Shmups

RuySan · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 3542

YOG wrote:

I really didn't like it. It's gorgeous, but it's a Euroshmup through and through, with simple whack-a-mole stage design, farty underpowered weapons, and a timing system in place of lives (you lose seconds off the clock instead of dying immediately, etc). I haven't seen such a frustrating penalty for getting hit since the original Darius, either; rather than simply being partially or fully lost, your power-ups spread out across the screen, supposedly giving you a chance to pick them back up again. Quite often, though, they'll be ejected in one big lump headed straight for one of the edges of the screen, which will mean an instant loss of everything if you're already close to an edge. And then you're left to play with a peashooter and slowly try to regain your power. It's just full of tedious shit like that*. It also has a rubbish story (hailed as a work of genius by professional journos) that breaks up the action every few minutes.

So, aye, I can't really recommend it. I heard it was dirt cheap on the PC, though - if that's true, you might as well try it and see what you think. You can definitely squeeze some fun out of the arcade mode. Make sure you have an analogue controller, though. It's not for standard sticks/d-pads/arrow keys...

After paying about 3€ for it, i have to agree with you. Enemy ships in shmups shouldn't have health bars on it. It just shows how weak your are. Besides, the pacing is all wrong when most of the levels are spent on boss battles and navigating the very annoying environmental obstacles. And also the story disrupts the action, even when you can speed up the dialogue.

It looks beautiful, but it only makes me want to play Jamestown or Progear.

YOG · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2012 19:58

Ginga Force release date confirmed. It's Valentine's day!

That's this one, btw:

As mentioned above, Eschatos is fucking brilliant, and this is from the same folks, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Edit: also, the Muchi Muchi Pork/Pink Sweets pack is getting a budget release in February according to some websites. This is region-free. I was actually going to try and get a copy of it over the Christmas period, but I can certainly hang on for another couple of months, heh.

romanista · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2012 23:01

current;y playing raiden legacy on the iCade..

I'VE GOT A LITTLE RAIDEN ARCADE CABINET IN MY HOUSE
etc...

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14431

I'm playing Pixeljunk's Shooter (or is it called shoot em up).

And it's hyperaceballsgreat. It's Gradius, Salamander, R-Type and them bullet hell thingies. It's probably a bit tame for the likes of YOG but I think it's groovy.

No, hang on, it's called Side Scroller.

PS: it's ace.

YOG · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 7:37

Not much different from the last, but here's the new Ginga Force trailer.

Malc74 · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 16:19

YOG wrote:

Not much different from the last, but here's the new Ginga Force trailer.

Must say, it looks a little... dull. I don't like the perspective-switching stuff either. Is it region free YOG, or Japan only?

YOG · **Posted:** Fri Jan 18, 2013 17:30

I believe so, aye. Eschatos (by the same dev) was region-free, so the odds are good this one will be left alone, too. I'll keep you informed, anyway!

The perspective-changes seem incongruous and annoying at first, but they weren't bad at all in Eschatos - it flashed up these green lines to show you the new borders of the play area each time, so you wouldn't suffer any cheap deaths, etc. This one looks like it might have actual 3D movement, though...

YOG · **Posted:** Thu Jan 24, 2013 15:12

The budget release of Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets is now available to pre-order: http://www.play-asia.com/Muchi_Muchi_Po ... -5u8b.html

Also, ShmupMAME 4 is out: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30659

YOG · **Posted:** Sun Jan 27, 2013 0:23

360 version of Akai Katana is currently a piddling £6 on Amazon UK. Go!

YOG · **Posted:** Thu Jan 31, 2013 13:03

From Eurogamer:

Quote:

Former Digital Reality creative director Theodore Reiker - best known for his work on the shockingly sophisticated shmup [loooooool -YOG], Sine Mora - has left to start a new studio, Prior Games, where he'll be working on another Japanese-Hungarian co-developed shmup for 2014.

Codenamed Project Verona, little is known about it, but Reiker said in an interview with Joystiq that it would be "more conservative in its gameplay and less ambiguous in its storytelling," and that it will branch out of the genre's conventions.

Reiker also noted that he'll be working on a series of mobile "microgames" in the meantime in the vein of Nintendo's minimalist bit.Generations and Art Style series.

The first of these, Rotolla, is described as "a hybrid of Tetris' gameplay and our mad love of hexagons since Super Hexagon." It will feature a soundtrack by legendary Silent Hill and Sine Mora composer Akira Yamaoka.

