What shmup are you playing now?

[SNESdrunk]

The Game Boy port of Darius II (Sagaia) is shockingly good, gotta be the best GB shmup although I admit I haven't played too many, I can't imagine any being better than this

[hashiriya1]

Working on Salamander Portable on PSP at the moment. No access to consoles temporarily.

[Soldier Blue]

Playing some Earth Defense Force at the moment. When I play it I use homing and can get quite far on normal. Athough I usually play vertical SHUMPS, I'm still having fun with this game. I don't feel restricted by the environments. Really a great game and underrated for sure.

[ExedExes]

I just picked up Super EDF (SNES). Far more brutal than the original. At least on that I can make it to the end of Stage 2.

I was always a Vulcan fan myself. (the weapon)

[Soldier Blue]

I just picked up Super EDF (SNES). Far more brutal than the original. At least on that I can make it to the end of Stage 2.

I was always a Vulcan fan myself. (the weapon)

Yeah, that's the one I have. I find it not that difficult with the homing weapon. I can get to stage 3 boss without much difficulty. Stage 2 boss just seems very easy to me.

[ExedExes]

The 4 new weapons added to Super EDF don't do that much for me, maybe except the S.Laser but I still like the Vulcan. The arcade original is much easier to me, but I need to put more time into this.

[G-Darius]

Darius Twin (Snes) is still kicking my ass,apart from that Threshold (Atari 2600) and some arcade shooters - Ghost Pilots and Alpha Mission II.
I have been exploring the Sharp X68000 shooter scene which is really a mixed bag with mostly accurate arcade ports and perhaps a few others worth a mention.

[ExedExes]

Darius Twin (Snes) is still kicking my ass,apart from that Threshold (Atari 2600) and some arcade shooters - Ghost Pilots and Alpha Mission II.
I have been exploring the Sharp X68000 shooter scene which is really a mixed bag with mostly accurate arcade ports and perhaps a few others worth a mention.

Darius = Hard. (rough translation)

Threshold is quite fun! It may not look like much but later on it gets more difficult.

Ghost Pilots and AM2 are good Neo shmups. I like trying to build new armors in the latter, and the K power up is useful to keep everything when you die.

[dust_hound]

I picked up Soldner X-2 on PS Vita when it came out this week, and thus far have been enjoying it a lot. I've unlocked 5 stages out of the 10 so far, playing on normal difficulty, although it ramps it up depending on how well you're doing - i'm not sure if that crosses over, so that you can go up in rank from normal to hard, or if within each difficulty setting, there's a range.

The graphics are very nice, with good presentation throughout, and only very mild instances of not being able to pick out threats when the screen is cluttered, but this might even be just me playing without a practiced eye. Enemy bullets are always nice and clear, which makes it good for play on Vita (unlike, for example, Sine Mora). Music is also pretty uplifting in a futuristic techno style. I also like the fact that it really feels like you have to actually 'shoot' at enemies, and be lined up well etc to deal with threats, made harder by the fact that your ship's hitbox is large. That said, one of the available ships is long and flat, whilst the other is shorter and taller (haven't yet unlocked the other one), so you do have a little bit of choice in how to play. (The first one feels kind of like the planes from UN Squadron on SNES, from what i remember.)

Couple of things i don't like much, though - having a health bar, AND lives is a bit too 'euro' for my tastes, and i feel like you have to collect a load of the power up icons to actually have any discernible effect on your weapons' output.

I'm not a hardcore shmupper, though i have been playing games of this genre since R-Type on my Amiga 500 - i've always enjoyed the bombast and the spectacle of a disintegrating boss, but i've never really looked into trying for insanely high scores. I think i WILL try to 1CC Soldner X-2, though, but this will probably be affected somewhat by the dynamic difficulty rank. My actual ability is so low, however, that for me even getting to the end in one credit will feel like a personal achievement.

[retrosportsgamer]

^ Thanks for the review of Soldner X-2. it's a PS3/Vita cross buy, which is nice ($9.99). Was contemplating myself.