Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[TJB]

Dogyuun and sometimes Ketsui

I'm ass at both games :G

[Stevens]

Jamestown?

Probably cause its been ages and I have some multiplayer meet ups on the horizon.

[Neo G-Tron]

Hey guy's. . Looking to get more active on here. I just got this game last week as it's one of my personal favorite games for the Neo Geo. Any opinions on this game ?? Lol And I do like honesty !!

[chempop]

That's a very large cab.

People have tried to get me to play TSS, it's popular. Every time I try it, I think, hmm I could be playing a real shmup. Welcome and enjoy the farms.

[BulletMagnet]

A great way to get your non-shmupping friends to dip a toe into the genre (as long as you don't beat them too badly), and rather fun on its own, too; granted, I have a particularly soft spot for cute-em-ups, but I think it holds up pretty well even without factoring that in. The PS2 sequel is a notch below it, but still good in most of the important ways.

[Captain]

That's a very large cab.

People have tried to get me to play TSS, it's popular. Every time I try it, I think, hmm I could be playing a real shmup. Welcome and enjoy the farms.

Play Change Air Blade instead.

[Shepardus]

Not really focusing on anything at the moment. I gave up on X-Multiply for a while but I'm back on it again, this time with savestates so I can practice the last two stages more. The game would be pretty easy if it weren't for those two, the last stage in particular... Also, I've been trying to 1-ALL without using autofire as the game is very playable without it, but it's been causing my hand a lot of pain so I might have to give up on that or else risk more long-term injury.

[doom_]

novice mode but still hurting

[CloudyMusic]

Also, I've been trying to 1-ALL without using autofire as the game is very playable without it, but it's been causing my hand a lot of pain so I might have to give up on that or else risk more long-term injury.

Welcome to my world, I made a rule for myself to pretty much always use autofire if any game doesn't have built-in autofire. I also ran into hand pain issues back when I played IIDX, and I don't really feel like risking a serious injury for a video game.

[Neo G-Tron]

I'm personally getting more and more into this game. I definitely need to link up with some fans of this game to compete with and further improve my TSS skills.

[Neo G-Tron]

That's a very large cab.

People have tried to get me to play TSS, it's popular. Every time I try it, I think, hmm I could be playing a real shmup. Welcome and enjoy the farms.

Thank you for the welcome bro !! Yep this cab is my baby !! I fully customized her with 8 joystick panels and PS360's, I also added a rocking sub woofer inside the bench seat for full rumble cab action. I pretty much set it up so that I can play Jamma, Neo Geo and Xbox 360 on her. Just getting into playing Shmups so some Japanese Saturn, DC, 360 or PCB game suggestions would be greatly appreciated !!

[Jonst]

Hit a wall with ibara. Gone back to radirgy precious.

EDIT: almost made the final boss on radirgy, hopefully a clear isn't too far off!

[Stevens]

Someone has finally found his way to Progear.

[Jonst]

^ how do you find it Stevens?

[Shepardus]

Keep persevering and you'll get that clear doom_!

Also, I've been trying to 1-ALL without using autofire as the game is very playable without it, but it's been causing my hand a lot of pain so I might have to give up on that or else risk more long-term injury.

Welcome to my world, I made a rule for myself to pretty much always use autofire if any game doesn't have built-in autofire. I also ran into hand pain issues back when I played IIDX, and I don't really feel like risking a serious injury for a video game.

Yeah, I'm thinking that I'll keep going for the X-Multiply 1-ALL without autofire since I've gotten close and I know I can do it as long as I don't spend too much time on it at once, but that's probably the last game I do any serious tapping on. I'm still fine with slow tapping like in Cho Ren Sha 68k and Psikyo games (playing Dragon Blaze with autofire actually feels uncomfortable to me) but nothing really strenuous.

[Vludi]

I prefer to play without autofire usually, that being said games like Thunder Blaster or Gun frontier are almost unplayable without autofire, the first physically and the second gameplay-wise.

[Harpuia]

Right now I'm chipping away at Raiden. Playing on the 2P side since I've heard that makes the game easier, and I started out with the set 1 version (the one with checkpoints) until I decided to just play set 2. Spread shot with homing missiles seems to be the best for going through stages, and for bosses it seems worth it to switch to the laser.

[TJB]

Someone has finally found his way to Progear.

Not gonna lie mate I could play stage 4 for days

Also 2nd loop was a work of art, only made it to 2-4 before I sold my board (ps I regret doing that) but loved every moment of it

[Perikles]

Returned to Parodius Da! yesterday, thinking to myself: "Why not play it in auto mode? Then I don't have to worry about the roulette capsules anymore and can safely pick up everything. I don't use the special bell powers anyway, so that won't be a problem."

The answer: because the game allocates a second speed-up to you in the fourth stage, shooting the rank through the roof by stage 5. Neat-o!

I gave up on X-Multiply for a while but I'm back on it again [...]

Great to see that, I'm entirely certain you'll get the clear in no time at all.

Spread shot with homing missiles seems to be the best for going through stages, and for bosses it seems worth it to switch to the laser.

