Shmups

[Camel]

It was IV Overkill that I didn’t get on with.

[ImmaculateClump]

Steam are having their first "shmup fest" later in the year. September 25th to October 2nd.

Hopefully it doesn't get too diluted with twin stick shit and vampire survivor clones.

 

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/upcoming_events/themed_sales/SHMUP_2023

[strawdonkey]

[Jazz Glands]

Posted this in the Mega Drive thread too - a couple of new arrivals this week  Two of my three favourite MD shooters, along with Gaiares.

 

[Quest]

I've been playing Raiden V for the last few days. Why are there people talking all the time? SHUT UP.

[fat flatulent git]

Raiden IV is probably my least favorite of the series.  I bought in Switch because the 360 version is expensive now, but haven’t played it much.

 

Hope we get 2 and Fighters on Switch soon.

[Lovelyman]

Now I’ve got my steam deck, what are the best hori shooters of all time that still look decent and play well?

 

 I’m thinking Gradius V, Hellfire, Aero blasters?

 

 Can be either emulated or on steam. 

[strawdonkey]

Deathsmiles and Star Hunter DX are two great ones available on Steam.

 

Hellfire ❤️

[Jazz Glands]

35 minutes ago, Lovelyman said:

Now I’ve got my steam deck, what are the best hori shooters of all time that still look decent and play well?

 

 I’m thinking Gradius V, Hellfire, Aero blasters?

 

 Can be either emulated or on steam. 

Hyper Duel, Eliminate Down, Salamander 2, Macross Scrambled Valkyrie (SNES)

[Sel Feena]

11 hours ago, Quest said:

I've been playing Raiden V for the last few days. Why are there people talking all the time? SHUT UP.

I can kinda relate tho. Mans just wants his coffee 😭

[Klatrymadon]

Hori recs:

 

Darius Gaiden (via MAME or the Cozmic Collection on Steam)
G-Darius (Steam port)

 

You can stop there and have your next two years' worth of gaming taken up by two of the best, tbh. However:

 

Border Down (DC emulation)
Progear (a couple of quid on Capcom Arcade Stadium)
Gradius Gaiden (PS1 emu)
Akai Katana (Steam port)
Metal Black (MAME)
R-Type Delta (PS1)
R-Type Leo (MAME)
In the Hunt / Kaitei Daisensou (MAME)
X-Multiply (MAME)
Xexex (MAME - get the Japanese ver.)
Gallop / Cosmic Cop (MAME)
Tengai / Sengoku Blade (MAME / Steam)
Pulstar (MAME / FB Neo)
Blazing Star (MAME / FB Neo)
Super Dimensional Fortress Macross 2 (MAME)

[ImmaculateClump]

6 hours ago, Klatrymadon said:

Akai Katana (Steam port)

 

Yeah, that's a good recommendation. Will look great on the deck and fill up the screen nicely.

 

The next big steam sale will be March 16th - 23rd, so maybe wait until then before picking up any steam games if you want a bigger bang to buck ratio.

 

Neko Navy

Black Bird
Deathsmiles double pack
Cotton Rock n Roll
Natsuki Chronicles
Cotton Reboot

 

19 hours ago, Jazz Glands said:

a couple of new arrivals this week

 

Musha aleste, I really need to try that soon. I really liked the games on the compilation that M2 put out.

 

Pocky and Rocky got a steam release today - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2200580/Pocky__Rocky_Reshrined/

The gyroblade dev has release a new twin stick shooter, gryogunner - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2268960/GyroGunner/

[PikaStu]

Hori shmups…

 

I’ve got a real soft spot for Sturmwind (either the original Dreamcast version or the remastered Steam release).

 

Schildmaid is also very good, I think it’s out on Steam now (was only on Itch.io for a while).

[ImmaculateClump]

24th march - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2154760/Schildmaid_MX/

 

I played the beta again recently and I'm having exactly the same issues with it as the first time I played.
It doesn't feel dynamic at all.
Enemies just float in with a kind of airport walkway uniform energy.

There are different set pieces there throughout the levels that should feel like interesting spikes, much more memorable, but they kind of just blend into the rest of the stage because everything's too overproduced and hovercraft.

 

I think they should trim the fat ruthlessly, even if that ends up in the stages being a lot shorter (not a bad thing). Kicking up the tempo across the board, but also making the tempo a lot more dynamic as well.

I think the game would feel much more alive if, for example, different enemy waves were swooping in with acceleration in their movement.

They need more knock-kneed debut album energy in the stage design, they need to ruffle the games combed down hair and give it a lot more rough edges.

 

I used the word "soulless" last time I talked about it which I regret because one of the devs took that personally, but that's what I mean, it feels a bit designed by AI in the sense that everything's a bit too clean and polished and unvarying.

