The Shmup Thread

[illdog]

don't stay on the bottom of the screen and stay to one side, then as there's a gap in the bullets move across to the other side of the screen, maybe via the bottom of the screen as you can often make a gap by going down a bit but then when you get to the other side try to not be on the bottom again. the higher up the screen you can safely get the better as you have more room to retreat.

Ahh, simple theory but not something i think i do. I think its almost natural to go to the bottom of the screen when enemies appear from the time, well it is for me anyway, thats wierd, i shall fight my instincts for a tactical advantage! Cheers.

And Jim, Triggerheart isnt your average shooter with its swinging mechanism but it doesnt take long for it to feel quite natural and it is a brilliant game, not too long either. Ive finished it on easy only dieing once (on the last bloody boss ), and if i can do it, you can.

[Jimboxy]

i keep playing the demo of triggerheart exelica on XBLA and really like it, just haven't plucked up to buying it. Would that be a good starting point?

i like it, the capturing, spinning and throwing enemies thing is great fun. but i think easy mode is too easy (although maybe that would make it a good starting point?) and is normal too hard, and there's lots better manic shooters, but maybe not on the 360? (ikaruga is better but not a manic shooter really) a cave game or maybe armed police batrider on mame would be a better starting point imo

i'd be interested to hear what other people think to triggerheart too as i think a few people here have it? illdog? swallow? and ben on the dc maybe?

Yeah i might get it, as i said i play through the demo on a regular basis and its only 800 potatoes.

[Swallow]

Yeah, I really like TriggerHeart Exelica. Easy is pretty easy, but it's a nice one to attempt your first 1cc run on. I got hacked off with not being able to trigger the bonus boss on level 3 and packed in playing it. I'd say a stick is pretty much essential for it, too.

fwiw, my 3 favourite shmups that I've played recently are ProGear: absolutely essential Cave horizontal shooter - it's on MAME and I highly, highly recommend trying it out if you've not done so before; Shikigami no Shiro III on Wii or 360 (Wii is JPN/US, 360 is JPN only) which is even better than part II, thanks to the suiciding mechanic; and that seminal game, Ikaruga. I realise a lot of people don't get on with it thanks to it's puzzle-like structure and reliance on memory, but the black/white mechanic is the most interesting and thoroughly successful aspect of a shmup I've ever experienced.

[Jay]

I love Triggerheart, have it on Dreamcast as well and it's definitely worth the asking price on XBLA. The chucking things about mechanic is superb and allows for far more creativity than something like Ikaruga. Big thumbs up over here.

[Jimboxy]

i didn't even realise about the chucking part, is that in the demo?maybe i'm not cut out for this shump lark after all..

[Jay]

i didn't even realise about the chucking part, is that in the demo?maybe i'm not cut out for this shump lark after all..

Indeed it is. One of the buttons allows you to shoot out an anchor and grab enemies. Once grabbed, you can pull them towards you, then swing them round your ship before letting go. Or just hold them out in front of you like a shield.

[spatular]

death smiles preorder get £52 stupid exchange rate

[spatular]

dodonpachi doj black label ex is out on the 360 next thursday (along with shooting love)

"Famitsu scores are in, apparently,

Shooting Love 8,7,7,7

Dodonpachi Black Label 8,7,6,6 "

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t...1&start=930

rediculous scores, shooting love seems a bit rubbish from what i played (admitedly not much - i think it's trizeal + some shooter skill test thing) and doj is one of the best shooters ever imo. apparently they moan about the difficulty, and to be fair doj is really really impossibly hard (i still find it easier than r-type though). but i guess unless it's an rpg famitsu don't care anyway. although maybe i shouldn't care about the scores.

[spatular]

^ apparently the doj port is pretty bad, people moaning about load times, poor menus, lack of options, inaccuracies in the gameplay, shame and doesn't bode too well for the ketsui port.

