Shmups

[spatular]

playing with a pad is my excuse for being rubbish in the arcades (it's definitely not because i'm rubbish ). did try and learn with a stick but the chance to play at an arcade happens so infrequently that it doesn't seem worth the effort to learn. so i just stick to a pad. just going to agree with other people saying it's down to preference, you see people get crazy scores with all sorts of things - keyboards, sticks, ps2 pads, fake 360 pads, etc.

[Qazimod]

1 hour ago, Klatrymadon said:

Are pads considered better for FGs? I'd have thought certain motions (360s with grapplers, for example) are far easier to pull off on a stick, and having your punches and kicks laid out in a linear fashion seems easier to get your head around than having some on the face buttons and some on the shoulder buttons, etc.

 

As a pad player myself, it helps if you get an actual fighting game controller. I have an old MadCatz Xbox 360 Fightpad (which I still use on the PC) which has a nice floaty d-pad that makes rotational moves much easier, as well as a traditional six-button layout. I've also got a Hori Fighting Commander 4 for the PS4; again, there's a six-button layout, and a switch to adjust how "loose" the diagonals are - at one extreme it's easy to do rotational moves; at the other extreme it's locked to four directions (which could actually be pretty useful for charge characters!)

 

So I think that as long as you have a six-button layout and a "loose" d-pad that makes it easy to do rotations, you can make it work.

[ImmaculateClump]

Didn't get a chance to play yesterday, but I got my 1cc in Bike Banditz today.

Love it! Best game I've played this year so far.

 

[geldra]

Got some schnidey F3 conversions inbound. Gunlock and Darius Gaiden. 
 

Hoping to try and get into understanding the allure of Darius. 
 

Though it would be easier if I hadn’t sliced my thumb open trying to remove a control panel overlay.  Edit: removed the gore. 
 

At least the result was pretty sweet imo:

 

 

[Spoonman]

 

Rolling Gunner PS4 but apparently they take a long time to deliver/honour their orders.

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Good. Nice to see it coming to another console. Hopefully it'll be available digitally before they wait for SLG to pull their finger out.

 

Magical Blasters looks like it'll be canny. Lo-fi. Pointy witch hat. Sold.

 

 

Got a 1cc of Redneg 3stars normal tonight - https://www.freem.ne.jp/win/game/17441

Fun free doujin game from the Cosmodreamer lads "outside". They have more free games here - https://www.freem.ne.jp/brand/6400

 

It's good, I really like their style. Nice and cheery. Bullet patterns are always inventive and fun.

[ImmaculateClump]

Gah, playing Winged Gear today.

Final boss, he's flashing, just about to die.
Made the stupidest mistake ever.

 

https://streamable.com/m9fuex

 

It's a sickener.

 

Well, hopefully I'll get a better score when I play again.

[ImmaculateClump]

Yes, got the 1cc tonight.

 

Your bullets and enemy bullets do more damage up close so there's a nice risk reward of really going for it to clear the rooms quick and get a bigger time bonus.

Looks like you get more points for picking up the yellow things as quick as you can. I'll try to do that more if I play again. Default difficulty is 4, but it goes all the way to 7 so I'd like to see how that changes things.
Nice little old school, one stick arena shooter.

[Yasawas]

The best thing about being one of those suckers who still falls for the “limited physical release” nonsense is the way they just arrive unannounced months later. Oh yay!

 

 

Oh dear!

[ImmaculateClump]

Got a 1cc of Redneg Allstars tonight - https://www.freem.ne.jp/win/game/20058

 

It's a boss rush game of some bosses from the previous Redneg games.

 

It's fun. I was playing a bit too cautiously though, I think. It does reward you for having lives left at the end so it's best not to get hit, but I was being a bit too trigger happy with my bomb finger.

 

Will have to play again tomorrow and see if I can do better. It's pretty short, which is a good thing! Been playing plenty of games that have felt a bit too long lately.

 

 

[Klatrymadon]

Tell me about it @Yasawas - the Space Invaders Invincible Collection was announced so long ago I completely forgot I ordered it! Turned up last week after what must be going on a couple of years. 

 

Enjoy the wonderful and incredibly important G-Darius port!