Again, this could be something that's very subjective. It has a "simulation" vibe, especially with the robotic announcer voice, and other people will be really into that.

 

I figure it's too late to be giving feedback now. They're on the home stretch and it's all more or less the same feedback as last time, so bringing it all up again won't do any good.

I just have to accept that the games not for me and move on, I'm not a fan of the scoring and the pace of the game. That's all it is. They have a vision and they're sticking to it.

 

They're still making you go through on overly long training mode and also a really easy long campaign mode first time before you can unlock anything spicy which gives more seasoned players a really bad first impression.

Also, an end of stage boss spawned on top of me. Would be nice to have a little bit of grace period before the collision kicks in. It'd feel like a very cheap death to someone playing first time.

 

I keep going back and trying the game because the guy is really cool, I used to speak to him all the time on the cane and rinse forum, but it's just one of those games that doesn't click with me and I can't force it.

I think it's gonna be very marmite when it comes out on steam and more people get to play. They should definitely see that as a good thing, because the people that dig it are gonna really like it.

It's unique, which isn't something you see too often in the genre. Some people are gonna bounce off it, but some people are gonna love it. That's much better than everyone being "meh, s'alright".

 

I can't believe none of us have mentioned Rolling Gunner yet, maybe because it's bastard hard, but the casual mode is great fun.

 

@Lovelyman

Rolling Gunner

 

Why you not horribleman anymore? Turned over a new leaf?

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Got a no miss of the first loop in alien syndrome. I feel redeemed now

 

Much better performance on the final boss now that I know what to expect - https://streamable.com/5hzj3q

 

Playing on shmupmame this time as I was playing battle bakraid and gigawing on my mister the other day and they felt laggy so I stupidly fired up shmupmame on my pc to compare. Big mistake!
Now it feels like I've got a 600 quid mister branded paperweight sitting on my desk
Being able to have proper autofire for giga wing where holding down the shot button overrides it for the force bomb is so much better as well.

 

It didn't feel like there was much difference in the second loop at all until you get to the second last stage where the nasties are moving a lot faster.
No change to the bosses at all as far as I could tell.
They knocked me all over on the last stage, that's a lot tricksier with faster baddies. Died with a score of 809,600.

Played as the bloke this time, it's not the same without the lasses cute bob bouncing about.

 

I don't know what it is about this game that keeps dragging me back, but I really want to beat loop 2 now

 

Still no patches from bitwave for the toaplan games. That's been nearly 2 weeks now :S

[Camel]

24 minutes ago, ImmaculateClump said:

Got a no miss of the first loop in alien syndrome. I feel redeemed now

 

Much better performance on the final boss now that I know what to expect - https://streamable.com/5hzj3q

 

Playing on shmupmame this time as I was playing battle bakraid and gigawing on my mister the other day and they felt laggy so I stupidly fired up shmupmame on my pc to compare. Big mistake!
Now it feels like I've got a 600 quid mister branded paperweight sitting on my desk
 

Oh no.

[ImmaculateClump]

Oh, hang on! I've just tried plugging the mister directly into my monitor and that's much better!

 

I stupidly trusted some random tech guru youtuber linking a lagless hdmi splitter on amazon that I could use to capture footage.
Lagless, my arse!

 

It mustn't be too bad, but once you get to those laggier games, it's enough to push me out of my comfort zone.
Bakraid and giga wing playing waaaay better now. Still feels more responsive on pc, but that's loads better now.

 

Sorry if I gave you a fright there, Camel!

[ImmaculateClump]

New Danbo thingy! A 2 stage experimental game jam thing.

 

https://danbo.itch.io/d-fencer-vs-the-orb

 

I've edited the controls config to play nicer with xinput arcade sticks. Save you having to do it yourself

 

It's the config.json file in the "C:\Users\*USER*\AppData\Roaming\dfencer-vs-the-orb" folder

 