Shikigami no Shiro III on Wii or 360 (Wii is JPN/US, 360 is JPN only) which is even better than part II, thanks to the suiciding mechanic;

how does the suiciding work in this then? i've played it quite a lot on the pc but never really understood the scoring. never got on with suiciding in garegga or ibara either (i did once suicide to good effect in armed police batrider though!), but then i was never good enough for it to be useful. oh and i much prefer 2 to 3 but that's because everything is too fast for me in 3, they took out all the slowdown

[spatular]

4x posting ftw.

anyone been playing any shooters recently?

my copy of doj on the 360 still hasn't arrived

started playing big bang mini properly today after playing it briefly (and not liking it) when it first arrived and it seems pretty good fun so far, when i first got it i was trying to aim properly but it didn't seem to work too well (could be accounted to the game, my lack of skill or my slightly dodgy touch screen, or a bit of all 3) but today i was just firing as much up to the top screen as possible and dodging whatever came back down.

also didn't want to start a collection thread but took a pic of nearly all my shmups, for what reason i'm not quite sure

[DANGERMAN]

Bet theyre worth a bit, RS alone is about £100

[spatular]

^ i guess so, but mainly because there's a lot of them, RS is the only really expensive one.

[Jimboxy]

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New triggerheart intro for the ps2 version

Last week, Japan got a limited edition Triggerheart Exelica bundle for the PS2 port Triggerheart Exelica -Enhanced-. But what makes it "enhanced"?

Well, this animated opening by P.A. Works, for starters. Previously, P.A. Works has helped out on the game animation for the Professor Layton games.

The song is "Gravity Error" by pop singer Ayane.

VIA Kotaku

[spatular]

^ apart from anime cut scenes, which it looks like they've put quite a bit of effort into there's a new playable character and some other added stuff but it sounds like the port isn't as good as the 360/dc versions. there's more info and pics of the fancy limited edition here:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t...c&start=120

also nicked from the shmups forum, a bit of a trailer for deathsmiles:

[Jimboxy]

Deathsmiles looks cool, is that going to be region free? There is some video of it being played in akahibara over at KOTAKU, looks intense. Would dig out the link but i haven't got time.

[spatular]

the chances of any japanese game being region free are very slim unfortunately

[spatular]

i finally got hold of the dodonpachi DOJ black label EX port, it's been slated for loads of things like load times, crappy menus and graphics, and while annoying they aren't things that really bother me (also the loading doesn't seem bad compared to pgr/forza) and the inacuracies in the gameplay i don't even notice as i'm useless at chaining/scoring. so for me, despite the poor port, i still love it, all the mad bullet dodging is intact and the music is just awesome. it's great to be able to try the black label version of the game too, which is slightly easier, and there's another new mode (and apparently it's really easy with bullet canceling like in the new dodonpachi dfk) i haven't unlocked yet. i mentioned the word easy, it should be noted this is one of the hardest games i have ever played.

the old ps2 port has better graphics, has better practice mode and is much more accurate, nearly arcade perfect apparently, but it doesn't have the black label version or the other new mode.

[Hendo]

Highly positive Blast Works review.

Sounds like you need a bit of patience to get the most out of it though. I might pick it up when it's in the 10-15 quid mark as I'm rubbish at shooters and I have no imagination, but ah well.

[spatular]

^ i've always wanted to make my own shooting game, for that purpose it does sound pretty good. i'll probably pick it up for around £15 too.

there's a new shooter port coming to the 360 too:

Mamoru-kun ha norowareteshimatta!

http://www.famitsu.com/game/coming/1222568_1407.html

http://www.grev.co.jp/mamonoro/index.html

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-br-77-...en-70-3ahs.html

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t...c&start=240

[spatular]

Mushihimesama Futari v1.5 for xbox 360 has just been announced

i've only recently got hold of this so was a little disapointed it's not dodonpachi dfk, but with this announcement i think there's a strong possibility that will be next anyway

info from shmups forum as usual.