Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Ruldra]

Bought Judgement Silversword during the Steam Sale. Fantastic game! It's pretty old but I'm playing it for the first time now. Didn't expect to like it so much, but I'm loving it.

I'm basically done with Cardinal Sins and now I'm trying to 1cc JSS normal mode. Just barely made it past the two mirror bosses, that fight is intense.

[CWM]

I wish there was a way to start from midboss in Crimzon Clover's training mode. It's really tedious to have to play stages 3 and 5 from the beginning just to practice the difficult part at the end.

[Lobinden]

After getting entirely burned out upon playing too much Darius Burst: CS I have been playing some of the shmups I can reliably always enjoy like Raiden IV and RefleX. Not that Darius Burst: CS is a bad game though. It's anything but that.

[Gamer707b]

Bought Darius Gaiden on Saturn a few months ago and now I'm back to it. Had to take a shooter break after completing Galcatic Attack a while back. These games take a bit out of me, so its nice to change it up. On topic though, Darius Gaiden is boss and I feel its every bit as good as the more rare shooters on the system.

[Emuser]

Aero Chimera Normal

Got to the TLB with Type 4, a sliver away from clearing. This game's full potential really becomes unlocked when you play the fast ship, none of the other ships can compare to the raw power and speed of the Tartarus. That being said, it is extremely satisfying to master the technique of this ship even with the game's extreme difficulty. The pre-boss portion of stage 5 ends up becoming harder than the pre-boss portion of stage 6, there are a lot of things to land in order to get lives through to stage 6 and setup to have an extend during the boss fight leading to 6 extra lives instead of 5. Looking forward to hopefully clearing this beast soon.

[Stevens]

Saw you cleared Aero Chimera. Holy fuck dude. Amazing.

Still practicing Futari maniac since my Dreamcast is still out of commision.

My best run scorewise ended on the stage 3 boss with a score of 170 million. I haven't practiced stage 3 worth a damn though and that is without milking Zoidberg.

[Shepardus]

Playing some Fairy Wars lately. I cleared Hard A-2 a while back and wanted to go for a Lunatic clear of the same route, but after grinding that for a while and only reaching a bit into stage 2, I decided I should probably get more practice clearing the other routes on Hard first. So I'm currently getting my ass handed to me by Hard A-1. This game's hard. That said, though, Normal and Easy are pretty easy, yesterday I almost managed to get a 1000% motivation clear on Normal A-1 but died on the last spellcard, leaving me with just 920%.

[sdamike]

Been playing Blazing Star on MVS alot and the Lady and I have been playing Nano Assault on Wii U together and just beat it, its a really short game. Unlocked survival mode, guess well see what that holds..But its a pretty cool game for how cheap it was and I was surprised on how good it looks.

[CloudyMusic]

Been dabbling with DOJBL, but that's surely going to be a long-term project over 2016. I know the full chain routes for the first 2 1/2 stages so far, at least, but doing full runs seems pointless until I have routes for the entire first loop.

Aside from that, I've been playing a lot of Guwange recently. Want to work towards a respectable score and the clear.

[Kiken]

Finally nailed an SCC in Twinkle Tale. Then went to record a run and had the game soft-lock right after the final boss died... so I had to reset and record a second full run (luckily the game behaved after the second completion).

Guess it's time to return to Thunder Force IV again.

[Stevens]

Played a bit of Gun Frontier and Gekirindan last night. Haven't settled on a ship type in Gekitrindan yet, but I've made the 4th stage in both games.

Going to have to start using continues to learn the stages though since I don't have a training mode.

Also played a few credits of Darius Gaiden and Metal Black. They seem like the types of games that are going to require my undivided attention if I am going to make any real progress in them. That said I am looking forward to it..

[MRydralle]

Score-chasing Astebreed and attempting to 1cc certain routes in DBCS AC mode using Gaiden. I'll do pretty much that for some time.

[slippytee]

Currently playing Dragon Spirit / Border Down & Zanac X Zanac

[royalfan84]

A little bit of everything; which I realize is probably not good for sustained progression or mastering one particular game. Still....I love the variety and kind of like a little bit improvement in several different games. Currently have been playing Battle Garegga, Batrider, Darius Gaiden, Raiden DX, nad still trying to complete Einhander, and trying to 1cc Donpachi.....is it just me or is DonPachi much harder to 1cc than DDP?

[Shepardus]

is it just me or is DonPachi much harder to 1cc than DDP?

Assuming you're talking about the 1-ALL rather than the 2-ALL, then I had a significantly harder time 1-ALL'ing Donpachi than Dodonpachi. Donpachi's patterns are generally easier, but Dodonpachi's more forgiving with its lives (it gives one more extend than Donpachi does) and it's easier to manage/ration bombs in Dodonpachi. Both potentially give a ton of bombs, but Dodonpachi gives most of its bombs through simply dying and respawning, while Donpachi gives most of its bombs through the restock at the end of each stage and bomb item carriers, and your bomb capacity only increases through using bombs, so it's easy to pass by a lot of bombs when you don't need them, and then when you die and need bombs you only spawn with three. Also I'm pretty sure Dodonpachi's hitboxes are smaller, and the movement speeds in Dodonpachi feel more comfortable to me (Type C in particular isn't horrendously slow, at least if you use C-L). Lastly, in Donpachi's stages 4 and 5 it's very easy to get killed by enemies ramming into you or other surprise attacks if you don't remember what to expect, while Dodonpachi's patterns are generally a very moderate speed that gives you more time to react (read: spam bombs).

