Multiplayer in Shmup

[wgogh]

Most of the shmups have 2 players multiplayer. It is a completly useless feature for you? Of course you wont use for your serious run and beat your record, but any of you have any experience with that? Are there any title wich this works specially well?
Really, I was thinking and Im just curious

[chempop]

The most uncharted facet of the entire genre is coop play. It's a damn shame too because there could be some awesome competition for doubles, think tennis. If the fans weren't pillow hugging shut-ins I think it would be explored a bit more. I personally enjoy playing with a buddy (although some games are better suited than others).

I think the best games for coop are verts with no horizontal background scrolling, such as the psikyo games, dangun feveron, etc. It makes it a little less disorienting imho.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Thread.
When all is said and done, the only reson why we hardly ever play shmups this way is that we are not finding people willing to accompany. I don't really play any modern games online, but I suppose assembling enjoyable co-op there is also trickier than doing vs. See how few Tetris iterations appear to have shared screen co-op (I know only about two), despite this being - surely - easy to replicate. If no more people can be bothered playing co-op TETRIS, how much use they have a chance to find for co-op in a shmup?

[Mortificator]

For the majority of shooters, co-op is just there, but some were designed with special attention paid to it.

Great Maho Daisakusen
Pop'n TwinBee
Turbo Force
Salamander 2
R-Type Leo
Sidearms

There are more I can think of where two players get unique weapons or dual attacks or combinable craft, but that I haven't got the chance to see how well they actually play.

I think the best games for coop are verts with no horizontal background scrolling

Yeah, vertical wobbling's annoying with multiple players.

[Shepardus]

Jamestown was built for co-op, up to four players at once (it's a vertizontal so there's enough room on the screen). Dogyuun has a weird feature where the two players can combine their ships into one more powerful ship that's controlled by player 1. Not sure if it's really co-op at that point though.

There are a couple PvP shmups, such as Change Air Blade, Twinkle Star Sprites, Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream, Phantasmagoria of Flower View, Senko no Ronde, and Acceleration of Suguri.

[wgogh]

Yeah, I played a little bit of Jamestown, and heard about some of the others listed here.
I understand it can be hard to find someone to play with, but Im introducing my brother to shmups so we may find some time to play. (He already found a way to flip his monitor sideway! ;3)

[MathU]

For the majority of shooters, co-op is just there, but some were designed with special attention paid to it.

Great Maho Daisakusen

The "special attention" in Dimahoo being a horribly implemented bomb sharing mechanic where the players easily grab each others' bombs by accident when the other needs them and get each other killed. It's like it was designed to be extra frustrating.

I think some of the best co-op shooting experiences are ones where you can work together to cover your teammate's back. R-Type Leo, In The Hunt, Giga Wing, Mars Matrix, etc. are a lot of fun with a teammate.

When all is said and done, the only reason why we hardly ever play shmups this way is that we are not finding people willing to accompany.

I personally am always looking for people to co-op shooters with. With great coercion I have managed to get some non-shooting-inclined friends in the past to no-continue clear a couple easier shooters with me. Beating an arcade challenge with a friend is exhilarating, and I always fantasize over beating something that truly requires a huge level of coordination and teamwork like Battle Garegga.

[copy-paster]

Gradius V in some sections requires co-op.

[Captain]

i could play change air blade for days

[Nick420]

I would love to have a better experience with co op shmups. But as mentioned before hard to find someone who will play a shmup let alone someone who is preparered to put in the time to get good enough at a particular game where it becomes fun to play Co op.
Also it gets disorientating in a lot of games. And once you think you are the other ship then u have had it.

Also darius burst cs is another good one for Co op play.

[qmish]

"where is my online co-op" is one of most popular "NOPES" to shmup games from new players nowodays

[davyK]

The later Parodius games have co-op features.

I've credit fed with my kids through Futari and Deathsmiles for laughs. Very enjoyable.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Isn't there a thread listing shmups where player 2 ship's weapons differ from player 1's? I know about Trizeal and Guardian Force.

[Mortificator]

Nostradamus is another. There's Aero Fighters, where each side has different aircraft. And in 1941 and Cho Aniki, I think each player had different charge shots, or something subtle.

For the majority of shooters, co-op is just there, but some were designed with special attention paid to it.

Great Maho Daisakusen

The "special attention" in Dimahoo being a horribly implemented bomb sharing mechanic where the players easily grab each others' bombs by accident when the other needs them and get each other killed.

Also the game's core mechanic.

The origin of the elemental affinity system came from us thinking, “I wonder if we can make a game that is easier for 2 players to enjoy?” That is, we had an image of a game where the enemies were arranged in such away, with their bullets aimed at each player separately, that you’d have a game flow where each player would need to use a different elemental affinity as they played.

[gs68]

Dariusburst AC has 4 players, which works because the game is in 32:9.

