Sigh. Haven't played in a week now.

What's worse is I got side tracked after watching a Muchi Muchi Pork review which prompted me to boot that up again last night. Haven't played that in years. Really enjoyable. I find the medal collecting really compulsive. Level 3 boss stopped me in my tracks. BAU re Cave games and me then.

Back at Layer Section and all of a sudden level 6 seems do-able. Weird. Took a break for around a week and after a hour or so of getting back into it and then a few days of regular practice, I'm close to being to go for a run with the aim to get to level 7. 

Backed up with some level 4 practice too and getting more comfortable with the trickiest section it has.

I reckon level 4 and 6 can be done with the loss of a life each , leaving me with 3 (ok - 2 to allow for a screw up) going into the last level. Losing a life in level 4 or 5 isn't the end of the world as it takes the edge off the rank. Level 6 at max rank is probably beyond me at the minute but probably not worth trying to go for.

Need to knuckle down now and not let this get away from me again.

Have started playing an old Taito shmup while I was recovering from COVID. It's a meat and potatoes old school 90s vertical shmup called Gekirindan by Taito.

Very straightforward in terms of scoring and the first 3 levels (out of 5) are rather pedestrian. It was perfect for me to ease myself back in. It's Taito so it has a Zuntata soundtrack but it also has a pleasant look that reminds one of Layer Section. The homing missile looks exactly the same for example and it has a dual layer look to it in later levels (albeit without any lock on attack). By all accounts this was the last shmup Taito did before all the shooter devs left and has some fan service references to Toaplan games.

Getting to level 4 on 1 credit and it starts to show its teeth then. Credit fed to the end last night and the last level cranks up again but I think this will be a managable 1CC for me to do before leaving it. I reckon someone like @Dubs would chalk this up in an hour or two!!   Three quite different ships to play with so it will have some replay value too.

It's implemented nicely in Taito Legends 2 for PS2. Heard it got a Saturn port but it's ropey. MAMEable too.

I keep finding great shmups on my PC Engine mini. It's hard to believe some them are running on an 8-bit machine.

Star Parodier is a definite chefs_kiss.gif

I've started to get DavyK vids pop up in my youtube recs, nice.

nick_md wrote:

I've started to get DavyK vids pop up in my youtube recs, nice.

Heh. Yikes!

I'd like to redo some of them with commentary but I'd need to experiment a fair bit.

Never played it but heard of it. From the same stable as Megadrive MUSHA so has a good pedigree.

Yo Davy, look at what just dropped on my doorstep!

It's another gem from Cave. That the One / PS4 edition @hylian_elf?

Nice.

@hylian_elf and his purchase has me grabbing a few ROMs I had missing.....Feveron and original DonPachi.


DonPachi is a cracking game too. It would be a great intro to shmupping actually.  Managed to get to level 4 on 1 credit - I take quite a bit of hope from that as my basic skills must be improving to be able to do that.

Loving Feveron's general bonkers feel and that soundtrack - can only imagine how great it sounds with the M2 treatment on a console.

It's a bit trickier than the usual Cave game which usually don't really bare their teeth until level 3....took me a few attempts to get to level 3 on 1 credit. It's almost Ketsui level tough at the beginning for casual play.

The scoring seems to be a bit different too - I'm not appearing on the score tables which you usually get to do with Cave games without too much trouble - I presume it's to do with the pickups.  I like the piano chord sound when you take out certain enemies (at least I think that's what causes that sound).

It's really fast paced - as fast as DDP's later levels - which isn't what I'm used to from the start of a game - but it's great for a rush.

Crimzon Clover World Explosion on Steam is the updated original Ignition. A lot tougher. A lot more fun. Cheaper if you already have World Ignition. This is the Switch game now available on PC.


Went back to Layer Section totally cold after 2, maybe 3 months? Wasn't as painful as I thought. Got to level 5 (I normally get to 6) and really should have got to 6.

I'm fluttering around between too many games and not concentrating but I'm enjoying myself. But I'm overdue another 1CC.

Only played the first level of Sine Mora EX on Switch, but it's worth 99p and a bit more so far. I've not played any shmup this philosophical, and I don't think I've played any game (or read any book or watched any movie etc.) that has talked about rape in such a hauntingly poetical way.

And it's a game about moving left to right and shooting things. Are games art? Nob off, course they are.