What shmup are you playing now?

[ExedExes]

Played Strike Gunner S.T.G last night.

Beat the game on the easiest setting. Probably should have left it on normal, as I finished with a couple of continues left over. Oh well.

What a weird game. It's competent enough and the controls are solid - but my god is it boring. The levels are way too long and all contain a few vast stretches of nothingness lasting 5-10 seconds or so - maybe this only happened because I was on easy mode though?

Weirdly inconsistent difficulty too. Level two seemed to be one of the hardest stages. Also, I have no idea what the final boss even was! I killed the thing before I even got a good look at it. I think I was shooting out the "core" of a ship like in the climax of Star Wars? Who knows.

Not a bad game, maybe I'll enjoy it more on a harder difficulty setting.

Yeah, congrats for playing one of the more out-there SNES shmups ever. It was a port of the arcade, I believe that the original is a little better.

[mjmjr25]

Playing Under Defeat HD after hitting a wall on Cotton Boomerang.

Gorgeous game and finally figured out what i'm mysteriously dying from (seeking missiles I can barely see, but now I know where they are coming from and when).

Hitting middle of stage 3 currently.

[noiseredux]

I tossed in Deathsmiles for old time's sake last night. I can still hit the last level without losing a life, but shit goes downhill fast.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Haha I get annihilated in the last stage of DeathSmiles.

I played a little bit of Axelay and Gradius III (both on SNES) last night. After getting thoroughly owned at both I switched over to Mushihimesama Futari. I've had this game since March (PAX East), but hadn't really gotten around to playing it until now. I "finished" the game, but had to use about a trillion continues. I think this is the most chaotic bullet hell shooter I've ever seen. Fun game, but I'm quite certain I'm terrible at it. I did complete the first level without taking any damage, so there is that I guess.

Next up: I plan on looking into what shmups are available on the Amiga CD32.

[ExedExes]

I played a little bit of Axelay and Gradius III (both on SNES) last night. After getting thoroughly owned at both

I.... don't know what to say to that.

[BoneSnapDeez]

haha I just wasn't good at either one of them, though I'll give them another shot.

[DocHauser]

Almost halfway through the year, so here's my exclusive list of my favourite shmup releases of 2013 so far. I bumped it up to a Top Ten by including the worst game of the year as well...

10. Radical Roach



Bought this with a hefty discount during the Gamersgate sale. The cartoony graphics made it look fairly appealing. It's awful, though. Repetitive enemies, repetitive backgrounds, repetitive boss attacks. Environmental hazards that kill you outright - not just lose a life but instant game over. Except you don't actually get a game over, as it immediately puts you back at the start of the level with 3 more lives. If you were playing for score this would be very annoying, but they helpfully removed that problem but not having a score. Yes, really. Avoid.

9. Raiden Legacy

If these were perfect ports of the arcade games, then it'd probably be #1. Sadly DotEmu messed it up slightly. All of the RF games run better in MAME. There's always the possibility that they'll fix things with a patch or two...

8. Touhou 14: Double Dealing Character

Only the demo version so far, but I quite liked what I played.

7. XYX / Neo XYX

Neo XYX is due for a Dreamcast and Neo Geo release. Who knows if that'll actually get released in 2013, but for now there's the 3-level demo for XYX. It even has TATE!

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/113144

6. The Tale of Alltynex

Three classic doujin releases (Kamui, RefleX, Alltynex 2nd) in one package. All good. The only complaint I'd have is that the price is a bit steep, considering that Kamui is now almost 15 years old.

5. Fire Arrow

From the same guy responsible for XYX. I mentioned this on the thread before, though it was still the beta version. It seems to be finished, so this link should be the final version now...

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/210234-fire-arrow

4. DoDonPachi Saidaioujou

I've only played it in the arcade so far, but the recent XBox360 version is region-free, plus it contains new game modes, so there's no excuse not to order it...

3. Kaikan

Super-fast doujin game with a good scoring system and a variety of ships (including one secret one). It's free too...

http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/winnt/game/se501020.html

2. ∀kashicverse - Malicious Wake

Insane, seizure-inducing Psychedelic-Headfuck-Shmup. For fans of Hellsinker or old Jeff Minter games. You charge-up a special gauge and then use fighting-game commands to release different attacks. It's not as hard as it looks (some of the specials are pretty over-powered) - I've made it to Stage 4 on one credit.



1. Crimzon Clover Arcade

You already know.

I've only got a couple more weeks left in Japan, sadly, so fingers crossed this gets a PC release in the near future...

[Chempop]

Haven't been here in a while, but I certainly am still playing shmups.

Recently I cleared/1-All Akuu Gallet, Cyvern, and Ibara. Right now I'm playing
SDOJ on 360, a little more Ibara on the side, and of course I'll never give up on someday clearing Battle Gregga on saturn.

[dunpeal2064]

Wow, you cleared Ibara? Impressive. You should be able to tackle Garegga, I find Ibara much more punishing.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I played a little bit of Axelay and Gradius III (both on SNES) last night. After getting thoroughly owned at both

I.... don't know what to say to that.

While I am by no means an ace, I cleared both of those games when I was a pre-teen. You need to step up your game, Bone!