Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Stevens]

Woohoo. Nice to know I'm not the only one playing Strikers:D

I have Strikers 2 on the PS 1 and ZG 2 on the DC. Everything else is via emu.

Edit- Made it to the 1-7 boss. Scored a hair under 800,000.

[Shepardus]

Played a bit of Darius Gaiden and G.Darius last night. I finally beat the default #1 highscore in G.Darius... still terrible at the game, but really like the style and the capture mechanic. I'm starting to appreciate Gaiden more as I get more familiar with it and the default autofire rate feels less underpowered to me than before since I can last a bit longer before dying (the effect of dying on shot power is really harsh early on...). I managed to get up to the Area D boss (Folding Fan), and I'm loving the music and design of that boss. I also played a credit of the 2P side of Darius Gaiden Extra and got up to Area I. The music and backgrounds are really great, and it's a joy to discover what each boss looks like and how they behave. The built-in autofire is really OP though, I think I'll stick with no autofire for vanilla Darius Gaiden.

I used to vastly prefer G.Darius over Darius Gaiden, but now I'm not so sure, not because I like G.Darius less, but because I'm beginning to see what people like so much about Darius Gaiden.

[Mania23]

Played a bit of Darius Gaiden and G.Darius last night. I finally beat the default #1 highscore in G.Darius... still terrible at the game, but really like the style and the capture mechanic. I'm starting to appreciate Gaiden more as I get more familiar with it and the default autofire rate feels less underpowered to me than before since I can last a bit longer before dying (the effect of dying on shot power is really harsh early on...). I managed to get up to the Area D boss (Folding Fan), and I'm loving the music and design of that boss. I also played a credit of the 2P side of Darius Gaiden Extra and got up to Area I. The music and backgrounds are really great, and it's a joy to discover what each boss looks like and how they behave. The built-in autofire is really OP though, I think I'll stick with no autofire for vanilla Darius Gaiden.

I used to vastly prefer G.Darius over Darius Gaiden, but now I'm not so sure, not because I like G.Darius less, but because I'm beginning to see what people like so much about Darius Gaiden.

I completed Darius Gaiden last night!. Awesome game!. Not played G Darius yet, I have it though. Area D boss is a bitch!. I just black hole bombed constant and levelled up the weapons fast.

[Blackbird]

I'll be doing a roundup of indie shmups for tonight's livestream with the latest updates of Final Boss, Blue Revolver, Zenohell, and Super Galaxy Squadron. http://www.twitch.tv/degigames 8PM EST.

[amdiggywhut]

Heard you refer to Mushi as "Insect Princess." Did I miss an inside joke there?

Stream was pretty cool from what I was able to see, appreciate you doing stuff like this.

[Blackbird]

No special meaning there, I was probably distracted by dodging bullets =P.

[Shepardus]

Played a credit of Cho Ren Sha. No-missed up to the 2-4 boss (in which I ran into a bullet on the last blimp). 11 extra lives after first two powerup carriers in 2-5. Somehow still managed to game-over on the last phase of the TLB.

2-5 and 2-6 were an absolute disaster, just kept eating bullet after bullet. 3-0 went surprisingly well but by then I was in no better of a position than any of my other myriad runs that ended somewhere in 3-0.

[Stevens]

Off from work today and tomorrow. Great! Popped my calf..not so great.

The following are on tap to keep me sane:

Strikers 2 and 3
Dragon Blaze
Esp Ra De - Only played the first two levels once, still need more to decide if I want to spend more time with it.

And maybe I'll begin testing out the Raizing waters..I think Batrider might just have too much shit going on for me, but I have to give it a few hours at least. Bakraid on the other hand I think I can get right into.

[CWM]

Crimzon Clover Original with Type I. It's tough, but I'm making progress. I actually survive better while using scoring routes in this game, which makes me suspect that I don't really know how to play it for survival, but I suppose that's fine. Seems like you want to use Break Mode on difficult sections while playing for score as well, which is nice.

[SMC]

Slowly making progress with the Mushi TLB. The main problem I had been having was getting the bullet source to follow me into the corner consistently. Apparently I was just using my last bomb too early. It's hard to tell when the entire screen is covered in purple but the bullet source follows this weird cycle, and I was always bombing at the wrong part of the cycle. So now I know I have to bomb when the top of the screen starts turning pink.

