The Shmup Thread

[Jimboxy]

i wonder how much extra hassle it is for devs to make games region free, in my head its just ticking a box when they press the gold copy, i imagine there is more to it than that though.

I'll be buying the two that are region free to show some belated support.

[illdog]

i wonder how much extra hassle it is for devs to make games region free, in my head its just ticking a box when they press the gold copy, i imagine there is more to it than that though.

I'll be buying the two that are region free to show some belated support.

Nice one Billy, ive ordered EspGaluda II form Play Asia (£50 delivered ).

That sucks about the region free thing not happening. Its looking more and more like im gonna have to get an import 360. But USA or Asian?

[spatular]

Yeah, nice one Jimbo!

i wonder how much extra hassle it is for devs to make games region free, in my head its just ticking a box when they press the gold copy, i imagine there is more to it than that though.

there was a lot of talk about this on the shmups forum, from what i can remember it's supposed to be pretty simple in the code like you say but they have to submitt the game for testing in all regions or something which adds some time/money to the process, or something like that anyway.

The main reason they won't be doing it for the forseeable future will be to help them try to secure deals with publishers in other regions.

illdog, if you want to get an import 360 to play shooters, for a wider choice get an asian one, problem is the japanese games are expensive, for an american one it'd be worth waiting to see if any more stuff gets released over there after deathsmiles. bonus with that is the games are pretty cheap in america, and there's some good stuff already out like the 2 raiden games.

[spatular]

there's a funny video of someone playing espgaluda 2 on the japanese marketplace, she starts screaming when it gets tricky.

[spatular]

microsoft shooting fiesta in japan - some announcements/confirmations:

Ketsui - 22nd April

deathsmiles 2X - 27th may

guwange on xbla this year

info from here:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30233&start=60

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=816.0

also loads of people on the shmups forum are complaining about the espgaluda 2 port slowdown accuracy - not really a surprise unfortunately. and it lacks a lot of the fancy graphics options in futari, not that i ever messed with them anyway.

[spatular]

i bought Otomedius G on the 360 because it was re-released quite cheap, seemed like a silly idea really as it's like the old parodius games which i don't like too much, anyway gave it a go and after the boring first stage it's a lot more fun than i was expecting still with the cave games on the 360 this won't get much play time.

also some shmup news!

as pointed out to me by Ben, espgaluda 2 is out on the iphone this weekend, only 3gs though, no 8gb touch

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=826.0

http://www.cave-world.com/en/games/espgaluda2.html

and deathsmiles is coming to america with a special edition 360 faceplate and soundtrack CD, think the release date is around the end of june.

edit - quad post BAM.

[illdog]

and Deathsmiles is coming to america with a special edition 360 faceplate and soundtrack CD, think the release date is around the end of june.

Chances of it being compatible with PAL machines less than zero?

[DANGERMAN]

I think he said it wasnt compatible when I asked him I would quite like a new shooter, but £50+ to import from playasia is a bit steep

[spatular]

yeah i think they said it wouldn't be region free, optimistic people on shmups have suggested it could still be dual region like US/PAL or US/JPN, but i doubt it tbh

they've re-released some shooters in japan recently at a cheaper price, only region locked ones so far but they might do the same with futari and espgaluda 2, so might be worth looking out for that Ben?

[Hendo]

i bought Otomedius G on the 360 because it was re-released quite cheap, seemed like a silly idea really as it's like the old parodius games which i don't like too much

Man, I love me some Parodius, hope they bring a snazzy new version to XBLA.

[spatular]

i bought Otomedius G on the 360 because it was re-released quite cheap, seemed like a silly idea really as it's like the old parodius games which i don't like too much

Man, I love me some Parodius, hope they bring a snazzy new version to XBLA.

i seem to remember hearing they trademarked "Otomedius" in amarica so i guess there is the chance it'll come out in america/here.

[hinn888]

Good news for you guys, Raystorm HD is coming out soon.

Achievements are out too!

[spatular]

^ yarrr i had one of thoes games on the saturn (not sure its the same one, prequal/sequal maybe?) and it was pretty good

[Hendo]

If Castlevania was a shmup?

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="

name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="

type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

[spatular]

^ that looks pretty cool for an indie game.

deathsmiles mega black label 1.1 mode is apparently out this week, 240 points, and as the normal 1.1 mode on the disk was really good i'm looking forward to this

edit for source:

http://www.cave-stg.com/forum/index.php?topic=346.725

[spatular]

Good news for you guys, Raystorm HD is coming out soon.

Achievements are out too!

out next wednesday apparently

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27465&start=120

also i got deathsmiles mbl 1.1 last week and it reminds me why i like deathsmiles so much, its ace but i don't play it much because of the horizontal nature of the gameplay.

[spatular]

raystorm hd is out now, i'm not bothering with it unless its on offer.

raiden fighters aces has been spotted (info from shmups forum) for preorder on play.com for £18, great news if it comes out over here and a good deal for 3 great games.

http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/4-/14956580/Raiden-Fighters-Aces/Product.html

also Ketsui arrived today, and it's a great port of an amazing game, simple and fun scoring system, pretty difficult, but why can't i break through my high score brick wall???!?

[spatular]

deathsmiles 2X arrived the other day, it's cave's first go at a shooter using 3d/polygon graphics and the results vary between ok and terrible, there's some zombies that wouldn't look out of place in a ps1/2 game, but some of them look ok, and the bullets/effects are fine. gameplay is still very good though, maybe not as good as some of the more recent ports like ketsui etc. there's 4 different modes, one of which is a mad platformer/puzzle/bouncing game thing which is an odd inclusion, played through it once not sure i'll bother again. arcade mode is just the arcade version, x moce is like the arcade game with 2 new characters, 2 new stages, selectable difficulty, different scoring, improved graphics and a few other changes to bosses etc. both these modes are good fun, although i don't really understand the scoring in arcade mode, have more idea whats going on in x mode, its supposed to be really easy, i've 1cc'd it on all level 1 and all level 2 but finding arcade mode and all level 3 pretty hard. the other mode - arrange - i think uses dual stick controls so i havent tried it yet as playing on a saturn pad.

there's some funny bosses, some giant dude that looks like some sort of cartoon abraham lincon who kicks at you, bullets coming out of his legs, does a funny scream then he pulls his head off and that starts firing bullets at you. also a raindeer and an evil santa called "satan claws" iirc.

[spatular]

new cave game Akai Katana at location test in the arcades:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Y2dbEydD0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3xGgxWKo80

looks pretty cool but i wish it was a vertical game, guess they're going for horizontal more now as it works better on the consoles?

apparently (i can't play mine ) deathsmiles american release is loads faster (and so harder) than the japanese versions - cave have said that's because they improved the engine (maybe true) and got rid of some unwanted slowdown, i call bolocks on that second part, i think its more that most people/reviewers wouldn't get that the slowdown is supposed to be part of the game so they removed a lot of it, in a way i think its worked as it seems to be getting good reviews, but if you pick all level 3 the japanese version is plenty hard enough without added speed. a lot of people on the shmups forum are annoyed about it not being comparable to the arcade version...

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/deathsmiles?q=deathsmiles

radilgy (the newer on i guess) is apparently coming to the 360 - i'll probably get it.

all info from the shmup forum as usual.

If Castlevania was a shmup?

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="

name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="

type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

also this ^ game is awesome for 80 points.

[spatular]

the shmups fourm is having its anual tournament which involves playing some shooters in mame, a new game each week over 5 or so weeks - wondered if anyone was up for entering an mf gamers team? or something.