DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (White Label) B-L 2-ALL 737 Million Pts PEG 2024-05-19 | At long last I final got the DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (怒首領蜂大往生) White Label 2-ALL clear using B-Leinyan. Played on the original PCB.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:58 - Stage 205:54 - Stage 309:49 - Stage 414:15 - Stage 520:01 - Intermission20:14 - Loop 2-122:33 - 2-225:24 - 2-329:09 - 2-433:38 - 2-538:01 - Final Boss Kouryu39:09 - True Last Boss Hibachi40:55 - Ending & CreditsI've been playing DaiOuJou (DOJ) for over a year at this point and this game still feels like the hardest shmup I've ever played. It absolutely deserves and lives up to it's reputation as a brutal and ruthless game. I promised myself I would quit shmups if I couldn't clear it and in the process nearly broke my brain at many points.The first loop is not too bad, probably similar in difficulty to Ketsui's first loop or EspRaDe. Everything changes when you reach the second loop. I can only imagine what they were thinking with this, it's beyond ridiculous. You basically have no room for error and 1 tiny mistake anywhere is a game over. It's shockingly clear to me why they nerfed the game so much for the Black Label release.I have so, SO much more to say about this game I might end up doing a commentary and explaining things in more detail as it's pretty hard to really do it justice here. If there's any interest please let me know.Also, I would like to apologize for the language at the end of the video. I thought about cutting this part out but decided to leave it in there because it was a genuine reaction. I honestly could not believe what just happened and was overwhelmed. The ending was absolutely insane.
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Black Label - 1 Round True Boss ALL Clear 469 Million Pts PEG 2024-02-09 | Came back to play DDP DOJ Black Label (怒首領蜂大往生 ブラックレーベル) mode since I've finished with all of the arranged modes for Switch. I posted a clear of this mode last year but the score was complete crap (106 Mil) so I'm updating it lol.I'm still not really satisfied with this score since I botched a few chains but it's decent for me. From now on I will probably only be playing either white label or the 2 loop mode of black label.This was played on the original PCB, which has way less lag than the Switch and feels a lot better.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:41 - Stage 205:51 - Stage 309:54 - Stage 414:17 - Stage 518:33 - Kouryu 20:33 - Hibachi22:11 - Ending & Credits
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (Switch) - Super Easy Mode Clear 1.05 Billion Pts PEG 2024-01-30 | Did a scoring run of Super Easy mode on the Switch port for kicks. #1 score on the Switch leaderboard now.One interesting thing I noticed is that you get 100 million points if you can beat Hibachi with the maximum bonus intact. I wonder if that is in arcade mode too? Kinda doesn't matter since it would be impossible to actually get outside of super easy mode.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:33 - Stage 205:44 - Stage 309:43 - Stage 416:44 - Stage 520:52 - Kouryu22:09 - Hibachi23:55 - Ending & Credits
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (Switch) - Arrange EX ALL Clear 1.2 Billion Pts PEG 2024-01-20 | Top overall score for Arrange EX on the Switch leaderboard for this mode as of 1/21/24Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:32 - Stage 205:27 - Stage 309:10 - Stage 413:39 - Stage 517:55 - Kouryu19:03 - Hibachi20:50 - EndingSimilar mode to Arrange L but with a few differences:- Loop 2 enemies and chain timer- Hypers are collected automatically- You gain extra lives much faster (after every mid boss and boss I believe?)
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (Switch) - Arrange L ALL Clear 621 Million Pts PEG 2024-01-17 | Top overall score of Arrange L on the Switch leaderboard for this mode as of 1/17/24Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:40 - Stage 205:41 - Stage 309:42 - Stage 416:50 - Stage 521:22 - Kouryu22:37 - Hibachi24:07 - EndingThis is more like the arcade game than Arrange S but still quite a few differences. You get hypers WAY faster but they also last a lot shorter. You can also cancel larger enemies into stars with the laser and it adds to your hit counter.If you get hit you will auto hyper or auto bomb depending on what is in stock. If you are in hyper mode and get hit, you drop out of hyper mode and are invincible for a period of time, so it's pretty hard to die in this mode. Pretty hard to chain since it uses loop 1 chain timers unlike Arrange EX.You fight the real version of Hibachi at the end, but it's still much, much easier than the arcade version do to all the hyper shenanigans.
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (Switch) - Arrange S No-Miss Clear 1.16 Billion Pts PEG 2024-01-14 | Finally got the No-Miss Clear of this arrange mode. At this time (1/14/24) this is the top score on the Nintendo Switch leaderboard for Arrange S mode.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:18 - Stage 205:07 - Stage 308:34 - Stage 412:49 - Stage 516:56 - Kouryu17:45 - Hibachi18:55 - EndingStrange mode for sure, you only use a single button since there is no laser and no bombs and you are permanently in hyper mode. While clearing this mode is pretty simple, getting a high score is mostly tied to the number of lives you have remaining at the end.Hibachi's finally pattern is a pretty big wall in getting the no-miss clear, easily the hardest part of this mode.
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (White Label) - Hibachi No-Miss Clear PEG 2024-01-03 | Hibachi white label no miss clear using the Switch port AC Challenge mode.In this mode you can start directly at the Hibachi fight with unrealistic resources. In this case, you can start with 5 hypers, and a 6th ready to fill up. Even with this setup, it is still a very, very difficult challenge, with very precise timings on everything, and a setup that just barely lets you clear it. Also, you want to use either B-L or A-L, as those are the best ships for fighting bosses and especially hibachi.The fight basically has 4 phases...1) NeedlesYou need to first start with doing a bit of point blank damage, but not too much, as that will make the later phase much harder. After doing about 18-20 hits of point blank damage, you need to attempt to dodge the needles for as long as possible. Right before you get killed, activate your hyper, then switch to shot and try to ride out the invulnerability period for as long as possible. Then activate your laser which should immediately trigger the hyper cancel. Even after that, you will most likely still need to dodge the needles for a bit. Good luck. I die here probably 75-80% of my runs.2) Flowers (I don't know what to call it, the second pattern)This is where you start doing real damage, but it is not easy. Dodging this pattern is absolutely nuts and has extremely tight timings. The pattern is mostly static, although it seems to change a little bit based on where your ship is, so you can kind of memo it to a certain extent. Note: The reason you don't want to do too much point blank damage in the first phase is that you want this to last longer to build your hyper meter up more for the next phase. This is like a 80-90% kill rate to me even after all that practice.3) Washing MachineThis is the most infamous pattern in the game and indeed one of the most ridiculous in all of shmups. You will want to try and get a bit of point blank damage in before the full washing machine starts, as if you don't do enough damage here, you want be able to finish the final phase. Your white label hitbox is just too big to really dodge this for longer than a few seconds, so you need to make them count. To be honest, dodging this involves a lot of luck. Get used to dying here over and over and over again. Basically, the goal is to dodge this attack until you get a hyper cancel. After the cancel, you want to continue lasering for as long as possible then drop a bomb. This phase is by far the hardest part of the fight, with probably a 90-95% kill rate4) EndgameIf you have gotten this far, and you've done enough damage, this is (almost) trivial. However, you will likely not be so lucky unless you have an absolutely amazing phase 3. Try to whittle the remaining life down then bomb right before you get killed. Use up all your bombs and try to do as much damage as possible.When you are down to your final bomb, make sure to use a shot bomb, as you will need to race up to the top of the screen to grab the 2 hypers that will drop. Now wait until your bomb invulnerability wears off, since if you hyper before it wears off, you will not get the hyper invulnerability. Use your hyper and point blank Hibachi for as long as possible, if he has too much life left you will have to try and drop down and dodge the washing machine for a bit longer until he dies.I made it to this phase a few times where he had too much life left and I died, very tragic. In this run that cleared, I think I would have been dead if he lasted a frame or two longer than he did, it was that close.Final Thoughts -It's kind of hilarious to me that the game only gives you a bronze medal for doing this lol. You can get a silver medal if you do a no bomb clear (and die up to 5 times), which is MUCH easier. In that case you just need to reach the washing machine then feed all your lives into it doing point blank damage, usually only need 4 lives but I've also done it with only 3 lives.For the gold medal, you need to no miss and no bomb the entire fight, which is a feat I still think is nearly impossible, and I certainly will not be attempting that. You'd basically have to kill Hibachi with a regular laser as your level 5 hyper will not last the entire fight and you will never get to use a second hyper since it won't drop due to having bombs in stock. This means dodging the washing machine for A LOT longer. Not for me!
