Shmups

[hazeredmist]

I’ve been jealous of everyone’s excitement and enthusiasm over this genre so I’ve decided to ever so slightly dip my toes in.

Sky Force Reloaded is 40% off in the eShop so I picked it up last night for £5.39 and I’m finding it rather compelling.

I was totally handed off to the face by Ikaruga on the GameCube, which I found inaccessible and un-rewarding for my skill level.

The much slower pace, level re-runs, increasing the power, weapons and shield of your ship over time as you collect the currency and drops makes this way easier to stomach and learn the genre.

I think it looks nice too, reminds me of those stunning Metal Slug Neo Geo games.

I appreciate this may be the Actua Soccer to the Pro Evo but it’s good fun.

Ace! It's exciting getting into something new, and this feels like it's got legs. I must admit I'd dismissed Sky Force when I saw it had originated from mobile, but your words are getting me interested, I will check out some gameplay footage.

Don't sleep on Overdriven Reloaded while it's on offer too - I had an absolute blast with that last night, finished 6 stages now and also went back and finished the first stage on "Nightmare" difficulty which feels like a first badge of honour with these games

[KSubzero1000]

I’ve been jealous of everyone’s excitement and enthusiasm over this genre so I’ve decided to ever so slightly dip my toes in. [...]

Wonderful to hear, I hope you're having fun! Come to think of it, I've never paid much attention to Sky Force and I'd be curious if any of the local experts have any strong opinion on the series one way or the other. Surprised nobody else has ever mentioned it. I watched a few trailers and it looks solid, curious to try one out at some point.

I know I'm just a broken record at this point, but Resogun is another excellent beginner-friendly game if you're looking for a slightly different, more fluid take on the genre.

In any case, do keep us posted!

[Suits]

It is good fun, it’s something different that comes with its own unique rewards.

I’m enjoying the strategy of having to navigate through the bullets without getting hit - the only thing I can liken it too, in terms of satisfaction, is the feeling you get from playing a healer in something like Overwatch.

Sky Force is also couch Co-Op, so it adds another level of fun for our Monday game nights.

I’m plan on introducing it this Monday.

[Stanshall]

Thing is with Ikaruga, once you've contorted yourself into its austere brutalist shape, it's got an intense precision like almost nothing else. It feels almost like opening up one of those wooden Japanese trick boxes, delicately, one segment at a time, without flinching. Doing one thing again and again and again until you don't even think about it.

KSub ended up beating my best run on this but you can see how the entire stage was just muscle memory and almost no adaptation or reaction or anything, until the very last rows just before the boss when I slipped out of the muscle memory groove for a few unpractised moments, and I completely bottled it, flustered, missed and then just stopped firing before I recomposed myself for the boss.

https://youtu.be/Do3SKRpcqmA

One of the only things I've ever done in a game that I think is actually an achievement.

[Stanshall]

Touché. I once give a lady a massage and accidentally done a Vulcan Death Grip ((

(wait, wait, it's a joke, coppers).

I think that's what I love in particular about the shmups actually, that sense of necessarily imposed structure and dehumanised order and repetition and the vain attempt to approach machinated perfection. Keeps me out of trouble.

Edit to your edit: Oh, absolutely, it's a total shiter of a starting point and has probably turned more people off the genre than any other game. I still really really don't understand why it's the poster child for shmups. It's as unrepresentative as anything I can think of and I barely know or have ever read anything by anyone who is even mildly fond of it.

The actual best starting point is probably Dodonpachi, it's just hard to play without emulation. Fortunately, you can emulate it on basically anything.

[KSubzero1000]

I'm Kirk to your Spock.

Touché. I once give a lady a massage and accidentally done a Vulcan Death Grip

As far as Ikaruga is concerned, I may very well be in the minority on this one, but this game certainly gave me a better understanding of the value and intricacies of the japanese bullet hell sub-genre than any other that I had tried beforehand. I agree that it's a rather inadequate representative of the genre as a whole, but it can still win undecided hearts and minds.

[KSubzero1000]

Were you into old-school shooters beforehand?

Not really. I had a lot of experience with Housemarque twin-stick stuff but very little in terms of japanese bullet hell. Never played most of the really old classics. It was Big Man Stan (don't forget to hit that bell!) who introduced me to it, really. Needless to say, I am eternally grateful.

Here's the thread we had last year. Well worth reading through to see our mutual progression, including some pretty good laughs here and there.

[hazeredmist]

I just finished the story mode on Overdriven Reloaded, that was a blast. You can tell it’s budget and lacks a certain something personality wise, but it plays, looks & runs really well and had me hooked from start to finish. Some elements of it reminded me of Velocity Ultra. If this is an average example of how good bullet hell shmups can be, consider me IN.

