Shmups

[spatular]

^ that looks quite bad  i'll probably get it anyway because progear. might be worth waiting for the other versions in case the lag is reduced though.

 

edit - got it and it seems ok (using M30 pad), not very noticeable lag like in the video.

[Dig Dug]

Giving me ptsd of the vasara collection switch port. No buy.

[geldra]

I haven’t touched Giga Wing but Progear feels mostly normal to me. 
 

Wired Pro controller.

Display Settings- Size:Arcade, Filter: Type F, Frame: Impress (cos it’s class)

 

edit: tried Giga Wing. I can appreciate what’s going on in that clip above but that’s not how it is for me (trying with the Pro cont’s dpad. It seems as responsive as I’d expect. 

[spatular]

^ yeah i just had a quick go at lunch, using an M30 pad it seemed ok, maybe there is some lag but it was hard to tell, not like in that video. had fun on progear and gigawing, not played those in a while so no idea how accurate the emulation is, framerate did seem a bit odd in places but that could be normal, cave games don't always slow down smoothly. there's loads more options/settings etc than i'd expected for such a low price.

[Dig Dug]

Cybattler got added to Arcade Archives today. Pretty damn good game.

[geldra]

3 minutes ago, Dig Dug said:

Cybattler got added to Arcade Archives today. Pretty damn good game.

Ah is that the game where the DLC character in Psyvariar Delta comes from?  Nice!!

[Jazz Glands]

Wait - Wired controllers are worse for input lag for Switch than wireless? Wtf? 

[Rsdio]

I don't know about Switch but IIRC PS4 controllers were tested as being more laggy wired. It seems pretty odd.

 

Edit: Here's one test, but I've seen various people come up with similar measurements over the years so I'm inclined to believe it's probably not far wrong.

[ImmaculateClump]

3 hours ago, geldra said:

I haven’t touched Giga Wing but Progear feels mostly normal to me.

 

That's good to know.

Yer man posted a clip of progear and that didn't look too bad.

 

 

I can remember trying giga wing in shmupmame once when choosing a game for a score competition and it was playable, but it was pretty woolly. If it's a bit of a laggy game to begin with, that won't be helping.

 

Could be a bit of a mixed bag. I'll definitely keep an eye on how it pans out, try the pc version of the free games when they come out.

 

Natsuki is go!
Hopefully get a chance to play tonight! New qute! Eeeeek!

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1175190/Natsuki_Chronicles/

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP4034-CUSA26074_00-NATSUKICHRON00EU

 

 

[Klatrymadon]

I won't have a chance to play it properly for a while but I love it so far! Went straight into arcade mode and played up to the st3 boss. It has shorter levels than Ginga Force, with changes of weapons strewn throughout so that you can always bring the right loadout for the job. It has less of an emphasis on stage-specific gimmicks and seems to be trying to craft a more traditional memoriser, only more open-ended in terms of the the options you have for tackling a given section. Anyone who found GF too oddball in its overall structure and approach to stage design should feel more comfortable with it - it's much more breezy and arcadey, and requires less of an investment to get into since it doesn't make you unlock stages in the story mode for AC mode, etc.

(Not sure about the sniper-scope lasers on the bullets yet, though - might turn them off and see if they were helping at all.)

 

Edit: I'm reliably told it is much more strictly memorisation-heavy on extreme difficulty, heh (e.g. pick up the wrong shield power-up and you're finished).

[Jonster]

8 hours ago, ImmaculateClump said:

Managed to get in touch with the Void Gore dev and show him some footage and he thinks he knows what's going on and that it's an easy fix.
He says some enemies are spawning almost entirely outside the playarea and it's set up so that they're killed automatically when they leave the playarea but if they've never truly entered then they never leave, and they're just floating off on their merry way forever.

I had that exact issue while making my game. I also have a limit on the total of one type that can spawn at any one time, so if it reached that limit none would appear. Was a pretty easy fix but took me a while to notice, so can see how it could slip through.

 

Had an hour or so on Void Gore tonight as the Guilty Gear beta is down. It’s pretty good but I didn’t like how weak you are at the start, when you can barely kill any enemies. It’s nice that the curve seems to be that the ship gets stronger as you get better though.

 

Interesting that the multiplier goes higher when you’re on your last life too, nice risk reward for anyone feeling brave!

[Jonster]

The more I’ve played of Void Gore, the more I’ve grown to not like it. Two big issues are just hampering it a bit:

Enemy bullets are layered behind your own and hit effects making them hard, sometimes impossible, to spot.

The other main issue I have has been the large number of runs where meaningful power ups just don’t drop. When I’m reaching wave 6 or 7 and I can only kill an eyeball by following it across the screen, and barely kill it before it leaves. That’s if I can kill one at all mind. It could just be bad RNG, but it’s happened so many times it starts to leave a bad taste.