 

 

 

[ImmaculateClump]

That's a bit better!

 

 

Tried the endless mode, and it's a bit annoying since it starts at a really low difficulty, it's dead slow and there's like 3 bullets on the screen and it takes aaaages to get going so I just sacked it off.

 

You press F4 to go fullscreen, by the way, if you're gonna check it out.

 

Got a 1cc on Galactic Refugees. Hard mode since normal wasn't touching the sides.

I'm not gonna refund it because it's not that bad, but I wouldn't bother.

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Decided to have another game of XCUTE(me) tonight and did loads better!

https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/1597240/

 

I've realised what I was doing wrong.
The trick I was missing is that if you use the focused (blue) shot on bosses and larger enemies, it builds up your hyper gauge really quickly.

The thing that threw me is that you can focus while also holding rapid shot but your shot remains red, you have to let go of rapid like you would to match the coloured enemies.

 

Very nearly got the 2-all, got to the TLB and made second on the leaderboard.

This has become way more fun now that I've actually learned how to play properly!

 

The second loop is cool, you get more bullets but there's more slowdown so it sort of balances out.

 

If I get a chance to play tomorrow, she's going down.
Literally chucked a load of bullets straight into my stupid face!

 

https://streamable.com/7tskyy

[Yasawas]

On 08/06/2021 at 02:51, Klatrymadon said:

Enjoy the wonderful and incredibly important G-Darius port!

 

I haven't got my head around that one after a quick go (played a surprising amount of GameBoy Sagaia instead!) but is it quite well-regarded? Darius is a real blind spot for me, I'd only played a couple of titles prior to this.

 

DariusBurst Another Chronicle EX+ is hilarious on a Switch Lite btw. I have good eyesight and can't even read "Press Start" on the title screen with that resolution.

[Spoonman]

Guys! I just got my first 1cc! SDOJ XBOX360 mode

 

Definitely seen an improvement overall in my playing abilities in the last months, hoping to build on this and get some more 1ccs under my belt. 

 

This is a massive achievement for me and I'm surprised I managed to do it after having such a poor training session...

 

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Excellent work, spoony!

Here's to the first of many!

 

Chiselled good looks and an arcade cabinet.

I think I'm starting to go off you a little bit.

 

I'll get that watched tonight or over the next few days.

I thought you beat dangun feveron fever arrange. Are you not counting that one?

 

edit:

  

22 hours ago, ImmaculateClump said:

If I get a chance to play tomorrow, she's going down.

 

Ahem. Maybe tomorrow.

 

https://streamable.com/c7fqzp

[Spoonman]

13 hours ago, ImmaculateClump said:

Excellent work, spoony!

Here's to the first of many!

 

Chiselled good looks and an arcade cabinet.

🤣

13 hours ago, ImmaculateClump said:

I think I'm starting to go off you a little bit.

 

I'll get that watched tonight or over the next few days.

I thought you beat dangun feveron fever arrange. Are you not counting that one?

 

That's true. I did that on my first go just chilling in the living room on the PS4. Didn't count it for some reason but I suppose I should do! Maybe I will make a list? Maybe who care's? Either way, enjoying the games a lot, hope everyone else is too!

[ImmaculateClump]

You should definitely make a list, spoonman!
I regret that I stopped counting.
I had a text file that I'd add to when I beat something but I forgot all about it for a year or something and couldn't remember the games I'd played.

 

You're right, as a wise man once said "nobody cares how good you are at video games", but it's a nice thing to file away alongside your cv

 

At the very least it'll help jog your memory. I fired up Eden's Aegis the other night thinking "I haven't done this one yet", loads of replays with my name on :S

[Marlew]

7 minutes ago, ImmaculateClump said:

as a wise man once said "nobody cares how good you are at video games"

 

Fuck's sake. Now you tell me. 

 

😅😅😅

[ImmaculateClump]

The bitch is back!

Get your daffy doj phone run posted, marlew! Genuine heart in the mouth shit at the end

[Marlew]

57 minutes ago, ImmaculateClump said:

The bitch is back!

 

Haha, genuine laugh.

