Shmups

[Stanshall]

And once you've decided upon the stick, and you feel happy with that, you can start to obsess about swapping out the buttons...and so on!

I built a headphone amp a few years ago, it was outrageously good. Like, I miss it all the time but I reached the point where I was ordering these 1950s Russian military 'new old stock' capacitors that were the size of Coke cans and squeezing them into the case and having to desolder the whole bloody thing to accommodate and put pieces back in with extra wires and resistors all over the shop. The insides basically looked like spag bol with a couple of Coke cans as garnish. Didn't have a clue what I was doing really but it sounded insanely good, until I realised I didn't actually enjoy music any more, just the 'air around the instruments' and the 'presence of the rides' and that kind of shite. That's before I even get into the tube rolling and modding the foam and drivers on my headphones. That way madness lies, honestly, so I sold it all off and just started listening to music again in my car and with bog standard headphones until I actually just enjoyed music again. Funnily enough, while I do miss the excitement of listening through that amp, it's a different feeling I have now towards music. More of a 'take it as it comes' thing which is a really nice side effect. I'm probably more open minded now towards 'shit music'. Or, rather, I don't distinguish or judge in the same way any more. Uhh, I digress...

Anyway, looking forward to recapturing a similar level of insanity with sticks and octagonal gates and all that stuff! Glory days ahead until I launch it all in a skip, reset and find peace in the 360 analogue stick drift.

[hazeredmist]

Haha! Excellent.

This thread is fucking fantastic man.

I've just realised on my Neko Navy run last night getting to Day 5, I didn't use any bomb thing at all, I need to remember that's a thing. I'm using the fat cat now and it's huge to compute that I don't need to worry about the body beyond the little pink dot.

[KSubzero1000]

Okay, real talk:

Given its built-in octagonal gate, complete lack of stick drift due to the absence of any sort of LS button, super tight deadzone and sturdy build quality, is there any shmup player out there who's playing with the GameCube controller and the WiiU/Switch USB adapter?

I'd love to see that if so.

[Alex79]

I've been playing Gigawing a lot the last couple of days, I really like it. Shame it never got a modern console release, it seems to have only been ported to the DC from the arcade original.

Giga Wing is absolutely bonkers and crazy fun. Great choice! Who's your character?

Tried them all, but tend to mainly use the default one (whoever that is!)

I've also been playing one of my favorite of the genre - Armed Police Batrider. I always go on about that game, but that's because it was the game that really made me love shmups from playing it endlessly on MAME almost two decades ago now!

[Alex79]

Yeah, although she doesn't like Louis Theroux!

[KSubzero1000]

Hey, um... clippa?

[KSubzero1000]

Oh god, this sounds ominous.

Not at all, I assure you.

So, I suppose my score is "2,548,930,400"

You know, that's a cute Ghost Blade score you've got there. Top of the Steam leaderboards and all that.

It'd certainly be a shame if some smelling salts-sniffing nerd were to come along and beat that.

[KSubzero1000]

Please tell me you blasted it out of the park

[Stanshall]

Great skills! As ever, you can't be trusted to leave a high score well alone

Made the game look more fun than I remember it, too. Just wait til you get round to DDP Resurrection!

[KSubzero1000]

Really good play, man.

Thanks!

Gutter about that bomb during the boss too

Yeah, but that wasn't the only mistake. It was a pretty flawed run, all things considered.

• I could have gotten a sixth bomb through even more thorough use of the Focus Shot.

• I whiffed at least two of the larger enemies' bonus stars.

• I let at least a dozen enemies escape in the middle-end section.

• I failed to collect at least two of the Gold Stars.

• I didn't farm the boss's mines for a higher combo. (optional)

So yeah, there's still a lot of room for improvement.

This isn't over.

Looking forward to it!

[KSubzero1000]

Great skills! As ever, you can't be trusted to leave a high score well alone

Mate, I got over 10 years of Mercs experience under my belt. I won't be intimidated by some low-rent MADE IN GERMANY™ shmup!

Made the game look more fun than I remember it, too. Just wait til you get round to DDP Resurrection!

Ooh, sounds fun!

[KSubzero1000]

Okay, I edited some of my jokes. It was all in good fun on my end, but I don't want clippa to take this the wrong way or to come off like a bad sport somehow.


@Stanshall

DDP Resurrection looks fantastic, but I think I will take a break from shmups for the time being and play other things first. I think the next one I'll try out might be M2's Ketsui PS4 port when it arrives, if only because most of my 360 controllers are defective in some way or another. I'm sure you can relate.

Well don't try too hard, will you? It wouldn't be fair to move the goalposts before I've even got my boots on.

Tell you what, I won't even boot up the game until you've beaten my score so we can have a fair competition.

I'm sure you can do it by focusing on the Tech Orbs this time around. Looking forward to it!

[KSubzero1000]

Who could possibly want to harm such a magnificent creature??

[hazeredmist]

A good old score battle! Mint.

Are you fine folks on Switch? Let's hook up if so. My scores are pitiful, I can't even clock shmups on easy yet but it'll be someone to prop up your leaderboards at least while I work on getting through primary school.

