forum regarding it though. Anyone know what the maximum bomb stock is? Also why are the bosses different sometimes? Like on stage 4, sometimes you get a purple boss, sometimes you get a yellow (seemingly harder) one. What are the conditions for that? Also it doesn't seem like it is going to be that brutal to 1cc it, it sure as hell is no SDOJ, but if any Psikyo vets out there have any tips for smooth 1cc acquisition, I'd love to hear them.

Max bomb stock is 6 IIRC. Who are you using? I think Jane is the easiest for a 1CC as she can speedkill most bosses before they can shoot by doing "riding" point blanks, since in this game only popcorns kill you if you collide with them.

As for the bosses, I think they are random. Maybe there's some trick like in Strikers where you trigger bosses based on your screen positioning, but I don't know if this is the case. Saucy posted some nice replays in the hi-score thread

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=38059

(also try out Blade, it's good, easy to 1CC and you have a guide for it on my sig!)

[ACSeraph]

Sweet, thanks for the tips. I'm using the blonde guy with the eyepatch, mostly because I was doing pretty well with him due to his high damage output. I may try 1cc-ing it with multiple characters though.

Last night was my first night with it. I can beat it credit feeding, so I do have somewhat of a plan for the latter half of the game (continuing makes you redo the entire level so it's good practice) but I tend to bomb my way through level 6 and the final boss fight. Currently I can get to stage 5 on a credit, and I've learned how to clear everything through stage 5 without using bombs, which should leave me with enough to coast through 6 and 7 barring derp mistakes. At this point I think its a matter of consistency, I mostly wanted to know what the max bomb stock was so I can allocate them to particularly tough spots in the first 5 stages.

One last question regarding it though. My first Psikyo game was Strikers 1945 II, and in that one the ridiculous rank system basically makes the game unbeatable if you collect powerups. So, going into Ace I have been only collecting 2 powerups, and avoiding the rest to keep the rank down. Purely from a survival point of view should I keep doing this, or is the rank system different from Strikers?

Also I'm playing on the PS2 collection, so I have Blade there. I've only played one credit of it so far, but it seems pretty cool. I may go straight into that after Ace since you've got an awesome guide for it. Thanks!

[Hagane]

The only Psikyo game where powering down can be beneficial (for survival and scoring) is Sengoku Blade, AFAIK. Here you need all the firepower you can get. If anything, in Ace you might end up severely underpowered if you happen to die at the wrong place (like the stage 5 boss), since they hadn't implemented regular power-up carriers by that game yet. Just get all the power-ups you can and speedkill the most dangerous enemies. Also, rank in Psikyo games doesn't keep rising if you get surplus power-ups (meaning that if you are at max power level, rank will not go up if you pick another item for the extra 2000).

If you get the 1CC you might get pretty far in the second loop too because it doesn't have suicide bullets. Easiest Psikyo second loop for that reason.

[Rozyrg]

Otomedius Excellent

I love the art (and not just for being so wonderfully gratuitous), the overall graphic style, and the music; but it's so goddamn frustrating.

Did they even try to balance any of the bosses past the first knowing you'd likely be stuck with that awful pea shooter? The forced unlimited continues just makes it feel even *more* like an utterly futile war of attrition, too. This is the first time in years I've genuinely felt like kicking my TV screen in over a shmup, and of course it has to be one with such a colorful, upbeat exterior. :/

[ACSeraph]

Otomedius Excellent

I just bought this one a month ago, and didn't really like it or play it much at first. It grew on me a lot though and I got the 1cc about 2 weeks ago.

A couple of tips to alleviate your frustration: Just like Gradius if you die at a bad time in this you can get totally fucked over. For this reason you should try to have a shield at all times. When I power up I prioritize like this: 1 or two speeds so that you can move around to get powerups and dodge things. Then a secondary weapon like Valcan or Ripple because either of those can quickly wipe the screen of popcorn even without options. Then I immediately prioritize shield. It takes a lot of powerups but its worth it to be safe. Then Ill get two options, then missiles, then the final options. After basically getting maxed out, I'll collect enough powerups to get a new shield immediately when my current one runs out and I avoid picking up any more until I have to recharge the shield. If my shield is in the red zone and there are a lot of powerups on screen I'll usually suicide to break the shield, recharge it, and pick up the powerups. I never use the level 2 and 3 weapons since they run out so quickly. If you manage your shield level carefully the game is pretty easy since you will probably never totally die and have to repower your ship.

This game seems like it would be fun in multiplayer online. If you want to team up add me on Live and we can play any time. Add both the JP and US account though because I switch around a lot.