 

Here's that DOJ DX run, such a cute little version for a fiver. I ended up really enjoying it a lot and it's helped me start to learn the later stages of proper DOJ. I love the stripped down flip phone tunes and SFX. Was on for a straightforward clear but ballsed it up royally which made the last boss a bit more tense. 

 

 

[Klatrymadon]

On 09/06/2021 at 08:50, Yasawas said:

 

I haven't got my head around that one after a quick go (played a surprising amount of GameBoy Sagaia instead!) but is it quite well-regarded?

 

Yeah, definitely. I don't necessarily agree with this view, but for most people the series only really hit its stride with Darius Gaiden and G-Darius, which are still generally considered the best ones. They both represent the series at its most spectacular (the sheer scale of some of the battles in G is still impressive and thrilling now), and they both bring a lot depth in terms of scoring mechanics that had previously been lacking. G-Darius is probably the most fun to jump into and mess around with, partly because of the immense boss fights but also because of the Capture Ball system, whereby you can force enemies and minibosses to fight alongside you, each one having different weapons or effects. The game has enormous longevity when you do eventually dig into the scoring, too. Give it a go!

[geldra]

While we’re talking Darius, got hold of Darius Gaiden. Only given it a few mins but what makes me bounce off it a bit is the first level and a half seem pretty easy but also there seems to be a lack of feedback with shots etc. What do the coloured shields mean (appreciate they’re power ups).  Are there any decent guides knocking around? 

[Klatrymadon]

Blue power-ups are for your shield/forcefield, red ones are for your main shot and green ones are for your 'bombs' (missiles in Gradius terminology, but this game refers to the first level of your main shot as the 'missile'). Purple ones give you an extra Black Hole Bomb, and the silver ones give you a random points bonus.

 

This thread should give you a decent primer on everything, although I haven't looked at it in donkeys:

 

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=79

 

(Just as a general tip for powering up your main shot, the white/blue bullets that you start with have much higher DPS than the wave shot you end up with, but there's a certain power level at which you'll have both white bullets and a red wave shot, and you want to stay there rather than fully powering up to just massive red waves, so that you have the best of both worlds. You might not need to worry about this just yet, though!)

 

Edit: also, watch my crappy video for an easy 1CC!

 

 

[ImmaculateClump]

No autofire? No miss?
macthimum rethpec' bruv.

[spatular]

haha yeah, my main tip would be to turn on autofire.

[Klatrymadon]

9 minutes ago, ImmaculateClump said:

No autofire? No miss?
macthimum rethpec' bruv.

 

Cheers! I should re-do it and try to make it a no-bomb run too. It's definitely doable - this is the easiest route, and I bomb in places I don't need to.

 

Most people do play it with 15hz or 30hz autofire turned on, aye. I think it quite fundamentally changes the game in Gaiden's case, but it's probably the best place to start!

[geldra]

4 hours ago, Klatrymadon said:

Blue power-ups are for your shield/forcefield, red ones are for your main shot and green ones are for your 'bombs' (missiles in Gradius terminology, but this game refers to the first level of your main shot as the 'missile'). Purple ones give you an extra Black Hole Bomb, and the silver ones give you a random points bonus.

 

This thread should give you a decent primer on everything, although I haven't looked at it in donkeys:

 

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=79

 

(Just as a general tip for powering up your main shot, the white/blue bullets that you start with have much higher DPS than the wave shot you end up with, but there's a certain power level at which you'll have both white bullets and a red wave shot, and you want to stay there rather than fully powering up to just massive red waves, so that you have the best of both worlds. You might not need to worry about this just yet, though!)

 

Edit: also, watch my crappy video for an easy 1CC!

 

 

Cheers!  I’ll have a read and a watch ta!  I do like Gaiden’s style and it’s almost worth putting the time in just for the music.  

[ImmaculateClump]

 

Yes! Finally get to try this soon!

I think klatry tested this at some arcade before the apocalypse.

 

Really nice lad from the caneandrinse team is involved in this. Look really promising!

 

Schildmaid MX

 

 

[spatular]

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/samsung-the-sero-qled-43inch-tv-at-costco-3742529

 

rotatable tv!