Shmup of the Month Club 2012

[noiseredux]

yeah I'm using a 6-button on my PS2 (Namco stick) -- that's a good idea for a layout. I'll try that next time. Thanks!

[mjmjr25]

Still really liking the NAMCO stick? There is one new in box on shmups or neo, can't recall atm. Was considering it - though i'm not much of a NIB guy.

[ExedExes]

Like I said. Millionaires v Billionaires. That stuff is impressive, but don't let it dissuade you (or any of us) from doing well and enjoying this genre. It's like anything else where some folks are just insanely great at their niche - we can still be extremely good

Yeah pretty much this. I'll probably never 1cc an arcade shmup in my lifetime nor make a run blindfolded with not one bomb wasted or whatever, but my 300k + score is holding up pretty well. I need to play this again soon and enjoy my extreme goodness

[hashiriya1]

I always use a stick, but with this game I am sticking with a Saturn pad (USB). "A" is shot, "B" is bomb and "R" is dismount.

[dunpeal2064]

Like I said. Millionaires v Billionaires. That stuff is impressive, but don't let it dissuade you (or any of us) from doing well and enjoying this genre. It's like anything else where some folks are just insanely great at their niche - we can still be extremely good

Yeah pretty much this. I'll probably never 1cc an arcade shmup in my lifetime nor make a run blindfolded with not one bomb wasted or whatever, but my 300k + score is holding up pretty well. I need to play this again soon and enjoy my extreme goodness

Pssh, nonsense! You could definitely 1cc an arcade shmup, I know you could. Look at that Axelay score. You got that because you have experience with the game, and if you stick with any shmup for as long as you did that game, you could clear it I'm sure. These bullet hell/manic shooters are harder than the at first seem to be (except this game, this game's hard as hell)

Like RNG said, maybe 2 people have obtained the 1cc in this game in the west. Psikyo games are freaking hard to 1cc... shit, they are hard to even clear the first loop.

I honestly consider Psikyo so much harder than Cave. Cave's difficulty comes from scoring. However, if you ignore scoring, you can clear some of their games with relative ease. Psikyo doesn't rely on a gimmick to make the game hard (although scoring does make the games even harder).

Of course, Cave have their "This should kill you" games, like Pink Sweets and Ketsui, but every freakin Psikyo game is so hard, and they are all 14 stages in total.

[noiseredux]

Still really liking the NAMCO stick? There is one new in box on shmups or neo, can't recall atm. Was considering it - though i'm not much of a NIB guy.

I do like it quite a bit. Though I actually prefer the MadCatz stick for PS3 -- it's slightly more comfortable. But I have no complaints about the Namco. Definitely a solid lower-priced PS1 stick.

[ZenErik]

Yea. I'd say on average that Cave games are easier. Especially Deathsmiles. Still tons of fun. Cave games generally look tougher than they are until you realize that the hit boxes on the bullets and on your ship/person are generally quite small.

[RNG]

Like RNG said, maybe 2 people have obtained the 1cc in this game in the west. Psikyo games are freaking hard to 1cc... shit, they are hard to even clear the first loop.

Strikers 1999 for some reason is really popular so it sees a lot of clears and a lot of people getting really far in the loop. Gunbird 2 and DB are much, much harder in the loop since they both encourage and discourage proximity (you can't kill enemies unless you're up close and HEY LOOK SUICIDE BULLETS).

By the way, in case I haven't pimped my skills enough, here's a play of the first loop that almost no-misses. Hopefully some of my survival strategies are more approachable than that fucking insane SYO scoreplay (look at his strategy for the 1-7 midboss, seriously).

With Psikyo games it's really helpful to look at a playthrough to give you an idea of what to do in certain sections. There is some heavy memorization going on and a lot of it is not obviously memo but will still screw you over if you're positioned wrong/have the dragon out at the wrong time. So many runs have been ruined by accidentally leaving the dragon out and not noticing...

[dunpeal2064]

Yeah, checking out a superplay is definitely helpful with Psikyo shooters.

I mean, sure, a superplay of Espgaluda is going to help, as you'll know when to cash in those gems for gold, and when to cash in both for points, etc. But, if you don't know that stuff, it'll actually be easier to play the game.

If you haven't checked out a Psikyo superplay, the game is only harder. A lot of the memorization in Psikyo shooters seems to be pattern-dodging, as well as path-defining, whereas Cave memorizing is purely tied to score... at least in the first loop, any shooter is gonna bust your balls on the 2nd loop, aside maybe Batsugun.

Strikers 1999 is the only Psikyo shooter I have no experience with (and Zero Gunner). It looks top-notch, but like Gunbird 2, chaining items is brain-explodingly evil, and drives me up the wall.

Gunbird 2 is a really hard game, even before the loop, feels much harder than other Psikyo stuff.

[ExedExes]

Pssh, nonsense! You could definitely 1cc an arcade shmup, I know you could. Look at that Axelay score. You got that because you have experience with the game, and if you stick with any shmup for as long as you did that game, you could clear it I'm sure.

True, true. That was a great month. Took it and ran with it, and ended up turning it into an advice thread for everyone else Doesn't hurt I had close to 10 years experience playing it.

So I guess if I had 10 years at DB, I could make it past all that too right?

Heck, look at ExedExes. There is no end to the game, but I'll be happy to make it far when it's time