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou (Switch) - Hibachi Final Pattern AC Challenge Gold (No-Miss No-Bomb) PEG 2024-01-01 | Happy New Year!I'm back at shmups. Recently purchased the Nintendo Switch port of DoDonPachi DaiOuJou and have been playing around with the arcade challenge mode, specifically the Hibachi challenges.Clearing this pattern without bombs is really only possible due to using a level 5 hyper, which is not realistic in a real run. However, you can do this to get the gold meal for the final pattern in the AC challenge mode.
Tetris (NES) - B-Type 19-4 Clear (DAS Playstyle) PEG 2023-09-03 | My first clear of Type B stage 19-4 using DAS! This is something I've been trying for years and I'd argue this is even harder than getting a maxout, at least if you are using DAS.
Tetris (NES) - 999,999 Pts Maxout (DAS Playstyle) PEG 2023-08-20 | My first maxout in NES Tetris! Finally, at long last, after playing for literally over 10 years, I've finally hit 1 Million+ points!00:00 - Start05:47 - Level 19 Transition08:59 - Maxout / CounterstopMost of you that watch my channel probably don't really know that NES Tetris is one of my favorite games, as I rarely post videos for it, but I have been playing it on and off for a very long time. If you look back at the early days of this channel, one of the first videos I posted was of NES Tetris, with a very mundane game that didn't even hit 400K (youtu.be/R7WlPUyRd7gt). It was my PB at the time and possibly also the first game I made it to level 19, I don't remember.Anyway, getting the maxout seemed completely impossible to me at that time and even after getting much better over the years it proved very elusive. Needless to say, this feels pretty good to have finally accomplished.
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Black Label - 1 Round True Boss (Hibachi) ALL Clear PEG 2023-05-27 | My first clear of CAVE's DoDonPachi DaiOuJou Black Label (怒首領蜂 大往生) 1 Round mode using B-L (Leinyan). This mode omits the second loop and you go directly into fighting the true last boss Hibachi at the end of the first loop.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:40 - Stage 205:44 - Stage 309:35 - Stage 414:04 - Stage 518:35 - Final Boss20:38 - TLB Hibachi22:11 - Ending & Credits
Ketsui (ケツイ) - Ura 2-ALL 337 Million (Panzer Jager) PEG 2023-05-12 | My first 2-ALL clear of the Special Round (aka Ura loop) of CAVE's Ketsui (ケツイ). Played on original arcade PCB. Ura loop requirement is: no deaths, no bombs, and score 120+ million points.00:00 - Stage 102:32 - Stage 205:38 - Stage 309:26 - Stage 414:13 - Stage 521:10 - Welcome To Special Round21:23 - 2-123:47 - 2-227:05 - 2-330:53 - 2-435:57 - 2-542:32 - True Last Boss DOOM44:44 - Ending & CreditsAt long last I finally cleared the Ura loop in Ketsui! This journey started all the way back in 2017 when I began playing and got my first 1-ALL with Tiger Schwert. 3 years later in 2020, I got my first Omote 2-ALL, and pretty much considered that to be the end of the road for me with the game.The Ura loop just seemed impossible to me, not only to clear it but just to get to it was a massive hurdle. Eventually I was able to clear the Ura loop in practice (via MAME) by skipping the first loop, but kind of lost interest again because of the absolutely maddening no miss, no bomb requirement for just to enter the loop.At some point I decided to change ships over to Panzer Jager because the game was getting kind of stale and that pretty much renewed my interest and quest for the Ura loop. Panzer plays quite different and really lets you do some crazy dodges with it's high speed. The main drawback of course is it's slower lock on, but that can be mitigated to a certain extent by good routing.Just getting to the Ura loop is a massive pain as a single death anywhere is an instant game over and restart. The later levels and bosses, especially in stage 4 & 5, can have very nasty RNG patterns at times and it's also not uncommon to take hits deep into the second half of stage 5. I thought about quitting many times due to the ridiculous loop requirements but I'm also really stubborn, so I kept at it.My first Ura entrance was back in January of 2023, and I have been playing it pretty consistently from that point. I think it took me 7 or 8 Ura entrances before I got this clear. And since my ura entrance rate is quite low, that adds up to A LOT of attempts.While I was aiming for a score around 350 million and fell a bit short, I'm still pretty happy just to have this one done. Maybe I will come back for a higher score or try clearing with Tiger, who knows.
Ketsui - Omote 2-ALL 269 Million Pts (Panzer Jager) PEG 2023-02-04 | My first Omote 2-ALL Clear using Type B, Panzer Jager in CAVE's Ketsui (ケツイ~絆地獄たち~). Managed to beat my old Tiger Schwert Omote PB as well. Played on original PCB.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:38 - Stage 205:45 - Stage 309:30 - Stage 414:16 - Stage 519:36 - Loop 1 Final Boss21:14 - Loop 2 Stage 123:44 - 2-226:51 - 2-330:33 - 2-435:42 - 2-541:00 - Loop 2 Final Boss42:33 - Ending & CreditsThe general consensus seems to be that Type B (Panzer) is worse than Type A (Tiger). While I agree that Type A is probably better and certainly easier to use, Type B is a lot of fun and allows for a lot more creative dodging and maneuvering.
Twin Cobra II (Arcade) - ALL Clear No-Miss No-Bomb 11,666,180 Pts PEG 2023-01-11 | Full run of Twin Cobra II, which is the US/world version of Kyukyoku Tiger II (究極タイガーⅡ). This version is basically the same game as K Tiger except easier, with reduced bullet speed and reduced enemy health. Sorry about the audio issues, this game isn't perfectly emulated it would seem.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:54 - Stage 206:03 - Stage 309:15 - Stage 412:47 - Stage 516:32 - Stage 620:30 - Final Boss & Ending
Thundercade / Tokusyu Butai UAG (Arcade) - ALL Clear 1,405,400 Pts PEG 2022-12-28 | Full run of Tokusyu Butai U.A.G. (特殊部隊UAG), aka Thundercade, aka Twin Formation by Seta.
