Shmup of the Month Club 2015 (Completed)

[dunpeal2064]

Yeah, honestly, I think the 2nd half of stage 3 is the hardest part of the game, even moreso than Stage 5.

You are right on stage 4, it has this perfect back-and-forth balance to it, and when you hit the groove, everything just connects naturally. And there are plenty of bullet-cancels to take advantage of.

Stage 3 after the midboss is a place where I pretty much ignore score entirely. If you can really get up there and just try to kill the rolly bugs that shoot the lines, and the pill bug things that spam the little purple dot bullets, things become much easier. The bigger dudes (Giant beetle and Mantis that peaks out and shoots the spread) can mess this up, so I just try to know where those are, and when I have one down, I just spam the top of the screen until they die. It can also help to make big movements, so that those purple lines are skewed towards the side of the screen. That way, you don't have to go in between them as often. If you are stuck between them, spam laser to move slowly until things clear up.

Its hard, it is definitely the wall in the game. Once you get a strat down, though, you can consistently get through.

Stage 5... really, I don't have memo'd at all, and my method of getting through is going to sound very silly and basic, but... just laser every big enemy, and shot every small enemy. Movement through the stage is pretty similar to stage 4, good weaving can get you through even the nastiest stuff, but the main goal is to just immediately kill any big thing, as they are going to break the flow of the movement. And remember, after the midboss, get ready to snag the extend. When the screen moves up and right, and you come across one of the... triceratops? Whatever it is, its a big enemy that you see right at the beginning of the stage. Once you kill him, the screen is gonna shoot back to the left, which is when the house appears, and then it will start moving down, which will scroll the house/1up offscreen. Often, I will bomb the triceratops-thing, just to get in good position. You can hit the house with a bomb, just don't kill it with the bomb.

I think, if you can make it to stage 4, you can make it to Larsa.

If anyone wants a rough demonstration by someone that isn't too great (ie not being super risky squeezing points) for any particular spot in the game, I'm more than willing to try to get something uploaded.

[jepjepjep]

Fever Mode in 1.5? You sure you weren't playing BL?

Haha, yeah, it was 1.5. When the multiplier gets maxed out it seems like the bullets are a lot faster. Maybe I'm just imagining it though. Is there no fever mode in 1.5?

Yeah, honestly, I think the 2nd half of stage 3 is the hardest part of the game, even moreso than Stage 5.

Yeah, it's really rough when all of those big beetles come out. It's one of those sections where you have to know where the beetles are going to spawn ahead of time and pick them off right away in order to stand a chance, otherwise they flood the screen.

I got a run of maniac mode this morning. I'm not sure which mode I like better between this and original. It's got a pretty interesting scoring system, but I kind of like the simplicity of original. I was doing pretty well but things fell apart quickly for me in Stage 4. I gave Ultra a run too and lol. That mode is completely ridiculous, couldn't even get past stage 1.

1.5 Maniac - Reco
jepjepjep - 151,492,984 - Stage 4

[mjmjr25]

Man, Larsa is just mean.

like, first class jerk - mean.

Back to PCB...

Mild score improvement on Original:
147,184,865 - mjmjr25 - Stage 5 (boss) - Palm/A - PCB

[dunpeal2064]

OMG, Mike.. you fought Larsa? 147m!? Fuck dude, I am at work and am just oozing with excitement right now, I think I need to take a break and get some fresh air!

Definitely bomb the tits off of her. You get a bonus for Lives, but I don't think you get one for bombs, or if you do its very small in comparison, so use as many bombs as possible.

(This isn't true for Black Label, where your end-game bonus is Lives x Bombs, so having zero of either will screw you).

@jep: First off, damn nice 1.5 score dude. You blew my score straight out, which is freaking awesome, because now I get to play more Futari.

When you said Fever mode, I was thinking of Black Label Original, because in that one, if you get your Stage Multiplier maxed out, your Overall Counter will start flashing, the bullets move twice as fast, and you can shed large gems from enemies.

