davyK wrote:

The N64 port was pretty swish. Had all the video apparently...

Interesting. I always thought the N64 version must have been cutscene-less, due to cart restrictions.

I've been alternating between story mode (yay persistent upgrades) and arcade score attack (yay having to deal with standard weapons) in Radiant Silvergun.

Yeah I suppose there is absolutely no reason to keep the 360 copies for me now. Not fussed about collecting and having a nice JP 360 collection. Just wanna be able to play them so having versions on latest consoles suits me fine. 

All fingers and toes crossed for Mushi Futari for current console and maybe even Muchi Muchi Pork and Pink Sweets.

Just fired up DDP Resurrection on Switch for first time. Haven’t played this game in years not managed to get to stage 4 mid-boss on first try! It then went all downhill after that. Those bloody circling lasers on stage 5 AAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH

Still absolutely love this. Can’t wait for DDP Reincarnation but I’ll just have to. Haven’t really played much before, only a little on mobile.

There aren’t any leaderboards?? Or am I doing something wrong?

Some Switch ports don't seem to have leaderboards - the non M2 ones at any rate. Mushi doesn't have them either.  Must be a Rising Star thing. Lazy. Doesn't really bother me though as I have the Steam ports. I think I read that a future patch will add them but I'm not holding my breath. The ports (Mushi and DDP:Res) are solid which is all I really care about.

The scoring is a bit of a mystery to me too - Hypers make your combo meter climb like crazy because they cancel bullets. Using them in the right place seems to be key for scores. And building up your combo meter quickly using the flare from your laser and picking up green bees.

The different ships/styles make a big difference to difficulty. Forget now which is the "easiest" - I've got to level 5 quite a few times. If you can get there with enough resources you can bomb and hyper your way through the laser wheels.  Dirty but effective - I've almost done it once or twice - I think with the Blue ship and strong style.

One of the Arrange modes is like a DDP DOJ and Resurrection mash up. There's another really weird one with a pile of counters on the screen - it's a level based score attack which remembers your previous plays and adjusts the rank - presumably upwards for increased scoring opportunities..

Seems to be links to info in this thread if you scroll down a bit.

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=45588

Aye - that Ketsui-Pachi mode (aka BL Arrange) is bonkers. Haven't spent any real time with it.

BL's TLB is fecking insane - even for a DDP game/

Absolutely mental skills

Jaimers.  Mad skill levels. Don't think there's anyone better in the West.

There might be better JP gamers on certain games but for all round he must be hard to top.

Knowing where to look is, for me, always the issue. "Knowing" where your ship is for most patterns and then micro-moving is the way - but when it comes to insane tight patterns - it has to be hard focussing on the hit box.  That and knowing the patterns after hundreds of hours of failure to build up muscle memory for everything except that TLB!!

Players like Jaimers have played so much they can no miss up to the TLB and then it's a case of beating that with as little resources as possible for a large end of game bonus. 

How anyone can do those mad TLB patterns without save state training baffles me. How anyone even gets close in an arcade?  Inhuman. There's a big tradition of arcade playing in Japan which probably explains why they are WR holders but the talent and powers of concentration to do that in an arcade with no practice mode or save points is beyond my comprehension.

Micro tapping can actually deal with an awful lot of patterns even if you haven't learnt them but then you have to cut back or time it for a cancel. I can imagine getting those basic skills to an elite level will go a long way. Still - it's incredible how elite players do it.

I find myself trying to focus but my eyes don't seem to respond sometimes!    Once I lose focus on the hitbox, panic sets in.

Steel Empire was a Megadrive shooter. Was supposed to be good but it pushed the console a bit too far. Has a nice steampunk look to it.

I had a chance to pick this cartridge up but passed on it - probably should have got it. It was supposedly hampered by slowdown according to reviews which put me off.

Nice! I was about to say that’s a very surprising number 1 before I realised that they’re the points!

My 360 collection, gonna hurt to let go of these, except the final row which are the ones not available on newer systems. 

I'd say PS4 is a safer bet re accuracy but Switch will probably end up more collectable and maybe more valuable.

SDOJ will be worth a fair bit even in platinum.

Wifey has bought me SDOJ, Muchi/sweets and Cosmic Smash for DC over the years. Somehow snagged them from Amazon!

I got the PAL games pretty cheap. Under defeat was less than a tenner at one point.