Be Excellent To Each Other

Kicking of a Shmups thread in respect of Ikaruga Wednesday release.

Ikaruga then, bought it 2nd hand for Cube (£29 - hnggg! It'll be worth fuck all to trade in now ) but after downloading the 360 demo and seeing it again in hi-def glory I had to bag it. Unfortunatley due to late night burnout it got too late to play/see, so after defeating the first boss I sloped off to bed. Can't wait to break out my Hori stick and put some serious time in.

V.Good

Your whore-y stick? I don't think I want to know.
I've got a copied version for the Dreamcast, and I'm terrible at it. To much to think about with all the black/white stuff for my little brain. I do enjoy a quick blast though.

You can treat the polarity with different degrees of importance though.

You can switch like mad, and concentrate on chaining and charging or just switch occasionally so you're the best colour to soak up the predominant colour of the bullet hell sections.

I urge everyone with a 360 to give this shooter a go, well several goes please.

I can understand the appeal but for me this game just sounds like a recipe for frustration and misery.

so much difference playing ikaruga with a controlller or my lovely hori stick..
(incidentally, i was looking for info over hori when buying the stick, and thery didn't have a wiki page, so i started one, got deleted because it wasn't clear that hori was a notable company)

That bit where you're flying along and the tunnel is collapsing behind you - if you manage to do it without dying, that's a recipe for a massive adrenaline rush

Anyone still playing Omega 5 and/or REZ HD?

I must give them some more time as they both deserve it.

This weekends challenge for me is to finally complete the 'Eden' level on REZ, love the tune on that level sooooooo much.

I still return to Omega Five now and again. I think it's completely ace.

I can't get through Level 2 on Arcade++ though. I can get halfway but I always take damage after the snake.

Brilliant game though and one of the few arcade games I've managed to 1CC. To be fair this one isn't that difficult (which is why I like it so much). Contra was much harder but if I can do it anyone can.

Ikaruga makes me cry. It's so unforgiving.

Level 2 of Omega 5 can be a headache, probably the toughest level in the game to get through unharmed.

Are you using the shield? Although you can only take one hit, your bar is still full so you can use the shield and let it deplete.

yeah, i'd say that's fair and I reckon level 3 is one of the easiest (Booby lasers FTW).

i can't imagine taking no damage towards the end of level 4. everytime I beat the boss I always ended up with a few pixels of health left.

Jona, I tend to use Ruby as she's easier to score with (well for me anyway). I might give Tempest another go then. That little bloke with the sword would be alright but you'd never score a 30x combo with him.

I'm a bit of a latecomer when it comes to shmups. I never used to enjoy them as a child on the Amiga, as they were just too hard.

I love Rez and Omega 5, however (probably because they're what's known as 'easy' in the shmup world). Ikaruga looks really good, but I just know it'll be far too hard for me.

Bluce, I think Jonarob's refering to the temporal shield thing that uses a little health, not the deflector shield that Tempest has.

Have you tried the demo yet though?

Yes, I gave it a go and died straight away. I then read the instructions and got a bit further, but died again. I tried a third time and got a little bit further, but died again.

I haven't tried it again since. There's no way I'm buying a game if I can't even complete the demo first...

I mean the invincibility shield that all characters have. Nothing can hit you when you use it, but it eats away at your health.

Dude, that is kinda how all shooters work. It is tough, granted, but you are getting a bit further each time I'm sure you'd nail the 1st level eventually. If you don't actually enjoy it then fair enough fella.

I was enjoying it, I just need to give it a bit more attention and haven't had much time for my Xbox this week.

INVINCIBILITY SHIELD!?!!?!!

I totally forgot about that! That's the answer!

Mahoney!

D'oh! Also, watch the highscore people playing, it really helps.

This is a good thread

I too am late to shmups never really playing them until the last year or so. I second everything everyones saying about Omega 5 it is acebest. And level 2's a cunt.

Still only 1 Credited it with Sensi, but I can get to the boss with Booby. And I've not even started on ++ mode yet...

Ikargua TRUFAX: I gave it a 2 player go with Mr Dave and it's laggy as shit. People have been moaning about it elsewhere to, so I don't think it was just us. Terrible shame.

I played Ikaruga with a friend. I hosted (20meg) and he's on an 8meg connection and it was horrible.

it settled down a bit afterwards but was never right.

Aegis Wing handled four players far smoother.

There's an invincibility shield in O5? Cry.

I boughted Omega5 the other day in lethargic response to all the aceness reviews by you lot. It is indeed most excellent, however I can only get to level 3 so far.

I would say however, that there is an opening for one of you all-knowing guys to knock up a quick BETEO GUIDE TO BEING EXCELLENT AT...OMEGA 5 as frankly I didn't know how to repel bullets with Tempest until I looked it up or that there was a shield thing. The ingame instructions are crap.