Kyukyoku Tiger II (Arcade) - ALL Clear 10,203,670 Pts PEG 2022-12-22 | Full run of Kyukyoku Tiger II, aka Ultimate Tiger II (究極タイガーⅡ).Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:35 - Stage 205:58 - Stage 309:13 - Stage 412:40 - Stage 516:32 - Stage 620:34 - Final Boss & Ending
Twin Eagle II: The Rescue Mission (Arcade) - ALL Clear No-Miss 4,408,694 Pts PEG 2022-12-10 | Full No Death/No Miss run of Seta's Twin Eagle II (ツインイーグル II). Easy, don't be panic.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 1 Area 3 - Vesper Plant02:38 - Stage 1 Area 1 - Vesper City05:12 - Stage 1 Area 2 - Vesper Base08:37 - Stage 2 Area 2 - Vesper Desert11:15 - Stage 2 Area 1 - Vesper River14:23 - Stage 2 Area 3 - Vesper Ocean17:03 - Stage 3 Area 3 - Night City19:58 - Stage 3 Area 1 - Volcanic Zone24:22 - Stage 3 Area 2 - Petroleum Plant27:43 - Final Boss & Ending
Storm Blade (Arcade) 2-ALL Clear 3,812,120 Pts PEG 2022-11-27 | Full run through 2 loops of Visco's Storm Blade (ストーム ブレード). This game is basically the unofficial Sonic Wings 4.Stage Listing:00:00 - Mission 101:53 - Mission 202:59 - Mission 304:43 - Mission 406:05 - Mission 508:00 - Mission 609:54 - Loop 1 Final Boss & Ending11:40 - 2-1 / Loop 2 Start13:32 - 2-214:46 - 2-316:36 - 2-417:57 - 2-519:57 - 2-621:51 - Loop 2 Final Boss & Ending
Deathsmiles Mega Black Label (Arcade PCB) - ALL Clear 338 Million Pts PEG 2022-10-31 | Happy Halloween! Full run with some very basic scoring of Deathsmiles Mega Black Label (デススマイルズ メガブラックレーベル), by CAVE. This was played on the original arcade PCB.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage B-1 (Forest)02:23 - Stage C-2 (Volcano)05:54 - Stage C-1 (Train)07:56 - Stage A-2 (Graveyard)10:24 - Stage A-1 (Town)12:47 - Stage B-2 (Swamp)16:10 - Final Stage (Castle)22:10 - Final Bosses24:25 - Ending & Credits
Sol Divide (Arcade) 1-ALL Clear 953,500 Pts PEG 2022-10-27 | Run through the first loop of Sol Divide (ソルディバイド), one of the lesser known/despised shmups developed by the legendary Psikyo! And this counts as a Halloween themed game right? It's got a mummy in it, so yes.00:00 - Intro / Story01:11 - Game Starts07:14 - Final Boss Rush08:54 - Ending09:23 - Special Round (Loop 2)Sol Divide is the dark horse of the Psikyo library, a fighting game and a shmup merged together in order to create... something. This game has the reputation of being awful, and i can totally see why everyone would hate it, but I can't say that I hated playing it.Oh sure, when I first started playing it was rage inducing and seemed like one of the worst games I've ever played. But the more you play the more it starts to grow on you once you understand that this isn't really a shmup.
Gunbird (Arcade) 2-ALL Clear 1,468,800 Pts (Yuan Nang) PEG 2022-10-22 | Full run through both loops of Psikyo's Gunbird (ガンバード), using Yuan Nang.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 1 - Factory01:52 - Stage 2 - Train03:36 - Stage 3 - Forest04:59 - Stage 407:04 - Stage 508:48 - Stage 610:54 - Stage 712:22 - Ending12:55 - Loop 2-1 - Castle14:01 - Loop 2-2 - Forest15:18 - Loop 2-3 - Factory16:30 - Loop 2-418:24 - Loop 2-520:04 - Loop 2-622:34 - Loop 2-7
Sengoku Blade / Tengai (Arcade) 1-ALL Clear 933,400 Pts PEG 2022-10-19 | Full Run of the first loop of Sengoku Blade (戦国ブレード), aka Tengai outside of Japan, by Psikyo.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 101:32 - Stage 203:20 - Stage 304:53 - Stage 406:21 - Stage 507:49 - Stage 609:42 - Stage 710:44 - Final Boss & Ending11:30 - Loop 2
Strikers 1945 (Arcade) 1-ALL Clear 950,800 Pts PEG 2022-10-12 | Quick clear of the original Strikers 1945 (ストライカーズ1945), Psikyo's third shmup and perhaps their most famous series of games.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 101:58 - Stage 203:25 - Stage 304:58 - Stage 406:34 - Stage 508:20 - Stage 609:48 - Stage 711:24 - Stage 812:35 - Final Boss & Ending13:51 - Loop 2
Gunbird (Arcade) 1-ALL Clear 929,000 Pts PEG 2022-10-08 | Run through first loop of Gunbird (ガンバード), the second shmup developed by Psikyo. Will be going for the 2-ALL sometime in the future.Might write more later.
Sengoku Ace / Samurai Aces (Arcade) - 2-ALL Clear 1,539,300 Pts PEG 2022-10-05 | Full run through both loops of Sengoku Ace (戦国エース), aka Samurai Aces, developed by Psikyo.Stage List:00:00 - Stage 101:23 - Stage 202:58 - Stage 304:07 - Stage 405:24 - Stage 507:19 - Stage 608:54 - Stage 710:46 - Ending11:08 - Loop 2 Start / Stage 2-112:32 - Stage 2-214:17 - Stage 2-315:24 - Stage 2-416:44 - Stage 2-518:48 - Stage 2-620:14 - Stage 2-7Sengoku Ace is the first shmup developed by Psikyo, which was formed from employees who previously worked at Video Systems on games like Sonic Wings. And yes, this is basically Sonic Wings with Samurais.The one big change from Sonic Wings is that you now have a charge shot, which admittedly doesn't see a ton of use because of the enormous amount of time it takes to power up. The game also retains the annoying power down of your shot if you haven't collected a powerup recently.So you are forced to kind of manage the timing of picking them up such that you don't lose power. (Edit: if you refrain from shooting, the powerup will last longer, think of it as having a certain amount of ammo.) Making this even worse is most of the characters are slow moving and the powerups bounce around randomly, so they can be hard to collect at times. I was glad to see this go away in future games.Sengoku Ace does have 2 loops like most of the Psikyo games and while the difficulty is increased in the second loop, it's not overwhelming. Since I have a lot of history playing the Strikers series before, it seemed very mild in comparison to those games.In closing Sengoku Ace is fairly rough around the edges but despite it's flaws the Psikyo formula shines through and the game is still quite fun. Oh and the theme, graphics and music are excellent, perhaps some of the best they have ever done.
UFO Robo Dangar (Arcade) 2-ALL Clear 375,400 Pts PEG 2022-09-28 | Full run through 2 loops of UFO Robo Dangar (UFO ロボダンガー), by Nichibutsu.00:00 - Start / Loop 105:22 - Portal 108:19 - Portal 211:45 - Portal 3 / Final Boss12:40 - Loop 228:10 - Loop 3UFO Robo Dangar is a spin off of the Terra Cresta series of games and unlike Terra Force, actually retains the gameplay of Terra Cresta with a few slight tweaks.Right off the bat you start in the powered up robot form, which is actually a combination of 3 ships. If you were to die, you'd start with a single ship and need 2 additional powerups/ships to reach the robot form. The robot form can also obtain a cannon for additional firepower. If you have the cannon, there are 3 different final ultimate ship forms you can get, although keeping these tends to be difficult since larger ships are more easily hit.If you have more than the tiny base ship, you can use the second button to do a split formation like in Terra Cresta. Thankfully the invulnerability windows is much higher in this game, so you can use that to your advantage if you are about to get hit and do a split to avoid it.Unlike in Terra Cresta where there was no obvious marker between levels, Robo Dangar has these dimensional portals that you enter which contain a boss fight, so it's clear where each stage ends. There are 3 portals per loop, so once you've taken down the boss of the 3rd portal, that is where the loop restarts.Personally I think this is a step up from Terra Cresta, as the mechanics are all a bit more refined and well thought out.