I'm not sure if maxing it increases rank in 1.5, but I do know that rank is tied to the Overall Counter, and every 10k increase will jump the rank up. So, if you got the bigger counter to 10k, 20k, etc, the difficulty would jump.

I think 30k and 70k are the most noticeable jumps, so its likely you hit 30k on stage 3 and noticed that as I do.


Kepp pushing this game guys! I am so happy to see 100m+ scores. LETS SEE THOSE 1CCS

[mjmjr25]

Wait, no no no. Not Spiritual Larsa, I thought the big fat 5th boss was Larsa, and the big fat pig riding on the big fat pig was Spiritual Larsa...so, no, no, I have not reached her on Black Label.

As much as I like Black Label, playing on board is just so much more enjoyable right now, so my goal is going to be the ALL on Futari 1.5 original, I think.

I am very pleased this month has opened Mushi Futari so much more fo me. I never realized the scoring in Maniac was completely different (and...better).

I never realized Ultra could be something beyond freak entertainment for someone of my caliber (which I classify as abover average, but nowhere near the top 10% of players).

So, I've played 4 distinct versions of this game and am thoroughly enjoying them all, but I really need to focus on one now. This going back and forth is likely which has me at my various walls (Org. St 5 boss, Maniac St. 4 boss, Ultra St 2 boss, BL St. 5 boss).

I still have not tried Arrange mode on 360 which I understand is completely different yet...like way different.

[DocHauser]

Version 1.5 Original

DocHauser - 150,229,815 - Stage 5 - Palm/A - Original - MAME

[DocHauser]

Black Label Original

DocHauser - 270,067,008 - Stage 5 (Boss) - Palm - Original - MAME

Is there a difference in slowdown between 1.5 and Black Label? I'm getting very little slowdown with the Stage 3 boss in Black Label compared to 1.5, using the same settings. I'm wondering if it's a difference in emulation or if it's like that in the original games too.

[Nyukki]

1.5 Original
Nyukki - 97,829,578 - Stage 4 (Boss) - Reco/Normal - Original - 360

No missed the first 3 stages, first time I've managed to do that. Really wanna join the 100mil club!

[ExedExes]

Popular game!

So then, another score update is in order -

1.5:

ORIGINAL
jepjepjep - 197,327,296 - Stage 5 - Reco/N - PCB
Dunpeal2064 - 179,195,932 - Stage 5 - Palm/A - 360
DocHauser - 150,229,815 - Stage 5 - Palm/A - MAME
mjmjr25 - 147,184,865 - Stage 5 (boss) - Palm/A - PCB
Nyukki - 97,829,578 - Stage 4 (Boss) - Reco/N - 360
ExedExes - 49,123,802 - Stage 3 (Boss) - Palm/N - MAME

MANIAC
jepjepjep - 151,492,984 - Stage 4 - Reco/N - PCB
Dunpeal2064 - 120,161,410 - Stage 3 (Boss) - Reco/N - 360
DocHauser - 79,932,978 - Stage 3 (Boss) - Reco/N - MAME
ExedExes - 43,895,425 - Stage 3 - Palm/A - MAME
mjmjr25 - 34,263,145 - Stage 4 - Palm/N - PCB

ULTRA
mjmjr25 - 8,422,861 - Stage 2 - Palm/A - PCB

Black Label:

ORIGINAL
DocHauser - 270,067,008 - Stage 5 (Boss) - Palm - MAME
Nyukki - 94,645,706 - Stage 3 (Boss) - Reco - PCB

[jepjepjep]

Is there a difference in slowdown between 1.5 and Black Label?

I think the slowdown is really different between the two. At least judging by the 360 port, the bullet speed and slowdown are really different.

Great scores guys!

@EE: I used normal Reco in all my runs.

@Nyukki: What kind of setup do you have there? Is that a cab? It looks pretty cool.