Shmups

[KSubzero1000]

No, I don't think it would work. Besides, I'm still not a fan of demos.

Horis aren't my preference, but I can look past it in the case of critical acclaimed titles such as this one. Akai Katana is superb, for example.

I'll wait.

[KSubzero1000]

Why you no like demo's?

"I no like demo's" because I generally don't like any of the commercial aspects of gaming. Same reason I don't like costly subscription "freebies", empty early access promises, micro-transaction scams, DRM mafia, "better late than never" patches, season pass gambles or episodic content leaps of unearned faith.

Basically, all I want is to sit down and dive into a fully-realized, complete, properly developed game with as few arbitrary restrictions as possible. Preferably on some form of physical media, although that last one is slowly but surely becoming a pipe dream these days so I was forced to adapt a little. Grrr.

On top of that, it is not unheard of for demos to be based on earlier development builds and be unrepresentative of the final product, unfortunately.

I take your point about trying out certain games in order to check whether my laptop could run them before putting any money down, but in the case of a game that is not available on Steam and I already plan on buying on console anyway, it makes less than no sense.

I wish you a magnificent evening.

[hazeredmist]

I need a Switch.

Yes. Yes you do

[hazeredmist]

Has anyone played Freedom Finger?

Looks like an R-Type style shmup with adult swim cartoon art. Any good?

[Stanshall]

Way off your HS but absolutely loving this game with every character. I flipping love the rhythm, spraying the bubble shot and then getting a quick kill and scooping up the x16 counters. Such a satisfying mechanic. Still not got past stage 4 but no missing 1-3 a lot more so gonna get there.

[Stanshall]

Those little bastards who slowly drip the red bullets straight down at the start of S4 are my nemesis but another great example of the idiosyncratic level design in this. Stuff like the School boss, the cloaking device midboss tank, the hand bullets, the railway, Ms Garra (only seen on Super Easy!), it's such a weird, cool game.

[Magical_Isopod]

If you folks were to recommend the best 3ish SHMUPs of the last decade, what's on your list?

[Stanshall]

A cool hunner. We did it.

@Magical For me, I'd say my three most recent GOTY picks would be a decent selection: Rolling Gunner, Psyvariar Delta and ESP Ra.De. Psi.

Mix of styles as clippa said, and although the last two are basically 98% ports, they're fantastic and quite different.

On the more PC indie side of things, I don't have so much experience but Crimzon Clover is sensational, albeit more in the Cave style which I know isn't your fave. I also really enjoyed Blue Wish Resurrection Plus which is free but also very much Cave Jr.

Not tried it yet but I'm interested in the new Natsuki Chronicles which just came out on XB. It's by the Ginga Force people and I imagine you might like it. It's not Einhander as such but it's got an interesting powerup system and not really bullet hell, more old school hori. I'm weighing it up but likely waiting for a sale.

[KSubzero1000]

If I exclude twin-stick shooters and ports of older games, then my Top 3 of the decade would be Crimzon Clover, Danmaku Unlimited 3 and, ahem... Bullet Soul: Infinite Burst, I suppose.

If I include ports to modern systems, then I would have to change to Ikaruga, Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi and DoDonPachi Resurrection (if that counts).


Blue Wish Resurrection Plus is obviously fantastic, but it came out in 2008.

Nex Machina deserves all the praise in the world as well.


All of the above are worth playing.

[KSubzero1000]

Do you play with a proper mouse or your laptops trackpad, owly? I mean when you're playing your factory puzzle games and things. I bloody hate trackpads.

Proper low-budget mouse. Not a fan of trackpads either, very imprecise and frustrating to use.

Speaking of which, you know what else is imprecise and frustrating to use? A keyboard with dozens of tiny buttons, a handful of which appear to have been randomly selected to serve as some sort of official video game interface Ersatz. WASD in particular is an absolute joke, not only do they not form an actual cross, the things aren't even lined up on top of one another properly. I keep hitting E when I want to press R in the middle of gameplay and stuff. I can't help but notice that the PC evangelists who like to go on all day about KBM being the universally superior control method all tend to conveniently circumvent the big and clunky 80% of that setup in-between all the condescending mouse-preaching. Go play Street Fighter on that pinnacle of ergonomical failure and watch what happens.