Terra Force (Arcade) - ALL Clear No-Miss 913,100 Pts PEG 2022-09-24 | Full Run of the arcade Terra Force (テラ フォス), the sequel to Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta by Nichibutsu.00:00 - Stage 102:36 - Stage 204:50 - Stage 307:36 - Stage 410:08 - Stage 512:27 - Stage 615:06 - Stage 717:50 - Stage 8Terra Force is a departure from the previous games in the series, where the main mechanic was joining ships together to form a more massive and destructive weapon. Instead, you have the ability to travel above and below ground, similar to what was done in MagMax, another game by Nichibutsu.The above ground levels are done in a vertical format while below ground is horizontal, and you can pick which side to play through. Going below ground requires using your bomb to create a hole in the ground to enter. This means there are basically 2 paths through the game, although not all of them have bosses.You get 3 different powerup types: weapons (red), bomb (blue), and speed (green). If you have max power (3 levels) then the powerups do different things. Blue gives you a shield, red clears the screen of enemies, green also clears the screen of enemies but gives you a 1000 point bonus for each enemy. There are also 2 "options" you can get that further increase your firepower.The challenge level here is on the lower end, most players should be able to clear this game without too many problems, especially since you get a shield that can take multiple hits and can also rack up a ton of extends. Also, the above ground areas in general seem to be much easier than below ground, perhaps a nod to MagMax which had a similar thing going on.Scoring is fairly simple, basically just blow everything up. The main issue will be that picking different paths will yield vastly different scores since some areas do not have bosses and thus much lower score potential. The game does not loop so once you take out the final boss it's over.Overall Terra Force is a decent game with some fairly nice graphics for the time, but it doesn't really do much to make it stand out today. That said, if you are hunting easy clears, this game is a must play.
Moon Cresta (Arcade) - 2-ALL Clear 25,690 Pts PEG 2022-09-22 | Run through 2 loops of the ancient 1980 arcade shmup Moon Cresta (ムーンクレスタ).00:00 - Loop 103:00 - Loop 206:14 - Loop 3Moon Cresta is the start of the (popular?) Terra Cresta series of games, which started all the way back in 1980 during the golden age of arcades. It's basically the standard fixed screen shooter in the vein of Space Invaders or Galaga, where you can only move left or right and there is only 1 button (which fires a single shot at a time).The goal is to destroy all enemies in each wave to advance to the next. There is also a little mini game where you have to dock your ship for huge score bonuses.You get 3 lives (and no extends) and for each life you get a different ship, starting with a small ship with single laser and moving on to medium and large ships with more firepower. For each docking mission you pass you also get a larger ship, so the game will force you to play with a massive, easily hit ship at some point. Further loops seem to bring about much faster and aggressive enemies.Fun Fact: Moon Cresta is now the oldest shmup I've featured on the channel, predating the previous title holder Scramble.
Ketsui - URA Loop / Special Round Practice Clear PEG 2022-09-20 | Ura loop clear of Ketsui (ケツイ ). Never actually made it into the Ura Loop before in a real run but I've been practicing it. This is the first time I've cleared it in practice (in other words, I skip the first loop and start directly in ura). After this I will start playing on the PCB and going for the full 2-ALL Clear.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:36 - Stage 205:42 - Stage 309:31 - Stage 414:30 - Stage 519:50 - Final BossHad a few dodges where I prob should have died (first half of stage 2 especially) in several places so I still need to work on my consistency with managing the revenge bullets a bit better.Note: Some weird frame drops in this recording, in stage 1 and also near the end of the Doom fight (maybe in other places as well, didn't rewatch the whole thing). Not really sure why that's happening but OBS isn't behaving properly with this pc for some reason.
Sky Soldiers (Arcade) - ALL Clear No-Miss PEG 2022-09-07 | Full Run of Sky Soldiers (スカイ ソルジャズ), and arcade shmup made by SNK.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 103:15 - Stage 204:43 - Stage 305:48 - Point Farm Stage 3 Boss12:13 - Stage 413:43 - Stage 515:10 - Stage 616:38 - Stage 718:07 - Stage 819:31 - Stage 920:58 - Stage 1022:26 - Stage 1123:54 - Stage 1225:22 - Stage 1326:48 - Stage 1428:12 - Stage 1530:00 - Final Boss Rush31:11- Ending & CreditsNot a whole lot to say about this one, Sky Soldiers is a very generic shmup where you fight various types of enemies in some sort of time travel thing. I don't know, it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I had no idea this even existed until someone mentioned it in the comments so I gave it a try. Not a hard game by any means, and using autofire trivializes most of the game.At the start of each level you get to pick a special weapon out of four different types, the only ones worth using are Homing and Buster. Homing is used in most of the levels with Buster being reserved for a few of the more nasty bosses that come late in the game.Bosses are all mostly giant ships that fire various things at you, mostly bland except for a few of them near the end, particularly the one in level 14 that can slow and invert your controls if you get hit. Best to speed kill that one, otherwise it can be a run ender. Also the first (train?) boss takes an enormous amount of damage to kill for some reason, no idea why the made it like that. The stage 3 boss can be farmed for points indefinitely, takes absolutely no skill since you just sit in the corner and fire. There is no timeout so you can do that to your heart's content and max the score if you want. I stopped after farming around 1 millions from it I think.Edit: Apparently the boss timeouts are not properly emulated in MAME, so you really could not milk this boss indefinitely. I'm not sure what the actual timeout is but the points earned on this part in this run are probably not possible on the real PCB. So don't take my score too seriously in this one.In general this was just a pretty forgettable game. It's not the worst thing I've ever played but it's also not great.
MagMax (Arcade) - 6-ALL Clear (6 Loops) 800,700 Pts PEG 2022-08-29 | Full run through 6 loops of MagMax (マグマックス), an arcade shmup developed by Nichibutsu.00:00 - Start / Loop 108:59 - Loop 225:55 - Loop 335:12 - Loop 442:51 - Loop 550:25 - Loop 658:12 - Loop 7I played the first loop mostly above ground then the second below ground. The rest of the run I stayed above ground because the loops are shorter (and easier?). Wanted to go for a million points but kind of lost steam near the end of the run.I think the difficulty maxes out at loop 3 or so, in theory I could probably play this indefinitely with a bit more practice but I don't really have the patience for it lol. Still it's a fun game that I would recommend if you are looking for something a bit on the easier side.
