List of recommended XBLIG shmups

[Moniker]

So if you dig one genre, everything else is automatically shit?

Lol- you just want another argument don't you?

I guess we need to hear from someone who's actually splashed 400MSP for the full Chain Crusher to confirm it's inherent rubbishness...

Lulz. I wouldn't call it a puzzle game per se. It's just a shooter with emphasis on shooting rather than dodging (cf. Galaga, Space Invaders, &c). I agree that the stages in the demo are fairly meh on account of randomized enemy patterns (I think..), but if later stages required more strategy and interesting clumps of enemies to be chained, it could be quite good. In other words, I really dig the concept, it's the execution that's in question.

On a game like this, I'm sure they'll reduce the price sooner or later.

[mjclark]

Just got:
Infinity Danger which has unputdownable Warning Forever mechanics with improved Treasure-style graphics and realtime online score ranking. My favourite of the lot so far 9.5/10

[spoot]

Just got:
Infinity Danger which has unputdownable Warning Forever mechanics with improved Treasure-style graphics and realtime online score ranking. My favourite of the lot so far 9.5/10

Picked that one up awhile back. Overall worth the buck......but man, do the laser turrets piss me off later in the game.

[mjclark]

Got some MSP and got:
Decimation X3 Really well paced and with the best mechanics of a Space Invaders variant I've seen. Can't stop playing it and now I why understand why it's so highly praised and (as Jason Doucette showed me) has it's own Japanese wiki 9/10

radiangames JoyJoy Visually and aurally beautiful with a simple but satisfying weapon switching/charge shot mechanic. A real pleasure to play 7.5/10

radiangames Inferno Found this very refreshing- like PacMan and Geometry Wars had a baby. Not so sure about the replay value since there's no scoring just survival but, again, really satisfying to play 7/10

Checked out radiangames Fluid and Fireball too but discounted them since there's no shootan!
And although it's got really bigged up in this thread,the trial of radiangames Ballistic seems rather dull both visually and in gameplay. Reminds me of Bullet Candy but not as much fun, and definitely not as good as JoyJoy...

[mjclark]

So it's been mentioned fleetingly on this forum before but not in the OP, what about Atomhex.
Somehow the journey through XBLIG shmups has ended here for me...
...As far as twinstick arena shooters go I reckon it's the deepest of the lot. Lots of multipliers, colour chaining, powerups, bonuses, achievements and if you let things get hectic enough then you temporarily warp into a very different "subatomic" mode. Proper fun and sophistication! 9.5/10

There's also a PC version with the online leaderboards that we love so much

[Moniker]

Coolio. I'll throw that up on the list along with Mega Shooter 11. Seems to have been a sort of drought of decent shooters on XBLIG for a while now. Good to know there's still stuff to be found.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Was browsing on the USA 360 Indie game marketplace yesterday and spotted a cool rendered sprite hori shmup called "Orbitron: Revolution" that plays like Defender/Stargate/Strike Force in that you can switch directions on the fly. Very cool opening CG main title screen (presented in a 1st person viewpoint perspective). It costs 240 MSP. Upon playing O:R on a candy cab, it was presented in 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio (so expect the usual top & bottom black bars if playing it on a traditional 4:3 arcade monitor setup). It does have support for both left analog stick & d-pad as well for controlling your fightercraft (so it's possible to use an 360 HRAP setup with this game indeed). This particular 360 indie shmup reminds me of the graphical aestethics of the Designer's Republic type of vibe, especially on the fightercraft selection screen.

With the O:R demo, after playing a session, you can view a replay of your last run to see how you fared (and areas to improve upon).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[mjclark]

In spite of my initial reservations about it, I've been enjoying Inferno so much that I finally splashed out on

radiangames Ballistic: Well it's not very deep and it's not very pretty but there's something really really satisfying about it. I like this for the same reason as I like Astro Port shmups- it kinda takes the best elements of the genre and doesn't bother with the rest. Good wholesome shmuppin' 8/10

Also bought
Orbitron Revolution: Visually stunning and very nicely presented but frustratngly underpowered and hard to see what's going on a lot of the time 5/10

[Alfred]

Game Type
80MSP
Mommy's Best Games

What do i think about the game?. It's ok, not as good as Shoot 1up. But he's added online scoreboards to this one. Small hitbox, pink bullets. I hope people on here try the demo. My score 7.5/10

There is a saving problem with the game. He's knows about it and it will be fixed in a update (about 7-14 days).

[mjclark]

Game Type
80MSP
Mommy's Best Games

What do i think about the game?. It's ok, not as good as Shoot 1up. But he's added online scoreboards to this one. Small hitbox, pink bullets. I hope people on here try the demo. My score 7.5/10

There is a saving problem with the game. He's knows about it and it will be fixed in a update (about 7-14 days).

Game Type : Lol- just got the full version of this after reading your post and it's really fun. I see it was inspired by disgust at the new 360 dashboard. If Hoodie Girl could change direction (a la Deathsmiles) and the Parkour shot had some kind of gauge required to be filled before it could be used then this would be perfect.
As it stands (and for 80MSP) it's pretty pretty good 7.5/10

[Alfred]

If Hoodie Girl could change direction (a la Deathsmiles) and the Parkour shot had some kind of gauge required to be filled before it could be used then this would be perfect.

Excellent ideas mate. I would also like a boss battle at the end of each level.

[Klatrymadon]

It's good fun, aye. Is there a way to get rid of the game's parody of the new dashboard, though? It places the actual start button several windows deep, which is a bit of a pain on repeat plays...

[mjclark]

And OMW- I just tried the freeware PC version of WispLisp. Mental! Once I'd got the hang of the fact that your focus shot reflects back all the bullets in contact with your mandala it's really clicked for me- could you explain again what the blue powerups do though?

