What shmup are you playing now?

[noiseredux]

Gradius IV sucks too.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Exzisus by Taito, which is included on Taito Legends. What a great game, but damn is it hard.

You know how to pick them. It gets worse by Stage 3. SERIOUSLY worse.

I'll get back to you when I finish stage 2.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Okay I made it to level three. In fact I made it to the level three boss. Got my ass kicked multiple times and then I eventually ragequit.

I'll try again soon. I hope to god there are only 4-5 levels total.

I do like this game though. Straight up old school shmup action.

[ExedExes]

Okay I made it to level three. In fact I made it to the level three boss. Got my ass kicked multiple times and then I eventually ragequit.

I'll try again soon. I hope to god there are only 4-5 levels total.

I do like this game though. Straight up old school shmup action.

There are just 4 from what I see. My only issue with the game are the ridiculous checkpoints that can be unfair sometimes. Fortunately that little map helps to determine your location in the stage.

I like it too -- only because I like an edge of real difficulty on my old school shmups, and this game brings it. I can see myself memorizing Stage 2 a little better, I can clear at least Stage 1 with all my powerups intact.

But as always, there are people who've been through the first loop on shmups.org, why do you ask?

[Erik_Twice]

Gradius IV sucks too.

Many players who have beaten both think Gradius IV is harder even if it doesn't have the impossible checkpoints and hitbox issues of III so I'm not surpirsed.


Oh well, I haven't really been able to play much so I have only done full run attempts in Gradius II instead of stage practises. As one becomes better of the game one feels the difficulty of the stages flaten, the "difficulty spikes" or points where you used to get stuck simply become a part of the level design and don't give you any particular amount of trouble.

Since I couldn't play too long I also tried Batsugun Special (Fun, but perhaps not hectic enough compared to more modern games and also kind of easy) and attemped to get further into Dangun Feveron.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Ikaruga.

What a game. And holy hell is it hard.

Problem is, I always "forget" what color my ship, so I have to look at it - and if I take my eyes off the action for a split second I'm dead.

Must practice...

[Erik_Twice]

Played a couple of credits of Gradius II again and I'm confident the Moai stage is no longer a problem. Now that I take the laser and I have a strategy to cross the most spammy parts of the level it seems easy. The boss is a cake walk once you know how to deal with him too!

I feel I'll be able to reach the last stage reliably in a couple of days (6-7 credits?), I'm confident the Boss Rush is not much of an issue now that I can recover at least 1 life at the Zub Rush.

[samsonlonghair]

In preparation for the 2014 Shmup of the month calendar, I'm trying to play a few Shmups that have been sitting in my backlog. This is a genre I haven't properly explored beyond Galaga and Ikaruga.

Right now I'm playing SRD: Super Real Darwin on the Data East Arcade Classics Collection for wii. I was having a lot of trouble at first. I died within one minute on my first ten tries. Now I'm getting a hang of the power-up system. WOW. The power-ups are amazing. This puts the game in a whole new perspective. SRD gives you the Kirby-like ability to absorb the DNA of your enemies to use their powers against them. Now that I'm getting a grasp on the power-ups, my whole strategy has "evolved" beyond simple attack and evade. Next I'm going to see what happens if I try to absorb DNA from different combinations of enemies.

Wish me luck.

[oxymoron]

I started playing Resogun and wow is it amazing. I like shumps as much as the next guy but there's few that make me want to sit and play for hours. Resogun is one of those.

[ExedExes]

In preparation for the 2014 Shmup of the month calendar, I'm trying to play a few Shmups that have been sitting in my backlog. This is a genre I haven't properly explored beyond Galaga and Ikaruga.

Right now I'm playing SRD: Super Real Darwin on the Data East Arcade Classics Collection for wii. I was having a lot of trouble at first. I died within one minute on my first ten tries. Now I'm getting a hang of the power-up system. WOW. The power-ups are amazing. This puts the game in a whole new perspective. SRD gives you the Kirby-like ability to absorb the DNA of your enemies to use their powers against them. Now that I'm getting a grasp on the power-ups, my whole strategy has "evolved" beyond simple attack and evade. Next I'm going to see what happens if I try to absorb DNA from different combinations of enemies.

Wish me luck.

Data East put out some pretty good shmup stuff. Try Vapor Trail: Hyper Offence Formation too. The Genesis port is pretty decent.