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March 28, 2024, 05:09:59 PM

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Shmups

Started by ImmaculateClump, May 19, 2021, 09:20:15 AM

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Crenners

Have you ever played Neko Navy? It's very accessible but also potentially bullet hell mental if you get into it.

Very fun, simple gameplay mechanics, quite daft and funny art style and enemies.

Clump will have much more to say than I can on it but I'd say it's one of the best horizontal shmups on the Switch by far.


Quote from: Kelvin on August 06, 2022, 09:45:17 AMIs this thread only for

It's for fucking anything at this stage, to be honest.
You won't leave, will you?
Do you want another drink? I'll bake a cake. Everyone likes cake!
It's for everything, shmups, shmup-adjacent games like twin stick shooters, games with bullet hell elements. Anything that gets your shooting juices flowing.

I'm gonna say something that you won't believe, but I assure you it's 100% true.
Bullet hell games are easier than none bullet hell games. They are way more newb friendly.
People see the amount of bullets on screen and get frightened, but the bullets are a lot slower, giving you way more time to improvise and react, and hori bullet hells don't tend to have scenery that can kill you, and they often give you a lot more ways of dealing with the bullets like hypers, autobombs etc.
It's totally counter intuitive, I know, but it is true.

Pretty much all shmups have an easy or novice difficulty setting where you can just chill and have fun.

Black Bird might be good. It's an amazing ride, and you can shoot the powerups, making sure you collect a feather every time and rack up loads of extra lives.
The only time it really goes bullet hell is the final boss, which might prove to be a bit of a wall.
The normal mode is a sort of tutorial and you unlock "true" mode when you complete it.

Neko Navy on easy should be a lot of fun, but it is bullet hell.

Cotton Reboot Arrange mode is nice and chill. Again, it's bullet hell.

The deathsmiles and deathsmiles 2 collection would be great. They are bullet hell, but both games feel like a proper adventure and are designed to be beginner friendly.
Deathsmiles 1 was my first cave 1cc.

Remember that you can just credit feed your way through these games if you like, you'll find yourself using less credits each time you play and get better.

I would just pick one that you like the look of and take that approach. Don't get upset when you die, just treat it as a fun spectacle and experiment.

edit:
Quote from: Crenners on August 06, 2022, 12:13:13 PMHave you ever played Neko Navy? It's very accessible but also potentially bullet hell mental if you get into it.

Yeah, I think that's probably the best one to go with. Type "neko navy easy 1cc" into youtube and see if it looks doable.

Kelvin

Looked at all of those. Cotton Reboot looks cool, Deathsmiles too, to a slightly lesser extent.

Neko Navy's art is horrible, really juvenile, but I admit it does look fun to play, and looking elsewhere online everyone's saying how good it is...

Black Bird is probably fun, but watching the gameplay, it doesn't really look like the type of more classic (read: nostalgic) gameplay I'm looking for.

Are there any games you'd recommend with the more traditional aesthetic of spaceships vs alien armadas. I'm not really into all these anime witches, or flying cartoon cats - even though I'll probably give Cotton Reboot a go.  

Quote from: Kelvin on August 06, 2022, 01:42:55 PMNeko Navy's art is horrible, really juvenile

Yeah, the guys style can be a bit marmite. That's fair if you're not feeling it.

Rolling Gunner is bullet hell, but it has a novice mode that keeps things nice and slow and it'll fill up the fullscreen nicely playing portable. No daft cats or lasses, but it does have this mechanic that might take a little while to get your head around, the guns rotate in the oposite direction you move and you hold down fire to lock them in place. It sounds more complicated than it is, and you don't really have to be a dab hand at that to get through the novice mode.

Prehistoric Isle 2 is a lot of fun, that's pretty oldschool. You're a helicopter and you fight dinosaurs.

I'm not sure about Andro dunos 2, it might prove a little tricky even on journey mode, but it definitely ticks the oldschool box.

Crenners

Super Hydorah is a more modern take on old-school horizontal shmup. I really enjoyed it despite not liking the horis so much.

Rolling Gunner is superb, I loved it.

Black Bird is actually very old school, Kelv. It plays almost identically to Fantasy Zone but the art and soundtrack is really original and quite weird. Not my fave but it's very well rated.

Maybe G-Darius? It's not too easy but it's a brilliant classic horizontal shmup, not bullet hell.

Blazing Star is a brilliant Neo Geo hori, probably get it for a few quid now.

