Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Squire Grooktook]

^^^White Label or Black? I cannot fathom if the latter.

[Jonst]

Black. But probably more down to my stupid mistakes that I fail doj. I've nearly cleared it a number of times... I still struggle to love it though (I love it more than I did).

[CWM]

Can someone explain to me why the powerup collection after death works the way it does in Raiden 4? You'd expect all of them to start at the same value you had at the moment of death, but instead, not only do they seem random, but they always spawn clustered together in a way that makes picking up a specific one very difficult. I can't see any reason to do it this way, other than to frustrate the player and make chain deaths more likely.

[EmperorIng]

That happens in every Raiden game. Annoying; the solution: don't die.

[CWM]

Alternative solution I'm strongly considering right now: Don't play Raiden games.

[awry]

In Raiden IV, you should quickly snatch (disregarding color) all except one of the powerups, wait for the final powerup to change to the desired color, and then collect it. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

[JBC]

Oops! Wrong thread.

Uhm, I have been playing Psyvariar 2 lately.

[KAI]

Playing Darius Burst. Just cleared the easiest route on Arcade and Burst mode. Fun game, I can't wait to play the arcade port.

[Mania23]

Mushihimesama Futari, Original Mode. Fantastic Shump!!

[CloudyMusic]

In between playing the first stage and a half of Garegga over and over again, I'm dipping back into Ketsui to retain my sanity. I'm looking forward to revisiting more games that I haven't played in a long time since I think my overall skills have improved significantly since then.

[Stevens]

Keres - I enjoy doing the same. Gives you a good sense of how far you have come. What are you wanting to revisit?

[CloudyMusic]

Futari BL and Ketsui are the two that I put the most time into when I was first starting out, so those are the ones I want to go back to first. After that (so probably in another year), we'll see what I feel like playing.

[Obscura]

In Raiden IV, you should quickly snatch (disregarding color) all except one of the powerups, wait for the final powerup to change to the desired color, and then collect it. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

Alternatively, visualize the whole clump of power-ups as a "line", wait for either end to be just the tiniest moment away from the color you want, and then bomb for safety and quickly snatch all of them at once, starting at the other end.

Recoveries in RIII and RIV aren't that bad once you understand how to do them. The older games are a different story, since in the older ones, this strategy will leave you hopelessly underpowered.

[Eaglet]

Keres; no quitting Garegga until you're number one.

[CloudyMusic]

Keres; no quitting Garegga until you're number one.

Oh, I have no plans to stop whatsoever, I'm just watering down my sessions from 100% Garegga to 50% Garegga for now. Solely to avoid burnout, which I've gotten closer to lately than I would like. I always do a few runs first when I sit down, then I move onto something else if nothing seems to be happening.

[Eaglet]

Oh, I have no plans to stop whatsoever, I'm just watering down my sessions from 100% Garegga to 50% Garegga for now. Solely to avoid burnout, which I've gotten closer to lately than I would like. I always do a few runs first when I sit down, then I move onto something else if nothing seems to be happening.

That's a healthy attitude.
I'd recommend you try out some other ships if you get a grinding feeling playing Gain. Miyamoto is easily approachable and a lot of fun.

[Smokey]

Been playing Symphony because I want to listen to my music and shoot stuff, but most shmups feel weird without their OST.
The game is fun and pretty and cool, but it's also shit. There's no good search function, just filtering by album or artist, and why are rare weapons so RARE especially since they're almost required to not get fucked on the hardest difficulty.
But really it's fun. You add parts to your ship, change the angle at which they fire and upgrade them. Also don't use a pad. Just stick to mouse controls.
btw beat hazard sucks shit

[Stevens]

Strikers 2.

Finally earned the extend and the last few runs I've tapped out at the stage 6 boss.

[hail good sir]

Got Saviors for 19 cents on steam and it's really great. Been playing for like 2 hours now on hard and it's intense with pretty good level design for an indie game i never heard of. It also can run at a legit 120 fps which is great for a game like this with fast bullets. Best surprise ever.

[SMC]

Mushi practice
Still failing at Aki's last phase. I have no consistency at getting the misdirection trick to work.
I can get his health a little lower than I could before at least.

[Aquas]

Xevious Arrangement and Xevious 3D/G.

Xevious 3D gives not 1 fuck about you. Lovin' it

[CloudyMusic]

Mushi practice
Still failing at Aki's last phase. I have no consistency at getting the misdirection trick to work.
I can get his health a little lower than I could before at least.

Mushi Ultra is something that I'd like to do someday, but that final attack seems, uh, annoying.

[Bananamatic]

i think he means arrange
in arrange you don't misdirect it, just bomb it and there'll be a huge hole in the center of the pattern you can get into
repeat until he dies

[SMC]

Yeah, it's Ultra. The Arrange pattern is much less annoying.

[Bananamatic]

Yeah, it's Ultra. The Arrange pattern is much less annoying.

i assume you're already using W? you can point blank a good 65% of the last attack away before the bullets even get to you

[SMC]

Yeah, it's Ultra. The Arrange pattern is much less annoying.

i assume you're already using W? you can point blank a good 65% of the last attack away before the bullets even get to you

Yeah but after that he has his shield up 90% of the time.

[tacoguy64]

I'm currently playing Radiant Silvergun on Sega Saturn.
While I remember this game getting rave reviews in magazines back when it came out, I was never able to play it back then.

And now I know what all the hype was about.
I still suck balls but I'm enjoying the visuals and all the bosses. So many bosses it's awesome.
The saturn pad feels real good while playing this. Almost every button is assigned to a different weapon and it's so easy to switch between them.
Music is good so far but it doesn't stand out as much to me.

Anybody got any tips or strategies for this game?
So far I am improving with every play through but any help would be appreciated.

[Shepardus]

I started playing Kaikan last night, and I'm enjoying it a lot so far. It's a bit frustrating when you accidentally drop a medal you didn't see (even with the indicators alerting you to medals outside your screen), but using bombs as a cash-in is really satisfying, and it makes an interesting tradeoff between bombing for score and survival, since you can't stock up multiple bombs.

Also, the stage 4 boss is totally Black Heart, lol.

[Stevens]

I've been in a Psikyo coma. Under Defeat might be my favorite shooter ever, but Psikyo is easily my favorite dev.

Strikers II and III
ZG 2
Gunbird 2
Dragon Blaze

YES PLEASE.

[pegboy]

Yeah, I've been playing Strikers II for the last 1.5 months, drilling loop 2 over and over and over again. I'm hoping that it will pay off at some point lol.

What versions of Strikers are you playing, the MAME versions?

I've also been playing the mobile versions of Strikers II & III and although I hate mobile gaming they are probably the best mobile shumps I've played.