I don't think that's really worthwhile (with the possible exception of the third boss). If you want to play it safe without bombing all that much you'll mostly fire at the bosses from an off-centre position which doesn't collaborate well with the laser, of course. If you want to bomb bosses into oblivion you're better off point-blanking them with the vulcan. Some bosses are fought with the homing missiles alone/not at all (6 & 8 ), so it doesn't matter anyway. I really don't see much of a benefit in using the laser, especially since the beginning of the next stage will be harder (and you lose out on points, too).

[Stevens]

^ how do you find it Stevens?

Not gonna lie mate I could play stage 4 for days

Also 2nd loop was a work of art, only made it to 2-4 before I sold my board (ps I regret doing that) but loved every moment of it

I've wanted to play it since first seeing it on a Youtube video years ago. I'm a little emulation stupid and since deleting an old version of MAME was never able to get a newer one up and running. I found it on Game Oldies, but it never ran and now GO is tits up. Then in a moment of curiousness I was on Fightcade and sure enough it's supported (if it is ever released on Steam I will buy it no questions asked).
I downloaded what I needed, fiddled with the video and controller settings, and all is right in the world.

I had almost built it up in my mind to standards it could never live up to, but it has. The game feels alive, as if Cave could craft an RPG with the same characters if they wanted to.

As for the actual gameplay - This wound up being super easy to wrap my head around thanks to all the time I spent with Akai Katana (thanks Jonst!). Cause let's be honest here, scoring in AK is some complex shit. I knew it was rings and gems, but the real epiphany came when I accidentally discovered I could suck them up. It is so simple it's brilliant.

My best run so far is midway through stage 4 (only started playing it Friday), but most of my runs have ended somewhere on stage 3. For now lots of stage 2 practice.

I love it.

EDIT - Have figured out save states in Fightcade. I have one at the start of each stage and boss except for the first stage. I made stage 4 twice again yesterday so practice is paying off. However my high score is only 4 and a half million. I'm going to have to refine some shit to get that 2nd extend.

[Stevens]

Made it to the stage 4 helicopter (same one as in stage 3), but scored a bit higher, well for me anyway.

From a little over 4 million up to 6,154,000, game ended in about the same spot.

Amazing what a little tweak can do for your score. I can definitely get that second score extend now. I missed the 1 UP though

I know it isn't the hardest game in their library, but I didn't think I would be this far along in a week.

[Jonst]

Nice one Stevens! I'm glad you're into it, It really is a great game, keep at it! Stage 4 boss is tricky until you learn the patterns and the opening to stage 5 is a bit rough, unless you have resources.

Meanwhile, it's the second day I almost cleared radirgy precious!

[Stevens]

Been doing lots of save state practice, some of Kraken's patterns are mesmerizing.

I haven't played stage 5 at all yet (I have to legit reach it first - my own rule:D), but I'm going to practice the fuck out of it once I get there.

Keep at Radirgy - you'll get it soon.

[Jonst]

Kraken is a great boss! The whole game is super fun. It sounds like you've finally found a cave game that you're really in to I remember being really sucked in to it when I started playing it properly. I take it you're working your way to a clear? It's so much easier to stick with when you really enjoy the game. I look forward to reading that you've cleared it.

Thanks man! Hopefully soon. I should really be playing the dc version, as there's no cap on the extends. I've always wanted this one out of the way.

[Zaarock]

Started playing StellaVanity on hard with type-s. Massive difficulty increase over Arcade but feels like its forcing me to improve.

Seems like a great game, wonder why it doesn't get that much hype. I guess you could say it's a lesser Crimzon Clover/CAVE game but I think there's enough difference to not warrant that (melee attack, overkill damage mechanic and such). Presentation isn't the greatest but being made by one person it's understandable. Would be nice to see on steam some day.

[Stevens]

I've improved my stage 1 score to around a million. Which is a far cry from some runs I've seen (Icarus - Damn!), but good for me. I'm doing 1 to 1.5 on stage 2 and usually getting the 1st extend before the stage 3 midboss. I was also able to grab that 1 UP, but need more practice to do it consistently.

While I haven't bested my high (haven't played much other than some stage practice) yet I did learn one more important thing: That there are spots where you want to just keep spawning diamonds even if a few fall of the screen because there are just a shitload of enemies spawning a ton of bullets.

If it follows the same scoring potential as other Cave titles I think I can break 10 or 11 million.

I get over 50% of my score in Futari on stage 5, and am hoping the same applies here.

[Perikles]

For reasons that are completely unbeknownst to myself, I'm currently quarreling once more against the most heinous shmup in existence. And this time there will be no mercy - I even found a solid strategy for the final stage now. All I need is a single good run where I don't die in stages 4-6 with about eight bombs in stock, but alas, visibility is as colossal a problem as ever.

...

God bless your soul, trap15.

[trap15]

You're basically Jesus, you know that?

[EmperorIng]

Sweet Baby Ray, why, Perikles? Why?

[Stevens]

What game is that?