 

It’s a shame as I was enjoying it. Even managed to reach 3rd on the leaderboard!

[ImmaculateClump]

54 minutes ago, Jonster said:

Enemy bullets are layered behind your own and hit effects making them hard, sometimes impossible, to spot.

Yeah, that's a biggy, especially later in the game where you've got loads of bullets firing out of you.

 

They really need to get rid of a lot of the unnecessary effects, especially that flashing, juddering hud.

 

Have you powered up your ship fully in the store? I don't think I've had a run where I felt particularly underpowered for long.

Hope I'm not teaching my ganny to suck eggs here, but choose the "satan at level 10" and you get a boss to fight on level ten which drops a few health and damage pickups. Never a reason not to do that. Get the 2x multiplier as well.

 

I think that's the main reason why it's so hard to do a roguelite shmup well and why there are only like 3 half decent ones.

If someone, regardless of skill, can just get lucky and have more scoring potential in their run, or get some lucky health drops and live longer regardless of how many times they got hit, it makes a mockery of the whole concept of a leaderboard.

 

Still great fun though.

Can't really complain too much for 4 quid. I really enjoy playing it and I'm hoping it gets patched so I can play it some more.

All totally valid complaints though. I can't argue with what you've said there and I've definitely got some complaints of my own.

 

 

Aaaay, it's my boy, Bornnam!

 

Man, Natsuki is amazing! Had so much fun playing it tonight.
Stage 7 is like "OK, we've had some fun but now you're going to die"

 

My best so far. Looks like stage 7 is gonna be my wall. Got there 3 times and just kept getting pasted.

 

 

7 hours ago, Klatrymadon said:

(Not sure about the sniper-scope lasers on the bullets yet, though - might turn them off and see if they were helping at all.)

 

I really like them. I'm not finding them distracting and they definitely help when it gets hectic during certain bosses.

I'll definitely have to try playing without them once I beat the game though.

[ImmaculateClump]

4 hours ago, Jonster said:

Interesting that the multiplier goes higher when you’re on your last life too, nice risk reward for anyone feeling brave!

 

Oh shit, I didn't notice that! That's a lovely touch.

I kind of wish you never told me because the temptation to suicide to my last life straight away will be mighty strong!

I wonder how much higher the multiplier goes.

[hazeredmist]

Played a bit more Progear - it's absolutely fine, no stuttering or major lag issues. I'm no pro mind so your experience may vary. But I find Vasara Collection pretty much unplayable. I also thought Giga Wing was fine... I was playing handheld with a Hori Split Pad Pro. Both games are a real treat to add to the Switch shmup library! Thrilled. I really thought the games would be so much more expensive than they are, and the emulator options are pretty decent I think with difficulty, speed, rewind, display etc all nicely tweakable. 

[Jonster]

9 hours ago, ImmaculateClump said:

Have you powered up your ship fully in the store? I don't think I've had a run where I felt particularly underpowered for long.

Hope I'm not teaching my ganny to suck eggs here, but choose the "satan at level 10" and you get a boss to fight on level ten which drops a few health and damage pickups. Never a reason not to do that. Get the 2x multiplier as well.

 

Yeah, fully powered up. Just get to the point where everything has too much health and I do too little damage. The boss fight is pretty neat, you get less points than chaining a stage, but a guaranteed 3 health and 2 damage powerups to make the upcoming bits easier. The boss fight is also the main culprit of not being able to see bullets though

 

I don't know what the 2x bonus actually does. I buy it anyway though as I've all the money!

 

For £4 though it was good fun, and I did find myself sneaking in a couple more goes this morning...

[ImmaculateClump]

1 hour ago, Jonster said:

The boss fight is also the main culprit of not being able to see bullets though

 

Haha, yeah. I think it's intentional that the bosses sprite covers most of the screen so that you have to react quicker to the bullet patterns, but yeah, I definitely agree with your criticisms, the game needs to be more readable.

 

It gets pretty chaotic later on and you're just hammering the shield button and waiting for some random bullet you can't see to blind-side you eventually!

 

1 hour ago, Jonster said:

I don't know what the 2x bonus actually does.

 

Haha, yeah, me neither, but it's gotta be good, right?

 

1 hour ago, hazeredmist said:

Both games are a real treat to add to the Switch shmup library! Thrilled.

 

Nice one, Haze!
I've only had a few shots on giga wing but it seemed really good fun.
I think progear was the game that got me into bullet hell back in the day.
I can remember my friend coming over one day and I was going "look at what I found in mame! Look at how great this is!", handed him the pad and he just shrugged his shoulders, didn't get it at all.
Absolute heathen.

 

That boss who's a ventriloquist, when you beat him and he's using the dummy to shield himself from the blast and the dummy has got a frightened look on his face Fantastic!