Terra Cresta (Arcade) - 3-ALL Clear 434,400 Pts PEG 2022-08-24 | Full run through 3 loops of Terra Cresta (テラクレスタ), an arcade shmup developed by Nichibutsu. Not really sure if if this is 3 loops or not, I'm simply going by the number of "boomerang" bosses that I killed, which was 3.00:00 - Start07:25 - Loop 1 Boss14:00 - Loop 2 Boss22:05 - Loop 3 Boss
Twin Eagle: Revenge Joes Brother (Arcade) - ALL Clear 2,291,900 Pts PEG 2022-08-20 | Full run of Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe's Brother (ツインイーグル). developed by SETA.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 103:40 - Stage 207:02 - Stage 310:23 - Stage 413:43 - Stage 518:31 - Stage 622:46 - Final Boss + EndingTwin Eagle: Revenge Joe's Brother is a rather infamous arcade shmup developed by SETA and released in the late 80's. Beyond it's ridiculous subtitle, it's also known for the "photo realistic" graphics and rockin' soundtrack containing a whopping 2 songs. And you play as a helicopter, so it must be good right? (*Cough* D-Force *Cough*)Now I must admit for 1988 these graphics were pretty impressive, as they apparently use digitized images of actual environments which was fairly new at the time. The water animation in particular I find very appealing for some reason.And I'll be damned if that soundtrack isn't catchy even if they are nothing more than short, repetitive loops. The music during the chase sequences ("Gonna break it down!") is nothing if not memorable. Has any game soundtrack done so much with so little? Probably yes, but still I can't deny it somehow works here.Now lets talk about the actual game, is this thing any good and do you get revenge for Joe? I don't know, I guess? Your objective is to kill everything in sight on your quest to avenge Joe's Bother. Along the way you will find powerups for your weapon shot and range, speed ups, and also extra bombs. You also get armor piercing shots that last for a limited number of shots.The levels themselves are fairly generic, with jungle and mountain terrain where you fight against your standard military enemies such as tanks, troops, turrets, helicopters. The 5th stage is a sea-based level with battleships and a large aircraft carrier while the final stage is an all out assault on a village. There are no real bosses in the game at all, with the final boss being the villain's house.At the end of each level there are chase sequences where you must destroy a bunch of fighter jets for extra points. And here lies the main issue with the game, these chase sequences are just flat out unfair. Fighter jets materialize from all sides of the screen and can kill you instantly without much warning. That combined with missiles coming from the bottom of the screen make for a very hectic, random mess. And you must survive 5 of these sequences to reach the final level.Twin Eagle is no joke, and it's listed as one of the hardest shmups ever made according to a certain Japanese wiki (wikihouse.com/stg/index.php?STG%A5%E9%A5%F3%A5%AF%B0%EC%CD%F7). It's rated a 41, higher than a DoDonPachi 2-ALL (rated at 40, and also the hardest game I've ever personally cleared). This is definitely an exaggeration of it's actually difficulty, but it is one of those strange shmups that is extremely difficult to clear consistently due to all the randomness.Did I mention that you only get 3 lives and no extends? Did I also mention that when you die you are powered down to nothing? Your ship is so slow that you are a sitting duck and with die mercilessly to chain deaths. You do have 3 bombs per life to help you out but those go fast and then you are helpless.Did I also mention that this game has a rank system? There are several factors that increase the rank including picking up shot powerups, using autofire, and simply advancing levels. That number listen in the hi score table ("level") is actually the highest rank value that you got to during the game, and it maxes out at 15. I should mention that there is a nasty trap (bug?) programmed in the game that maxes out the rank if you have an autofire rate around 16Hz or higher. You can get aware with short bursts of high autofire (I make use of this early in the game) without maxing rank but you must be very careful not to hold it down for too long or the game difficulty will go nuts.There is also a side effect of this max rank (bug?) that will instantly power you up to full shot power which you can fall back on if you die. This is only really feasible to use if you are deep into the game though, as the chase sequences will be nearly impossible at max rank. I also make use of this since I died it the final chase sequence.Twin Eagle is a frustrating and messy experience, and I can't imagine too many players would play it for more than a few minutes before calling it a POS and never touching it again. I don't blame them, but every shmup offers something, and Twin Eagle is certainly a different experience than most, for better or worse.
Gyrodine (Arcade) 2-ALL Clear 692,560 Pts PEG 2022-08-17 | Full run through 2 loops of Gyrodine (ジャイロダイン), an arcade shmup developed by Crux and released by Taito.00:00 - Loop 119:27 - Loop 238:24 - Loop 3Gyrodine is another old shmup mostly forgotten to time but supposedly several of the developers of this game went on to work for Toaplan to create Tiger-Heli. Gyrodine plays a bit more like Xevious than it does Tiger-Heli but it's kind of cool to see what is essentially a Toaplan precursor. In this run I made it through the first 2 loops and about 1/2 way through the 3rd before the game over.
Xevious (Arcade) 1-ALL Clear 461,880 Pts PEG 2022-08-11 | Full run of loop 1 of Xevious (ゼビウス), the arcade shmup developed by Namco.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 101:23 - Stage 202:28 - Stage 303:36 - Stage 404:43 - Stage 505:52 - Stage 607:00 - Stage 708:08 - Stage 809:13 - Stage 910:22 - Stage 1012:54 - Stage 1114:01 - Stage 1215:09 - Stage 1317:33 - Stage 1419:10 - Stage 1520:12 - Stage 1621:26 - Loop 2 Start
GunNail (Arcade) - ALL Clear 31,953,800 Pts PEG 2022-08-06 | Full run of GunNail (ガン ネール), the arcade shmup developed by NMK.Stage Listing:00:00 - Intro / Stage 102:00 - Stage 203:57 - Stage 305:27 - Stage 408:01 - Stage 510:17 - Stage 611:44 - Stage 714:09 - Stage 815:35 - Final Boss + EndingWill write more later.
Hotdog Storm (Arcade) - Full Run ALL Clear 1,111,040 Pts PEG 2022-08-03 | Full run of the ridiculously named Hotdog Storm (ホッドッグ ストーム), an arcade shmup developed by the unknown Mable.Stage Listing:00:00 - Intro / Stage 104:22 - Stage 208:26 - Stage 312:42 - Stage 417:57 - Stage 520:45 - Final Boss Phase 123:11 - Final Boss Phase 229:23 - EndingYes, this game is actually called Hotdog Storm, and no I have no idea why. Beyond the title screen, there are no other appearances, mentions, or anything even remotely related to hotdogs in the game. I guess when you have a game this generic, you need to create something that makes it stand out, and thus this ridiculous title was born.Beyond the goofy name you will find a rather generic shmup that looks and plays like something from the early 90s despite being released in 1996. There are items you can collect to power up your main shot and also additional colored items that give you side options (kind of like R-Type bits) and secondary shot in addition to a charge attack. If you collect the same color multiple times it will powerup your secondary attack in addition to giving you a stronger charge attack.This charge attack is basically what you want to be using for most of the game, as it unloads massive amounts of damage (yellow) or provides you complete invulnerability (red). The green charge attack is a homing attack but I find it to be mostly useless compared to the other two.. There are also bombs that you can use which cancel bullets and render you invincible for a brief time in addition to doing some damage in the area they were deployed.Many enemies and especially the bosses have a lot of health, so it's best to try and stick with the yellow attack as it is by far the most powerful. The boss fights can be mostly trivialized by using the yellow charge attack as it will only take a few shots to take them down.The final boss is the exception, as he has an absolutely obscene amount of life, so I switch to the red weapon and basically cheese him to death. If you die on this boss (which i did), you are pretty much forced to try and deal with him using the red weapon as it not only provides invulnerability but the red bits/options can block his most dangerous attack. This will take a long time but it does reliably work to kill him.For scoring, there are "lightning bolt" items you can pick up that add to your end of stage bonus. Your bomb stock at the end of each stage also gives you a bonus.There is also a scoring glitch that can be triggered when killing the stage 3 boss that will award you around 10 million points. I am not sure how to do it and I've only triggered it once (totally by accident) and I didn't end up clearing the game on that run. Needless to say, this glitch gives you scores around 10 times what you could normally expect to get in the game, so it would be the number one thing to aim for. If there is any interest in seeing the glitch, I may post that run as well.
