Shmups

[geldra]

i think there’s an M2 stream right now demo-ing DOJ and it also referenced Toaplan Arcade Garage #3 though no idea if they’ve announced what’ll be in there. 
 

edit Zero Wing and Hellfire confirmed. 

[phillv85]

Hopefully they get to do V-V and Outzone at some point. Zero Wing and Hellfire are decent games, but not ones that get me really excited.

[geldra]

3 hours ago, phillv85 said:

Hopefully they get to do V-V and Outzone at some point. Zero Wing and Hellfire are decent games, but not ones that get me really excited.

could see them doing an Outzone and FixEight collection. 
 

Wonder what the extra game is in the Zero Fire collection?

 

Edit:  Oooh lots of footage of Batsugun Exa version doing the rounds.

stolen from the Arc Otaku Twitter:

 

Can’t see much difference from OG Batsu tbh. All in the (lack of) input lag I guess. Exa boasts the least input lag of all modern platforms. Nice. 

[ImmaculateClump]

5 hours ago, geldra said:

Exa boasts the least input lag of all modern platforms. Nice. 

 

Well, Exa is just a pc running windows 10. The exa system is stuck at 60hz with vsync on at all times which isn't ideal, but you can buy a separate JVS board for your cabinet that will make inputs nippier.
The games are as laggy as the devs make them, though they do seem to be patching the games and reducing the lag wherever they can - https://exa.ac/en/current-game-version-info/?v=0f177369a3b7

 

Laser issue in akai katana is getting sorted next week. - https://steamcommunity.com/app/2076220/discussions/0/5822622429934360821/?ctp=2#c3762230582699334683

 

Quote

We can fix and update as early as next week, please wait a little more.

 

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined getting a pc port - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2200580/Pocky__Rocky_Reshrined/

 

Hazelnut Hex dev working on something new.

 

I beat a couple of games recently.

东方雪莲华 ～ Abyss Soul Lotus is a canny touhou fan game. I'm not sure I entirely understand the scoring yet, but hopefully it'll start to come together when I try the next difficulty up - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1000440/__Abyss_Soul_Lotus/

Bomber Bomber Gaiden 2 is a fun affectionate parody of the darius games - https://www.chin3.net/game/bomberg2/

It's nice and chill but the hardest difficulty "Chobihige" brings the pain

Wizard's Star 2 is an earlier game from the Bike Banditz devs, which was alright.

Cathy Ray's Tubular Training has some smelly inertia on the controls, but it's a fun run through, not very long - https://oatmealine.itch.io/cathy-rays-tubular-training

Very close to clearing Contlade on normal, one of zakichi's earlier games. It's really good - http://zakichi.ojaru.jp/contlade.html

 

Us shmup nerds looking forward to valentines day for once since the first bitwave toaplan collection is coming out

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2011900/Zero_Wing/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2022880/Truxton/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2022910/Twin_Cobra/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2022920/Out_Zone/

[ImmaculateClump]

35 minutes ago, ImmaculateClump said:

Very close to clearing Contlade on normal

 

Fucks sake! There's a true last boss at the end of normal mode. Might take a little longer.

[spatular]

talking about exa, hope we get an aka to blue port one day.

[ImmaculateClump]

Unless the whole exa enterprise goes absolutely belly up in the future and the devs release the game to home systems to try and make a bit of cash, I think our only hope is if some robin hood style hero nefarious criminal cracks their encryption and dumps the game.

 

That's the maddening thing about these exa exclusives. They ARE pc ports. So close and yet so far
I'm convinced that exa is the reason we didn't get sdoj on pc that time.

 

https://clips.twitch.tv/ExpensiveWildStarDAESuppy

 

Dirty shou collared cave and said "hey, hey, we'll do that for you"

I mean, a port from the team at cave that did the deathsmiles, mushi and dfk ports probably wouldn't have been amazing anyway, so maybe something better will come down the line.

Maybe city connection will port the 360 version soon. I'd like a muchi muchi pork release from them.

[ImmaculateClump]

Aw christ! I was literally one more sword swipe away from victory

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Yes! Finally! Sit down, you purple bat prick!

This game is great

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Some videos to watch if you're hungover or having a slumpy sunday.