{"video":{"resolution":{"height":1080,"width":1920},"mode":"borderless","display":1,"vsync":0},"input":{"up":[{"key":"up","device":"keyboard"},{"key":"w","device":"keyboard"},{"button":"dpup","device":"gamepad","type":"button"},{"direction":-1,"device":"gamepad","axis":"lefty","type":"axis"}],"fire":[{"key":"j","device":"keyboard"},{"key":"z","device":"keyboard"},{"button":"a","device":"gamepad","type":"button"}],"special":[{"key":"k","device":"keyboard"},{"key":"y","device":"keyboard"},{"button":"y","device":"gamepad","type":"button"}],"slow":[{"key":"space","device":"keyboard"},{"button":"x","device":"gamepad","type":"button"}],"pause":[{"key":"p","device":"keyboard"},{"button":"start","device":"gamepad","type":"button"}],"bomb":[{"key":"l","device":"keyboard"},{"key":"c","device":"keyboard"},{"button":"rightshoulder","device":"gamepad","type":"button"}],"left":[{"key":"left","device":"keyboard"},{"key":"a","device":"keyboard"},{"button":"dpleft","device":"gamepad","type":"button"},{"direction":-1,"device":"gamepad","axis":"leftx","type":"axis"}],"down":[{"key":"down","device":"keyboard"},{"key":"s","device":"keyboard"},{"button":"dpdown","device":"gamepad","type":"button"},{"direction":1,"device":"gamepad","axis":"lefty","type":"axis"}],"right":[{"key":"right","device":"keyboard"},{"key":"d","device":"keyboard"},{"button":"dpright","device":"gamepad","type":"button"},{"direction":1,"device":"gamepad","axis":"leftx","type":"axis"}]},"audio":{"musicVolume":1,"soundVolume":1,"masterVolume":1},"gameplay":{"framerate":144,"difficulty":"superhard"}}

 

 

[ImmaculateClump]

It's really good fun. There's a score to beat, 971,530.

 

 

At the end it says "The D-Fencer will fly again".
I hope we get a full D-Fencer game. That would be amazing!

[strawdonkey]

Yeah that's really good - 361,800 is my highest so far but I'm still getting used to the mechanics. Lots of cool design ideas in there and the risk-reward of not destroying all enemies/making riskier moves to keep the medal chain alive is really good.

 

Hitbox feels a bit chunky and I'm still not sure what good the LB attack is yet, but in general this is really impressive and I'll likely be back for another session.

 

[edit] Also I tried Supereasy mode, didn't notice it being any easier at all but I did score really terribly despite feeling like I played well. So sticking with Superhard instead...

[Sel Feena]

Forgotten how stacked the coming months are, just preordered Batsugun CE, Raiden 3 x Mikado CE and Trouble Witches off Genkivideogames. That’s me done for a while 

[ImmaculateClump]

18 hours ago, strawdonkey said:

I'm still not sure what good the LB attack is yet, but in general this is really impressive and I'll likely be back for another session.

 

It's a missile that causes a big explosion and does damage over time.
Using it strategically, you can effectively be in two places at once.

 

Shoot it at some enemy on the left side of the screen and the lingering explosion will take care of the other enemies that run into it, so you can fly over to the right side of the screen and take care of the enemies over there.

 

Any enemies that die to your missile, the medals are auto collected, so you don't have to worry about chasing those down.

 

The medal system is cool, like in garegga it rises the more medals you collect, and if you drop a medal off the bottom of the screen, the value goes back to the start, but in this game, once the medal value gets to the max, after a little while, it resets and starts again at the beginning, but every medal value loop you manage to go through, the time spent in "max medal value" mode at the end before it resets gets longer each time.

 

As much as I love Rolling Crow and his "all gyrating, all the time" caravans, I think he's wrong to suggest on the itch page that you should just reward the player with max medals forever. It's too much all the time. His games are like none stop sherbet highs.
Danbo's system has a much better ebb and flow.

"wondering how things would play out if instead of the medal loop system existing, you were just allowed to keep max value medals for as long as you could."

 

[strawdonkey]

Yeah I spotted that comment too - I could see that being a goer if the curve to get there took a lot longer, but this incentivises you to play aggressively whilst also not being a giant disaster if you do drop the medal combo. I've yet to get to max medal mode a second time in a row to be clear so there's definitely a skill ceiling to this that many people won't reach.

[ImmaculateClump]

Bitwave have shown their faces.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2022920/old_view/3673286392177810196

 

They've spent months recreating the intro video from the megadrive version of zerowing that nobody wanted, and fixed some of the engrish.
These cunts can't even meme!

The other fixes are piecemeal and show a real indication now that don't know what they're doing. Outzone still using the early protoype romset and just general fuckery across the board.

Maybe people will keep badgering them and these will be great in 6 months time.
I've lost all faith, to be honest. Won't be buying the other packs.

 

 

[ImmaculateClump]

Yaaaas! Sengoku Ace 1cc.

 

 

I started the video near the end where it gets interesting - https://streamable.com/noys5d

I hate psikyo so much.

[phillv85]

What’s the verdict on Raiden III x Mikado? My import version’s arrived but I can’t play it due to the mess my leg is in and my PS4 and arcade stick being in the loft.

[immortaljellyfish]

On 02/03/2023 at 16:22, ImmaculateClump said:

Bitwave have shown their faces.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2022920/old_view/3673286392177810196

 

They've spent months recreating the intro video from the megadrive version of zerowing that nobody wanted, and fixed some of the engrish.
These cunts can't even meme!

