[Last Duel] Score Challenge JP 1-ALL (Score: 293,100) [CC Commentary] @weebnerdgaming4908

Weeb Nerd Gaming Last Duel is surprisingly more orderly and well made than it looks. I love it! And yeah, this is one of those forgettable Capcom shmups, isn't it...? Not to me, though!

It's a shmup where the main gimmick is the i-frame button. Not bombing; i-frames. There are 2 stage modes: land, where you can jump but at the mercy of gravity, and air, where you can barrel roll which is flexible and useful! At a glance though, there is not much to talk about... But this game is pretty packed with details!

Let's talk about controls. You can shoot and jump / roll. That's it. It's one of the simpler Capcom shmups. No shops, no weapon duration, no weapon switching or at least speaking of the optimal tactics. On land you can speed up and speed down the scrolling, which is open to many approaches.

The main star of Last Duel is the stage design. It's so satisfying to plow through dozens of enemies with high speed! Jumping is fun too as the defensive tool. Rolling is fun too and surprisingly can be used frugally. Rolling is limited to the gauge but since you recover your rolling back after you complete the stage, that is quite kind! Extends are plentiful too. Many parts demand various tactics and also utilizes the stupidly wide arc of the wide shot when on max power.

It has to be warned that the land bosses have annoying RNG for their bullet shots. Also while it's not that horrible, the Gradius Syndrome does hurt. High recommendation!

The composer is Tamayo. No wonder the OST reminded me of Rayforce.

Of, if you want to play the 2nd loop, please don't choose Score Challenge within the 2nd Stadium!

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

updated 2 years ago

[Last Duel] Score Challenge JP 1-ALL (Score: 293,100) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2022-08-07 | Last Duel is surprisingly more orderly and well made than it looks. I love it! And yeah, this is one of those forgettable Capcom shmups, isn't it...? Not to me, though!

It's a shmup where the main gimmick is the i-frame button. Not bombing; i-frames. There are 2 stage modes: land, where you can jump but at the mercy of gravity, and air, where you can barrel roll which is flexible and useful! At a glance though, there is not much to talk about... But this game is pretty packed with details!

Let's talk about controls. You can shoot and jump / roll. That's it. It's one of the simpler Capcom shmups. No shops, no weapon duration, no weapon switching or at least speaking of the optimal tactics. On land you can speed up and speed down the scrolling, which is open to many approaches.

The main star of Last Duel is the stage design. It's so satisfying to plow through dozens of enemies with high speed! Jumping is fun too as the defensive tool. Rolling is fun too and surprisingly can be used frugally. Rolling is limited to the gauge but since you recover your rolling back after you complete the stage, that is quite kind! Extends are plentiful too. Many parts demand various tactics and also utilizes the stupidly wide arc of the wide shot when on max power.

It has to be warned that the land bosses have annoying RNG for their bullet shots. Also while it's not that horrible, the Gradius Syndrome does hurt. High recommendation!

The composer is Tamayo. No wonder the OST reminded me of Rayforce.

Of, if you want to play the 2nd loop, please don't choose Score Challenge within the 2nd Stadium!

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Rainchaser] Demo No Miss Rank S (Score: 361,429)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-09-05 | Rainchaser's demo consists of just its Stage 1, but it's a WHOPPING 7 MINUTES! For now, no commentary. It's reserved for the full release.

From its Stage 1, it's no doubt a solid bullet hell shmup with meticulous attention to scoring, primarily its caravan waves. It's a combination of Ikaruga's and Dodonpachi's method though, where the latter just, don't give you extra waves to keep your combo. You need to remember which that spawns extra enemies and not.

So far the game provides you 3 weapons: Forward shot, the classic, back shot, at spread it fires at a reverse V pattern and on focus it's a cross pattern with a much concentrated fire power downwards (I'm having Alzadick flashbacks here...), and the Swords. It's the melee weapon that has a bit of a weird homing behavior. It's stronger when focused though the range also shrinks. All of them are useful when the situation calls! This game is a no-bomb game, so no out-of-jail free cards here! For no-bomb game its Stage 1 pretty tough too! It is very generous with its extends, though. You can get around 3 extends by the point you reach the boss.

