It's a splendid game. Feels unique. I can't think of another game quite like it; even the sequels which went a bit more manic and introduced a health bar system to replace lives.
Got a run to level 7 tonight (last level) and got deep into it. Scored just over 13m.
Got to level 6 with 2 lives. Lost a life but then I got the 1UP just before the level 6 boss. Screwed up on the first pattern of the boss which I still can't master and lost a life so hit level 7 with 1 life. I know I probably need to get there with 2 lives minimum for the 1CC and getting to the boss with no life loss.
The mode is mad. You have to do it with 1 life to beat it. The first loop has the 2nd loop patterns and it's 2nd loop has even harder patterns. Laser bombing the bosses heals them.
Had a mini shmup festival in work these last few days courtesy of MAME.
1942 ended today with my rival busting 300K with more or less his last game. He was 500pts off my 299K score on the level 8 boss and got hit - thinking it was game over - but had another life. Went on to hit 360K.
But we also had some R-Type and Phoenix. With a side order of Snow Bros for a change of genre.
edit: I quite enjoy (have enjoyed) bullet hell games, but watchingnyo retreat through a field is amazing, I can;t do that for shit, inch my forward through the fire yeah, but when it comes to retreating for the next attck pattern, I go to ratshit, thanks for sharing
"I spent years thinking Yorke was legit Downs-ish disabled and could only achieve lucidity through song" - Mr B
Yeah. The great players hardly move their ship around at all. All tiny adjustments. Rarely you will get a continuous sweeping movement in a superplay. I find it mesmerising to see a level of skill like that.
My issue is figuring out exactly where to look. I guess it's the same for most people.
Got ESP Ra.De on PS4 which is another thorough job by M2 with all the save states and training mode stuff you'd expect. A 1cc seems doable, just got to get used to bombing. You can earn the bomb energy back fairly easily as long as you're collecting a reasonable amount of scoring items. Only thing I'm struggling with is locating my hit-box precisely in the busier moments. You can make it visible but it's off by default so it feels like cheating.
The basic idea is to hit enemies with the burst fire, which produces lingering explosions, then finish them off with the autofire. You'll then get a multiplier equal to the number of burst-fire explosions touching the enemy +1 (up to 16x) which lasts a short time and applies to both kills and item pickups. The multiplier time can be extended by collecting items.
Once you hit the item limit, if your bomb meter is not full the number will start counting down and any enemies you kill before it hits zero will drop bomb refills. The item limit starts at 200 then increases by 100 each time you do this but it's pretty easy to hit it. Seems like a pretty low cost to bombing, I think you just miss out on the item drops on anything you kill.
Here's some helpful stuff from the shmups forum I have bookmarked:
Survival runs are usually about resources - it's what prevented me from a gigawing 1CC. You need to get to the TLB with 2 lives so you can spam the git with reflects and bombs. (I WILL get back to that). No missing up to level 6 would probably be good enough. That game is mean - no 1ups apart from a mercy one in level 4 if on your last life.
But if there's a sizeable bonus for bombs then maybe there's more to it once you get the survival down. Is there a 2nd loop?
Bomb bonus is a million for a full bar, apparently, I assume it's proportionate to how much bar you have left. There are no loops but there are higher difficulties available in the Custom mode. You can also switch the order of the first three stages around in any mode so there are harder and easier versions of each.
It's definitely an easier one to 1CC, no real routing needed until stage 5 where some of the big enemies can cause problems.
The first 3 stages can probably be ordered to get an easier route or higher scores then. A lot of Psikyo games have that and there are certain levels that are definitely better dealt with earlier. They are random in the arcade but console ports let you choose the order if you want.
Same with Gigawing actually. The order of the first 3 levels depends on the selected character though instead of being random.
Played some caravan games on my SNES last night. Was trialling my new RGB SCART cable with SNES and CRT.
The game is called Caravan Shooting Collection from Hudson and it features 3 shmups that were used by them in national high score competitions in Japan in the 80s. These are the games that were used in the '85, '86 and '87 competitions.
Starforce, Star Soldier and Hector '87.
8 bit graphics with a slight touch up on the sound. Feels like a solid version of the NES originals as flicker is gone etc.
Hector '87 is the only game with actual caravan modes with 2 and 5 min options. Had some fun playing that - got to the boss in 2min mode but can't put it away before I time out. Will have another go tonight.
It's interesting to see how the games developed over the period of 85-87.