[X360] Score Rush, 4 player shmup (Xona Games) NOW RELEASED

[msm]

great game this, good work guys

cleared normal with about 180'000'000, will be trying to finish hard but not sure i'm up to it.

did die a few times because you get stopped at the edge of the screen sooner than i'd expect, but pretty much got used to that now.

[nZero]

great game this, good work guys :)

cleared normal with about 180'000'000, will be trying to finish hard but not sure i'm up to it.

did die a few times because you get stopped at the edge of the screen sooner than i'd expect, but pretty much got used to that now.

Hard's not so bad once you've got the patterns for Normal down, the basic rhythm is the same. After I unlocked it I managed to finish it on my first try with 324M points. Expert is another story though...

[Xonatron]

Check it out, ths review mentions Malc's quote at the very end, and then show they quote right after:
http://www.sanctuary4gamers.com/content ... Score-RUSH!

[Xonatron]

Ok, started a high score thread:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34509

Please post your scores, and teach me how this works. Does the last poster keep updaing the list?

[Xonatron]

did die a few times because you get stopped at the edge of the screen sooner than i'd expect, but pretty much got used to that now.

Change the HUI size in the options, it changes how far you can go to the edge of the screen. If we didn't block it like this, Score Rush would have failed XBLIG peer review.

[nZero]

Ok, started a high score thread:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34509

Please post your scores, and teach me how this works. Does the last poster keep updaing the list?

Cool The person who started the thread (in this case: you) is in charge of keeping it updated.

[Jason]

did die a few times because you get stopped at the edge of the screen sooner than i'd expect, but pretty much got used to that now.

Whoa... you haven't set the screen size to be the size of your TV. If you set the screen size to be proper, the restriction of motion is limited to the edges of your TV, exactly as your setting dictates.

Note that we cannot assume the gamer sees all 100% of the TV. I have done this with Duality ZF, and gamers complain that they cannot see their fighter since it goes off-screen. Also, in Indie Games, games will fail if you allow a character to go off-screen. Vital information has to be within 90% of the view size, which is the default. There is NOTHING I can do about this, since there's no Xbox 360 setting that states the view size (in fact, the Xbox 360 GUI itself assumes you can see 90% or more), and thus does not provide any game with such information. We are left to guess.

I am guessing myself that perhaps I should set the default to 95%, since most people never go into the settings to realize they can modify this. Also, I could force the user to set this on first-time play, but then that ruins the intro music and title screens, etc. -- the feel for the game is lost in a user interface issue you don't even want to deal with.

SO PLEASE go into the settings and SET THE SCREEN SIZE so you stop hitting the edge of the screen before the TV runs out!

[Austin]

I must admit, this game is awesome. It's like Geometry wars meets a Cave shooter. It's also nice that the devs added d-pad support, something that other dual-stick games lack (which annoys the hell out of me). This one is definitely worth the price!

[Jason]

I must admit, this game is awesome. It's like Geometry wars meets a Cave shooter. It's also nice that the devs added d-pad support, something that other dual-stick games lack (which annoys the hell out of me). This one is definitely worth the price!

Thank you. That's quite a compliment!

[Xonatron]

I would love it if any of you would post videos of your runs. It would also indirectly help support Score Rush too.

[msm]

did die a few times because you get stopped at the edge of the screen sooner than i'd expect, but pretty much got used to that now.

Change the HUI size in the options, it changes how far you can go to the edge of the screen. If we didn't block it like this, Score Rush would have failed XBLIG peer review.

Whoa... you haven't set the screen size to be the size of your TV. If you set the screen size to be proper, the restriction of motion is limited to the edges of your TV, exactly as your setting dictates.

Note that we cannot assume the gamer sees all 100% of the TV. I have done this with Duality ZF, and gamers complain that they cannot see their fighter since it goes off-screen. Also, in Indie Games, games will fail if you allow a character to go off-screen. Vital information has to be within 90% of the view size, which is the default. There is NOTHING I can do about this, since there's no Xbox 360 setting that states the view size (in fact, the Xbox 360 GUI itself assumes you can see 90% or more), and thus does not provide any game with such information. We are left to guess.

I am guessing myself that perhaps I should set the default to 95%, since most people never go into the settings to realize they can modify this. Also, I could force the user to set this on first-time play, but then that ruins the intro music and title screens, etc. -- the feel for the game is lost in a user interface issue you don't even want to deal with.