And if it ends up becoming a series I do of course claim it as my idea and will be claiming royalties on the name. About £2 a month should cover it.

I'm going to go back and play Omegas 1-4 now.

Are there any decent schmups on the PC or DS Lite, either horizontal or vertical? I'd quite like at least one.

PC:
Warning Forever http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/index_e.html
Noiz2sahttp://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/noiz2sa_e.html

are good. And free.

DS not so much.

Horizontal Scrolling: Nanostray 1 and 2 (not played either really)

But Geometry Wars: Galaxy and Space Invaders Extreme are both really excellent in my opinion.

The Touhou stuff on PC is good, if a little bit hard.

Better off playing GBA shooters on your DS lite. Gradius Galaxies is a good start.

Good thinking chief!

Also: Buy a 360 Pete.

Yes.

Actually everyone should buy one.

I've not heard of Gradius Galaxies, and I need a new game to fit in my beautiful sweet GBA Micro to fill 10 minute gaps. Colour me curious.

I've never really thought about traditional shmups on the GBA. Can anyone name some others? Vertical ones especially.

Okay, I don't particularly like shmups, but I downloaded the trial to Ikaruga, wanting to see what all the fuss is about. I enjoyed the first level, didn't beat the boss, but saw how to beat the boss. Bought the full game. Got past the boss quite easily. And holy crap, that second level is a bitch and a half. First level: tough, but fair. Second level: Insanity.

Level three will probably make your head fall off, then

Quite possibly, however, I don't think I'll ever get to see it.

Here is my tip. Don't use Tempest and his multicoloured ejaculate.

BOOBIES is definitely the one to use but my tip for a higher score is to not try and destroy everything as soon as you see it. Simply hitting something with her laser stops your multiplier from resetting so often I sweep over enemies without concentrating fire on them to maintain the 10x multiplier for as long as possible.

Good evening, godless sodomites!

Would you folks be up for turning this thread into something of a 'workshop'? No set targets, or deadlines by which to submit scores, just a nice little space for us to talk about how we're getting on with our particular games, and to share tips with each other and talk about how cool pink bullets that go 'PSHEWWW' are.

Actually, it might be better if we pick a game that everybody has access to, and stick with it as a group for a while. Just playing on and off, mind you. The important thing is for it to be relaxed, so that we can all have fun getting better at these games in our own time. Asking any kind of dedication from people usually ends up creating, well, the shmups.com forums.

I'm playing Parodius Da! on the Saturn at the moment (part of the Gokujou Parodius Deluxe Pack), but MAME runs it beautifully too, so does anybody fancy score-attacking this?

How do I go about getting it for MAME? I've never actually bothered with MAME, actually. What do I do?

MAME Plus is probably the easiest one to use, mate. I actually have a version of it up on my FTP, with a bunch of games:

Enjoy!

Bookmark this for all your ROMs.

Sweet! Thanks man

*plugs Hori stick in*

Oh, there's some other stuff I should tell you. When you start up the emulator, click on 'available' and press F5 to refresh it. You need to do this every time you add new games to the ROMs folder, too. You press '5' to add credits for player one, and '1' to start the game ('6' and '2' for player two, and so on). You should be good to go now, but gimme a shout if you get stuck!

You could always get the newest version of MAME Plus, but I find it's far too bloated for my laptop. Haven't tried it on my bog-standard shop-bought Dell computer, though...

Hey! Does the Hori stick work under WIndows then? I never realised!

Thanks!

And yeah CUS, it surely does! Plug and play. It's the best stick I've ever had, and I've had some sticks.

I could do with a new stick. Where can I get one of those, captain?

Pretty much any of the online retailers, but I got mine from Dr. A, who bought it for 20 quid in Gamestation. I don't know if that offer's still on, but even if it is, they're rare to find - hence Dr. A getting me one! But Amazon's as good as any other place I guess:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Virtua-Fighter- ... 426&sr=8-2

The Virtua Fighter crap is actually just a sticker set that you don't have to put on. It's a 360 stick, but like I said, plug and play in Windows at least.

Gamestation are still doing them for £19.99 - I have seen them quite recently, in the Birmingham and Telford branches.

That's aces about the Windows compatability - MAME here I come, woo!

I hope there's a Saturn converter for that. Hoo boy!

This is a fabby idea, and I'm going to be the first to beg for tips on how to kill the bastard Level 2 boss in Ikaruga. I mean, I can avoid its attacks for a couple of cycles, but i'm having real difficulty finding where I should be shooting, as nothing I do seems to have an effect.

This weekend, in between bouts of Ikaruga and Raiden 3 I shall be plugging in my new Master System (thanks to a kind work colleague who gave me a whole bunch of console goodies for free) and having a blast at R-Type. I may even (nngh) try a few more goes at Nanostray 2, but playing it causes me so many tears of sadness that I don't know whether I have the strength of will to play it for long.