I've watched a ton of replays of this strategy but it just shows knowing what's important and what's not important can be difficult for less skilled players like me.

[Stevens]

In the last two days I have put about eight hours into Esp. Ra. De.

Now before someone mentions my complete lack of ability over the last three to four to months to play anything for more than a week (they would be right), this is the most amount of time I have sunk into a single game in such a short period.

The first few hours were rough. I had a really hard time getting used to controlling a person as opposed to a craft, and this was compounded greatly by trying to play the game with an analog stick since the 360's pad is a pile of dog shit (What choo' mean you want to move diagonally?).

At the start of today's marathon I dug out my Hori SE. Up until now I've played shooters on a pad and had no problem with any of them cause I was playing on original hardware. Now that I am starting to play via emu I had to switch.

Huge difference when your character moves where you want them to. By the last two hours I settled in. My eyes started to see though what had previously been a mess, and I began understanding what I could dodge through at full speed and what I needed to focus for. Not having a boss timer changed my approach to the bosses as well.

I wound up making stage 4 once and overall have a good feel for stages 1-3 (playing Yuusuke with the Mall as stage 2). My last few runs were no misses until stage 3, including one where my cat totally fucked me up:D.

I haven't hit the 4 million extend yet but I've come close.

This is another one I wish got a home conversion.

Also am I the only one that thinks that Jb-5th looks like..

[Jonst]

^ I'm in a similar boat Stevens... Can't seem to commit to any game at the moment, despite near clears of doj and ddp dfk BL arrange... I scored s soft modded original Xbox a few days ago and it literally has every shmup I've ever wanted to play but didn't have! (Too much choice!)... Despite owning a few of the pcb's, it's nice to have them all running on a console with a reasonable pad. I put some time into esprade also, it's a great game (I use jb 5th)... Only made stage 5 once... You know there's an extend on stage 4 train on the right hand side?...

I feel like I literally can't play these games any more... After a great couple of years clearing games I never dreamt of clearing, it's like I just don't have the ability to play them now!...

EDIT: and yes... He does!

[The Armchair General]

I am playing Seihou 3. It's like Touhou but faster and with less resources. Before I 1CCed Raiden I couldn't get anywhere near 1CCing Seihou 3 on normal but after I cleared Raiden I managed to 1CC it in less than 5 hours. I'm now trying to clear it on hard and lunatic.

<------- Also my profile pic is of the game's protagonist VIVIT.

[Stevens]

Welcome General.

You know something Jonst? I agree with you.

As a kid I would think - It would be awesome to have every game I could ever want, whenever I want to play them.

How naive I was.

Now as an adult, between actual hardware and the internet we have it. We can conceivably play almost any video game ever, at any time we want. And surprise! It isn't as cool as our young selves thought it would be.

When I started playing shooters I had a small and humble collection, and by most standards it is still both of those things. I only own nine physical shmups between the DC, PS, and 360. And another 10 or so if you want to count downloads. I'll only emulate if there is no home version or said home version is stupid expensive.

I guess my point is regardless of how many or how few games we have we can only play one game at a time. Sometimes there really is too much of a good thing.

[Jonst]

I thought I'd never be bored again!... How wrong I was... It's just more frustrating to try and settle on something.

[CaptainAhab]

I'm working my way through Crimzon Clover World Ignition's novice mode (new to the genre). I am inching closer towards a 1CC though! Also been dabbling in Jamestown recently.

[The Armchair General]

CaptainAhab how are you new to the genre if you joined this forum back in 2013? Did you play a little bit and then take a break? Either way good luck on clearing Crimzon Clover and Jamestown!

[CaptainAhab]

CaptainAhab how are you new to the genre if you joined this forum back in 2013? Did you play a little bit and then take a break? Either way good luck on clearing Crimzon Clover and Jamestown!

I joined the forum to ask a few dumb questions and then ran into a very busy time in my life. Had to take a break from games for a while. ^^ Now I'm here to stay though! Love the genre. Now I just need an arcade stick...

[The Armchair General]

oh ok.