I actually turned on Neko Navy for a bit before having not used my Switch in forever and ended up playing for an hour. Really really playable fun game, but I understand why the artstyle wouldn't be to everyone's taste.

madhair60

Arcade Archives Gradius 2

Satazius NEXT

Super Hydorah

R-Type Dimensions DX or EX, I forget which it is

Kelvin

Thanks, everyone. I went for Neko Navy and Satazius, but stuck a bunch more on my wishlist. Might pick up a couple more later in the week as they're on sale.

Kelvin

Turns out Neko Navy is really fucking good.



I've gone full crenners! Just realised I've spent 8.3 hours playing the first stage demo of flesh.
It's fantastic! Looking forward to the full game coming in october!

522,503 - https://streamable.com/ydtblp

@Crenners Cosmo Dreamer getting a switch port towards the end of the year. One of the best games of 2020. Don't sleep on it! - https://twitter.com/Outside_danmaku/status/1559376172240101376

QuoteOur circle's #Cosmo Dreamer Nintendo Switch port will proceed with the cooperation of Wakuwaku Games.
 thank you! 🌟

QuoteCircle "Autoshido" @Outside_danmaku 's bullet hell shooter joins the Switch! "Cosmo Dreamer" Switch version is scheduled to be released at the end of this year. Please look forward to the follow-up report.


Crenners

Gracias, King. I'll give it a go when it comes. Somewhat disconcerted that the anus/cunt is blurred out there but if you like the gameplay, it's gotta be good shit.

Haha :D Hopefully it means there'll be a Like Dreamer port as well further down the line!
I hope it makes them some decent money because they've been giving their games away for nowt on pc for ages and I can't imagine they're shifting a ton of units on steam.

Kelvin

What's DoDonPachi Resurrection like on Switch? I know it's a vertical shooter, but I really like the look of it (on novice). Is it considered a decent version of the game and am I right in saying it includes the original arcade version? 

It's great. No problems with the switch version.
Yes, "Normal 1.5" mode is the original arcade game tweaked and polished a little.

Crenners

Quote from: Kelvin on August 17, 2022, 04:11:27 PMWhat's DoDonPachi Resurrection like on Switch? I know it's a vertical shooter, but I really like the look of it (on novice). Is it considered a decent version of the game and am I right in saying it includes the original arcade version? 

To my refined palate, it plays identically to the 360 version and the arcade version (always have a couple of credits at Arcade Club whenever I go). Superb port, as are Mushihimesama and Espgaluda 2. A brilliant game and even on Normal difficulty is one of the more forgiving Caves, I reckon. I'm going to play it now, thanks for the reminder.

Kelvin

Great, thanks both, I'll pick that up too.

Crenners

Quote from: Kelvin on August 17, 2022, 05:34:02 PMGreat, thanks both, I'll pick that up too.

Your post got me back into DDP Resurrection (aka Daifukkatsu) and I've been having a great time with it. I'm determined to learn how to get the clear.

I made lots of progress with Ketsui earlier in the year and could sometimes get to Stage 5 without losing any lives but the last stage is such a steep cliff, I couldn't get any closer without dedicating all of my free time to it. I wasn't interested or consistently good enough.

DDP DFK is wayyyyy more approachable. I still don't know it very well and I'm rusty as hell with shmups in general (hardly played any games since Elden Ring) but I've got up to relative speed pretty quickly. It's got a really good flow to it, each stage is a little different and there are some environmental kind of gimmicks to keep you thinking about more than just bullet patterns. There are also several awesome Arrange modes here, as well as the Black Label DLC which makes it even more chaotic, though that too has a very accessible and fun Novice mode.

It's probably the 'best' bang for your buck shmup on the Switch and also technically 'the best'. If they ported over Ketsui, Mushihimesama Futari, DDP Daioujou and Battle Garegga, it would be the fifth best on the system, but until that happens, it's pretty hard to beat.

Good luck! Strong style, blue or green ship is good for survival.

Not a traditional shmup, more of an avoid 'em up, but I've been having great fun beating my score in the arcade mode of "Don't Die Mr Robot"
It's an old game on your phone, your vita, your ps4 and your switch and just came to pc - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2051450/Dont_Die_Mr_Robot_DX/

Unlock this guy as soon as you can, he's a total game changer.



On the "special guests" page in the shop, he just looks like a plain white block with a face on it.

The key rotates around him in the opposite direction you move like the guns do in rolling gunner, or your familiar when playing follett in deathsmiles, and you can strategically place it to kill enemies that are coming at you and avoid running into the fruit so you can set up a bigger chain.