[Michiel K]

Tried them all, but tend to mainly use the default one (whoever that is!)

I've also been playing one of my favorite of the genre - Armed Police Batrider. I always go on about that game, but that's because it was the game that really made me love shmups from playing it endlessly on MAME almost two decades ago now!

Yeah his name escapes me. The kid with the red sun bandana, probably. My main is Ruby. Her forward shot is devastating and her bomb attack literally rains hellfire and brimstone down on everything.

Batrider is legit too. Hard to learn, with all the different ship teams, though.

[Stanshall]

I got the Darius Cozmic Collection a couple of days ago and I've been enjoying it a lot. Absolutely delighted with it, to be honest, because it was a bit of a gamble and not especially cheap with postage and customs, etc. I'd hardly ever played the likes of Gradius, Darius and R-Type before this year. They didn't appeal because I didn't think that kind of dodging and shooting and avoiding environmental hazards was what I wanted from shmups. Also, whenever I'd tried them at Arcade Club or wherever over the years, I found them a bit stiff and not especially flashy or chaotic or exciting. I'd probably credit Super Hydorah with opening my eyes a little more to this style because I very much enjoyed that earlier this year.

Anyway, a bit of emulated Darius 2 (with the triple screen setting) and a more positive second impression of DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours whetted my appetite further and after hearing so many good things, I took a punt via PlayAsia before copies become too rare/inflated. Fundamentally, it's just three games, Darius, Darius 2 and Darius Gaiden with some tweaked versions of the first two games, though they're more like minor remixes and edits than significantly different games.

While I have loved playing Darius 2 without the effects of emulation on an eight-yo laptop, Darius Gaiden is the star of the collection so far. It absolutely rips. You start with a hefty amount of firepower and within about three seconds, it's thrown several more power-ups at you and it's a really exciting and satisfying thing to avoid death and build up your arsenal til you have these massive green laser waves shredding enemies. It's tough, though, really tough, but I never feel dispirited at the Game Over screen, I just want to get back on that loop because it always feels like you hit the ground running at full pelt. The music is also gorgeous, really melodic, dark ambient pads, lots of ethereal ululation. The Insert Coin sound instantly made my ears prick up, it's so distinctive and alluring. Not got more than halfway or so yet on one credit and feeding my way to the end has shown me that the later levels really need some dedication but I'm thoroughly enjoying my time with it, and I'd heartily recommend the whole package.

[Alex79]

Is Darius Gaiden the same as G-Darius? I must admit, I get so confused with Darius and Gradius - they're not the same series, are they? I love G-Darius, though.

EDIT: Stopped being lazy and checked myself! G-Darius is Darius 4 and Darius Gaiden is Darius 3. Disappointing that collection doesn't include G-Darius, but still looks decent.

[Stanshall]

It's not, in fact. A different PS1 era game but I'll definitely be getting round to G-Darius, I've heard only great things.

I also find/found the Darius/Gradius series so confusing. Why did they pick similar names? Then G-Darius is almost deliberately confusing, being an anagram. It feels like an elaborate joke with no punchline I can understand. Is it insanely egotistical to feel like these companies have conspired to pull a very specific, unfathomable prank on me? Probably, because you obviously find it mad, too.

Also, the Gradius games seem to have very different names, as well, with lots of spin-off games all with the exact same mechanics and stuff. It's mental. Salamander, Lifeforce, Nemesis. All this stuff. Different names in Japan and the West. Different names in the arcade and home releases. I'm going to do a very thorough investigation one of these days and set the record straight.

Maybe a Cane and Rinse volume nine issue? Would help us get to the bottom of all this, at very least.

[Alex79]

It's not, in fact. A different PS1 era game but I'll definitely be getting round to G-Darius, I've heard only great things.

I also find/found the Darius/Gradius series so confusing. Why did they pick similar names? Then G-Darius is almost deliberately confusing, being an anagram. It feels like an elaborate joke with no punchline I can understand. Is it insane to feel like these companies have conspired to pull a very specific, unfathomable prank on me? Also, the Gradius games seem to have very different names, as well, with lots of spin-off games all with the exact same mechanics and stuff. It's mental. Salamander, Lifeforce, Nemesis. All this stuff. I'm going to do a very thorough investigation one of these days.

Maybe a Cane and Rinse volume nine issue? Would help us get to the bottom of all this, at very least.

Thanks! Far more informative than my five second Google, haha. Yeah a C&R episode would be good. Is the Gradius collection getting an eshop release, do we know?

[Stanshall]

Well, I'm not sure, to be honest.

The Gradius stuff I've played is from the Konami Classics Collection which has three Gradius games or spin-offs (Nemesis, Vulcan Venture, Lifeforce - not one called fuckin Gradius anything) plus some other stuff (Scramble, Castlevania arcade game, Twinbee, Typhoon and Thunder Cross - which is a bit Gradius-Y). I'd say a dedicated collection would be great but they've kind of blown their proverbial load, unless there's another wad of Gradius games under completely different unrelated names, and let's face it there probably are.