The original Mushihimesama pretty much just lifts the aesthetic of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind to great effect.
DDP, DDP DOJ, and Ketsui are all fantastic.
compared to the other 360 cave games i’ve played (mushihimesama futari, dodonpachi daifukkatsu and akai katana), i didn’t think deathsmiles was very exciting. though i do have its faceplate on my 360 D:
if we’re doing top 5s, then i guess, in no particular order:
mushihimesama futari
giga wing
thunder force iv
darius gaiden
and i dunno maybe eschatos, just because of how amazing it looks with the swooping camera and massive scale?
I bought Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label. I bought it for the Ketsuipachi mode.
It’s fun and stupid. The whole screen seems to fill up with 10 boxes pretty quick. The music is Ketsui remixes.
It’s an enjoyable piece of gaming.
I think having this might be what finally convinces me to give Daifukkatsu another look.
The Black Label version feels better. The simultaneous laser and shot is interesting, it makes the game a lot more approachable. You can just hold the autoshot button down, when you don’t want to think about it.
Top 5 Shooters
Time Pilot was made in secret.
Psyvariar 2 is fun to play, and fun to watch other people play.
Recca is my favorite Yagawa game. I like that the unreleased charge shot is a shield.
X-multiply is my favorite R-Type style shooter.
Dodonpachi Red Laser and Green Shot are both fun to play.
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Recca is a stunning piece of programming. I’m still amazed by what the game manages to make the FC hardware do. The spiritual sequel in terms of superficial playmechanics would be Pink Sweets… although I think the Arrange Mode in the 360 port is closer in terms of Recca’s frenetic pacing.
Popped in Twinkle Tale (MD) this evening and credit fed my way through the whole game for the first time. I swear, that blue dragon boss in the sky castle stage is easily the most difficult enemy in the entire game! The two forms of the Ether Demon were considerably easier.
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It still makes me sad that’s the name that stuck with the mode. Will always be Daifukketsui to me!
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Has anyone played Hurricane of the Varstray (PC/Steam)? From the few comments I’ve heard some people are dismissing it as a little boring and more amateur-ish than Studio SiestA’s previous work on Trouble Witches Neo. But I’ve also heard good things about the feel being kind of like the old Caravan shooters, which sounds appealing.
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If we’re tossing out top 5s, mine is probably:
- DDP Daioujou (& Black Label)
- Under Defeat
- Mars Matrix
- Strikers 1945 II
- I am confident the above are my top 4. For the last slot it’s gonna depend on my mood. Something like G Darius, one of the Mushihimesamas, Daifukkatsu, Thunderforce IV, maybe Eschatos…Nah fuck it, I’m gonna go off the board for an oddball game that I appreciate solely for it’s weird charm - Kingdom Grand Prix.
I also respect the hell out of Batsugun, Battle Garegga, Ikaruga, and Compile in general - but can’t say any of those make my personal top 5.
Kingdom Grand Prix is great. Nice choice.
There was a Batsugun player at an arcade in Funabashi.
Older Salaryman type guy.
He played the shit out of it most nights, until that arcade went out of business.
Batsugun and Air Gallet are my favorite pre-Cave games by the Cave guys.
Battle Garegga is my second to favorite game by Yagawa.
Dodonpachi Daioujou is the Cave game I’ve actually played the most of.
I was really tempted to put it on my list instead of DDP. It expands on the experience of playing Dodonpachi as Red Laser type really well, but it ditched the helicopter, added loli, doesn’t really have a definitive version, and I feel like it scolds you if you don’t go to the second loop. Despite all that, the bullet patterns are great, the levels work really well with the chaining mechanic, the redux of the Mars stage is better then the original, hyper is interesting, and overall it’s an extremely compelling shooter.
I recently acquired Batsugun on the recommendation of a bunch of people (including some peeps from the Saturn thread on SB1 - I’m unhappy days from the old forum), but after playing it I can’t say I’m as taken by it as others seem to be. It just seems so freaking fast to me, too fast to really appreciate. Maybe I’ve just not been sufficiently exposed to this tempo of bullet hell, but even the patterns seem kinda uninteresting to me (though I’m yet to actually complete the game, so I probably should reserve judgement on the patterns until I see everything from the final level). At least it’s beautiful to look at!
The speed issue could be a symptom of the Saturn port, which seems to have removed slowdown that may have helped with some of the more chaotic moments.
One shooter I’ve been playing recently that I am quite impressed with is Judgement Silversword. I’ve sunk almost 20 hours into it so far, and I can confidently say that it has some of my favourite patterns from any shooter. In fact, I think the game is pretty much perfect, though I wish the shield did slightly more damage to justify its use as a melee weapon. I love how each section presents a different concept or puzzle, kind of like Ikaruga or Radiant Silvergun, but less prescriptive by comparison. The patterns are super compelling, and there’s just enough randomness to make each playthrough slightly different (I can’t rely on repeating the same strategies for the shield bosses, for instance). And I love the simplicity of the scoring system.
But I still haven’t actually survived a whole run on normal; I’ve gotten within an inch of beating the final boss, but just missed out. Thinking of switching to easy mode just to finish the dang game, but it seems so much less interesting than normal…
Achieved my final form.
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Now yer talkin’
I’d settle for cufflinks
From my brief time with it I can confirm Dariusburst PS4 is fantastic.
Definitely going to get Dariusburst when I finally pick up a PS4 this weekend.
My copy of Mars Matrix arrived last week as well - I’d been thinking about picking it up for a while, but when @firenze mentioned it in his top 5, I thought it was about time I bought it. And holy heck, I am loving it so far. Collectibles are something that I can usually take or leave in shooters, but I think they work incredibly well in Mars Matrix, to the extent that I sometimes find myself trying to extend my combo to the detriment of survival. Repelling bullets also feels hella nice, and there’s a really great rhythm to dodging/repelling/collecting.
I’ve also read a lot of complaints about the game’s visuals, but I think it looks really cool and weird.
Just out of curiosity, how do y’all usually work through a (console) shooter when you first start playing it? Do you just throw yourself into the whole system, or do you first work on survival? And do you ever adjust the default stock/credits? I usually try to work within the default stock for whatever reason, perhaps because I don’t want to compromise the challenge of learning the patterns. Whether I focus on survival or scoring usually depends on how compelling the scoring system is. Disclaimer: I also suck at shooters.
i think shooting love 200x is to blame for my 360 controller’s a button being slightly flatter than the other buttons
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I think @ben nailed the reason I like Mars Matrix so much, that sense of rhythm feels so RIGHT to me. It’s the shooter that allows me to most easily get into “the zone”, to the extent that I recall one really late night/early morning session when I was so close to actually falling asleep that I’d nod off and wake back up still playing… and actually doing pretty well! I guess the game’s just in tune with my subconscious.
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Battle Crust is on Steam Greenlight
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=604680857
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Cross-posting from the deals thread for this one:
If for whatever reason you don’t have some form of Under Defeat, US
PS3 version is $1.99 on the current PSN flash sale. Raiden IV Overkill
is $2.99.
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The syuu-tin-gee-mu that I’ve been doing music for has hit Greenlight, please check it out. orz
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=627205434
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I came to this thread just to ask where I could read more stuff like this.
Specifically after hearing @HEAVYVIPER talk about Battle Garegga in the virtuacast
Are there similar articles for other shooters? Specifically ones filled with secrets and non-documented mechanics?
I feel like gamers quarter had an article about rayforce and metal black.