My complaints are just two. First, the bullet intensity is rather high for a no-bomb game on its Stage 1. I expect this more on Stage 2, though one can argue this game has 3 stages packaged as just 1. Second, it has Progear-style boss pattern RNG. At least it's not that annoying so far? But this is a no-bomb game and at some patterns it'll be safer to use the Swords and others, not at all. It affects score consistency and can be pretty frustrating on multiple runs. This is very apparent on the stage's last boss on her 3rd phase.

[メタルスラッグ/Metal Slug] Level-4 ALL Clear (Rapid Fire ON) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-08-17 | I LOVE METAL SLUG! Well, everyone is, but I'm here as a 1cc player. Metal Slug, as beloved as it is, is also notorious for its difficulty, if you're a journalist... Er, I know with this video I can be considered as one, but using continues especially without limit is not a legit way to enjoy well-designed arcade games. It's a fine way to enjoy these games, but not a good way to properly look at why the game is great to play. Unlimited continues means you're free from consequence; it's infinite lives. And the major contributor for Metal Slug series' difficulty is:

NO, EXTENDS!

No secret 1up, no score extends, no i-frame bombs, you're brittle and by the 3rd miss, you're out! 23 minutes on default 2 extra lives!? That's insane! On the surface, yes. But the more you dissect it actually the lack of extends is kinda understandable. I'll explain the ugly beauty called the SV-001 Metal Slug later.

First, the controls as the human. Depending on which player side you get to play as Marco or Tarma. Doesn't seem like there is any statistical difference between the two. It's a run n gun. You can shoot, throw grenades, and jump. You can shoot horizontally, upwards, and downwards mid-air, but by default you can't shoot diagonally. You can also crouch. Decreases your mobility, but it shrinks your hitbox, which is super important.

Nazca Corporation consisted of Irem employees that quit, so thinking back about the old Irem games will help more than with other SNK games. Ergo, the weapons. There is the Heavy Machine Gun, the rapid fire weapon and the only one with diagonal shooting capability, Rocket Launcher, well, shoots rockets and it'll create AoE hitbox when it lands, Shotgun, the very destructive melee shot stronger than the grenades per shot, remember this, and Flame Shot. The later iterations made it a shotgun equivalent with more persistent hitbox duration, but in the 1st game, it's the piercing shot! It travels FAR! Take note of these because they're here not as a shot type, but as a piece of the puzzle on your side. Like R-Type!

There is also the grenade that has its own quirks. It's limited by ammo but you'll gather lots of them along the way, assuming you don't die which when the game resets your bomb count to 10. It doesn't explode when it touches ground, but after some time or when it touches an enemy, it will explode with VERY HIGH VERTICAL HITBOX! This is also an important part of the puzzle and one of the only ways to target diagonally! The game is very aware of this fact as you'll see this often in the stage design! Its bullet limit is only 2, but why mentioning this at all?

Metal Slug tank. I don't know the lineage of run n guns enough, but this beast is ultra developed and while future games shafts the tank's presence away slowly but surely, the titular tank is the main star of the game! You can shoot at 360 degrees, fire the cannon, jump (yes, a jumping tank), crouch!? And uh, don't do this, explode the tank into a kamikaze attack. No sane player would do this under super specific conditions like to spawn the next incoming Metal Slug to essentially recover its HP. That's fine, but how to do it? Press shoot and jump simultaneously... THAT'S RUN N GUN 101!!! It can get quite easy to destroy your tank with this move without intending to! They could've just assigned this on the far-away button, D, but nope! 3 buttons it is! There is no reason at all to not do that! All Neo Geo MVS cabinets have 4 buttons, right!? That's insanity! This is the worst aspect of the game! So if you need to jump, do NOT press the shoot button until you're in the air! Never, forget, that!

It has to be noted that the Metal Slug's offensive capabilities is superior to your human form! That includes the vulcan compared to Heavy Machine Gun! The cannon is less flexible than your grenade, but not only it's very powerful, it also has the very high vertical hitbox. Very useful for some encounters! Then there is the crouching bomb. You still can move quickly while crouching, but more importantly, while you throw the normal grenades, IT BYPASSES THE BULLET LIMIT! It makes some encounters hilariously quick!