[blackoak]

A lot of Brave Blade. 35m is my highest score, and I feel a clear is coming soon since I've recently figured out how to no-miss the st4 and st5 bosses. Its rough around the edges but still a fun game... this non-Yagawa team could have matured given time. I've been using the lance guy for his reach. The narrowness of his melee attack has the advantage of letting you laterally pick up falling medals while still attacking.

[trap15]

Brave Blade is by the Mahou and Soukyuugurentai team. They had plenty of time to mature

[blackoak]

Oh cool, I thought it was a new, younger team for some reason. I wish they were still making shmups, then... hehe

[Rozyrg]

@ ACSeraph

Thanks for the advice. I rarely play anything online; but I might just take you up on that.

I cooled down quite a bit after playing it on Easy for awhile, having the freebie shield certainly helps toward getting a decent amount of practice in. Without the rage blinders on, the good stuff is more apparent - I'm definitely loving the variety of weapons and stages for one. With all the possible equipment combinations there are, it kinda reminds me of R-Type Final in a way.

[ACSeraph]

Yeah the weapon variety was really what hooked me on it. I like how it lets you customize every weapon you have to create something perfectly suited to your play style. It does have balance issues though, which I learned the hard way. I was actually just experimenting when I ended up 1cc-ing the game, so at the time I had both Ripple and Valcan as my main weapons. Problem is that those weapons have really crap damage output and it is extremely difficult (impossible?) to kill some of the later Shoot the Core! bosses with them before they time out. It's definitely better to go with something like Ripple and a standard Laser. Also a few of the weapons just seem totally useless no matter what the situation.

[Obscura]

Brave Blade is by the Mahou and Soukyuugurentai team. They had plenty of time to mature

I haven't played Brave Blade, but I too wish they were still around- Mahou is amazing.

Anyways, right now, it's Alltynex 2nd and Border Down. More Alltynex than Border Down. Loving the aggressive feel of the game.

[dunpeal2064]

Futari BL Original and God modes, with a few random Maniac runs here and there to break the tension.

The 2nd half of stage 3 in God mode was just a nightmare. My best run so far is 890m at stage 4.

[louisg]

This week I've been all about Apidya and Mega Typhoon. Oh yes, I *will* 1cc Mega Typhoon. It's gonna happen.

[ACSeraph]

Just tried out Sonic Wings 3 for the first time on my NGCD. It's pretty hard (also weird, whats up with those monkeys?), so I got on to see if there was any good strategy info on here and ran into an old post by a perma-banned user who had 1000 posts to his name. Curious as to how someone with 1000 posts gets himself perma-banned I fell into the shmups forum equivalent of Wikipedia freefall, and learned about a legendary douchebag of this forum.

Back to the topic at hand though. Sonic Wings looks like it's pretty much a Psikyo game, anyone know how to control the rank in it? Any not so obvious strategies that might help me take it out without kicking my CDZ across the room?

[Wonderbanana]

DonPachi.

And I still can't down boss 3 without bombing. FS.

[EmperorIng]

I think the non-Yagawa team is the best Raizing team.

I'm working on a 1CC of RayForce again, at least the Saturn port (no TATE for me yet, though...). I beat my old score just recently, getting up to stage 6. Once I get the 1CC the score should be pretty darn good!

[Kiken]

Yeah the weapon variety was really what hooked me on it. I like how it lets you customize every weapon you have to create something perfectly suited to your play style. It does have balance issues though, which I learned the hard way. I was actually just experimenting when I ended up 1cc-ing the game, so at the time I had both Ripple and Valcan as my main weapons. Problem is that those weapons have really crap damage output and it is extremely difficult (impossible?) to kill some of the later Shoot the Core! bosses with them before they time out. It's definitely better to go with something like Ripple and a standard Laser. Also a few of the weapons just seem totally useless no matter what the situation.

Ripple is good for clearing out zako during a stage since it covers a large area. Gravity Bullet is great for wiping out bosses (and really, G-Bullet levels 2 and 3 are worth taking advantage of since the radius of the black holes increase quite a bit). Also, don't forget to utilize the Platonic Break... charge it up during the quiet time intro for a boss and then let it loose as soon as the boss becomes active.

As for me, I've actually been playing XIIStag (well, XIIZeal to be specific) quite heavily. I can't believe I'm actually taking this game seriously at the moment... but I really want to nail an SCC.

[ACSeraph]

Yeah the weapon variety was really what hooked me on it. I like how it lets you customize every weapon you have to create something perfectly suited to your play style. It does have balance issues though, which I learned the hard way. I was actually just experimenting when I ended up 1cc-ing the game, so at the time I had both Ripple and Valcan as my main weapons. Problem is that those weapons have really crap damage output and it is extremely difficult (impossible?) to kill some of the later Shoot the Core! bosses with them before they time out. It's definitely better to go with something like Ripple and a standard Laser. Also a few of the weapons just seem totally useless no matter what the situation.

