Non-standard harder difficulties in shmups

[Patashu]

What are some ways of making shmups harder that aren't as obvious as 'play on Ultra instead of Maniac'?

To be specific, I'm looking for examples of the following:

* Rank and things related to Rank that can be pushed or cheat coded higher
* Difficulty settings/modifiers that can be changed in the settings or with a cheat code that people usually just leave alone
** Mushihimesama Futari has MAX, which I believe 'just' makes bullets much faster.
** Battle Garegga has HARDER, which I believe makes the rank raise faster and end higher, but I could be wrong. It also has rank differences between regions of the game, and a cheat code that forced rank to be maximum for the entire game would be, err, 'interesting'.
** Blue Wish Resurrection + has ACCEL, which makes bullets much faster.

* Loops that go higher in difficulty than most people will ever attempt
** Gradius III has an internal rank 0-31 that goes up the further you are in the game, the more powerups you have and with what difficulty level you started on - it maxes out ~loop 4 if you never die, ~loop 5 even if you do die.

* Fan made hacks that increase difficulty
** Like Phantasmagoria of Flower View Ultra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVCdWWJr8-c
** Or Embodiment of Scarlet Devil Ultra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_3zZZmap8Y
edit: http://cheater.seesaa.net/category/9478192-1.html

* Fan-made challenges that increase difficulty
** Like always being in Overheat Mode in ESPGaluda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fAe9flGoHM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec9gJNyBAKQ
** Or beating Giga Wing 2 with 0 points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fh6SpmX3vk

* Region differences or port differences that notably increase difficulty
** Like Hong Kong release of Donpachi, which removes safe spots and increases bullet speeds.

[Some-Mist]

this probably isn't really what you're looking for

but mushihimesama hd novice ultra is possibly my favorite mode in mushihimesama hd - I spent the most time playing it out of any other difficulty/mode. it's more fun and feels more balanced than playing regular mushihimesama maniac mode while maintaining a similar difficulty.

[Patashu]

this probably isn't really what you're looking for

but mushihimesama hd novice ultra is possibly my favorite mode in mushihimesama hd - I spent the most time playing it out of any other difficulty/mode. it's more fun and feels more balanced than playing regular mushihimesama maniac mode while maintaining a similar difficulty.

What does it change compared to Ultra?

[LordHypnos]

Along the lines of Gigawing 0 points challenge, there's Ikaruga dot eater. Not sure if that's necessarily harder. it probably depends who you ask. Also NMNB runs or just no bombs challenges. These seem common to do with Touhou games. You could also come up with your own challenges: Timing out bosses, Mars Matrix shield only (or Giga Wing, though no scoring is actually feasible in GW, so that's probably better) Fire Shark green weapon only (I bet that's not even possible, though, that weapon is the worst). A lot of Compile games also have shitty weapons you could challenge yourself to use. I can't think of any others, but you could get pretty creative with self-imposed restrictions.

Edit: I saw a score thread earlier for Dragon Blaze no dragon shot. Only like 2 scores in it IIRC.

[50Hz]

Gimmick ships like Uo Poko in Dangun Feveron? (harder and easier I suppose)
Any other notable ones?

Also Spaghetti Laser Daifukkatsu is another challenge I've seen.

[Squire Grooktook]

Cho Ren Sha 68k has the secret menu that allows you to change ship speed, enemy bullet speed, enemy suicide bullet type, etc. before starting.

[LordHypnos]

Gunbird 2 Hei Cobb 2-ALL
Zil actually did that for real

Maybe in Recca, you could try using the counter subweapon instead of the seeker (I imagine this would make it way harder, because I pretty much always die if I accidentally get a subweapon other than seeker or front shot). Game is hard enough as is, though
Speaking of Recca, there's also the Zanki attack mode which can be easier / harder depending on who you are, but you start with 50 lives and try to finish with as many left as possible (life attack, essentially). The thing that makes it extra hard, though, is the suicide bullets. There are a lot of them.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but in Zero Rei, an X68000 caravan game (3 minutes score attack game), instead of different difficulty levels it has different speed levels. The game is already really fast, but you can make it faster. I think that at least the lowest speed (below default) actually has different enemy patterns, and stuff, so this is bordering on just a straight up difficulty setting.

EDIT: More Ideas! You could try doing a no-hit run of a game with a life bar (e.g. Elemental Master) / that lets you take a lot of hits (e.g. Axelay... I think, anyway). Also you could try Elemental Master default weapon only. Or, lets say you have a game with a lot of power ups, you could do a "low level run" of that (especially interesting if all you have is a pea shooter)
Also 1LCs. This seems most common with non-shmup old school games, but I occasionally see old school shmups played this way. In some cases it might end up actually being easier than having to recover though (Gradius or Darius, maybe?)

[Doctor Butler]

Pacifist runs.

[ACSeraph]

On the topic of difficulty settings people usually leave alone, changing to very hard difficulty in Caladrius pretty drastically changes the boss patterns and bullet properties. It's not just a simple faster bullets, beefier enemies thing.

[Some-Mist]

this probably isn't really what you're looking for

but mushihimesama hd novice ultra is possibly my favorite mode in mushihimesama hd - I spent the most time playing it out of any other difficulty/mode. it's more fun and feels more balanced than playing regular mushihimesama maniac mode while maintaining a similar difficulty.

What does it change compared to Ultra?

patterns in maniac novice ultra are different. in maniac mode the spreads feel a lot tighter making the lanes more narrow. in novice ultra there's sometimes less, the same, or more bullets when comparing spreads from both versions, but I feel the difficulty ramps up a lot smoother up to the 5th stage. I dunno how to explain it... but the spreads are just more fun (for me at least).

it's a weird difficulty that I'd place between original and maniac.