The major reason for why there is no extends is because of one staple mechanic with the Metal Slug: vehicle exit I-FRAME. I-FRAMES! The benefit is two-fold. As you exit, you're impervious to attacks including explosions. Also it's the default rule for the slugs to not get hit while there is no pilot inside. The slug is very fat, so this is one of the most effective ways to conserve its HP! Whenever you can, keep the slug around because without it, there goes your semi-infinite i-frame source!

This is a very nuanced run n gun with R-Type precision! It's also a very fun, sane game. It's not easy, but when you can, 1cc-ing Metal Slug 1 is a must do!

Fun fact. Did you know that it's possible to end all of this game's stages with the tank intact? ALL STAGES!

This is the Nintendo Switch version.

#snk #metalslug #nintendoswitch

[Fantasy Zone II] Master System JP ALL CLEAR (Rapid Fire ON)(Score: 1,909,400)[CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-06-26 | Fantasy Zone II is the console-only sequel of Fantasy Zone I. Felt like console-only sequels are kinda common, like, Final Fight 2? But I'm probably wrong about it. It's a sequel that both wants to go bold and play it safe at the same time. While its efforts can be admired and kinda understandable considering the shmup genre was still young at the time, the direction it went is frankly, not that good! It made the game turn into a bloated Euroshmup nightmare of Fantasy Zone I! It's still fun enough and I understand that they want to lengthen the game duration and even give some (illusion of) leniency, but unnecessarily getting lost, unfair speeds and cryptically hidden critical items, namely MAX HP BOTTLES, are bad, bad ideas! The game is kinda lucky for still being playable, actually! Now I understand why M2 went as far as funding the development of its remake and basically made a new game instead of a faithful remake. I love the game enough.

The controls are the same. You can shoot and bomb. The bomb button is shared with the special bomb button so if you've bought some, if you want to save the special bombs up, the normal bombs are practically disabled. Pay attention to this! Regarding rapid fire, I swear that the bases' HP got horribly boosted! Sadly the PS5 DualSense controller is not a good controller for manual rapid firing. Not to mention, the manual immediately advertised a rapid fire controller! Felt like the game was designed with rapid fire controllers in mind...! I don't feel guilty using the rapid fire in this case!

Before we talk about the stage structure, let's talk about the most notable upgrade given to Opa-Opa: the HP gauge! 1 chunk is actually worth 2 HP. It works in reverse to Deathsmiles. Bullets give 1 HP damage, while colliding with enemies give 2 HP damage. Crashing to popcorns is more dangerous than getting shot, then. Fair enough. This is not Opa-Opa's life and actually the HP gets recovered to full each time you respawn. Nice! I honestly don't have a problem with how the HP works and since it's a lengthier console shmup, it's not a bad choice. But at what cost...?

First, the popcorns are much, much meaner, faster, and trickier! If you don't memorize the popcorn order of the stage, you're toast! It's borderline unfair! Must be mandated at the time to counteract how many HP Opa-Opa can have! I believe you can get 6 HP Max boosts? That's 6 enemy collisions before Opa-Opa dies. That's a lot!

Second, this comes hand to hand with the warps! Each stages have more than one rooms and to travel between them you need to enter the blue Warp portals that appears after you destroy the base. These are consistent so it can be memorized / taken note of. You don't fight the boss automatically after you destroy all the bases. You need to enter the red Warp. But you can't enter it until you destroy all bases on all rooms of the stage. It's not that bad and in fact, you can prepare first before you fight the boss buy shopping at the shop you like! But with the game being this big, it'd be great to have a radar or a Warp destination indicator, isn't it!?

Yes, hidden items and shops. No clue at all to find them and all of the HP Max bottles, either out in the wild or in a shop are HIDDEN ITEMS! If you play it normally without revealing the secret spots, your HP will be TOO LOW TO FACE THE FINAL BOSS! "BUY OUR GUIDEBOOK SO YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND THE HP MAX BOTTLES WE TEASED IN THE MANUAL! THANKS!!!" Screw you, SEGA!