Ripple is good for clearing out zako during a stage since it covers a large area. Gravity Bullet is great for wiping out bosses (and really, G-Bullet levels 2 and 3 are worth taking advantage of since the radius of the black holes increase quite a bit). Also, don't forget to utilize the Platonic Break... charge it up during the quiet time intro for a boss and then let it loose as soon as the boss becomes active.

As for me, I've actually been playing XIIStag (well, XIIZeal to be specific) quite heavily. I can't believe I'm actually taking this game seriously at the moment... but I really want to nail an SCC.

I actually didn't know that the Platonic Break even existed until you said that. That makes the game way easier doesn't it?

[oboewan42]

Raiden.
Motherfucking.
DX.

Such a goddamned amazing game. Seriously, THIS is a shmup.

And I haven't even touched the main stages - still chipping away at Alpha course on a lower difficulty setting, working my way up.

Kinda want to get Raiden IV, but on the other hand, I kinda don't, since I know that there's a very slim chance it'll hold a candle to DX.

[O. Van Bruce]

SDOJ 1.5... trying to figure out a way to do 3 +5 lvl hypers on stage 2 and still get a level 10 hyper after the boss fight.

[MadScientist]

Kaikan (freeware game mentioned upthread) - still only made it to the final stage once on one credit, but got my score up to 173mill. Most of that came from stage 2 (~100mill). With better runs on stage 3 and 4 I should be able to crack 200 mill, which I'm hoping gives you another extend (there's one at 100mill and another hidden one in stage 3).

[MadSteelDarkness]

DDP SDOJ ver. 1.5 keeps stomping all over my face and i keep coming back for more. It's been years since i was this addicted to a game that i was this bad at.

Also still playing Sturmwind, but more as a palate-cleanser between SDOJ sessions now.

[lilmanjs]

Last shmup I've played is DUX 1.5. That game is very darn easy compared to DUX. And save for the stage 4 tune, I'm quite liking the soundtrack. The title screen music is quit enice. But yea, compared to DUX in which I couldn't get past stage 3, this is a lot easier.

[Emuser]

DDP of course, only shmup I plan on playing until I clear it July 20th :p

[ghostvirus2]

death smiles...and ketsui ...maybe
I'm noviciate.I can but all ketsui round 1.

[ACSeraph]

Just wasted my evening playing Otomedius when I could have been playing SDOJ. WTF is wrong with me? Also the balance problems in Excellent are starting to grate on my nerves. I hate how everything has so much health that only a few very specific weapons can kill things, and the cores are a major fucking pain in the ass to kill. The gap you have to shoot through is absolutely tiny, you have to be totally perfectly lined up with it to damage it and that's on top of the already high health everything has. If you play a character like Aoba with a shitty Platonic Break pretty much all of them are going to time out no matter what you do. Also you only get to play the last stage in expert mode? What the hell, that should just be normal then! /end rant

[Mortificator]

I've been learning that man-love is the greatest love with the original Cho Aniki! The game was giving me a tougher time than I expected on normal difficulty. After dying to the final boss, I decided to look up something that'd been puzzling me... I'd heard about how your burly wingmen fire from the holes in their heads, but couldn't figure out how to do it. All they were good for when I was playing was their kamikaze attack and blocking the occasional shot.

As it turns out, there was no trick. Adon & Samson are supposed to shoot from the start, it's just that the normally reliable Mednafen emulator I'd been using seems to have a compatibility problem with this title. I switched to Ootake, which doesn't have this issue, though it's actually a little disappointing. Some bosses go down so fast to a double or triple MEN'S BEAM that they don't get to do all their attacks, and hard mode doesn't seem to significantly increase their durability. Maybe I'll play through again with the Anikis set to always kamikaze. Or without bombs; something more interesting could have been done with the second button, like some Gley option formations.

Still, I like Cho Aniki more than all but a couple of PCE shooters. It's a definite improvement over Gynoug, where stages were longer, yet had less going on.

[Kollision]

It's a definite improvement over Gynoug, where stages were longer, yet had less going on.

I don't know about that, man.
Elaborate please.

IMO Gynoug is easily one of the best 16-bit horis. I found Cho Aniki too easy...

[Chaos Phoenixma]

I'm screwing around Pink Sweets. Nothing serious, just messing around with Extended loop 2 Version 1.00 stages in training mode. So far, I've managed to get a No Miss of Max Rank 2-1 and no missed 2-3 up to the boss. The other stages, I haven't figured out much for yet.

I mainly wanted to see whether it truly is impossible without infinite lives in 1.00(not going to test Harder) like EOJ had said.

But I have no plans to actually try to 1cc or 2-all, though I guess if I found working routes for the stages in loop 2, I probably could 1-all at least.