"Our plan is to release four microgames this year and a second wave of three titles next year," Reiker explained. "We are a small company and we do not want to grow beyond 15 persons... We would like to keep the 'manufacture' feeling even if the company size is limiting the scope of our output."

Best of luck to them. Here's hoping the Japanese side isn't just doing the artwork and music this time, eh?

YOG · **Posted:** Fri Feb 01, 2013 11:18

MOSS (Raiden III, IV) have a new one coming out on the 360 soon: http://www.siliconera.com/2013/01/31/ne ... htPkex5.99

YOG · **Posted:** Mon Feb 04, 2013 18:10

Caladrius is now available to pre-order. No word on it being region-free, but I'll put the links here for any NTSC-J playaz:

Limited Edition

Joe Sixpack Edition

Also, if you've pre-ordered Ginga Force via Play-Asia, you might want to cancel it and order it again, as they've dropped the price by $7.

Edit: totally forgot to mention that DoDonPachi Saidaioujou is supposed to be getting an Xbox release this summer. In PAL/NTSC-U territories, too!

YOG · **Posted:** Thu Feb 14, 2013 18:48

Lots of Ginga Force footage in this stream.

They're trying the easy mode here, but you can still get a fair idea of how it plays.

YOG · **Posted:** Wed Feb 20, 2013 12:47

ShmupMAME 4.2 is out.

A reminder of what's newly playable (or finally working properly) in version 4:

Baryon: Future Assault
Batsugun
DoDonPachi II: Bee Storm
Dogyuun
Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa (System 16)
FixEight
Planet Probe
Silver Millenium
V-Five

(A couple of which are more curiosities than must-plays, but still!)

YOG · **Posted:** Fri Feb 22, 2013 15:19

http://www.playism-games.com/games/satazius/

Satazius is now available on Playism ($5.99), for anyone who didn't or can't get it through the other outlets. Though I'm skint, I'm actually considering paying for it a third time. What a mug.

throughsilver · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6197

YOG wrote:

http://www.playism-games.com/games/satazius/

Satazius is now available on Playism ($5.99), for anyone who didn't or can't get it through the other outlets. Though I'm skint, I'm actually considering paying for it a third time. What a mug.

that site wrote:

Retro chick arcade gaming at its finest!

How can I resist?

Looks good, though. A big Amiga-ish, grafx wise, admittedly, but I'm sure it's fun.

YOG · **Posted:** Wed Mar 20, 2013 22:03

Rising Star Games "won't bring over any more Cave games". DFK and AK "terribly underperformed".

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=50780571&postcount=5100

YOG · **Posted:** Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:47

Milestone president arrested, company apparently closed.

YOG · **Posted:** Mon Apr 01, 2013 13:13

Moss have uploaded some gameplay clips for each of the Caladrius characters:
Alex
Kei
Maria

Pretty promising. Looks slower than Seibu's other games, but I'll bet it doesn't take long to get a lot nastier...

YOG · **Posted:** Mon Apr 15, 2013 4:49

More Caladrius gameplay.

YOG · **Posted:** Thu Apr 25, 2013 11:41

Just to confirm that Caladrius is not region-free. If you have a J360, though, it's shipping now...

throughsilver · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6197

I mentioned in another thread that I have been tinkering with my PSP.

This has included searching for PSX shmups I hadn't played (a lot of them, as I was dazzled by 'modernity' at the time), but also a bit of arcadey stuff where possible.

DoDonPachi is difficult, but I like the way it's emulated:

Attachment:

DoDonPachi.JPG

Hee

YOG · **Posted:** Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:14

bcass wrote:

Just saw this announced on the shmups twitter feed - Ginga Force is now available on the Hong Kong Games On Demand service for the princely sum of $299HK. The download isn't IP locked either, so you can buy it from any region on any region console with a HK gamertag. I bought it within the UK using a HK gamertag linked to my UK paypal account and it came to £25.63. More than most shmup GoD titles for some reason but still significantly cheaper than 2nd hand copies.

(Of course, you may want to go for the Eschatos & Ginga Force Wonder Pack, which was recently released.)

throughsilver · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6197

That pic was supposed to be portrait! D pad at the bottom, fire at the top.

throughsilver · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6197

YOG: Do you have Bangaio Spirits? From being half-decent at the DC version, I remember there was that bomb that was stronger, the more bullets were near you. I can't figure it out on the DS, and it's the key play mechanic! Dying in seconds.

YOG · **Posted:** Sat Aug 24, 2013 15:05

In Spirits I think you charge it up manually - proximity to bullets makes your missiles bigger, but you have to charge for a couple of seconds to fire loads of them. Should be one of the shoulder buttons? It's called the "EX attack" or something, and I think you can map it to any button you want.