 

 

Sorry for the quality, just screengrabbed some shitty youtube video

 

I love all those neat little touches you get in games like this. There's probably a thread for that sort of thing already.

I really love the chilling cows in the first stage of mahou daisakusen, always make me smile when I fly over them.

 

[Camel]

1 hour ago, hazeredmist said:

But I find Vasara Collection pretty much unplayable. 

 

Which version? Are they all like this, anyone know?

[hazeredmist]

3 minutes ago, Camel said:

 

Which version? Are they all like this, anyone know?

 

Switch. Haven't played others. On Switch though at least you hit the direction to move your ship, can then go away, impregnate your girlfriend, support her through the incubation, be there for the birth, have a lot of sleepless nights and arguments leading to distance in your relationship, send your child off to school with tears in your eyes and then get back to your desk to see the ship actually move.

[ImmaculateClump]

 

18 hours ago, Klatrymadon said:

Went straight into arcade mode and played up to the st3 boss.

 

Was getting proper darius gaiden vibes on stage 3 where you get that sort of sonar wave laser thing that can go through the walls!

 

PC port is amazing again. I don't know if it's qute themselves or rising star games handling that. You can uncap the framerate if you like. Just left it vsynced at 144hz and it felt great. Really smooth and responsive at 144fps.

 

Speaking of darius, I saw this the other day.

 

 

Not interested in buying burst again, but I'll definitely grab the standalone g-darius on ps4. Haven't played that one yet.

[geldra]

I did a totally unscientific test (can’t check input lag), tried to start the game at the same time and left the controls alone. Game Over’d at pretty much the exact same time. Dunno what this really proves other than display/update wise it’s fairly accurate (for the first 30s anyway). 
 

(I do feel like the actual arc version is smoother, frame rate wise)
 

I have a Brook converter, could test with an arc stick maybe. If I could be arsed. 
 

Also, don’t judge the wallpaper, it’s getting stripped in due course.  
 

 

[ImmaculateClump]

PHWOOOOAR!
Ashtray and everything. That's as authentic as it gets

Did your dog ravage your p2 balltop? What the hell's going on there?

[geldra]

Just keeping it warm...

 

actually, it’s not quite as authentic as it gets. It’s a CPS2 conversion of Progear. Close enough though.

[ImmaculateClump]

Assault Shell, march 19th - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1432970/ASSAULT_SHELL/

 

Quote

Charge up your hyper meter to unleash a powerful hyper mode, but charge it up again to unleash the insanity system BLANK STAND, which not only makes you even stronger, but damages the enemy's sanity and turns them insane, making them harder to fight. Use the risk vs reward system effectively in order to score high and destroy efficiently!

 

 

Got to the stage 7 boss in Natsuki tonight, but I've decided to work through story mode instead now before tackling arcade again. Makes more sense.

[Jonster]

This was a pretty terrible run at the beginning, got to the boss with about 8 lives and almost no offensive power ups so it took an age to kill  The power ups from the boss started to turn it around though. Don’t know why it says my high score is that though, as the main menu and game over screen both show(ed) 2275710.

[ImmaculateClump]

  

7 minutes ago, Jonster said:

This was a pretty terrible run at the beginning, got to the boss with about 8 lives and almost no offensive power ups so it took an age to kill  The power ups from the boss started to turn it around though. Don’t know why it says my high score is that though, as the main menu and game over screen both show(ed) 2275710.

 

Excellent work, Jonster!

Which level of hell did you get to, or can you not remember?

 

So have you never had a run where the baddies stopped spawning?
I was waiting for the patch since it seemed to glitch out 3 out of 5 runs for me.

 

Really want to fire it up tomorrow and see if I can catch you up now though

[Jonster]

Pretty sure it was 30 when it ended, but may have been 31.

 

I've not had a run where enemies stopped spawning but I have had a group of skulls just appear out of nowhere in the playfield without warning several times.

[geldra]

Woah nice @Jonster!

 

the top score on Switch is 3868315!!  Second is 2613425.  That’s one hell of a drop off.

 

Also, my high score displays differently on the leaderboard versus what’s on the bottom of the main menu. 

[ImmaculateClump]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1530070/Snake2_DX_Reawakening/

 

This looks like it'll be a shiter, but you sort of have to admire their fanatical devotion to the dark lord of screenshake there. They've really gone for it. It's pretty much all shake and no screen towards the end there.

 

 

I went and sniffed around their website and it's pretty neat! - https://ultimatewalrus.com/

[MattyP]

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Arcade-Classics-Anniversary-Collection-1548600.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=NOE_eShop_WishListNotification_Discount#Overview

 

Konami Arcade Classics currently £3.99 on the Switch if anyone is still looking for it. Don't think I've seen it at such a low price.