 

 

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Bitwave are aiming to release at 1 pm CET today (12pm UK time).
"$7.99 per game or $19.99 for the pack"

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2022920/Out_Zone/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2022910/Twin_Cobra/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2022880/Truxton/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2011900/Zero_Wing/

 

Bundle - https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/28977/Toaplan_Arcade_Shootem_Ups_1/

[Klatrymadon]

I won't have a chance to try these until tonight but unless there's disastrous input lag or something (no reports to suggest this so far), OutZone is worth the price of the bundle alone.

[ImmaculateClump]

Yeah, they're decent. Nice and nippy.
Some weird decisions for the default options. It's using steam controller config by default, but you can turn on raw input instead in the options and configure your buttons in there.

Scanline filter is on by default but again, you can turn it off and set integer scaling and go fullscreen borderless or true fullscreen.

 

There are issues being reported across the different games, for example, apparently they're using an old rom set for out zone so the wrong music is playing and stuff  but they're working on getting everything fixed up.

 

Very nice price for the bundle. Very happy with it!

 

Really enjoying out zone. First time I've played it! Just playing on easy at the minute, but it's loads of fun.

[Klatrymadon]

The raw input config menu is borderline impossible for me to use at the moment. Attempting to highlight a button to change highlights the one below it, and attempting to save a config seems to map every possible function to button '2'. The only thing that works correctly is restoring the default settings with the start button. 

 

Thankfully all I need to do to play a game comfortably is to turn on 30hz autofire, which is in another menu.

[ImmaculateClump]

Blimey, that's not good. Sounds like they definitely needed more people testing the games before release.

Hopefully they're gonna be quick and thorough with the patching though, finger crossed.

Hopefully these are all just teething troubles!

M2 hates us, bitwave, you're our only hope. You can do it!

 

Dead End City has been updated with a new highway mode.
"a caravan stage unique to each driver that uses a modified rule set."

 

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1880840/view/3641759292689481261

[ImmaculateClump]

Woohoo! Sorcer Striker 1cc. That's taken the edge off the humiliation I suffered at the hands of the Japanese version.
The last boss rush stage is a walk in the park compared to Mahou Daisakusen!

Royally fucked up on the first stage of the second loop, and and once I had the pea shooter, it was game over. Got to 2-2 before giving up the ghost.

 

[strawdonkey]

Yesssssssssssss

 

Crimzon Clover World Explosion - Arrange Mode 1CC! This one's been a real journey - the last half of the final stage and all the final bosses are a noticeable bump in difficulty, so really needed to stockpile lives to just have that cushion to get through it.

Scoring nearly 11 trillion points is nice too. Shmup score mechanics will never not be delightfully stupid.

[ImmaculateClump]

Excellent work, donkey! I think you blasted my score as well! I think I only got 8 something.
If you're looking for a mode to try next, I remember the arrange boost mode being a load of fun, the bullets are faster but the patterns are a lot simpler and more sparse so you can react to them more intuitively. It's feels nice and speedy and intense.
Or are you gonna play something else?

[strawdonkey]

Don't think I'm quite done with World Explosion yet - while I don't think I'll go for the 1CC with all three ships on Arrange Mode, I hadn't realised until today that the ships all have a different upgrade order. Type-III gives you an early shield but the break is right at the end of the power-up track so you can take more hits but you have to dodge for longer becuase it takes longer to get the "oh fuck delete the bullets" button online.

 

Boost Mode was fun on World Ignition so I can see myself giving that a crack... Arcade and Unlimited are perhaps a bit beyond my skillset/available time to invest sadly.

 

Have a couple of things lined up net - RefRain ~Prism Memories~, more DoDonPachi Resurrection, Mushihimesama... getting to the last few outstanding things in my Steam library that I've not 1CC'd (or given up on) which is kind of terrifying.

[edit]

Crimzon Clover run:

 

Deathsmiles run I've been meaning to upload since Halloween:
 

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Mushi original is hard! Do you have the 1.5 dlc? I'd go for a clear of that instead, or at least beforehand.
Especially if you're not playing for score and you don't choose max power, it'll be a much more manageable clear.

 

I'm trying to get a 1cc of Alien Syndrome at the minute.
Man, that bastard game is fucking me off. The hitboxes on some of the enemies can be so finicky and there's a couple of moments where you have to be very precise with your inputs. You have to face diagonally and stand still and shoot and that can be a right bastard even if you were playing on keyboard.