Zero Wing (Arcade) - 1-ALL Clear 1,643,700 Pts PEG 2022-07-30 | Full run of Zero Wing (ゼロウィング), the 8th arcade shmup developed by Toaplan.00:00 - Intro / Stage 1 - Natols04:52 - Stage 2 - Legrous09:35 - Stage 3 - Pleades14:28 - Stage 4 - Aquese16:36 - Stage 5 - Submarine Tunnel23:53 - Stage 6 - Barricade Zone31:38 - Stage 7 - Bellon36:52 - Final Stage - Gerbarra40:07 - Final Boss (and intentional death)45:24 - Final Boss recovery + Ending47:20 - Loop 2Zero Wing is the second (and final!) horizontal shmup developed by Toaplan. And yes, this is the (infamous?) game that inspired the "All Your Base are belong to us" and "Somebody set up us the bomb" meme along with some others that are very underrated ("For Great Justice!").Except sadly none of that is actually in the original arcade version that I'm playing here. For that you need the European Mega Drive version. Like virtually every human that has ever mentioned Zero Wing I must also discuss this stuff...it's important.Anyway, with all that out of the way you probably want to know if this game is worth playing. My short answer is yes, or at the very least you must listen to its soundtrack, as I am not kidding this is absolutely one of the best shmup OSTs you will ever find. Certainly its the best Toaplan has done, and they are no slouch in that department.Being a Toaplan shmup, there are checkpoints and they are very nasty, mostly because you are a sitting duck at low speed with a pea shooter. Extends are few and far between so there isn't much room to work with(unless you get the 10 up, see below).As far as the gameplay, you have 3 different weapon types that can be upgraded 3 times by collecting successive powerups of the same type. There are also speed ups and a bomb/shield (it can take 3 hits before it explodes or you can fire it off with the bomb button. If you are playing with autofire (and you should), the green weapon is the only one you should ever use.There are a few random items such as a 1 up and a 10 up. Both of these are random and you must have a fully powered up shot for them to appear. Unfortunately, if you get the 1 up, you cannot get the 10 up as this item only appears once per run and if once appears, the other will not.Finally, there is also another random powerup that increase your shot to level 4, although to be honest I think its actually worse than level 3 because the huge bullets make it hard to see anything, so I avoid it if it shows up (which is very rare).Your ship also has a "tractor beam" you can use to grab enemies either to use as a 1 hit shield or fire them back at other enemies using the "bomb" button. I almost forget this ability exists because honestly you don't even need it to play the game and I would often end up getting killed trying to grab various enemies.As Zero Wing is a horizontal game it is also one of the few Toaplan shumps that has environmental hazards such as moving pillars, tight corridors and even excavating insects that dig through the terrain (Stage 6). It's best to not pick up too many speed ups as your ship will be very difficult to control in some of these areas.For scoring, it's mainly just killing enemies and picking up the extra item drops once you are fully powered. Also, there is a huge scoring opportunity with miking the final boss for points. I demonstrate this a little bit near the end but unfortunately I had lost too many lives by that point to really boost the score like I wanted to.All said, Zero Wing is a fairly generic shmup that is elevated by nice graphics and an incredible soundtrack. I place it above Hellfire and really wish Toaplan had tried more horizontal games as they show a lot of promise here that isn't fully realized.
Daisenpu / Twin Hawk (Arcade) - Full Run 1-ALL Clear 1,033,660 Pts PEG 2022-07-27 | Full run of Daisenpuu (大旋風), also known as Twin Hawk, the 7th arcade shmup developed by Toaplan.Stage Listing:00:00 - Intro / Start04:56 - 1st Boss09:28 - 2nd Boss13:01 - 3rd Boss19:36 - Final Boss22:22 - Loop 2 StartDaisenpu is perhaps Toaplan's most obscure game, and also one of the most generic that they've created. It's a fairly bare bones military themed vertical shooter with nothing but ground (and sea) based enemies. It's vaguely similar to Tiger-Heli in how the enemies behave with their fixed interval firing patterns and simply movement.There are only 4 levels (going by when the music changes) with no distinct level transition between one to the next kind of similar to what was done in Tatsujin. In the early levels you mainly face off against a endless supply of tanks and other desert based vehicles while the later stages add boats and massive ships to the mix.The main gimmick, at least the feature that differentiates Daisenpu the most from other run of the mill shooters, is the ability to summon a squadron of planes to assist you using the "bomb" button. These planes will stick around and help you destroy things as long as they don't take damage. You can also forced them to dive bomb the enemy by hitting the bomb button again at a later time. Finally, you also get a true bullet canceling, destructive bomb you can use if you quickly double tap the bomb button, and in this case the squadron won't show up at all. Describing all this in words makes it seem more complicated than it really is.Dying once again brings you back to the previous checkpoint and while some areas require a certain level of memorization to recover, it is not very complicated, and your bombs and squadron help quite a bit in your quest to getting back to full power. The challenge level overall is very fair, perhaps harder than some of the earlier games like Hishouzame but not reaching the level of Tatsujin of KyuKyoKu Tiger.And that's pretty much it for Daisenpu, it's a competent shooter but not a great one, however I do recommend giving it a try.
Hellfire (Arcade) - Full Run 1-ALL Clear [2-3] 1,205,950 Pts PEG 2022-07-23 | Full run of Hellfire (ヘルファイヤ), the 6th arcade shmup developed by Toaplan.Stage Listing:00:00 - Intro / Stage 105:27 - Stage 210:58 - Stage 316:14 - Stage 421:22 - Stage 528:18 - Stage 632:50 - Final Boss + Ending33:20 - Loop 2-140:02 - 2-245:07 - 2-3Hellfire is the first attempt by Toaplan to create a horizontal shmup, and in this case they have created a methodical, strategic shooter perhaps in the vein of R-Type. It's somewhat of a departure from the previous games like KyuKyoKu Tiger and Tatsujin, which had much more frantic and fast paced gameplay.Here you are given a ship that can fire in different directions based on which weapon you have selected, of which there are 4 that you can cycle through: Forward firing, backwards firing, top and bottom firing, and finally a 4 way diagonal shot. Each of these weapons are useful and most of the game revolves around deciphering which weapon you need to use for a given situation. Each weapon can be upgraded multiple times until you have a massive laser at your disposal.Like previous Toaplan titles, when you die you are sent back to a checkpoint, and while all of them are recoverable, some are very difficult to pull off because you lose all of your powerups. There are no bombs and the only other items besides the weapon powerups are speed ups and point bonuses.Personally I find Hellfire to be one of the lesser Toaplan titles, as the gameplay is just a bit too slow paced for my tastes. It's especially apparent when you are forced to scroll through several sections of the game where absolutely nothing happens. Also some of the stage designs/themes just seem completely out of place, such as the Egyptian level.It should be noted that there are actually 2 versions of this game, the 1 Player version (the original version and the one I'm playing) and the 2 Player version which allows for simultaneous play. The 2 player version removes the checkpoints and also lowers the on screen shot count similarly to what was done in KyuKyoKu tiger, so you have less firepower. I find the 2 Player versions to be much harder (and also worse) as result, and I would not recommend it at all, as it further exacerbates a lot of the game's issues.Overall Hellfire is still decent, it just doesn't quite live up to the high Toaplan standard that we've grown accustomed to with the previous games.
