Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Kasbe]

I just fixed my PSP so now I can play Darius Burst on the go again.
Also, I have returned to my mission of 1-ALL Dodonpachi. I think I'm getting closer.

[Mortificator]

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...

It's about packing more shmup into less playtime. Cho Aniki has four bosses a stage, and they often have a couple of attack phases to go through. Gyoung's stages have two bosses, usually with one attack routine each.

Outside of bosses, Gynoug can create more interesting situations with terrain, it just repeats them too often. The stages could be cut by half and not lose anything.

I think one of the reasons boss rushes work well in Gradius titles is because they don't reuse bosses you've fought in the same game. When Gynoug's last stage parades out guys I've blown up 5/10/15 minutes ago, it's hard to keep interest.

It's not like Gynoug's a bad game, it just needs some editing and variety. Cho Aniki could certainly stand to be toughened up, but that'd be easier to correct.

[Marc]

Agreed on Gynoug. Purely from a nostalgic point of view its my favourite Megadrive shooter, but it could use some editing.

Playing Eschatos at the min. Far from impressed. And after playing Judgement Silversword I'm kind of looking at shmups forum through squinty eyes and wondering what in the fuck the fuss is about. It's cute in a quite impressive for the technology kind of way, but that's about it. Fucking boring otherwise.

[EmperorIng]

I recently picked up Taito Legends 2 for the PS2 at a used-game shop in the middle of nowhere, Michigan (which surprisingly had a really good Saturn collection too - I picked up Dark Savior for cheap), and as a result have been reveling in arcade fun.

However, something seems off in the sound effects of KiKi KaiKai in the PS2 compilation vs. MAME; in MAME the sound effects sound more natural and less grating - the PS2 port has really high-pitched squealing every time you do something. It's really odd and disheartening, because it makes me not want to play it on the TV. Anyone else notice that?

Other than that, I finally have a chance to play RayStorm. Since I'm so used to RayCrisis's Encroachment feature, it's odd for me to switch to a more pure 3D shooting experience, but all the same, I am digging how tight it is - it seems tighter to control than RayCrisis, at any rate.

On top of that, lagless G-Darius! A dream come true!

[Jonst]

Given up with cave stuff for now,so it's bullet soul and thunder force 4 at the moment.

[malchitos]

I recently picked up Taito Legends 2 for the PS2 at a used-game shop in the middle of nowhere, Michigan (which surprisingly had a really good Saturn collection too - I picked up Dark Savior for cheap), and as a result have been reveling in arcade fun.

However, something seems off in the sound effects of KiKi KaiKai in the PS2 compilation vs. MAME; in MAME the sound effects sound more natural and less grating - the PS2 port has really high-pitched squealing every time you do something. It's really odd and disheartening, because it makes me not want to play it on the TV. Anyone else notice that?

Other than that, I finally have a chance to play RayStorm. Since I'm so used to RayCrisis's Encroachment feature, it's odd for me to switch to a more pure 3D shooting experience, but all the same, I am digging how tight it is - it seems tighter to control than RayCrisis, at any rate.

On top of that, lagless G-Darius! A dream come true!

yeah I grabbed this the past week as well...sealed brand new odd enough...there are a lot of shmup classics on here....in fact I didn't know raystorm was on there till I got home and opened it.

Been playing Castle Shikigami 3 on the Wii of late...I love how the first stage boss knows she is in a video game.

[ACSeraph]

Fired up Bullet Soul for only the second time since I bought it a year ago thinking maybe I hadn't given it a fair chance. It's sad when I can't ever see myself 1cc-ing something out of sheer boredom and apathy. Why did they design the bullet canceling like that? Such a waste when the game has such nice presentation. Don't really care though, my copy of Ketsui just arrived so I'm about to go see what all the fuss is about with that one.

Edit: This game seems kinda hard guys... Also giant boat midboss that lasts like half of stage 3, where have I seen that before...

[Jonst]

Go back to bullet soul...

[ACSeraph]

Go back to bullet soul...

Explain to me what I'm missing with it and I might. Seems like there's barely anything to dodge in the game outside of boss battles. The first two stages bored me to tears.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

That was actually my trouble with Bullet Soul when I was shown it by a friend. I was too bored to pay attention and play it seriously. I was actually playing as the king dude cause he shoots swords and stuff and isn't crazy overpowered, but even then it was hard to care about getting a 1cc, I just wanted to play something else...

[Jonst]

Well,I doubt you're missing anything as such.i just found it be fairly gentle after constant cave fails...initially it probably is boring for the hardcore out there! I enjoyed trying to work out all the level bonus stuff and requirements for the second loop...which does get heavier going.the sound and and the atmosphere are pretty cool too.sure the bullet cancelling takes out most stuff before it gets near but it's still fun.it does get a bit tougher into stage 4 and 5...for me,it was just a nice break from mushi,sdoj etc...made me feel like I could still play something without failing! (I know it's easy-ish) getting the second loop is still a challenge though.

[Marc]

Flying Shark. Brutal. If I was even going to stick with one old-school shooter it'd be this, it's tormented me since I bought the Speccy port as a kid. Fuck getting smiped up the ass though. Also played a little Twin Cobra, I'm sure I actually enjoyed the PCE version more than this back in the day but I'm not sure why. The PCE was a full-screen port if I remember right?

[Obscura]

Just tried Raiden DX for the first time.

Why do people like this but dislike the first Raiden? It's the same thing, except now the power-ups have more colors to cycle through, and the bombs change colors too.