[Moniker]

And OMW- I just tried the freeware PC version of WispLisp. Mental! Once I'd got the hang of the fact that your focus shot reflects back all the bullets in contact with your mandala it's really clicked for me- could you explain again what the blue powerups do though?

You get blue powerups whenever you kill an enemy with the focus shot, which lasts as long as you've got bullets inside the mandala. The amount of points per blue is determined by how quickly you kill that enemy. You've probably noticed getting a bunch of +0 points. If you kill it faster you get +x points.. I'm not sure what the upper limit on it is.

[mjclark]

You get blue powerups whenever you kill an enemy with the focus shot, which lasts as long as you've got bullets inside the mandala. The amount of points per blue is determined by how quickly you kill that enemy. You've probably noticed getting a bunch of +0 points. If you kill it faster you get +x points.. I'm not sure what the upper limit on it is.

Thanks- this is a fantastic game and I'm gonna get it on Xbox today. Only difference from PC version I can see is there's no slow button but this is proper shootin' action
Also gonna try to get Mimi In The Sky but not sure if it's available in UK- it's not in the Indie marketplace but if I replace "en-US" with "en-GB" in the link in this thread it seems to come up...

[Alfred]

Is there a way to get rid of the game's parody of the new dashboard, though?.

No. Sorry.

[Rozyrg]

Game Type gave me a good chuckle. Glad to know I wasn't the only one going mental looking for where the heck they had hidden away the Indie/Arcade channels this time.

[ZacharyB]

You get blue powerups whenever you kill an enemy with the focus shot, which lasts as long as you've got bullets inside the mandala. The amount of points per blue is determined by how quickly you kill that enemy. You've probably noticed getting a bunch of +0 points. If you kill it faster you get +x points.. I'm not sure what the upper limit on it is.

It might be worth noting that all of the bullets within the mandala's range are canceled when the mandala shot is started. By flying close to bullets, the player can continue to power the mandala shot, but those bullets won't be canceled.

--I've just found that the mandala shot only eats bullets for a short time after it's started. It lasts based on how many bullets it eats during this time period. It really pays to be aggressive and push forward into a tight gap of bullets to power the shot for a longer time... and to know what's coming so you can maximize the blue ghost time bonuses.

Then, of course, there's RED, which I've been avoiding by playing on EASY difficulty...

[Observer]

Once you enter RED in WispLisp, bricks will be shat, that's for sure. I think not even the author himself expected the game to be so widely accepted, hahaha. Good thing though, I really like it.

[ZacharyB]

Every playthrough, I always enter the alternate reality after defeating the drooling toast slices. I wonder if the nightmare world is related to RED at all.

On HARD, you start with 50 Red (in the stylish script, no less).

Is there a way to leave the nightmare world?

[MommysBestGames]

If Hoodie Girl could change direction (a la Deathsmiles) and the Parkour shot had some kind of gauge required to be filled before it could be used then this would be perfect.

Excellent ideas mate. I would also like a boss battle at the end of each level.

I agree, I'd also like boss battles in Game Type. So I'll look at adding them.
I've got the fix ready for the high scores. The thing is, I'd like to hold off on a new update until I figure out if I'll do new content or not (like boss battles). Should be another week or so, and I'll sort that out. I'm also looking at expanding the main shot to support different shot types, a few new enemies, bosses, etc. We'll see how much I get done.
And I think I'll release it on the PC as well (the joke won't work really, but the shmup will).

Klatrymadon wrote:
Is there a way to get rid of the game's parody of the new dashboard, though?.
No. Sorry.

Right, so I'll add a button press that unlocks (and shows at the bottom of the screen with the X button tip), so if you find the game once in the dashboard, the next time you play, you can just click a button and hop to the Game Type shmup menu.

-Nathan

[Alfred]

Thank you Nathan. I am looking forward to seeing how this turns out. I hope this isn't too much work for you.

[Moniker]

Pretty rad looking Cave-esque verizontal coming out in Feb: Snops Attack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VVm-VXHIF4

[MommysBestGames]

Thank you Nathan. I am looking forward to seeing how this turns out. I hope this isn't too much work for you.

Game Type has been updated to share scores properly, has a new score multiplier system, and better weapons.
Details here: http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2012/01/ ... dated.html
Give it a spin here: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Produ ... 0258550a27

[Klatrymadon]

Excellent! Cheers, chap.

[mjclark]

Game Type has been updated to share scores properly, has a new score multiplier system, and better weapons.

Sounds fantastic and like Game Type is now a serious contender!

[kid aphex]

Orbitron is the best XBLIG I've played yet
One of the better shooters I've EVER played

Definitely difficult to recognize what's happening at first, but your eyes and mind will adjust, and once they do ---
great game. Everyone on this board should support it

[MommysBestGames]

Excellent! Cheers, chap.

Game Type has been updated to share scores properly, has a new score multiplier system, and better weapons.

Sounds fantastic and like Game Type is now a serious contender!

Thanks guys! And I don't know if this is wrong of me, but I decided I will show no mercy on the high score board.
I reckon some may beat me, but I'll be actively playing for a real score. I'm even looking around online for a bright green hoodie to hand out (possibly) to the first one that can beat me! More for just silliness and bragging than any material worth, but I think it'd be fun.
Oh, and I'll try to leave my xbox with it running as much as possible to share scores (as it is right now).

[Alfred]

Hello Nathan, Thank you for fixing the scoring save bug good man. I am liking the new scoring multipler system and better weapons. The game for me feels more fun. I still need to play a bit more to be sure what i think of it. at Sega Dreamcast and controller in the background.

[Klatrymadon]

Hehe, I take it the loop 18 score is yours, MBG? The new mechanics are fantastic. Despite the ability to slow things down at almost any time, though, I seem to be doing worse than before.