Tatsujin / Truxton (Arcade) - Full Run 1-ALL Clear 1,689,010 Pts PEG 2022-07-19 | Full Run of the first loop of Tatsujin / Truxton (達人 / タツジン), the 5th shmup developed by Toaplan..Stage Listing:00-00 - Intro/Stage 105:58 - Stage 212:29 - Stage 318:48 - Stage 426:12 - Stage 531:54 - Final Boss33:10 - Loop 2Tatsujin, or Truxton for those outside Japan, is perhaps Toaplan's most well known shmup today. Maybe it's due to the excellent Sega Genesis / Megadrive port or the enthusiasm from certain reviewers, for whatever reason this game seems to come up the most when discussion Toaplan's catalog.Truxton takes the formula established in KyuKyoKu Tiger and previous titles and adds one major new ingredient: SPEED. Oh yes, this is the first game after Slap Fight with speed ups, and boy do you move fast when fully maxed out. You move so fast that it can be hard to control, although the game is plenty playable at lower speeds as well.There are 3 different weapon types: the standard wide red vulcan, green forward shot laser, and full screen blue electric attack, which is kind of the 'featured' weapon of the game (see the Genesis cover art). In addition, you have instantly activating bombs (the iconic 'skull bomb") that do a lot of damage and clear out bullets around your ship. But be careful, you can still still crash into ships and other objects while bombing. You can amass a huge stock of 10 bombs at a time, and they come fairly frequently.There are 5 stages total, each ending with a large boss fight with the game endlessly looping with increased difficult each time. The bosses themselves are not necessarily that difficult, especially when fully powered and you know the "tricks". The real nasty enemies of the games are not so much these bosses, but the smaller "mid boss" enemies that are littered through each stage. These guys can soak up a ton of damage and many of the have very dangerous attack patterns. Usually bombing them is the way to go.The main challenge of the game comes from recovering on death, when you get fully powered down and must restart at the previous checkpoint. And it's pretty easy to get clipped by one of the smaller enemies as they come from all directions, so death is almost guaranteed at some point. Thankfully Toaplan has crafted mostly thoughtful checkpoints that are all recoverable with a little bit of knowledge.You can get extra lives based on score and also 1ups from certain "posts" in stage 1,2, and 5, where you must have the correct weapon to dislodge the 1up. Also, if you survive long enough you can get a 2up at around stage 3 if you haven't died yet.Scoring basically just boils down to killing everything and lasting as long as possible. If you are fully powered up, you also get 5000 points for each additional powerup, which does add up over time, so try to learn and play at max speed to get these extra points. Tatsujin is fairly challenging, I'd put it close to KyuKyoKu Tiger's difficulty, although perhaps a tad under that game, so be prepared for a modest challenge even if you are fairly experienced in shmups.
Twin Cobra (Arcade) - 1-ALL Clear [2-9] 3,703,660 Pts PEG 2022-07-15 | Full run of the first loop (and most of the second) for Twin Cobra. This is the international version of Kyuukyoku Tiger, made by Toaplan.Stage Listing:00:00 - Intro / Stage 105:00 - Stage 209:15 - Stage 313:35 - Stage 417:45 - Stage 522:37 - Stage 626:51 - Stage 731:22 - Stage 835:41 - Stage 939:54 - Stage 1043:08 - Final Boss / Fortress44:13 - Loop 2Twin Cobra is basically the "easy" version of KyuKyoKu Tiger, released for international audiences (outside of Japan that is). It shares all of the same levels of the Japanese version but alters several important characteristics of the gameplay.I guess you could call this a balance revision for the most part although it does also allow 2 player simultaneous play which the previous version did not have. A lot of Toaplan games had revisions like this with several alterations to accommodate the 2nd player.Anyway, the main changes basically boil down to:1) Your ship is now red and you have a slightly faster ship speed!2) Extends come at every 150K instead of every 200K!3) Lower rank, enemy firing speed4) NO CHECKPOINTS!!!....5) You have nerfed firepower :( Basically you can only have 3 shots on the screen at a time instead of 4. This does make quite a bit of difference and renders many quick kill strategies with the blue weapon useless now. So you will probably need to use the green weapon for some of the bosses now.So you do get a whole lot of buffs, especially the removal of the checkpoints, which makes for a more approachable and accessible game.
Kyukyoku Tiger (Arcade) - Full Run 1-ALL Clear 2,694,850 Pts PEG 2022-07-12 | Full run of the first loop of Kyuukyoku Tiger / Ultimate Tiger (究極タイガー), known as Twin Cobra outside of Japan, is the 4th shmup developed by Toaplan.Stage Listing:00:00 - Intro / Stage 104:37 - Stage 208:51 - Stage 313:03 - Stage 418:04 - Stage 522:59 - Stage 628:37 - Stage 733:11 - Stage 837:41 - Stage 941:50 - Stage 1048:06 - Final Boss53:03 - 2-158:49 - 2-2Kyukyoku Tiger is the game where I think Toaplan really started to up their game and establish the legendary shmup formula they are known for today. It's builds on previous titles such as Tiger-Heli and Flying Shark and delivers a more refined gaming experience all around, albeit with a higher difficulty than those games. This time you have 4 different weapons to choose from and must fight through 10 long levels all with end of stage bosses.Like previous Toaplan shmups, KyuKyoKu Tiger requires the player to form specific strategies to deal with certain situations you will encounter. Namely, the bosses are not really enemies you can just "cowboy dodge" your way through, as they have patterns that will kill you mercilessly if you don't have a solid plan.Dying in this game has some pretty harsh consequences, where you are stripped of all your powerups and sent back to the previous checkpoint. These checkpoints range from fairly doable to incredibly brutal, especially the ones near the end of the game. It helps to have an actually recovery plan in place if you die in some of these more nasty checkpoints.In this run I was killed near the end of the first loop and usually that is a game over. Fortunately for me, this had happened before in previous runs and I had prepared for it. I devised a way to get back into a place where I could take out the final boss without just relying on insane dodging.Essentially it involves "cashing in" several lives in order to backtrack through previous checkpoints to a point where I could get enough powerups and the yellow weapon in order to take on the final boss with an actual change of winning. Watch stage 10 in the replay if you want to see how this is done.Speaking of the final boss, I hate to inform you but the scoring in this game is busted. The final boss has no timeout you can sit there forever with the yellow weapon and farm points indefinitely. I avoided doing this and instead just tried to kill it without taking a stray bullet, so I was perhaps a little too careful there, but I didn't want to drop this run like I had some of the previous ones.KyuKyoKu Tiger is a classic Toaplan game that inspired much more popular games like Raiden, so if you are a fan of that style of gameplay definitely check it out.
Super Cobra (Arcade) 1-ALL Clear [2-10] 83,450 Pts PEG 2022-07-10 | Full Run through Super Cobra (スーパーコブラ), the "sequel" to Scramble by Konami.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 101:12 - Stage 202:05 - Stage 302:55 - Stage 403:44 - Stage 505:04 - Stage 606:10 - Stage 706:48 - Stage 807:39 - Stage 908:01 - Stage 1008:42 - Stage 11 (Base)09:07 - "Ending" and Loop 2Super Cobra is the successor to Scramble and retains the same style of gameplay as before, except the difficulty is massively increased and you now fly a helicopter instead of a space ship. Konami isn't playing nice this time, as Super Cobra is much, much harder than Scramble.There are way more hazards and enemies this time around and also twice as many stages as scramble. You must contend with the usual rockets firing from the ground but also gun turrets, falling stalactites, fireballs, and even UFOs that fire at you!On top of all that you must navigate your helicopter through some pretty tight areas, which is much harder than it looks due to the massive hitbox of your ship. As a result, cheap, possibly even unavoidable deaths lurk around every corner if you get bad RNG on certain spots (the cave area in particular).Despite my best efforts I was unable to clear the second loop although in this run I came kind of close dropping my final life in stage 2-10.