(There are loads of different weapons you can use for your EX attacks, and you can combine them for different effects, so be sure to experiment!)

throughsilver · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6197

Thanks. I'll have a look. The opening levels in each mode are making mincemeat of me!

YOG · **Posted:** Sat Aug 24, 2013 15:14

Yeah, the structure of it is weird. It's a shitload of random levels that aren't even in order of difficulty or anything, so just skip around and play the ones that are fun. I think it's like this partly because the level editor was intended to be the main attraction (they were really pushing the weird sound-recording method of sharing levels), but there are still plenty of good levels from Treasure in there...

throughsilver · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 6197

Ah, now I remember. You wait and charge, as the danger nears! It definitely seems worth having; they just seem to have spent more time on how to play the game than the game itself.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Mon Aug 26, 2013 13:49

Any good shooters I should look out for on the PS3?

Grim... · **Posted:** Mon Aug 26, 2013 15:55

Super Stardust HD.

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14431

Pixel junk: Shooter, is nice and there might be a trial. There's some obscure PS2 shooters from crazy Japan knocking about inside PSN too.

myp · **Posted:** Mon Aug 26, 2013 21:35

Grim... wrote:

Super Stardust HD.

I'll even play co-op with you.

YOG · **Posted:** Wed Oct 16, 2013 23:21

Ikaruga greenlit for Steam.

Here's hoping its (vastly superior) forebear will follow!

TheVision · **Posted:** Wed Oct 16, 2013 23:25

Yay! I can buy Ikaruga... Again. :smug:

Da5e · **Posted:** Thu Oct 17, 2013 0:32

There's a chum of mine so hardcore he has an Ikaruga tattoo(not to mention the song he wrote...), and even he's sick to death of the damn game. Honestly, I don't think this is going to do very well.

YOG · **Posted:** Sun Oct 20, 2013 23:50

Groupees are doing a Doujin Bundle 2. It includes some really nice titles, such as Exceed 2 and 3, Armed Seven and Hellsinker. It also has Kamui, a lavish Raystorm clone which happens to be one of my all-time favourite games.

YOG · **Posted:** Fri Nov 01, 2013 12:27

Neo XYX (NG:Dev.Team's new Toaplan-style shooter for MVS/Dreamcast) is looking good!

Wullie · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 6183

Was playing a bit of Sine Mora the other night. It looks bonnie enough, but the bullets disappear into the lovely backgrounds a bit too often for my liking

YOG · **Posted:** Tue Feb 25, 2014 0:05

Be sure to check out Twin Tiger Shark on XBLIG (and OUYA). Really nice bit of Toaplan-worship.

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13386

I see Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours has appeared on Steam, at the rather eye-watering price of £29.99. (Although apparently they're after £49.99 on PS4?

)

A very positive review at Eurogamer - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015- ... urs-review

And well regarded (from a limited pool of reviews) at Metacritic - http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstat ... e-saviours

I'm a huge fan of the Darius arcade games (I remember first seeing the original immense three-screen cabinet at an arcade in Blackpool in the 80s and being totally blown away by it), and have revisited the whole series over the years for many, many hours in MAME. (Darius Gaiden in particular I can play and play and play.)

For £15 I'd probably have dived straight in with Chronicle Saviours, but £30 is a bit too rich for a single shmup. I've added it to my wishlist and will wait for a sale.

romanista · **Posted:** Wed Dec 23, 2015 14:27

I want this. But 60 euros. Wow

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13386

Never in the history of Steam has a game had 'more than half off in the next sale' written over it more than this one.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Thu Dec 24, 2015 22:36

Nicey but pricey! I'll pick it up for PS4 when its inevitably £10.

romanista · **Posted:** Fri Dec 25, 2015 0:20

Is there a psn warnng service which will mail me or im me when it does reach that magic price?

romanista · **Posted:** Sun Dec 27, 2015 14:09

Now downloading astebreed as a stopgap.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... eed-review

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13386

romanista wrote:

I want this. But 60 euros. Wow

This is down to £23.99 already. Not long until it's a tenner, I reckon.

romanista · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 13:08

on ps4?

romanista · **Posted:** Fri Feb 26, 2016 15:48

and darius burgst now is discounted.woohoo! 46% even!

romanista · **Posted:** Fri Mar 11, 2016 11:31

raiden 5 now out for the bone.. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016- ... n-5-review
microsoft made it a jap xbone exclusive... let's see if they shirt more xboxes out there because of it.

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