Enemy/Boss Designs or Level Designs, which you value most?

[Nei First]

I'm curious, what shmup fans here value the most of the two, Which is it?

I thought Border Down for e.g. had better level designs than boss designs. Yet games like Psyvariar 2 and Zero Gunner was the complete opposite.

[black mariah]

Cop-out answer, but it depends on the intent of the game. Games like Raiden where it's all about blowing shit up and beating the game I want some badass enemy designs. When you're talking about score oriented games like Giga Wing or DDP then of course level design is most important. Just look at the ABA games stuff.

[mannerbot]

Is this strictly aesthetics, or does it include placement/patterns? Either way, I pick bullet patterns so I choose not to vote.

[Nei First]

Cop-out answer, but it depends on the intent of the game. Games like Raiden where it's all about blowing shit up and beating the game I want some badass enemy designs. When you're talking about score oriented games like Giga Wing or DDP then of course level design is most important. Just look at the ABA games stuff.

Yeah I see what you mean, you do feel that much better when blowing the crap out of bosses that "used to look" badass!

Thing is in DDP DOJ for e.g. I get my eye candy more from the enemies and bosses, rather than the levels themselves.

[Nei First]

Is this strictly aesthetics, or does it include placement/patterns? Either way, I pick bullet patterns so I choose not to vote.

Good question, I'll stick with just aesthetics for now.
Since placement and patterns directly affects gameplay, if I included that, I think it's obvious what most people would vote.

[it290]

Not a big issue for me, I guess if I had to pick one it would be bosses/enemies, but I rarely have time to really look at them anyway.

[dpful]

I like cool backgrounds and set peices in shmups quite a lot, but particularly in older shmups. I never even saw half the cool backgrounds in Mars Matrix until I played the dreamcast remix- which seemed to have the enemies thin out a bit on the prettier backdrops (so you could see them).

By comparison, I usually notice boring backdrops regardless of the action.

[FatCobra]

Why isn't there a "both" option in that poll?

For me, a shmup has to have both good enemy design and good level design. Both have to give me that atmosphere.

Now that I think of it, I think level design is more important for me because I kill the enemies too quickly to admire them. If I did stop to look, I'd eat their bullets.

It really doesn't matter though, as long as I get to blow stuff up it's all good.