I always wondered, how big is the screen on your laptop, do you hook it up to a bigger monitor or a telly or just make do?

39,6cm / 15,5" TFT display. I make do. Hooking it up to anything sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

Do you think you might like monolith?

I think I might not.

Leap of fate is really good too, that works best on m/kb too.

I'd rather spend my next 5,43€ on a nice cauliflower head and some jasmine tea refill than on a "furiously-paced cyberpunk roguelite" with an "innovative system of randomly-generated skill trees", if you don't mind.

For a really good twin stick shooter that works best on pad like nex machina, assault android cactus might be right up your street, half price at the minute.

Already played it and S+ ranked every level on PS4. Nothing has changed on that front since the last time you asked and accosted me with some shady Steam link.

Do you like danmaku unlimited 3 better than the second game?

Yes. Keep in mind I play these mostly for the spectacle and not for scoring, otherwise I might agree with your criticism of the grazing system.

I'm really tired, I'm gonna go to bed now

Good night, sweet prince.

[KSubzero1000]

Do you not really like playing on pc if you can help it? I can post links to the ps4 store if that's better for you from now on.

You're very sweet.

There is no need to post any storefront links on my account, really. I don't use any browser-based stores anyway. Either directly on the console or Steam app for me.


I think it depends on the game and what it's designed around. Some games are obviously made with PC interface in mind, for better or for worse. As a general rule, I only play platform exclusives and native genres on PC. But when I have the choice I usually prefer the console version, if only to save myself the exhilarating "Will it run properly??" guessing game. Last endeavor: I was forced to download some dumb data packet to fix the choppy cutscenes of 1997's Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. Fun!

[KSubzero1000]

Has esp ra de not turned up yet? Probably gonna take ages since it's christmas, innit?

Nope: "The item is on transport to the country of destination". Two to three weeks is the usual PlayAsia shipping period for me.

[KSubzero1000]

"Sure, why not? If that's what it takes to make him happy.", I thought.

I download the demo. I click on the demo. I can't open the demo. I need to download a separate program to "extract" the specific file type of the demo because we live in a dystopian nightmare, apparently. I download the trial version of something that should be included on every computer to begin with. I open the demo with the new malware. Options > Controls. "Oh, that's weird, why can't I remap any of the buttons?" Turns out the game doesn't recognize my controller whatsoever no matter what I try. I even take BWRP for a quick ride and everything works great there. Screw this.

HALF AN HOUR WASTED. GET THIS TRASH OUT OF MY LIFE.

[KSubzero1000]

How did you last this long without 7-zip?

Because I try to stay clear from this sort of tech headache as much as possible and only ever like to use my laptop for simple tasks. It's complete and utter lunacy to have a bunch of different file types floating around that all require their own proprietary, separately purchasable program in order to open. LU-NA-CY


I do have a wired 360 pad, which I'm not going to use because:

1. The deadzone on the 360 stick makes it particularly unsuited for shmups, which is also why I haven't been able to get into Espgaluda 2, AK, SDOJ & MuFu in the way I wanted to.

2. The Steam page for Monolith loudly proclaims "Full Controller Support!", and my patience has its limits. This should work right out of the box with my DS4, no ifs no buts.

[Stanshall]

The real shmups is the friends we made along the way.

Stuff I been playing with varying degrees of enjoyment and success:

ESP Ra.De. Psi

Seemingly getting worse at this the more I understand about the scoring. Probably not a bad thing, though, because it'll be pretty satisfying when it clicks. If it clicks. I'm playing predominantly in handheld with the Hori Split Pad because it's the only option with a decent D-pad. I can feel the tiny bit of lag unfortunately with my Mayflash. I thought it was psychosomatic or just Christmas booze but, no, it's reality. Big fan of this weird little game.