Multiplayer is in fact required for some Chronicle Mode missions, but Chronicle Mode is dumb.

[BIL]

Are there any title wich this works specially well?

I find co-op more compelling in stuff like Shock Troopers, Senjou no Okami II and SFC Kiki Kaikai. Basically anything topdown and terrain-focused with eight-directional firing. Negotiating terrain while under attack from all sides naturally calls for another pair of eyes, and a buddy to occasionally bust you out of a corner. And multi-directional shooting is intuitive to teamwork both organised and improvised. Kiki is my favourite of these for its guard mechanic, which not only broadens a duo's tactical options, but also lets you actively keep a flagging partner alive.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Raiden III is without screen wobble and works a treat in co-op. Also tends to be enjoyed by folks (re-)introduced to the genre. Remarkably, dual (or is it called "double" there?) play mode seems to be played by fairly many.

[davyK]

Mentioned Parodius earlier - they really are a nice co-op game.

The difference between the ships and the very large selection of them makes for thoughtful team creation.

You can also shoot the other player and when you have made enough hits the other player temporarily morphs into a death dealing fireball - you could navigate through levels taking turns at this - you could even take hits from the other player while they are a fireball and time it so that one of you is always in that state.

It would be interesting to see a game and its levels designed around that mechanic.

Finally in Oshaberi Parodius there is a setting (duet or dual? can't remember) that seems to let you adjust how much firepower each player attracts from enemies - it's set at 50/50 by default.

[copy-paster]

With the huge amount of ship variants and settings, Batrider should on the list.

[ciox]

I don't think there's a lot of games especially made for multiplayer but I noticed a lot of games pay some attention to at least not breaking the game during multiplayer, like the flickering laser in Dodonpachi (DOJ?) that saves some sprites/framerate when two players are spamming the screen, the symmetrical bosses in Psyvariar that allow both players to graze without stealing each other's energy, and more generally some kind of a gameplay rebalance so you don't annihilate everything in seconds.
I also have a hunch the death debris that cancels bullets from Raizing games was primarily designed to save the other player from death, given that the bullet cancelling is pointless for a player that's respawning several seconds later with several seconds of full invincibility, in multiplayer that bullet cancelling actually helps the other player stay alive, the special crazy strats based around using the debris had to come later after the initial design.

I remember something strange about playing Bakraid in multiplayer, I think your chain dropped immediately as soon as any player used a bomb, or only when player 2 used one. May be an attempt by Yagawa to keep scoring working the same way in multiplayer so you can't use two bombs in a row to extend the chain..

Btw I tried doing Batrider multi with someone, they liked all the options available but couldn't handle the bullet/debris visibility at all, and this was Batrider, not Garegga. Creditfeeding galore even on Training.

[Shepardus]

I had no idea Parodius had anything special for co-op, davyK! I'll have to check that out myself, it sounds very interesting.

Edit: Oh my god it's amazing

[wgogh]

I never thought there was that many titles with special multiplayer gameplay.
Hope my friends get used to the (in their words) visual pollution

[rjosal]

I like to play 2 player as a versus mode. Hogging power ups, blocking shots, etc. The winner can be defined as the last man standing, or highest score.

[Stilghar]

Any idea of a shoot'em up that has done co-op where players share lives, power-ups, score and all the rest? Like if one player dies both go back to the respawn point? If one player gets a power up both get it? This kind of thing...

By the way, that's what we are doing for our game and seem to be going quite well in play tests.

[Shepardus]

In Crimzon Clover: World Ignition, the two players share score, break gauge, and break/double break mode (when one player goes into break mode the other does as well). I can't think of any where the lives are shared, though.

[Stevens]

Jamestown was built for co-op, up to four players at once (it's a vertizontal so there's enough room on the screen).

Jamestown not only shines in co-op, but I have zero issue getting my non shooting game friends to play it. They all love it.

[ciox]

Any idea of a shoot'em up that has done co-op where players share lives, power-ups, score and all the rest? Like if one player dies both go back to the respawn point? If one player gets a power up both get it? This kind of thing...

By the way, that's what we are doing for our game and seem to be going quite well in play tests.

It is really rare but I've always liked the idea, it's kind of a pain to perfectly mirror the interface and the stats for both players anyway. I guess the checkpoint respawn issue might be irritating but the way you're handling it is the cleanest, only alternative I can think of is: if only one player is dead the surviving player can still play and respawn the other at the next checkpoint or by catching an item
A more common mechanic for sharing lives I've seen in some old games and shmups is where a dead player can steal a life from the surviving player with Start and get back in the game, do this enough and you're basically sharing lives.

[Mortificator]

Salamander MSX (which is an original game and not a port) sends both players back to a checkpoint when either dies. Each player has a separate power meter, though.

[wgogh]

Salamander MSX (which is an original game and not a port) sends both players back to a checkpoint when either dies. Each player has a separate power meter, though.

It can be irritating...