I’d have been happy if I’d paid a tenner for this. 89p. Crazy

[Suits]

I just finished the story mode on Overdriven Reloaded, that was a blast. You can tell it’s budget and lacks a certain something personality wise, but it plays, looks & runs really well and had me hooked from start to finish. Some elements of it reminded me of Velocity Ultra. If this is an average example of how good bullet hell shmups can be, consider me IN.

I’d have been happy if I’d paid a tenner for this. 89p. Crazy

I picked this up man, after you mentioned it and I saw you playing it last night.

Also, 89p is just ridiculous, so why not.


Made good progress in Sky Force Reloaded.

There's a lot of replaying old levels to get more stars to upgrade your ship, which is nice, I'm learning the enemy movements and attacks which is clearly a thing and starting to hit the mission markers (don't get hit, kill all enemies etc...)

Interesting as you go through the game, some missions are just full on, no Boss service missions which are fun.

Then, just now, I unlocked a level where they remove all your weapons and its all about staying alive by dodging - very satisfying.

[Stanshall]

Hehe.

And @hazeredmist (and Suits!) really pleased to see you're enjoying trying out a few different things. It's a really exciting genre and if you've enjoyed Sky Force, which is a good game, you've got loads to look forward to potentially.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

The actual best starting point is probably Dodonpachi, it's just hard to play without emulation. Fortunately, you can emulate it on basically anything.

It's a pretty damn good starting point, as it probably wouldn't take too long for a newcomer to clear the first level after a little bit of practice (just focusing on surviving and not point-scoring).

Non-emulated versions: the PS1 version is probably the closest to arcade version, and if one was to double that up with Donpachi (via the Japanese PlayStation store), at ¥1234 together, is much cheaper than the physical disk-based versions.

The Saturn version is no slouch either, and it has it's own remixed/arranged levels too.

Failing that, yeah, emulation.

[Stanshall]

Wow, thanks. I didn't know Dodonpachi was available on the Japanese PSN. That's top of my list for today then!

Edit: Ah, only on PS3 or Vita. Jumped the gun! Might get Ketsui now I've gone through the process, though.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

Sorry! My bad, I should have been clearer about that!

Still... that Ketsui release is pretty damn good! I went with physical version with additional artbook.

[Stanshall]

I enjoyed Ketsui a lot when I was first getting into shmups because it's so full on and I played it quite regularly at Arcade Club. I then played it a fair bit at home via FBA emulation and found it ran great, but since I started playing for 1cc, I realised how bloody hard it is and I gradually lost interest. I think it's a brilliant game, just a little beyond my ability and without the flashy, colourful rewards of hundreds of sparkling medals tumbling down the screen like Futari or Espgaluda 2 BL.

[KSubzero1000]

They don't make it easy, do they? Ketsui goes from 60€ for the ancient PS3/360 import versions to a whopping 237€ for the NDS one. And why wouldn't the PS4 digital version be on every regional store?

Also, what happened to this?

[Stanshall]

No market, I assume

The bizarre DS version is one I'd love to try, it's not actually Ketsui, it's just a boss rush edit of the proper game. I expect I'll just download the ROM one day and throw it on the old R4 cart rather than paying TWO HUNDRED POUNDS for the pleasure.

No idea at all about Psyvariar Delta, either, but it's really poor of Dispatch Games to have taken orders and money and then gone completely cold. It's also available digitally on Japanese PSN, for what it's worth.

And yeah, clippa, I guess it's one of the last non-moe Cave games. Pretty reminiscent of DaiOuJou (especially Ship B - shot type) in terms of the aesthetic and feel but it's not nearly as spectacular.

[Alex79]

This looks pretty cool! Love the soundtrack.

https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2019/04 ... ek-on-ps4/

Doesn't give a price, but I'd guess at £11.99... Total guess, mind.

[Alex79]

How can you tell what it controls like from the video? Genuine question.

When you say digital controls do you mean the D-Pad on the controller or you playing with keyboard?

[Alex79]

I wanna join in with this talk! I've downloaded all the Vita shmups I already own, but am struggling to remember the name of one. It's a short game, crazy name, starts with an S I think. It was on PS+ a few years back. I'm sure you killed a mecha fish, or you were a mecha fish. It's not Darius.

Anyway, hoping to get a Switch for my birthday at the weekend so should be able to get some of the more interesting ones. Fairly limited on Vita, but I've got Soldner, Skyforce and Sine Mora for now.

[ratsoalbion]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/332530/Shutshimi/