Scramble (Arcade) - 5-ALL Clear (5 Loops) 124,970 Pts PEG 2022-07-07 | Full Run through 5 loops of Scramble (スクランブル), the original side scrolling shump by Konami.Stage Listing:00:00 - Loop 103:23 - Loop 206:44 - Loop 310:40 - Loop 414:21 - Loop 5Scramble is an ancient shmup developed by Konami and released way, way back in 1981. From what I can gather this is actually the very first side scrolling shmup period. Some even consider Scramble to be part of the Gradius lineage.As such, this is a very basic game, where you have a forward shot and a bomb that drops in an arc to hit various objects on the terrain below. You get 3 lives to start and can get your 1 and only extend at 10K points. You also have a fuel bar which drops unless you destroy the various fuel tanks littered throughout the 5 stages. After 5 levels the game loops back to the beginning and the only difference in subsequent loops appears to be the fuel dropping at a faster rate and perhaps the enemies being a tad more aggressive..Scoring in the game is very basic, just destroy everything and stay alive as long as possible, the game can be looped forever assuming you don't drop all your lives. And that's pretty much it!Scramble is early 1980's arcade gaming in it's purest form: a simple game that is surprisingly satisfying and very addictive!
U.S. Navy / Carrier Airwing (Arcade) - Full Run ALL Clear 2,199,770 Pts PEG 2022-07-04 | Full Run of US Navy (ユー・エス・ネイビー ), also known as Carrier Airwing, developed by Capcom.Stage Listing:00:00 - Intro / Mission 101:49 - Mission 204:27 - Mission 308:35 - Mission 412:29 - Mission 514:31 - Mission 619:42 - Mission 722:51 - Mission 826:28 - Mission 932:02 - Mission 10 / Final Boss36:14 - EndingIt's the 4th of July and today we celebrate Independence Day! And what could be more patriotic than playing a Japanese developed shmup featuring the US military as the protagonist? Probably a lot, but shmuppers can't be choosers.US Navy is the sequel to UN Squadron ... sort of. While the gameplay of the previous game remains mostly intact, the anime characters and plot are totally dropped. So while they got rid of Area 88 and Project 4 and the weird guy with an 'x' on his face, they have something even better: Sean Connery. Yes, you are now assigned missions by James Bond himself, and that more than makes up for some obscure anime license right?Anyway, the gameplay is nearly identical to Area 88, there are 3 ships to choose from, 3 different weapon types you can switch between and power up, and also a shop with additional offensive and defensive items. I didn't buy anything from the shop since all your money gets converted to score at the end, and I wanted them points!The missions are a bit longer and more challenging this time around, so be prepared for a more bumpy ride and all around higher difficulty. You can still use high rate external autofire but it's not nearly as game breaking as in the previous game.So grab a beer, fire up the grill, and celebrate the 4th by playing some US Navy!
Area 88 / U.N. Squadron (Arcade) - ALL Clear 1,802,870 Pts PEG 2022-07-01 | Full Run of Area 88 (エリア88 ), also known as U.N. Squadron, developed by Capcom. This is the Japanese version that has the bonus level which is missing in the World versions. Also, autofire=autowin.Stage Listing:00:00 - Mission 101:19 - Mission 203:23 - Mission 305:21 - Special Mission06:06 - Mission 408:26 - Mission 510:49 - Mission 613:17 - Mission 715:48 - Mission 817:45 - Mission 920:07 - Mission 10 / Final Boss26:30 - Ending / CreditsLike most I am far more familiar with the console version of Area 88 (UN Squadron for those living in the West), which was one of the few shmups I owned back in the day for the SNES. Now, many years later I've finally come around and cleared the arcade version, so I guess I need to compare the two. Well honestly I would have to say that the arcade version is the lesser version.Arcade Area 88 is a far more straight forward game, you don't need to pick stage order or worry about upgrading to different ships for the late game. You still get to pick and buy weapons and armor at the shop, but honestly it isn't even necessary since the game is on the easy side (especially if you employ 30hz autofire as I did).Since your money gets converted to score at the end of the game, there is even less reason to buy items if you are playing for score. So scoring really just breaks down to killing all enemies, collecting the secret items (the little astronaut guys, and a few others that are scattered throughout the stages), and never spending your money.Finally, you can also boost your score by farming the turrets on the final boss, which apparently can be done forever, although it is no easy task to do it without getting killed. In this run I farmed a bit during the process of killing the final boss core and boosted my score just over 1.8 million.Area 88 is a fun game and very easy to get into, even if it can't live up to the console version.
Hishouzame / Flying Shark (Arcade) - 2-ALL Clear (2 Loops) 1,297,310 Pts PEG 2022-06-27 | Clear of Toaplan's Hi Sho Zame (飛翔鮫), also called Hishouzame or Flying Shark / Sky Shark in western countries. I cleared the first 2 loops then got annihilated on the second stage of loop 3.Stage Listing:00:00 - Stage 102:50 - Stage 205:43 - Stage 308:56 - Stage 412:06 - Stage 515:42 - "Final Boss"16:46 - Loop 230:28 - Loop 3Hishouzame is Toaplan's 3rd shmup and an early look at the style which would further define them in the years to come. Unlike Slap Fight (the previous game), this time things are even more basic, there are only 3 items to collect (shot powerups, bombs, and extra lives), and that's it!While the gameplay is very basic, it is still quite challenging as the rank (adaptive difficulty) climbs very fast in the game, especially if you do not die. Soon you will find enemies tossing lightning quick shots at you from all directions. And with your very slow moving ship, you will have to plan out how to handle them since there is not much room for improvised dodging with such a slow ship.Dying takes you back to a checkpoint, and also powers you down to nothing. Checkpoint recoveries are all very possible on all the checkpoints, so dying isn't a game over like in some other games (I'm looking at you Raiden and Gradius III). Remember to use your bomb, as they help tremendously with killing the red enemy waves that drop the powerups to get you back on trackThe game is very generous with many bombs littered throughout the stages, so don't be afraid to use them. That said, this will effect your score since you get end of stage bonuses based on the number of bombs you have left. That is pretty much all there is to the scoring in the game as far as i can tell, just don't die and try to hold onto your bombs.The second loop brings even faster bullets and higher rates of fire from most of the enemies, so you really need to have a good route planned to handle them.I had a pretty good time with this game and would like to come back and clear that 3rd loop at some point, but for now I'm happy with this result.
Strike Gunner STG (Arcade) - ALL Clear No-Miss 3,670,300 Pts PEG 2022-06-23 | Clear of the somewhat obscure arcade version of Strike Gunner S.T.G. (エス・ティー・ジー).Stage Listing:00:00 - Intro00:45 - Stage 103:29 - Stage 205:22 - Stage 307:30 - Stage 409:21 - Stage 511:42 - Stage 613:28 - Stage 7 / Final Boss14:06 - Ending + CreditsThe arcade Strike Gunner is one of the shorter shmups that I've played that does not loop, with the entire game including the ending clocking in at only 15 minutes or so.. I guess most of the "intrigue" for the game comes from trying to figure out which special weapon to use on each stage. In a way this is kind of like the Mega Man of shmups in that you will get a big advantage if you pick the "correct" weapon to use on a certain stage, although id say it's FAR less strict than in the SNES version on the hardest setting. Speaking of which, the SNES version is quite a bit different from this one, especially since it's 3 times as long and has more weapons to pick from and also a lot of reworked or completely different bosses.You want to no death this game to finish it, as dying and getting powered down is basically a game over in disguise. Still it's not quite that punishing since the game is so short.Note: I edited this video to add the intro back in at the beginning as I had not originally recorded that when I played it.
