Your weaknesses...

[Damocles]

We all have them, be it an inability to comprehend bullet-spam, a susceptability to fast aimed shots, kamikazes, uhhh.....Psikyo games......

So what are they? Mine is endurance. Give me five long levels and I'm gold. Give me 8 shorter levels equaling the same, and I'm dead. Something about knowing that there's so much ahead immediately puts me in a negative mindset....and that doesn't work well at all. I suppose it could also be the fact that, unless a game really enthralls me, I don't stick with one very long. Definately not long enough to learn intricacies.

*shrug*

[Ord]

Fast bullets do my head in. And my timing truly sucks when it comes to combo shooters like Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun and the Dodonpachi series.

[GaijinPunch]

I'm with ord. I gave up on Ikaruga... if I sat down and played it for about 3-4 hours straight, it would probably sink in. For now, it's just a 'for fun' game.

Fast bullets do me in as well -- what little I played of Mushihime-sama I seemed to do rather bad at, as I was used to slower bullets.

Finally I seem to get in trouble when I go to the top corner of the screen, and can't get back down w/o bombing.

[EOJ]

I'm with ord. I gave up on Ikaruga... if I sat down and played it for about 3-4 hours straight, it would probably sink in.

I HIGHLY recommend you do this. Ikaruga is the greatest shmup experience I've ever had (I've logged over 500 hours on the game, top Normal mode score of 29,500,000). I'd be happy to show you some of the nuances of the game some time, since we both live in Honolulu.

Back on topic, I seem to be bad at having my character on the very bottom of the screen, because I end up focusing my eyes on stuff higher up on the screen, losing track of what's going on down below, leading to many deaths. I do much better with my character in the middle of the screen. Oh, and I suck at horis.

[black mariah]

Fast bullets generally fuck me HARD. This is why I suck at Psikyo, Raizing, and Seibu games. I just can't see the bullets when they're moving that fast. My mind doesn't comprehend that kind of shit at that speed. I spent my formative gaming years playing platformers, not shmups. I'm good at the "I know what's coming, I have to get ready and do it." type shooters like Giga Wing 2 and Ikaruga (maybe GOOD isn't the right term... "Less mind-crushingly horrible" is better).

Bullet spam doesn't bother me one bit. I can wade through huge fields of moderately fast Pink Death at will. The little aimed bullets that fly through the patterns, on the other hand, destroy me. It's so lame!

[obxStorm]

My aging reflexes is my weakness - it doesn't matter what the game is. I'm boderline pathetic at the genre anymore. Plus, sometimes I try to play shmups after having a few drinks. A true exercise in futility.

[system11]

Psikyo bullet spreads (mainly, although Cave fire a couple of these sometimes) that are so fast you basically need to know they're coming before they fire.

[freddiebamboo]

Psikyo bullet spreads (mainly, although Cave fire a couple of these sometimes) that are so fast you basically need to know they're coming before they fire.

Yeah, I prefer the cave mix of reactions and practice rather than the pure memorization required in psikyo style games

[alpha5099]

I hate bullets that defy the laws of physics. Bullets that do not follow the law of conservation of momentum especially. Bullets that speed up and slow down seemingly at random. Bullets that sweep across the screen in a circular pattern. A spread of bullets that goes out, stops, then splits up into a bunch of aimed shrapnel. That kind of shit just fucks with my head, I can't keep track of where they're going to be. They're especially prevalent in Noiz2sa, especially the ones with curved trajectories.

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

My weakness is that I usually die with full bomb stock.

[Rob]

Yeah, I prefer the cave mix of reactions and practice rather than the pure memorization required in psikyo style games

On the positive side of this, I like how in Psikyo games all I have to do is memorize the attacks and then my fingers input the commands perfectly and automatically for me every time.

[raiden]

I hate bullets that defy the laws of physics. Bullets that do not follow the law of conservation of momentum especially. Bullets that speed up and slow down seemingly at random. Bullets that sweep across the screen in a circular pattern. A spread of bullets that goes out, stops, then splits up into a bunch of aimed shrapnel. That kind of shit just fucks with my head, I can't keep track of where they're going to be. They're especially prevalent in Noiz2sa, especially the ones with curved trajectories.

same here. Although, if they are very slow, I can stand bullets that accelerate, brake or stop in midair, then aim to a new direction, like it´s often in Shanghai Alice games. But no curved lines please, that´s just criminal.

[Palmer Eldritch]

Choppers...always choppers.
Be it in Kyokyuku Tiger or any Raiden game, they just (apparently) slip under the radar, freak me out and blast me to smithereens.

90% of all shmup-related deaths in my world are connected somehow to choppers

Oh, and fast bullets, especially the ones from the Raiden choppers.

--Michael

[BulletMagnet]

Bomb hoarding...I almost always die with at least one or two bombs in stock. This is why I'm especially bad at Psikyo's stuff, wherein bombing regularly is more or less required unless you've completely memorized the game...

