What shmup are you playing now?

[o.pwuaioc]

Besides Axelay, I threw in Silpheed: The Lost Planet (PS2) and ExedExes (via Capcom Classics Collection) today. ExedExes is quite the shmup! I don't know what it is, but consider me a convert. Thanks to ExedExes for constantly recommending it!

[dunpeal2064]

Besides Axelay, I threw in Silpheed: The Lost Planet (PS2) and ExedExes (via Capcom Classics Collection) today. ExedExes is quite the shmup! I don't know what it is, but consider me a convert. Thanks to ExedExes for constantly recommending it!

Yeah, thats about as much mentioning as Silpheed is worth

I must admit, I also had never given Exed Exes a spin until our new friend joined us, and its good fun. Reminds me of an old caravan shooter.

I actually found myself too lazy to play anything that would require me to think, so I was playing some Touhou 8: Imperishable Night. Patterns are fun to weave through, and the scoring system is kinda interesting, from what I get so far. Still not a fan of the sprites or lack of backgrounds, but the music is growing on me a bit (Sure isn't Namiki quality, but its not bad)

Eh, I suppose I don't hate touhou as much as I thought. Not that ZUN holds a candle to Cave, Raizing, Psikyo, Seibu, etc, but it is a nice alternative.

[noiseredux]

everyone seems to hate Silpheed, but I enjoy it. My only problem with it is that it doesn't support most arcade sticks. Stupid.

And count me as another one who first tried Exed Exes because of ExedExes and was surprised at how good it was. Especially the music!!

[dunpeal2064]

There are two ways to judge a shmup.

1) Don't compare it to anything, just judge it on how fun it is. In this fasion, there are less than 5 shmups I can think of that I HATE. Nothing wrong with this, as most shmups are quite fun.

2) Since its hard for a shmup to be really bad, compare it to the other shmups I enjoy. I find this a more accurate method, since "every shmup is good" leaves little room for discussion. Now, when we compare shmups in this way, looking at style, sprite work (or polygon work), backgrounds, music, and most important to me, scoring.

When I compare Silpheed to most score-based shmups, I find it lacking. Considering it followed up Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga, I thought this game was lacking style that Treasure usually brings.

Along with that, the scoring system feels tacked on. Once scoring is learned, its apparent that their previous efforts were not put into this. The massive amount of story is cool, but more of a neat addition.

Sure, I'll keep my copy around. Standalone, its fun enough. However, when compared to the greats, games that I still have a lot of time to put into, this game just didnt hold up in my eyes, and would not make a top 50 list, if I made one.

Still, its a scoring shooter, and although its not one of the strongest, I'm still glad it was made, and every now and then I'll give it a good romp.

I have no idea why I just wrote all of that.

[o.pwuaioc]

surprised at how good it was. Especially the music!!

Yes, the repetitive music! Something about this game, or maybe more than one thing, reminds me of Bubble Bobble.

[sabrage]

Sure, I'll keep my copy around. Standalone, its fun enough. However, when compared to the greats, games that I still have a lot of time to put into, this game just didnt hold up in my eyes, and would not make a top 50 list, if I made one.

I'd love to read that! And I'd say Aegis Wing on XBLA is pretty bad.

[dunpeal2064]

Sure, I'll keep my copy around. Standalone, its fun enough. However, when compared to the greats, games that I still have a lot of time to put into, this game just didnt hold up in my eyes, and would not make a top 50 list, if I made one.

I'd love to read that! And I'd say Aegis Wing on XBLA is pretty bad.

Hmm, that would be a fun write up. Maybe I should do it.

Aegis Wing is pretty bad, but it was free. It was good fun having 3 friends hook up to me, since they have a hard time dodging. They had a lot of fun.

A good example of how one could find reasons to love almost ANY shmup. (Divine Sealing is pretty unplayable). Once we compare them, though, some like Aegis Wing stand out as not being able to match the awesomeness of other shmups.

The great thing is, my shmup tastes grow constantly. I used to not like Espgaluda or Deathsmiles much, but now I love them. I think this is because I was looking for a certain something when I first started getting into the genre. Now that I have what I was looking for, I feel like I'm more open to different styles of shmups.

Even though Deathsmiles would not rate extreamly high, I think the game is well rounded and unique enough that I would always want it around. I think its score varience that really catches my attention, and gets me really hooked to a shooter.

With Silpheed (As an example, not trying to rip on this game over and over), there is really only one way to approach stage 1. Get the multiplier high as possible by point-blanking. Now, I'm glad they added this, or the game would have had nothing to keep me interested past the first few credits. However, after maybe 10 credits, stage 1 starts to feel really boring (imo). After you have learned it, which doesn't take long, there is little you are doing. So, I would say this scoring system is easy to get into, but flawed in that your main goal will be to point-blank destructable bullets aw much as possible, as well as pointblanking enemies.

With something like Deathsmiles, which I have played many more times than Silpheed, I still feel like I can get more out of my stages. (Lets pretend for a moment that there is a static stage 1, just for this example). Now, I have to think about what shot I am using to kill each enemy, where I use my powerup so that I don't waste it, and where to let the items fall to max out my multiplier.

Now, of course, if I did this enough times, it would feel just as repetitive, but there is enough depth that this will take a while to accomplish.

Now, this method of relating games really only applies to me, since scoring depth is my main draw to the genre. Honestly, I don't even know why I'm sharing this other than my love for talking about shmups. I actually think its awesome that this genre is so wide and different (while still holding true to basics), that even the games that get hated on by 99% of shmup players will be loved by some.

Geeze, looking over this post, its so random that I don't even want to post it, but I took the time to write it, so here ya go.

[ExedExes]

Besides Axelay, I threw in Silpheed: The Lost Planet (PS2) and ExedExes (via Capcom Classics Collection) today. ExedExes is quite the shmup! I don't know what it is, but consider me a convert. Thanks to ExedExes for constantly recommending it!

I must admit, I also had never given Exed Exes a spin until our new friend joined us, and its good fun. Reminds me of an old caravan shooter.

And count me as another one who first tried Exed Exes because of ExedExes and was surprised at how good it was. Especially the music!!

YES!

More converts!

(and you're welcome )

The EE music may not be award winning but it gets the job done. Gets me in a good zone too.

Been too busy for Battle Garegga and Axelay, my new replacement Dreamcast arrived and I've been going at it with Soul Calibur and I'm getting my GBA SP in the next day or two.

But I'll be back on those!

[mjmjr25]

I am in a steady mode of reaching the same spot / same score on Garegga / RefRain / Axelay, so gonna mix it up for a day.

Gonna play some layer section to get that hi-score thread going.

[ninjainspandex]

i just got a copy of eschatos for the 360 and while the main game is awesome im addicted to the bandai wonderswan games judgement silversword and cardinal sins. you mean to tell me this handheld could handle that much bullet hell on screen at the same time? wasnt this handheld well before the gameboy advance? thats god damn impressive.