It's loads of fun. Try to keep the fruit on screen as long as you can and set off a huge chain.
The announcer voice is really cool, she's tossing her hair around and giving it all "oooh, chains!" it's good fun.

There's a score to beat.



It's one of the games on the switch eshop, so you've probably got this already, crenners :D

Crenners

Great game, looks awful in screenshots but a lot of fun. Didn't someone on rllmuk make it? Either way, yeah, I picked that one up and enjoyed it.

I've had a day off waiting for the vet to call (all good news) and been having fun with DFK. I got to the last boss on 1.5 and 1.51, which is a really cool mode. Bees give bombs as well as hyper so it's pretty good for survival but it's also harder, all midbosses are Ura, I think, and a few other bosses change. The last boss is a total bastard so I'll possibly never clear the mode.

For a change, I decided to fire up the 360  as well and cleared Futari BL Original which I was pleased about. I never actually cleared it again after my low-rank abuse attempt years ago. Shit score but I'm not arsed. That was great fun, really satisfying clear with a life left and a couple of bombs.



Quote from: Crenners on August 22, 2022, 07:10:20 PMDidn't someone on rllmuk make it?

Oh, I didn't know that! Yeah, it's good fun.

Excellent! Black label is smashing. You should be more or less ready for a vanilla futari 1cc after that, there's not much in it. You've done the hard work already.

Crenners

Quote from: ImmaculateClump on August 22, 2022, 07:42:29 PMExcellent! Black label is smashing. You should be more or less ready for a vanilla futari 1cc after that, there's not much in it. You've done the hard work already.

Cheers, I'll defo give it a go but I remember not finding it quite as 'juicy' as BL, I miss all the medals and cancels (and the slowdown!).

I had another run straight after the 1CC before, going for score. I was curious about how hard it gets when the counter gets high but the slowdown still kicks in big time and I got the clear. It's a lot of fun playing more aggressively, happy to get 340m, I might work on that. Please don't feel the need to watch, I uploaded for my funeral playlist. My will now says these videos will be played at the service instead of hymns or eulogy.




You sunk my battleship :(



This isn't over.

Crenners

Hey! I'll look forward to the pasting 😅

I didn't realise how much I missed this game, really don't understand why M2 have never ported it beyond the 360.

Well, they've done the hard work, we might see a city connection release. I hope we do because they're down to do pc versions as well.
The "TAKExOFF" team did great work on the recent deathsmiles double pack, so hopefully they keep the standard up for the upcoming akai katana release and they keep bringing the cave goodness to modern systems.

I'm gonna get black label set up in xenia because I'm gonna need all the slowdown I can get!

Crenners

I still need to pick up the DS pack, and will finally give Akai a decent run when it hits Switch, even just to encourage them to keep going. As you know, I can't really read horis anywhere near to verts but I'll support the releases.

Mad that Futari and DOJ are basically the last big names to come.

Good luck, hope you can get it running okay.

#207
Wow, that luxury slowdown in the 360 version! :D That stage 3 boss is a walk in the park by comparison!

That one broken build of xenia from 2020 that runs the black label dlc is sadly very temperamental.
It's crashing enough for me not to trust it to get through a full run.
I can't remember if I bought the black label dlc on the 360 so instead of setting that up, I just went with mame.



Juuuust warming up. Juuuust blowing off the cobwebs.

I'll mess round with underclocking the cpu and changing the blitter delay to get the slowdown more arcade accurate next time I play. Just leaving it at stock was alright when I was playing for survival, but I don't want to be throwing my bombs away during lightning fast boss patterns and dropping my multiplier counter for nothing.
I've seen people recommending varying cpu speeds from about 39-45 so I'll round it up to 50mhz just to make sure I'm not at an advantage.

I got a better score in don't die mr thingybob



edit: I'ma comin'!

Crenners

OK, you're right behind me there, but yeah, sounds like you're playing a different game! The slowdown is very generous on the 360 (and the arcade) and some of those boss patterns would be much tougher without. In fact, while the actual stages can still get pretty rapid, it's the bosses and TFD sections (like the last third of stage 3 and the worms in Stage 4) that the BL slowdown really helps to temper.

Will have another few runs myself tonight and see how I get on.

Yeah, it's just the boss patterns I want the slowdown on really, and I'm not getting it in mame, not at the right times anyway.
I'll try xenia again today, see if that rickety old build held together with string and sellotape can hold together for long enough to get the clear!

Have you played the mushihimesama 1.5/matsuri mode? I was talking about that the other day and realised how similar it is to futari black label. I think you'd really enjoy that as well.