[ACSeraph]

Gradius is the domestic abuser of the shmup world. One tiny mistake and the game beats you, takes away all of your things and make you do everything all over again without the nessecary equiment. But its so loving sometimes... such a tender and beautiful game, I can't bring myself to leave it. No one's perfect, and love can see past his flaws...

Oh! Gradius hi... I-I was just talking to my friends online... What? No we weren't talking about Thunderforce! No please! Those Moai will kill me without my options!!! (TT_TT)

[Kiken]

Popped Strikers 1945 Part II back in on a whim and played for like 3 hours straight (Saturn port.. so there's egregious amounts of slowdown in certain points in the game... if only the PCB rotated rotated left instead of right...).

[ACSeraph]

^ same thing happened to me a while back with Sengoku Ace. Something about Psikyo's short stages combined with really fast paced gameplay just makes you want to try over and over again and before you know it 3 hours is gone. Not Psikyo but Trap15's Batrider Special tournament is having the same effect on me for the same reasons.

[Drachenherz]

After being out of the shmu-loop for almost a couple of months, I finally gave DDP SDOJ a swirl... Was toying around with Novice and 360 mode. Still no novice clear with a-s or a-L...

But almost 1cced 360 mode on my first credit, playing shot-mode.

Just for the lulz, I popped in arcade HD expert mode - after that, I needed some ailment for my anus, it was suddenly goatse-sized...

After about 10 credits, sill no A-L clear in novice, but I think it should take me too long to get there. After that, I want to sink my teeth in novice expert mode and progress from there to arcade HD... This game really is hard, but very motivating. For a first time, I do actually like the chaining.

I wonder how I will fare when I switch to another CAVE shooter after some extended playtime with SDOJ... The bulletspeed really IS hellishly fast in SDOJ and maybe being exposed to it for some time will make other games with slower bullets seem easier. Well, here's to hoping.

btw, will cross-post this in the sdoj-thread, if anybody cares. *lol*

[ACSeraph]

Just bought Gradius Rebirth. Really awesome game, everyone talks about 5 like it was the last Gradius but Rebirth seems like a pretty worthy successor to the series to me. Fuck that Moai boss though seriously. I have hated those goddamn Moai since I was a child.

[Kiken]

I was not aware that Psikyo PCBs supported both 90 and 270 degree rotation. I now have my Strikers 1945 Part II PCB rotated left like every other tate shmup I own. Tis a glorious thing.

I hadn't thought to go in and look at the dip switch settings until now (after playing several credits on my one LCD TV which I had just propped in a chair, I noticed that the game was hellishly difficult.. zako were spewing bullets everywhere and the rank rise on bullet speed was insane)... turns out the prior owner (which I believe was an arcade somewhere in Illinois) had the game set to Difficult (so level 6 instead of level 5 which is Normal) and had the Extend Value set to 800,000. What an ass!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Yep, even the classic Psikyo Gunbird 2 & Strikers 1999 PCBs have support to flip the screen to your liking either way. I defenitely check the arcade operator's settings beforehand and set them to my personal tastes (defaults with the usual "free play" mode turned on if applicable). Tis is too much trouble to credit-up/coin-up a credit properly and have to fish the quarter afterwards from the coin collection box. But with both Cave's DP & DDP PCBs, still no way to implement "Free Play" setting from the get-go yet.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[EmperorIng]

The Taito Legends 2 game has gotten me to take RayCrisis out and mess with that a bit. Managed to make it to the third of the three levels before I bit the bullet.

The game's leaderboards here are virtually empty; I get the sense that most people here can't stand the game. It's weird to play RayStorm without the hyper-laser attack that I'm more used to in RayCrisis. I think it was a good addition to liven things up.

I'm also probably going to sell my PS1 copy of G-Darius, because with the Taito Legends 2 port, I'm not seeing a big need to have two versions of the same game.

[neorichieb1971]

Raiden DX is in my cab at the moment.

For some reason Training seems harder than novice.

[Obscura]

Funny, I'm actually playing Raiden DX via Playstation!

Agreed that Training seems harder than Novice. Both still kick my ass though. I still haven't seen beyond stage 3.

[Jonst]

Thunder force iv and dodonpachi daioujou black label ex xbox 360 mode

[g_block]

Farted around on MAME with ESP Ra.De. and Mushihime-Sama Ver 1.5.

Wanna start playing more, I know I'll never be Clover-TAC good, but they are a fun, casual way to pass the time

[Wonderbanana]

Hishozame again. I always seem to one back to this.



Been playing around with RGB's RECO pcb hooked up to it, works well.

[finisherr]

I totally bailed on Gunbird 2 for SDJ. I'll likely come back around to that one at some point.

[ACSeraph]

I went home and played Caladrius during my lunch break after well over a month of not playing it only to find out I now totally suck at it. I've forgotten everything about playing default Lilith and I actually even got killed by the first level boss because of risky play I swear to god it feels harder than SDOJ with some of the default characters.

[Marc]

Hishozame again. I always seem to one back to this.



Been playing around with RGB's RECO pcb hooked up to it, works well.

I am jealous. Mame is OK, but I can see even on a photo how much more vibrant that looks on a cab than my TV.
Reached area 47 tonight with a score of 186,000-ish, then opened a beer. Mistake. It really is brutal, but it's just such a pure experience that I can't stop playing. I tried out Fire Shark after I'd played this and my god it's a pile of shit in comparison. Feels like Toaplan ran out of inspiration for this one.

[blackoak]

Finished story normal mode in Ginga Force last night. Pretty fun, but stages 9 and 10 were just bullshit... I would never want to play those on hard mode. I think I'm going to get back to Dragon Saber now after having been inspired by the Dragon Spirit run on STGW, hehe.