Salamander

This was always my fave from the Konami Arcade Collection. I wondered if I might 1CC it but it is fucking hard. I feel like this kind of old-school game is a lot of memorisation, not a criticism, but I struggle with the slightly jerky movement compared to the slo-mo focus shot Cave shit I'm used to. Gonna stick with it, though, I really like the music and aesthetic and the level design is cool.

Darius II

I also want to 1CC this but it's probably even harder than Salamander! I adore everything about this game except how punishing it is. Music, speech samples, graphics, dual-monitor visuals, boss design. It's an all-timer. It's just kicking my arse, as well. I am determined to 1CC this and Salamander by the end of next year.

Futari Ultra & God Modes

I moved up to Ultra and managed to clear stage one within an hour or so, albeit with a shit score, but my conclusion is that I don't enjoy it as much as Black Label God. I find the scoring a bit simple and it's just not as spectacular or satisfying (to me). It's harder, it's more important to have a very precise route and you have a lot less room to move but it doesn't really pay off that tension. God Mode, on the other hand, is like moving through golden treacle with all the bullet cancels and gems smeared all over the screen. Yeah, it's definitely easier to survive but it's got a much more rewarding and deeper scoring system. If you want a quick taste, get onto stage 2 in Training, stick it on God Mode and try to pop those orange lobsters and icicles as late as possible. It's easy enough to survive given how many full screen cancel opportunities there are but the later you leave it, wading through that pink slowdown sludge, the more dopamine gets pumped through your synapses. Oof. Not especially looking forward to learning stage 3 God Mode, mind you...

[KSubzero1000]

I'm here. I'm not ghosting anyone. Please don't freak out. I'm playing Halo. I'm having fun. Talk later.

[Michiel K]

Salamander

This was always my fave from the Konami Arcade Collection. I wondered if I might 1CC it but it is fucking hard. I feel like this kind of old-school game is a lot of memorisation, not a criticism, but I struggle with the slightly jerky movement compared to the slo-mo focus shot Cave shit I'm used to. Gonna stick with it, though, I really like the music and aesthetic and the level design is cool.

I played some Life Force in coop with my kid on that collection. Sure is a lot harder and more punishing than the NES version!

@clippa, I forgot to tell you that I tried out Eschatos and the two Wonderswan games last week! All are very enjoyable. Can't say I have a grasp on the depths of Eschatos' scoring system in Original mode yet, but it's at least a literal blast on a base level. Does it come down to basically shooting everything and not letting anything escape off the screen? And what are the ins and outs of the shield?

[hazeredmist]

Clippa I do love reading your waffle

Ksub is like your husband, the marriage has broken down somewhat but love is still there. He wants to move out but financially it’s just not possible so you’re stuck together. He has good days and bad days with you. He grits his teeth as he sleeps most nights. You alternate between smiling and cuddling him, and crying that he doesn’t love you back as much. You still eat breakfast together, he prays for silence as you talk over the sounds of George Michael incessantly.

I don’t have much to say about shmups right now, I’ve not been playing one. I have a moan for the Nintendo thread though. Once I’ve sorted that I’ll probably pick one up at some point soon for a blast. Still cock-teasing myself with Black Bird. Rather excited to try it.

Keep the updates coming. Slightly concerned about Rolling Gunner Overpower, looks like it’s going to lean heavily into the twin stick side of things. It could be good but... I’m dubious

[hazeredmist]

Beethoven. Yes. Only on first-press vinyl, and when you put the radio on Classic FM for him, he angrily pulls the plug out and barks at you to support the original format

[KSubzero1000]

Haze's strange obsession with nuptial allegories is making me raise an eyebrow or two at this point.

I do like Beethoven, in fact. Then again, clipps previously claimed that I went to Kraftwerk gigs of all places, so he gets zero point for cycling through all the german musicians he knows and accidentally getting it right this time.

Don't own any vinyls. You lot ain't slick.

Stan still with us?