That looks rather good. It's a step away from a pure shmup but that's no bad thing.

Shmup heads like repetition. Mastering a game one level at a time is one of the compulsive elements of the genre. So while this looks to be a step away from pure shmupping it would scratch the itch.

Just over £3 on PSN atm.

Done the first 3 stages on the hardest difficulty now. Stage 8 I can't even do on Normal yet. It starts off very pedestrian and perhaps takes too long to buy all the upgrades, but it's a proper challenge once you unlock later stages and difficulty levels.

Good stuff, Jon. Used to play a lotta Sky Force on Android way back when, I'll pick this up later on today.

It's still a bit of a looker, eh?

Is Steam an option?

EDIT:yes. No Windows 10 support though

Downloaded, will give it a blast tomorrow. 

Picked up Dogos in the PSN digital flash sale for around £3. I'd ignored it at launch due to middling reviews but something Davy said triggered a rethink. Shmuppets like repetition, they don't like things that dare break the mold. S'why Warning Forever rarely gets much love in best shmups lists. And Dogos is different. A free roaming twin stick shmup where the left stick controls as normal but the right rotates the world around you, it's pretty to look at, tough as old boots, and gives me mild motion sickness. Reckon I've already got my moneys worth.

Aye, Dogos definitely has issues, the bosses don't have health bars, the ground attack weapons can be a pain in the arse to hit with, destroying bases and power stations is just plain boring once you've taken out the defences, and fucks alive it's hard on anything but baby mode. But you'll get those magic little moments on each level where you're taking out gunboats with a well placed sniper shot and dodging through walls of fire as the world spins around you whilst picking off enemy fighters all at the same time, and you can't help but grin. 

I got more fun out of it in an hour, despite its glaring faults, than I did in the four hours of Uncharted 4 I suffered through before uninstalling.

Finished the last level of Sky Force, but only on Normal. Think that'll do for now. Progress has slowed down on doing earlier levels at higher difficulties to the point I can't be arsed. Maybe I'll return to it another time.

I enjoyed it overall though. Solid 7/10.

Never thought I'd say this but I rather enjoyed playing a shmup on a smartphone with touch control.

Work have just issued me with an Android phone so for the first time I've had access to apps. (Blackberry and Windows have been my previous phones).

Bug Princess Gold Label is a version of Futari for smart phone and it's rather good. There's an area at the bottom of the screen to keep your finger (though you aren't restricted to using it) and my presumed problem about seeing everything isn't there.

It fires automatically though you need to touch a virtual button to switch between shot and laser and to bomb - though there is an auto-bomb function you can buy with credits earned in the game.

It has that free-to-play feel with non-intrusive but nagging ads and locked stuff you need to grind for or pay for. But this is nice. There are characters, creatures/craft and maniac and god modes to unlock and also options (options in the shmup sense that is - called minipets) which you don't get to choose in the original arcade/360 game. There's also a warp to start playing at level 3 you can buy.

The levels have been re-arranged to adjust for the touch control scheme so some effort has been expended upon this. It isn't a sub for the real thing but for on the move this is more than adequate.

1942.

Fuck me what a tough, uncompromising bitch of a game.

Bro-in-law was staying with us last week (25 years in  Austraila - stayed with us a while on a voyage between Canada and Greece).

One quiet night we started trading scores in 1942 - he remembered it from way back and had a fondness. I have the Wii VC version of the arcade game - so that was booted up. He struggled with the controls so out came the Wii arcade stick I have still boxed.

He got to level 6 and scored just north of 200K after a day and half of playing. He claims he reached the end back in the day.

I can get to level 5 or 6 and get close to that (180-190K) but feck me that's scraping the surface of this game's 32 levels.

I really struggle with it - the enemy shots seem to draw my ship like a magnet.

Any tips on this? The game is patternless so memory plays little in this - although you do get to anticipate what passes for set pieces in each level. Accuracy of shots seems to be imperative as enemies sweep around behind you if you miss them first go.

You're not human.

What's the wr btw? can't be much higher than you've got.

Amazing. More than any other game, I can't fathom how people can get really good at Ikaruga. I just don't see how the brain can process so much information that fast and react to it, let alone have the fine control to execute it.

I think it's an amazing piece of game design, and I totally appreciate it. Just wish I could really play it. I could just about keep a single chain going throughout the first level, and reach level 3 on 1 credit. By the third boss though I was already struggling to keep up, and that tower bit on stage 4 would be where my brain finally melted. I only saw the final parts at all due to infinite continues. 

Crazy business.

Ikaruga is a lot like the last couple of levels of Cave's tougher games if your goal is to get a 1CC or better.

Ikaruga differs in that getting those high ranks requires memorisation right from the off. 

Of course other shooters such as Cave's requires similar memorisation right through if going for record scores but even then there is scope for some freestyling. Not so much with Ikaruga.

The name rings a bell - but can't say I've played it - I take it it's the Steam HD release that has your attention?

Played a bit of Legendary Wings last night. An oldie but a goodie fromCapcom. I can remember this running in a cabinet at university in the students' union games room but I also played a lot of this on MAME.

It has the occasional basic run and gun section (it hardly qualifies but that's how best to describe it) before the stage boss, and there is the odd hidden section to find that plays in the same vein, but this is a shooter at heart. Still plays really nice.