Close. While it's probably technically possible to kill all enemies and avoid all hits based on skill alone, the game randomly hands out extra time/time extensions which do tip the scale. I believe time is worth 60,000/second in Time Stabilization bonuses or 100,000/second in end-stage bonuses if you're at rank A, so a single time/extend is worth between 300,000 and 500,000. (at least in Arcade mode, haven't really looked at Score Attack)Reiker wrote:Exactly.Zaarock wrote:So, by skill based are you trying to say players are able to reach the same scores in score attack regardless of if they get suboptimal item drops (IE getting attack powerups very scarcely)?
I'm not sure if coin drops are completely random or not - I seem to build my coin value more consistently than my arsenal - but if they are, they're worth at max 900,000 points each.
I figured the randomness was an attempt to dodge the memorizer label, but I feel there would have been better ways to do so without relegating a large part of the game's system to luck - a static drop order with a random starting point, or having enemies randomly drop items from a specific stock of items in a stage would have been a more balance way to shake things up. (though set item drops would be my preference) Randomizing item drops doesn't make the game more appealing to casual gamers - the story and production values did that just fine - if anything, it makes moving past the "these games are made to eat quarters" mentality even harder. A lucky run makes the rest all the more frustrating; the surprise factor you wanted can become the "fuck you" factor very quickly. It's like having a job where they randomly let other people use your desk for undetermined amounts of time but don't adjust your workload to compensate. At least something interesting happened to you today, right?
And it's not like the game doesn't require memorization anyway - if your shot strength is shit (it probably will be), knowing where enemies will spawn is very important to killing them in a timely fashion. I'm pretty sure some bosses can't be beaten if you focus on the wrong part first, and it's extremely unlikely that you'll dodge some attacks if you don't know they're coming. Not knowing what scenery will damage you will end your run very quickly.
Shmups aren't part of the mainstream anymore since the late 90s. While Sine Mora is certainly no second Einhänder it is one of those solid xbla releases (re)introducing people to the genre. Surely not a bad thing.