The lass in it is well fit!

 

 

Team17 must have played this before making alien breed.

[strawdonkey]

"Boost mode has fewer bullets" he says; not mentioning the fact that everything now spawns death bullets and your bullet deletes are entirely out of your hands. It's tough! Lots of fun though.

 

 

Good old "few more hits on the final boss" syndrome. It's an interesting way to play - taking a hit with a shield doesn't decrease your rank, but it does confiscate your Break Mode - so you are suddenly in a ton of danger at high rank but also horribly underpowered until you can break, and then save up again for a shield. Makes me wonder if the Type-III would be better for the mode as the shield is available earlier on, but at the price of the Break being right at the end of the scale. I don't think Type-III is fundamentally compatible with the semi-auto upgrade picker though and there's just too much going on for me to deal with doing it fully manual at this point.

[ImmaculateClump]

I went to look at a replay to remind myself how it plays and follow along with what you were saying. I might fire up some crimzon clover tomorrow. It looks fun! I remember that. Games used to be fun.
I think I need a break from all the dogshit memoriser dadcrap I've been playing recently

[strawdonkey]

Yeah I've read that paragraph back and it is completely incomprehensible isn't it! 

[choddo]

I forgot how infuriating Twin Cobra is

[strawdonkey]

Sudden burst of productivity:

World Explosion Arrange Boost Mode 1CC!
 

 

World Explosion Novice Boost Mode 1CC! (less impressive but I wanted to do something with the Type-Z ship. Also I forgot that the bomb usage in this mode isn't an auto-bomb so that was fun)
 

Will post some proper thoughts on the game later, but all the modes so far have been really excellent. I did make the stage 5 boss on Unlimited mode but that was a hell of a slog; jury's still out on how much time I will put into that one.

[ImmaculateClump]

15 hours ago, strawdonkey said:

Yeah I've read that paragraph back and it is completely incomprehensible isn't it! 

 

Haha, it might not be your fault. My brain goes to mush whenever someone starts talking about scoring mechanics. It helps to have some sort of visual aid.

 

 

Congrats on the other clears!

 

Yes! Finally 1cc'ed Alien Syndrome today. Fuck that game right out of my life.

 

I changed my strategy on the second last boss, which made a huge difference. I was trying to hit it diagonally in the past which was never consistent, but I totally blitzed it this time. Tidy up the caterpillar egg twats and then get it right in the belly.

 

https://streamable.com/z1mupt

 

Final boss was an embarrassment, he kept sucking me off, and I died pretty early on the second loop, but I did it!

 

https://streamable.com/nryr3f

 

Game only takes like 12 minutes to beat and it's pretty easy for the most part, but you have to just brute force some decent strategies for the bosses through trial and error so you end up playing through it a lot!

 

Huge player hitboxes, tiny hitboxes on some of the bosses and enemies. There's stuff to like, but I'm really glad to see the back of it.

[fat flatulent git]

Raiden III now out on Switch and PS4/5 (not sure about Xbox).

[Camel]

Hmm can’t see it on PS4. Out in June isn’t it?

 

Is Raiden III well regarded? I gave V a go (or was it IV) aaaages ago and didn’t get on with it at all.

[ImmaculateClump]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan either, I've heard 3 is harder than 4 so that was enough for me to just stick with what I've got.
Yeah, steam is saying it's not out until June as well.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2002860/Raiden_III_x_MIKADO_MANIAX/

 

edit: Oh, there we are. It's out on the japanese stores.

 

https://store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000044957.html

https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0622-PPSA05270_00-3269779140973521

[Klatrymadon]

It's only out today on the Japanese PSN store.

 

III is my favourite game in the series, but I'm definitely an outlier in that. If V is the one you bounced off I would give it a shot, though, since the older games are quite different from that one (more immediate, less bloated with 'cinematic' guff). The series in general is cut from the same cloth as Toaplan's games, so you'll be dealing with lots of fast, aimed shots using a fairly slow ship*, using slow-acting bombs pre-emptively to clear tough patterns, etc. If you enjoy their stuff there's a great chance you'll get on with it.

 

*The low movement speed was probably the #1 complaint levelled at III when it was first released, but I never found it any different from the rest of the series, really...

 

Edit: just remembered that Raiden IV Overkill and a much older port of III can often be had for buttons on Steam, if you wanted to check them out.