[LordHypnos]

Ooh, another one, I thought of!
A lot of games have arrange modes. Arrange modes are not necessarily harder. Some are actually easier, but some are definately harder. Mars Matrix Elite mode A, for example, is harder, as far as I can tell (also basically a completely different game with new enemies, level layouts, and enemy / bullet patterns). Of two people on this forum who have posted high scores, neither cleared. I've heard Triggerheart Exelica has a harder arrange mode, too, but I've never played it.

Back to Mars Matrix, there's a lot of settings you can unlock in the Dreamcast version, such as Absorption Barrier Mosquito recharge speed, and ship speed. You can use these in the Elite Modes, only, but Elite Mode B is the same level layout as the arcade (though it seems like the sprites are very, very slightly scaled down relative to the palyfield). I think the point of them is to make the game easier, but you could maybe use them to make the game harder (You could use a Recca-speed blue ship, for example )

[cools]

Pink Sweets rosecracker only.

[Ghegs]

R-Type without Force. Works nicely with other R-Typesque games too, I got pretty far in a Pulstar no-pod run.

[pegboy]

Pretty much every Gradius game ramps up the difficulty significantly in the second loop, and even moreso in 3+. These games under maximum difficulty are absolutely crazy.

Of special note should be Gradius III with Wait turned off (removes all slowdown). It makes the game a lot harder in certain levels, mostly the bubble and fire stages. I think loop 2+ with wait off may be one of the hardest shmups in existence. I beat the first loop with wait off, but the second loop is just flat out unfair. It takes anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes just to reach loop 2, and if you don't make it fully powered up you are as good as dead on the revamped stage 1. Dying pretty much anywhere other than stage 9 and you are basically done. A very silly game design wise, but somehow still one of my favorites.

[Patashu]

http://cheater.seesaa.net/category/9478192-1.html
It looks like there's an Ultra patch for Every Touhou Ever.

[chempop]

One of the Shiki games (2 or 3) had a options menu to change the speed and size of the bullets. Hilariously difficult if you maxed them both, I'd love to see a clear of that!

[Xyga]

Pink Sweets rosecracker only.

"how to fry your pink sweets pcb along with your brain"

[DEL]

cools wrote:

Pink Sweets rosecracker only.

Manly. But more Manly is to mash all the buttons from the start of Stage 1. You'll get insane rank by the Stage 1 Boss. I used to do this in the arcade when I was trying to do that 6 lives invincibility trick on ill6's PCB. Made for very intense runs.

Another example would be doing the optimal Stage 1 Red to Stage 3 Green 999 Break route on Border Down. Its so horrible . Managed to pull it off a couple of times to ST6D, but it was far too stressful.

[mastermx]

Having slowdown off for any game that was built with slowdown in mind. That should surely challenge anyone.

[Patashu]

Since it was mentioned in the STG Weekly episode:
Kingdom Grandprix - Place 1st overall in the 2nd loop race rankings.
(As it's technically not required for a 2-ALL people don't do it)

[Legendary Hoamaru]

Eschatos Original Hardest without using the Shield. Advanced Mode for additional firepower.

Ultimate goal in life . Not sure if actually possible though.

[LordHypnos]

Eschatos Original Hardest without using the Shield. Advanced Mode for additional firepower.

Ultimate goal in life . Not sure if actually possible though.

On a related note: Mars Matrix no shield. I don't think that's actually possible though. Maybe Giga Wing no shield would be (I think you can feasibly pacifist it, so maybe). You could also do shield only in GW. That would be interesting.

[ratikal]

R-Type without Force. Works nicely with other R-Typesque games too, I got pretty far in a Pulstar no-pod run.

R-Type Leo using ONLY Force!

[Van_Artic]

DOJ 2-ALL using Shotia.

[chempop]

Playing any game with your TV and controller upside down.

[Some-Mist]

Playing any game with your TV and controller upside down.

I played caladrius tated for about a minute just to make sure it worked and I died twice in that minute.

[gs68]

Gradius Gaiden and ReBirth have some dramatic changes in subsequent loops.

Gaiden changes a few stage layouts, as well as boss attack patterns (e.g. Moai Dimension in st4 has four heads instead of two, Neo Big Core in st8 now has those laser pods when it does its bombs or cone laser, Booster Core's exhaust in st9 now kills you). Most significant is the addition of the new boss Heaven's Gate in st8.

ReBirth not only does stage layout and enemy positions in 2nd loop, it does it again for 3rd loop. Hard mode is loop n+1 difficulty and Very Hard is n+2 difficulty.

Hm, here's an idea: RayStorm and -Crisis, but you must ONLY use lock-on.

[Despatche]

a lot of non-standard difficulty systems and personal challenges self-explain why they're so dangerous. with a single mode, you kinda have to stuff something in there, and the danger is why people clamor for multiple modes. two very different difficulties oughta be enough for anybody, and it's a good idea to design your game so that something like pacifist works, though this is something you mostly design against (e.g. ddp)

futari has max? i thought that was only a bonus mode for the matsuri version of mushi. does the same thing there except you're always at max power too

battle garegga has harder and extended, as does ibara. extended is the normal game and then harder mode in a two-loop fashion. iirc harder has other changes but i can't remember them

[LordHypnos]

I just wish I was good enough at shmups to try self-imposed restriction based challenges. Seems like it would be interesting. I did try Mars Matrix shield only once, but I (unsurprisingly) only made it to the second stage somewhere. I bet the game is totally beatable that way, tho.

You could try Recca bomb only, maybe. Normal game comes close to that, though, if you're playing for score, I believe (charge bonus, and whatnot). The difference is that you get to use a subweapon too, while still receiving the charge bonus.

[Mortificator]

The missions in Sexy Parodius.