What shmup are you playing now?

[ExedExes]

Picked up some good shmup stuff from GOG's Spring Insomnia Sale, namely Raiden Legacy (DotEmu's compilation of Raiden, Raiden Fighters, RF2 & RF Jet) and one I wanted for a while called Symphony which is a shmup that generates nearly every game element using MP3 files found on your computer. Sweet stuff today.

[DocHauser]

Just managed a 22 million score on Raiden Fighters. Made it to Stage 5 on that run, but I had another run where I made it most of the way through Stage 6 (although I messed up the medals on that credit, so I only scored about 12 million). Considering that my previous best was about 10 million/Stage 3, that's not bad for a couple of days' play.

So much whining on the discussion thread!

[dunpeal2064]

Nice! How early are you hitting max medals?

And yes, the whining

I will be starting R-Type Delta very soon. For my information - and so I know what I am getting into - is it more like R-Type (i.e., memorization, crushing difficulty) or R-Type Final (i.e., reflexes, strategy, manageable difficulty)?

I'd say its more like... R-Type 3? I don't want to compare it to Final, it is far superior. Not as strict on memo as R-Type, I think. I'm actually planning on playing R-Type for that summer challenge thread myself.

Will you be aiming for a 1cc?


Oh... and I 1LC'd Futari Novice Ultra with 844m yesterday. Friend was playing a credit of novice to get his feet wet, and I figured why the hell not. Can definitely say its the only time I've cleared Futari with 6 lives in stock

[DocHauser]

Nice! How early are you hitting max medals?

And yes, the whining

Usually by the end of Stage 2. Most of the superplay videos will start on the forest stage, but that requires some fancy manoeuvres to pull off (and get max medals by the end of the first stage). I find it more comfortable to start on the other stage, where it's easier to collect the 10-90 medals before the first slave ship item.

The thing I don't get about the whining is that most of the people who complain will probably be: (a) Raizing fans (Batrider probably has more secrets than any of the RF games); (b) Cave fans (memorising entire level chains and positions of all the bees in DDP is harder than getting max medals in any of the RF games); or (c) Touhou fans, who will happily spend countless hours perfecting certain spellcards on lunatic. Compared to that, how hard is it to remember where each miclus is?!

[alienjesus]

Trying to beat Solar Striker for Game Boy. I've decided I'm not very good at shmups. Haven't got past the beginning of stage 4 yet - those ghosts kick my ass.

[dunpeal2064]

I've decided I'm not very good at shmups.

No matter how good you get, you will always feel this way.

Most people aren't just "good at shmups", but are good at the shmups that they have played a lot. Of course, after getting good at several dozen, learning them gets easier, but I am still pretty terrible at any shmup until I spend a good amount of time with it.

Its a masochistic genre. If you clear the game within a week or two, you picked a game that is too easy for you. If Solar Striker is giving you trouble, but you are still making progress (Stage 4 isn't too shabby man!), then you are on the right track.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I will be starting R-Type Delta very soon. For my information - and so I know what I am getting into - is it more like R-Type (i.e., memorization, crushing difficulty) or R-Type Final (i.e., reflexes, strategy, manageable difficulty)?

I'd say its more like... R-Type 3? I don't want to compare it to Final, it is far superior. Not as strict on memo as R-Type, I think. I'm actually planning on playing R-Type for that summer challenge thread myself.

Will you be aiming for a 1cc?

R-Type III pushed me to my limits a few years ago. I have gotten better at shmups since then, but I still have a bit of trepidation...Also, there is no way I am going to 1cc this thing. (I am a casual shmups fan at best.)

Good luck with R-Type, BTW. The arcade version is fair, but the last few levels are immensely challenging. (Most home and portable ports are much easier for some reason. Although I could get through R-Type DX (GB) when I was a boy, I had to credit-feed my way to the end of the R-Types (PS1) port a few years ago. Unlike other shmups, however, you go back to the beginning of the level when you continue; so, credit-feeding only helps a little bit with the most challenging sections.

[dunpeal2064]

Ghegs is an excellent R-Type Delta player, so he would be able to offer a better comparison.

He is also the guest in the Delta ep on STG Weekly, maybe check that out to get an idea of what you are getting into. I'd linky but I'm on my cellular device.

[ExedExes]

Damn, if I knew there was another tournament going on at shmups.org, I coulda formed a team with Doc & Dun But it looked like there wasn't a long period of registration like the one back in January had.

And yes, dat whining. Can't have a tournament over there without that, but the one in January was nearly complaint free

[ExedExes]

Yeah, so onto Symphony. I had no idea this was an indie game, but boy is it great.

Each "level" is generated by music files on your computer (and not just MP3s either, I found out, it accepts a few extra formats) and the enemies are dynamically generated by the music, and the more intense the music is, the harder the enemies will be. After every stage, you unlock a new weapon to purchase, and you have 4 "guns" on your ship to assign them to (or you can upgrade a current weapon). One in a while one of the 5 "demons" in the game will challenge you to a boss battle as you're playing, and defeating them gets you a piece to a song that will "liberate your music" from its evil control.

It's no bullet hell, it's more of like an old school style presentation with really nice looking vector style graphics, but there are features such as chain scoring, online leaderboards and most of the modern amenities that newer games have.

$10 on your digital download service of choice or at www.symphonygame.com, highly recommended!