Otherwise it's a good ol' Fantasy Zone. Semi-permanent upgrades, temporary upgrades, wider weapon selection though locked by shop progression since each shop feature different inventories, etc. The thing I genuinely love is the boss designs are great! It's more menacing and fun to fight. They still spew out lots of bullets too and assuming the emulation is accurate within Like A Dragon Gaiden, then this game is technically quite impressive for a game before Recca was made! It's bullet hell before the term existed! Opa-Opa is still fat, though. Take that in mind.

It can be said this game is the worst Fantasy Zone game in the main trilogy of 1, 2 and Super, but gripes aside it's still a solid and fun game! It's far from a horrible game. Just, bloated. I can recommend people to play this game.

This was played on the Like A Dragon Gaiden port on the PS5.

#stg #shmup #sega

[ファンタジーゾーン/Fantasy Zone] Master System JP Stage 2-3 (Rapid Fire ON)(Score: 1,419,100)[CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-06-25 | Fantasy Zone 1 is probably more remembered as a pioneer of cute 'em ups, which are basically shmups with cute coat of paint. Considering the story themes Fantasy Zone games explore, WAR NEVER CHANGES EVEN WITH A CUTE LOOK! The other innovation is its shop system, which was also basically new at the time. While I do agree, but looking at it now, I think the game had made more innovations than people think in particular with the boss designs.

This is the kinda nerfed Master System port of the game where some bosses are completely changed, the radar got removed and enemy base ships got decreased. Despite the nerfed arranges, it's still a fun game. I love it!

Regarding controls, you can shoot and bomb. The bomb button is shared with the special bomb button so if you've bought some, if you want to save the special bombs up, the normal bombs are practically disabled. Pay attention to this! The built-in rapid fire is weak and I really am getting old so I used the rapid fire buttons provided by the emulator. I still need my hands to type!

From what I've heard the game was designed to clone Gradius with its own twist. It really shows on Opa-Opa's shot type! The main shot is a twin laser which gives a good hitbox and faster travel speed, which makes rapid fire viable on longer ranges. Already stronger than the Vic Viper here! The bomb is identical to Gradius' too, and can be aimed a bit too. It is more useful to be the DPS source via pointblank, though. On the stage phase Fantasy Zone is like Defender. You shoot the major enemies to progress to the boss stage. The boss stages are your good ol' boss fights. Among the Master System shmups within the collection Fantasy Zone and its sequel is still the most orthodox, so aged kinda nicely. Stage, boss, stage, boss, the good ol' shmup structure.

The first game also have a shop. There are 2 types of items you need to pay attention to: semi-permanent, where the item sticks with you until you lose a life, like speed boosters and sub-weapon, and temporary. The temporary ones are mainly for the main shot. The durations are so short these weapons are more or less useless against bosses. Rapid fire does somewhat nullify the need of buying these temporary weapons, where I can't blame them, really. But should I really buy something that temporary when the normal shots are adequate with enough rapid fire? My complaints are the same with Super, though. I want to melt the bosses with the weapons and when it's temporary, I can't get that fantasy.

What surprised me is the amount of bullets the game spits out on the boss fights. This is before the bullet hell trend and the game shoots out this much! It's, littered with some unfortunate RNGs but hey, lots of bullets and some clean patterns too! Probably the vanishing background helps, but the game barely slows down or flickers when these bullets are around. That's a feat! It still has to be noted that Opa-Opa's hitbox is fat, though! It's still not a bullet hell shmup, after all.

Speaking of the game as "Gradius Killer", I have, mixed feelings. I kinda agree like superior boss designs, etc, but on some parts the game is cheap! As in, if you don't have enough money to insta-kill a boss phase, you're mince meat. I don't like that at all. Was it a trend to have basically an instant-kill boss where to know how to beat it you need to buy a strategy guide??? Like what Kiki Kaikai did!? Gradius didn't do that! That sucks, SEGA!

It's both a fun time and a very interesting look at shmup designs of its time. Play it!

This was played on the Like A Dragon Gaiden port on the PS5.