[jp]

Bomb hoarding and playing when I'm sleepy. Also, shots that come from off the screen (i.e. Gradius II).


And speaking of Gradius, any shmup that complete fucks you over if you die once. I can't stand that shit, and I can never recover in those games.

[Badaro]

My inability to use bombs. I'm always thinking "I know I can dodge this, no need to bomb" a few seconds before a pathetic death.

[]s Badaro

[Moogs]

Lightening Force.

[Shatterhand]

My inability to use bombs. I'm always thinking "I know I can dodge this, no need to bomb" a few seconds before a pathetic death.

[]s Badaro

I used to be like that, but I got incredibly better with time. Nowadays, if I think "I can dodge this", I just BOMB because my mind is just trying to make me think I am better than I really am

Besides that, chaining is my weak point. I suck at that. I think I am a big inability to do the same thing over and over and over with cold perfection (Like some F1 Drivers do), so I end up screwing most of the time

Oh yeah, and I hate bullets with weird motions too. Curved trajctories indeed are hell.

[zinger]

Choppers...always choppers.
Be it in Kyokyuku Tiger or any Raiden game, they just (apparently) slip under the radar, freak me out and blast me to smithereens.

90% of all shmup-related deaths in my world are connected somehow to choppers

Oh, and fast bullets, especially the ones from the Raiden choppers.

--Michael

Hahaha! I know what you mean

[flux]

-Fast spreads, which is why I'm horrible at Strikers 2.
-Bullets/enemies coming from behind. I just can't handle that. I'm not good enough yet to be able to process two sets.
-Two patterns going two speeds, like when a slow spread is shot out, and then a faster one goes through when you're in the middle of dodging the first one.
-R-type games.

[GaijinPunch]

I'd be happy to show you some of the nuances of the game some time, since we both live in Honolulu.

Sure. That'd be great. Perhaps Wanderer had Matt and I over recently, and perhaps will again soon. I can't imagine me putting in TOO much time on Ikaruga with Mushihime coming out in two (seemingly very long) months.

I hate bullets that defy the laws of physics.

You must hate Ketsui then. The bullets have very organic movement. Cool... but a bit frustrating.

[Tychom]

Set up fast radial bullet patterns at 2 or more places on screen at one time and I'm like a deer in the headlights - I freeze, just can't track the most dangerous of the bullets from the different directions.

Memory. I'm awful at remembering things like names, lyrics, oh - enemy formations, attack patterns. That has it's pluses and minuses - It means that when I play it's all kind of new and interesting. It also means I'll never be too hot at stuff like Ikaruga, DOJ or R-Type.

[The Bullet Dodger]

Fast bullets in the Psikyo shmups are a bitch. I find myself duying quite a lot while facing the bosses in Gunbird 2 & Strikers 1945.

I also have trouble with enemies that let off bullets when you shoot them, like in G. Darius, Border Down & Ikaruga.

And those trailing bullets! The ones that follow you around a bit when you dodge them. It's pretty damn distracting when you have to dance around those bitches, while at the same time trying to dodge the other bullets and enemies around you.

[Zweihander]

large enemies (usually bosses) that resemble a large X, and rotate, forcing you to keep within one of four very tight spaces. Gradius 5 did this a few times, and Ikaruga's 3rd boss always guns me down on my 1CC quest.

bullets that shoot their own bullets. :/ what's the logic behind that? LASERS DON'T ASEXUALLY REPRODUCE!!!

any Gradius-style game that leaves you for dead halfway through a level if you fuck up even once. if i get hit before level 3 in a Gradius game (before Gradius V, where you can come back instantly) i always restart the game.

EDIT:
bosses that shoot out two or three different attack patterns, each of which requires a different evasion technique. the final boss of Einhander is a great example, with homing bullets, trajectory-changing bullets, and some other attack while you're busy dodging both of those. :/

[sethsez]

Bullets that change trajectory, bullet patterns with multiple speeds, and men who can cook.

[incognoscente]

Prepositioning (eg. Dodonpachi Stage 5 boss two-layer-fan-attack)
Leading suicide/revenge bullets

[IlMrm]

-Ikaruga - can't chain, can't memorize enemy/color locations, can't change colors fast enough.

-Zero Gunner 2 - haven't master turning/rotation.

-Can't play horis that well.

-Can't dodge bullets that well that are coming from the bottom.

-Need to develop better reaction to dodge fast sprays that are fired close to you.

-I hate dodging stuff at or near the top of the screen.

-Kyoko Fukada

[aurang]

-Super Fast bullets

-.1 second warning enemy SDF-1 macross cannons (damn you rtype)

-Patterns that defy the laws of shmup physics

[8 1/2]

Cool topic.

Almost any game with restarts after you die are my worst enemy. I guess I'm spoiled, but I really struggle with games like Truxton that knock you back and take away your power-ups. It's not even the difficulty that gets me so much as just a feeling of apathy toward having to redo what I've just done.

[Capt. Takehiko]

Most horizontal titles.