[royalfan84]

Yeah the popcorn enemies from the middle of 4th stage on give me some issues....I know a lot of it is memorization...I keep getting trapped or rammed by the enemies from the side of the screen or the bottom. Part of it is my own fault for thinking I can react my way out of every tight spot....it's fun when you do. But that's what gives me the most fits on donpachi...just get memorize where to position my ship.

[Shepardus]

Yeah, you gotta be prepared for those enemies coming from the sides and the bottom. Don't be afraid to bomb if you realize you've made a mistake, you'll get plenty more later and it can actually help to bomb enough to increase your capacity (though this obviously hurts scoring).

[Squire Grooktook]

Played through Armed Seven on insane yesterday. 1cc'd it on third credit.

Short and unambitious but pleasantly surprising little game. Nice emphasis on aiming and offense/defense balancing with your periodically recharging bomb. Patterns are fairly fun too, easy but some nice emphasis on macro and fast movement, and a few cool gimmicks on the bosses I feel.

It's no masterpiece, and certainly not trying to be, but it's a fun little game.

[Shepardus]

I've been playing some Touhou lately. I barely played them for a long while, but that's . Got 1CCs of all the routes in Fairy Wars on Hard, cleared Easy in Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom with Sanae, and Normal with Reisen (that bomb is pretty ridiculous...). I'll probably work on clearing the extra stage in LoLK next, but I'm not really sure what I want to do after that. Most shmups that I would like to clear/score on still seem far out of my skill range...

[horaceappleton]

Working more on Phantasmagoria Trues scoring, now in Unlimited mode. Apparently all I care about anymore is danmakufu fangames nobody plays.

[KAI]

A friend lend me a 360 and I've been playing Akai Katana Shin and DFK (wish I had Senko DUO ).

[Stevens]

I've added Fantasy Zone to my ever revolving list of shit I'm playing. I've played it on and off since it was released, but this is the first time I've given it attention since I've started playing shooters.

I finished it on the SMS back in the day, but don't remember if it was a 1 CC or if I used continues.

Made it to the boss rush on my 3rd credit. I think I can 1 CC this one pretty soon.

[Shepardus]

I'll probably work on clearing the extra stage in LoLK next

lol k
Seeing Junko reappear in the extra stage with new attacks (read: more rings of death) was enough to put me off that.

Instead I'm trying to improve my score in the Fairy Wars extra stage. Just managed to break 50m but still need to stop dying all over the place to get a score that's actually worth posting. I want to see if I can at least break 75m (maximum end bonus + 20mil), I'll see after that whether I'm up to the task of improving it further.

The freezing mechanic is actually brilliant, especially in a game with as intricate bullet patterns as ZUN's. It actually pairs well with the extra stage format (unlike some of ZUN's other scoring systems like MoF's and UFO's where the scoring system is basically irrelevant after reaching the boss) and gives the gameplay a nice rhythm both in the short term (with basic freezes) and in the long term (with motivation and perfect freezes, and to a lesser extent the shot leveling). I like that the gameplay even without going for score is more active than "simply" dodging until your shots take down the enemy, and I hope ZUN makes more stuff like this.

[Stevens]

Been playing a crap ton of different games lately -

Metal Black - No real progress yet. Have a good feel for stage 1 and stage 2 though. Will dive in head first at some point.

Gun Frontier - Stage 4. Happy I have auto fire..

Gekirindan - Stage 4 boss. Bit the bullet and playing Type C from the 2 UP side.

Darius Gaiden - Still feeling it out and playing as many stages as I can. I'll get lost in this one eventually too. I found Titanic Lance today:D

Fantasy Zone - Is it possible to not like this game? Final boss.

Grid Seeker - Stage 5 boss. Stealth is really good in this one. I do feel that some bullets are too hard to see, namely the ones you can't GRID.

Score Rush - Even when I am lit I can still play it. Wish it had online..

[ProjectAKo]

I think I've figured out a new trick in kingdom GP which even the arcade gods didn't seem to know. Maybe I can actually reach the gamest score after all.

[Stevens]

Taking the left route in Darius Gaiden constantly, made it as far as K.

[Kiken]

Ahhh, Soukyuugurentai, my old nemesis... We meet again!

[Aquas]

Assault, Namco's 1988 dual-stick 2-treaded tank shmup. It's pretty friggin' awesome. Doing two arcade stick ghetto setup.

[BIL]

Hell yeah... SEEK AND DESTROY while hydraulic bouncing and doin' a barrel roll

Have you hit stage 3's downriver section yet? Shit be like Apocalypse Now. In a tank.

[mamboFoxtrot]

I played Akai Katana for the first time in a while. Lost some lives attempting basic maneuvers that I normally have no problem with, then lost a few more at War Hiiragi, and then died on stage 5 like I usually do.
Man, after playing PS3 and Steam shmups with my PS3 and PS2 controller respectively, I just can not deal with using the 360's analogue stick for this anymore. I really need to get an arcade stick, or at least something with a good D-Pad...