The other fixes are piecemeal and show a real indication now that don't know what they're doing. Outzone still using the early protoype romset and just general fuckery across the board.

Maybe people will keep badgering them and these will be great in 6 months time.
I've lost all faith, to be honest. Won't be buying the other packs.

 

 

Think you're perhaps being a bit harsh on them, mate. These fixes are all clearly aimed at casual/mass audiences (controller compatibility, achievements, THAT intro etc) but that's a consequence of the level of coverage they've got, which I should imagine has surprised them. They even got a glowing review in The Guardian!

 

The media coverage is symptomatic of growing shmup awareness in the press, I'd argue - but it's an audience that has different priorities. It's far less concerned with things like ROM versions and frame-for-frame authenticity and is more enthralled with the romance of it all. And I get it - the arrival of Out Zone after all these years and the rejuvenation of a cult IP like Truxton/Tatsujin IS a far sexier story for your readers than moaning about ROM versions.

 

And the inescapable reality is that if you're a tiny studio (which Bitwave is, despite the Embracer money) and resources are limited then of course, as a business, you're gonna use them to chase that mainstream money. Hopefully once that well has run dry they'll return to the more hardcore audience and service them a little.

[ImmaculateClump]

58 minutes ago, immortaljellyfish said:

Think you're perhaps being a bit harsh on them, mate.

 

Oh, definitely. I'm a total drama queen.
I'll be singing their praises again once the meatier patches start to roll in

Playing outzone in shmupmame at the minute, after spending money on it, Actions speak louder than words, that tells you everything. There's loads of slowdown missing in the bitwave version, I'm noticing.

 

I posted this on discord a few weeks ago.

 

"I think the price is fair, especially for the bundle. I just hope they're listening to feedback and are going to patch everything up.
There's an embarrassing amount of issues across the games, especially considering the release date was delayed.
They should have had a lot more people in the know testing these games for them.
You send out a few beta copies to the right people and you've got free playtesting from experts.
I've never played the game so I don't know any better, but releasing an old prototype romset for outzone. I mean, that's just embarrassing, especially when they're claiming to be players themselves and big toaplan fans.
I really hope they can turn this around.
It's make or break for them what happens in the next couple of weeks."

I think after those two weeks, the patch they put out just wasn't what I was hoping for.

 

I really do hope they keep listening to feedback and making these releases what they should be, and I hope we're not waiting this long between patches every time.
If one man indie devs can roll out multiple patches a day with long lists of fixes, there's no excuse.

 

It's all fair comment and totally understandable about the business side of it all, but you have to remember that these games are emulated very well already, if you can't at least match that or improve upon it, people are gonna keep their wallets in their pockets. Why would you pay for a downgrade when the superior product is free?

 

I mean nobody was expecting M2 levels of professionalism, but we were hoping for more than your average hit and run, cash grab "rom in a bag" for the shit munchers who could never get mame running.

I'm not gonna shit my knickers and leave them bad reviews or anything, but they really have to start patching these games in a meaningful way in order for me to play the ones I've bought, never mind trusting them enough to buy their future releases.

 

City connection have been great with their Akai Katana release, that's all patched up nice now on pc and consoles - https://city-connection.co.jp/akaikatana/news/index.html#20230303

 

Quote

 

March 03, 2023 Update patch delivered

An update patch for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Steam versions of "Akai Katana Shin" has been released. The PlayStation 4 version will also be available soon.

・Adjusted so that processing drops more when a large number of items appear in "true" mode.

・Fixed the behavior so that when receiving the enemy's laser in the phantom ninja state in "true" mode, it will be pushed out.

 

 

With that and the deathsmiles double pack, I'm still cautious when I hear their name, but they've won a lot of trust back. Bitwave haven't earned that yet.

[fat flatulent git]

13 hours ago, phillv85 said:

What’s the verdict on Raiden III x Mikado? My import version’s arrived but I can’t play it due to the mess my leg is in and my PS4 and arcade stick being in the loft.

It’s all right but it is probably the worst in the series. Certainly the most disappointing in that the amazing, brilliant purple weapon from 2 was replaced by a shitty green one that DOESN’T LOCK ON to enemies.  It just sways around as you move, like an out of control garden hose.

 

2 has rarely been ported.  I’d love it to come to Switch to complete the set (Fighters apart).

[phillv85]

Ah that’s a shame, so this is more or less Raiden III with a new soundtrack? 
 

I used to have the arcade PCB of the 2nd game, it’s my favourite in the series, wonderful game. 
 

At least these Raiden x Mikado games are budget releases in Japan and as such it’s cost me less with postage and tax than the PAL ones currently are on Pre-order at Amazon.