[SMC]

More Mushi Ultra boss practice, and I finally beat that son of a bitch Aki in practice mode. Admittedly I had the lives set to 5 instead of 3, but at least it gives me somewhere to go from. You need about three just for the last pattern anyway. I'm just glad I'm making SOME progress.

[trap15]

Just got back from a meetup that had a GunNail PCB. Needless to say, I was on it for about 6 hours. Managed to learn my way through the game and 1CC it! Not a particularly hard clear if you use the copious amounts of resources it gives, and properly route your score (!) for getting the extends in good places. Went into Stage 8 with a full stock of 5 from the 2m extend, cleared with 0 lives extra

After the clear I spent some time trying to score again (before getting the clear I'd ended up doing a run that had ~9m, but I didn't write it down), but I was pretty exhausted.

Fun fuckin' game.

[Squire Grooktook]

Welcome General.

You know something Jonst? I agree with you.

As a kid I would think - It would be awesome to have every game I could ever want, whenever I want to play them.

How naive I was.

Now as an adult, between actual hardware and the internet we have it. We can conceivably play almost any video game ever, at any time we want. And surprise! It isn't as cool as our young selves thought it would be.

When I started playing shooters I had a small and humble collection, and by most standards it is still both of those things. I only own nine physical shmups between the DC, PS, and 360. And another 10 or so if you want to count downloads. I'll only emulate if there is no home version or said home version is stupid expensive.

I guess my point is regardless of how many or how few games we have we can only play one game at a time. Sometimes there really is too much of a good thing.

I personally disagree.

To me, the only reason to doubt the boon of having all these games at your fingertips is that we just get complacent and forget how great it really is.

For me, being able to boot up an obscure import only super famicom title, and play it for a few stages to see if it's my kind of game, is just overwhelmingly great. I've sampled so many games and so many tastes that I never would have been able to otherwise. You cannot commit to everything, but you can take breaks from your main games with new experience, you can try things that you wouldn't be able to otherwise, and you can build up a virtual library that's perfectly suited to your tastes.

My play list without jp arcade Daimakaimura, J.J Squawkers, The Ninja Warriors Again, Alien Soldier, Akumajo Dracula x68, Metal Storm, Ninja Spirit, Cho Ren Sha 68k, Biometal JP, Dangun Feveron, etc. would be so much more boring, I can't even fathom it.

[Jonst]

Now playing bakraid...

[Stevens]

I personally disagree.

To me, the only reason to doubt the boon of having all these games at your fingertips is that we just get complacent and forget how great it really is.

I can see where you are coming from SG. My lack of focus doesn't mean it is a bad thing.

If it weren't for all this access I would have never discovered Strikers III, Dragon Blaze, or Esp.Ra.De.

Or that I have zero interest in playing anything where I have to hammer the fire button repeatedly:D

[copy-paster]

Played Final Boss Raw Label on normal mode.

Didn't realize I no-miss'd all of stage 2 boss (blind run of course, their attack patterns is crazy though), after that I credit-feed stage 3 to only know the whole level design (nice Crisis Force reference), and I died killed by that dragon. Speaking of the game I noticed some slowdown in beginning of stage 3 and getting normal again while reach the laser section.

[Stevens]

EDIT - I know I can hit 3 million in Under Defeat's 1st loop, training runs and maths have told me so.

In the few actual runs I've tried I have gotten to stage 5 with a little over 2 million. I suicide once on stage 1, which gives me a little extra bonus at stages end, but keeps rank maxed out.

This has also required me to alter my path through stages 3 and 4 a little and stage 5 a lot. Which has been awesome in a way, because its been almost two years since my first flight and I am still learning new shit in this game.

I'm heading out of town for a few days, but I think I'll have this by the end of next week.

[Shepardus]

Dodonpachi Daioujou Black Label - got here last night without having seen most of the stage before:


Got to stage 5 a couple times today, but not to the boss. Gradually improving, but still feel like I'm bad at all stages of the game...

[Jonst]

Back on doj... Laid off this for a while, a little rusty but still making a decent way into stage 5... Even though I've come close before to clearing this, I can't imagine doing this one...

[Blinge]

[Jonst]

^ haha! No pressure eh?!