SO PLEASE go into the settings and SET THE SCREEN SIZE so you stop hitting the edge of the screen before the TV runs out!

thanks for the info about the screen size guys, that worked a treat

[kemical]

awesome game, I'm very impressed that you guys got the controls feeling right, with how the analog sticks are handled, a lot of people don't notice those details and it ruins the feel of the game.

I noticed an audio problem with both Score Rush and DecimationX3, the audio basically cuts out when a lot of stuff is going on, in score rush usually it cuts out with almost every explosion. This might just be my setup but I'm not sure, I'll look into it more, it is strange that it only happened on those two games. I'm connected via optical and the 360 is on digital 5.1.

[Matsunaga]

Awesome game, probably the best $1 game ever. I really cant wait for Duality..

[Jason]

awesome game, I'm very impressed that you guys got the controls feeling right, with how the analog sticks are handled, a lot of people don't notice those details and it ruins the feel of the game.

Thank you! I am always happy when people notice and appreciate the little things.

I noticed an audio problem with both Score Rush and DecimationX3, the audio basically cuts out when a lot of stuff is going on, in score rush usually it cuts out with almost every explosion. This might just be my setup but I'm not sure, I'll look into it more, it is strange that it only happened on those two
games. I'm connected via optical and the 360 is on digital 5.1.

The audio issue is known. It's a result of a few factors:

1. your surround sound digital processor cannot handle the crazy audio being handed to it. if you change the Xbox 360 to Dolby Stereo, the glitches will disappear.
2. the XACT sound software that XNA (Indie Games) use isn't doing what it's told. so it's producing hard to process sound for the surround sound digital processor in your home, even though most can handle it.
3. Score Rush and Decimation X3 are playing a lot of sounds effects, and since this is only factor of the 3 we can control, we will produce an update for both games that solves this issue... we'll play less sounds, less frequently, and change the XACT settings to use features that work properly, and this should allow ANY surround sound system digital processor to be able to handle this.

I know it sounds strange, but Score Rush and Decimation X3 really are not at fault here. We are simply producing a lot more audio than most games, which reveals the issue of BOTH XACT and a customer's particular surround sound system. If it were a problem natively to Score Rush or Decimation X3, the problem would reproduce itself without fail on every PC, and every Xbox 360, regardless of stereo / 5.1 settings -- but such is not the case. A Connect issue has already been reported to Microsoft about this. In any case, we're doing what we can on our end to avoid the issue.

Thanks for the feedback!!

[msm]

Hard's not so bad once you've got the patterns for Normal down, the basic rhythm is the same. After I unlocked it I managed to finish it on my first try with 324M points. Expert is another story though...

yeah good point, it's not as big a step up as it looks at first, took quite a few goes but finished hard with just under 300M

[Xonatron]

Sweet! Post your scores here: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34509

[PepsimanVsJoe]

http://www.xblaratings.com/xblig-rating ... w/id:4673/

Not one but three perfect 10 scores already. Of course I come off as a gigantic tool in my review.

[Jason]

http://www.xblaratings.com/xblig-rating ... w/id:4673/

Not one but three perfect 10 scores already. Of course I come off as a gigantic tool in my review.

Ha ha, nice review. I'm sorry the game has you hurting. BTW, the game does have a 1UP mid-way through. And you're right, to speed up the slow sections, get in close to cause major damage, to take 'em down more quickly, and get a higher score.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Ha ha, nice review. I'm sorry the game has you hurting. BTW, the game does have a 1UP mid-way through. And you're right, to speed up the slow sections, get in close to cause major damage, to take 'em down more quickly, and get a higher score.

Well with normal I lost two lives and all bombs on my first try and I've yet to pass Hard. There hasn't been a real critical point I need to do better at. It's usually the sort of deaths I get for being dumb, not from being completely overwhelmed.

[Jason]

Well with normal I lost two lives and all bombs on my first try and I've yet to pass Hard. There hasn't been a real critical point I need to do better at. It's usually the sort of deaths I get for being dumb, not from being completely overwhelmed.

Ugh I hate those. I find this a lot with Decimation X3, with so many lives as you play, you end up with a few of those every game. If you can just keep concentration during those rough times, suddenly you can double your score. With Score Rush, lives are even more important, since you have fewer of them. As for dealing with the chaotic parts, I am adding a brake button, just like Decimation X3. (Why did I not think of this sooner?!)

[Xonatron]

http://www.xblaratings.com/xblig-rating ... w/id:4673/

Not one but three perfect 10 scores already. Of course I come off as a gigantic tool in my review.

