Torus Trooper question

[hoodooguru]

Hey y'all,

Though I'm not all that good at them, I love shmups...and just today I just discovered Kenta Cho's games, which I find addictive, fascinating (especially in their look and their quickness!), and...well...a little bewildering.

I've got a question about Torus Trooper in particular: do any of y'all feel like it's not at all clear when a bullet is about to hit you and kill you and when you're about to dodge it safely? I love swinging around the torus, but I feel like it's a little random as to when I'm going to (seemingly magically) fly right through some bullets and when I'm going to get killed by them.

When I did a search for TT on this website, I noticed that at least one other poster seemed to have the same issue I do...but I'm wondering whether some of you experienced players can let me know what the deal is. (Gunroar works the same for me: I don't feel like I can accurately judge when I'm about to get killed and when I'm safe.)

Thanks for this great website!

[WarpZone]

It might be an issue of the hitbox- only the dead center of your ship actually registers a hit, so a bullet can graze the side of your ship and you might think you got hit when you really didn't. In some of Kento Cho's games, you'll actually see the literal square in the middle of your ship that is the hitbox. Of course, all the enemies and bullets have their own hitboxes too.

Otherwise, at least with Torus Trooper, I think it's a little harder to track bullets than usual, partly because of some depth perception issues with the "slanted" view. Also you have a lot less time to react to bullets when you're speeding up and forward on the screen.

[hoodooguru]

Thanks, WarpZone...I think that's it: I didn't quite get the hitbox concept. I just played rRootage, in which the hitbox is very clear, especially because the game's so much slower.