davyK wrote:

Just found out I have 5 ps2 shmups that are worth about £100 each. World has gone mad. Pretty sure mame will do them fine. Will keep them though.

Went back to Raiden III tonight after the longest time. Now I have my 21" CRT semi-perma rotated I've been checking out the TATE modes on games I have again.

It seems I've become a better player at any rate - patterns that terrified me when I played this last I can now handle without too much of a sweat - beat my high score on my 2nd game which I remember taking weeks if not months to set. Seems an old dog can learn new tricks.

I'm still not playing on the default level as the game has terrifying bullet speed - but I'm one down from it and got to level 5 of 7 tonight so maybe it's doable after all. The gentle art of tap dodging seems to make it a hell of lot more approachable. All those hours with Gigawing and Futari may have actually paid off.... with this game if not those ones! 

It's a good looking game too - the 3D enemies set against the rather pretty 2D backgrounds look splendid. Nice soundtrack too. It's a pity this thing costs so much but I think it got a Steam release with all the nice features of the PS2 port. It's quite content rich - quite a bit of effort was expended on it with score attack, practice mode, boss rush, single, 2 player, co-op and double modes - all with replay support. Very nice.

Samurai Aces then.

Jesus this game is tough. Mainly because of the bullet speed - precisely why I kicked Raiden III into touch. But I love the styling of this game so while it's as annoying I'm sticking with it.

It also features slow ship speed - another thing it shares with Raiden III - but you have 6 ships to choose from and I've selected a faster one (if truth be known it's the one referred to in a 1CC guide I read at shmups.com)

7 levels - got to level 6 today after crunching level 4 in practice mode and using the tips in the guide. Keeping your firepower at (max - 1) prevents the rank and bullet speed from going insane. Of course dodging powerups can be tedious but as they don't go to the bottom of screen that much it isn't too much of a problem.

It's starting to feel manageable but that's what I said about Gigawing. It's going to require some dedication over the next few weeks.

This is out on Switch now too so is cheap as chips as opposed to the crippling cost of it on PS2.

Wow. Makes the SNES mini or Retron a more attractive proposition.

Also here's a nice little interview with some of the team that are reduxing classic shooters for modern platformers. A lot of talk about Battle Garegga.

It's hard to imagine a game of such scope being delivered via this model of finance.

The only game I ever stumped up for was Sturmwind on Dreamcast. That took a year to arrive after I paid but there were others who waited for far longer then I had.


Was worth the wait by the way.

Dubs wrote:

102 ships but they're £4000 each.   I don't follow Kickstarter stuff outside of Yu Suzuki's emails but a ten stage shmup seems pretty doable to me, as someone who's never made a game.  Cautiously optimistic, anyway.

 

Just checked out those insane prices. Original R-Type more than likely done with 3 guys on a shoestring.

hmmmm...it seems the BL arrange mode was patched to fix the slowdown.

But it's still costs more then I paid for the physical Dx release on 360 so it's a lot to pay for one mode. I'll stick. The original Mushi is on Steam and I haven't played that one yet - so maybe that.

Found a "1-sissy" video for clearing DFK 1.5 with a very good English voiceover (originally French). Picking the strong style and hypering seems to be the easiest way of clearing the default mode.

DDP soundtrack is stupendous. DOJ and Ketsui are great too. The later DDP games have good soundtracks but they don't really stand out as much - probably because of the increased mayhem. There are one or two tracks on SDOJ that I can recall though.

Futari is my favourite soundtrack by a long distance.

Hopping from game to game like a blue arsed fly - booted up Castle Shikigami 2 on Gamecube last night. Wanted to see how it looked on my CRT via RGB.  Looked great.

Plays great too - I love the scraping thing. Get close to bullets and your firepower climbs as does the bonus multiplier for each kill (it climbs depending on proximity to enemies too) 

There's a pile of characters to choose from and the range of weapons, particularly the secondary ones, really make it play differently.  You get auto-coin collect using the secondary weapon too. 

There's two characters that have a secondary melee weapon that requires you to get up close - which helps with the bonus multiplier - makes it play a bit like pacifist mode in Geometry Wars 2.

1CCed DFK in 1.5 Novice using the B ship with strong style.

Shifting to 1.5 arcade mode and getting half way through. So I've started using practice mode. You can kind of freestyle your way through Novice with a bit of practice but the proper game needs planning of routes through levels after level 1.

So starting to rinse level 2 in practice mode. Enjoying it.

On with DDP DFK 1.5 arcade then. Getting to level 4 now.

Using the C ship with stong. Wide shots and slower movement.

I've been doing some focussed practice on level 2 to try and get through with no hits. Have managed it a couple of times. The C-ship's movement makes open play more challenging but helps with the tighter boss patterns but I'll keep with it for now. (edited this post - I got my ship speeds and A/C mixed and was talking bollocks)

I have realised when playing Asteroids Dx I need music on in the background. That's the way arcades were and it's amazing how much of a difference it makes. Busted 50K yesterday with the Propellerheads on in the background for the first time in ages.

Have also realised once I get over 40K you have to be moving around quite quickly toward the end of a wave or else the homing missiles will just pick you off - the movement speed at 40K is brutal - totally changes the end of wave phase of the game.

Love you for keeping this thread alive. I hang my head in shame for not playing more of my shmup s.

Got deep into level 4 last night.

Also started doing some level 3 practice. Just like Futari this game gets mental after the level 3 mid boss. But because of the hypers and auto-bombing it feels possible if somewhat spammy at the minute. Need to plan a route. There's a 1UP available too which I usually get as long as I don't bomb and blow it up.

I've remembered how to get to the Ura route in 1.5 as well - it isn't that tough actually but I'm leaving that for now.

Are there 5 levels or 6? Can’t remember. I used to be able to get to the bit with the rotating lasers on level 5 or 6. Always fucked me, that bit. Lots of popcorn enemies AND giant lasers to avoid.