I loved this review! Technical based review are just boring, and too robotic. You completely break this mold!

[dannnnn]

Bought this and Decimation X3 on Sunday. I'm really enjoying both but I was especially impressed by Score Rush. For 80 points each I urge anyone with some spare points to make the purchase because these games are WELL worth the money.

The only minor niggles I have are that 4:3 has borders (just tried the Shoot1up demo and that does too, do all XBLI games have them?) and I could have used a screen alignment option as well as a size adjust, since any higher than 90% causes me to lose the left side of the screen, so I can't have it exactly as I'd like it. Minor complaints though, both games got a 5/5 rating from me.

By the way, does Decimation X3 have an ending?

[Jason]

The only minor niggles I have are that 4:3 has borders (just tried the Shoot1up demo and that does too, do all XBLI games have them?) and I could have used a screen alignment option as well as a size adjust, since any higher than 90% causes me to lose the left side of the screen, so I can't have it exactly as I'd like it. Minor complaints though, both games got a 5/5 rating from me.

By the way, does Decimation X3 have an ending?

4:3 has borders because the game is 16:9. If the game changed the screen to fit 4:3 screens, then the gameplay area would shrink, and because the game "plays nice" and doesn't allow off-screen enemies to shoot at you, even though they are in the gameplay area, this means the game changes. The only solution is to NOT change the screen size, and add black bars. Most XBLIG games do this because the system handles this for them. But in our case, it was a decision made on purpose. The code actually supports 4:3 mode, but I refuse to use it as it makes the game easier in 4:3 screens (as less enemies are shooting as more are off-screen).

Screen alignment and size adjust? Score Rush allows you to specify the viewable area of your screen. It's not asking you what you want; it's asking you what you HAVE -- the viewable area of your screen. The game adjusts accordingly. I'm sorry this was not clear. (If you can point out what part made you mis-read this, I would appreciate it, so I can fix it if possible.)

THANK YOU so much for the 5/5 rating. RATINGS MEAN EVERYTHING to us, and I appreciate all of your time to rate these games. It's amazing that there are people rating the games 3 of 5; it boggles my mind. Each rating made is speaking for 1,000 people, since most people don't rate (especially since the new dashboard makes it hard to rate game), so thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. Your time is much appreciated!!

Decimation X3 has no end. It just gets harder and harder until you die, just like real life.

[nZero]

Rated 5/5 as well (on JP marketplace)

I only had a minor issue with the game, mostly that the bosses appear to be in their death throes before they've lost very much health at all, so it's hard to tell when they're actually about to die.

As useful as bombs are for scoring against some of the dense and durable formations, I kind of wish there was a way to refill them-- either a skill-based method like at certain point intervals, or as simply as recovering a single bomb per life lost.

[Jason]

Thanks for the rating!!!

The bosses have a visible and audible reaction to damage soon to give people feedback and reward for their efforts before 90% of the battle has been fought.

My update for Score Rush will include +1 bombs after a revival. I agree that bombs should refill at least like this, but I thought giving all 3 bombs back on every life was too much (especially since bombs are shared in multiplayer mode, which complicates things).

[Kollision]

I admit I was skeptical about this one, but I downloaded it tonight and was sincerely surprised.
The videos on Youtube don't make justice to the game, it's an intense thing of beauty when in real motion in my living room.

Congratulations to the devs, I'm sure I'm gonna have lots of fun with this game.

[Jason]

Love your feedback, praise, and compliments!! I am so happy you're enjoying this game!

[John845]

Saw videos of this on youtube and it must look amazing in HD. Shame this will never make it to the PS3.

[Xonatron]

I only had a minor issue with the game, mostly that the bosses appear to be in their death throes before they've lost very much health at all, so it's hard to tell when they're actually about to die.

Curious how you would want the bosses to react? Should they only appear hurt after 50%? Then how would you know if you are at, say, 35%? Should we have a health bar to fix that?

Currently they start to appear damaged pretty quickly, but not right away, to jump into a "progress bar" type feedback quickly.

[Xonatron]

Saw videos of this on youtube and it must look amazing in HD. Shame this will never make it to the PS3.

Given our success in Japan, http://xona.com/2010/12/12b.html, we would do much better as a company if we made these games for PS3... I think it would be unfortunate if we had to move to another console (porting to another console would be cool though).

Do Cave shmups come out on PS3 as the do on Xbox?