#stg #shmup #sega

[ガンバード2/Gunbird 2] Normal Tavia Stage 2-1 (Score: 945,200) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-05-04 | I think I was being too harsh to Psikyo regarding what I said in the Strikers 1945 II video. Gunbird 2 scaled back what I complained about that game and it managed to be meaner! Which is great! I LOVE this game! I kinda hate the ports, of course. Cool Time Bokan series-inspired mech designs, tight stage designs while still give good enough room for mistakes, smaller hitbox, though while compared to its contemporaries it's still fat, it's comfortable enough for its bullet quantity, the bullet speed even at max rank is scaled back to relatively sane levels, a marginally better scoring system and brand new melee strike! As far as I know, Gunbird 2 is the only Psikyo title with this.

Gunbird 2, unlike Strikers 1945 II, took some time until it's out. 4 years gap, or so? But the Psikyo formula evolved so much Gunbird 2 is leaps ahead of Gunbird 1 and a good jump from Strikers 1945 II formula. You can shoot, bomb, and charge shot. Shots are the usual Psikyo affair, the bombs have their own complexities regarding their defense function. The efficacy varies, but it is assured that when you press it you'll receive some i-frames, even if that is very short. Like Strikers 1945 II you also won't power down over time. Super nice! For the charge shot it's almost exactly like Strikers 1945 II. But there are 2 primary differences: 1, Lv. 3 charge shots, as far as I know, has 0 bullet cancelling properties. None of them. Then keeping them is rather useless for defense, but the good news is these attacks are still powerful enough to skip boss phases. I'll take it! 2, at Lv, 3, the green gauge below is the excess charge gauge! So when you keep the Lv. 3, after launching it you're likely not going to be vulnerable! I'm sure they listened people's complaints about Strikers 1945 II's charge meter! It still takes more than an entire stage to fill it up to Lv. 3, though. The charge gauge recovery gets nerfed heavily when it's at Lv. 2. What a tease.

The most important addition and a great factor in routing is the melee strikes! These are in most cases are either slightly weaker than the Lv. 1 charge shot or stronger than it. Only consumes 1 big chunk out of 6, to boot! This is awesome both in routing alone (I'm a sucker for pointblanking especially with a big, chunky BONK!) and charge meter management! You see, the meter consumptiion with charge shot is based on the current Lv and you don't have any control for it. Lv. 1 consumes 1 chunk, Lv. 2 consumes 3, and Lv. 3 consumes 6. This is a hectic game; some routings will make you beg that you can just launch the weaker but more economical Lv. 1 shot because the Lv. 2 shot is just overkill let alone Lv. 3! The melee strike fulfills that function with its own quirks and distinct enough from the Lv. 1 charge shots. Genius!

As mentioned, the bullets are slower. The main fun is the enemy / parts control! You get to choose which bullets to disable and how. Even then, thanks to the slower bullets while it'll be much, much harder to no-bomb, it gives you enough time to decide between bombing or not. The enemy HP are finely calibrated for the routes. For each launches of the special attacks especially bonking enemies, it's so addicting even when the game kicks your butt many times!

Rank also exists here, and I think it's more lenient? Its increase is more gradual and for each death feels like the Rank gets reset to 0. Despite its notoriety the game is actually kinda kind. That's provided you know where Rank is more visible. At lower Rank, it's here some patterns become easier to dodge. So when you lose a life at least once, try to not give up! I'll still complaint a lot about the patterns that are basically undodgable, of course. I believe there are 2-3 of them and no, except with Lv, 3 charge shots it's practically impossible to skip them. You must bomb! That's bad!

This is a visceral shmup that is super tasty both to figure out and execute with many destructions, few pauses and chonky bonking! It'll bite back at you, so while I wholeheartedly recommend this game, please be aware that it may be too spicy to consume.

Which port to play it, though? Which port that has stage select again? This game's difficulty is no joke and stage select helps a lot to practice and experiment. None of the ports has it? Then I recommend emulating the game. I don't condone piracy; emulating a copy that you legally own is still legal, right?

Regarding Tavia, her main shot is almost exactly Ash's. She is Ash's niece, after all. Her charge shot travels slowly but it packs a good punch. The bomb is reliable, but note that the i-frame is very short. Her melee saber slash is rather weak, but unique from the others it's the only melee strike that CANCELS OUT BULLETS! Don't rely on it too much since the hitbox is thin, but at right patterns it saves you bombs and stress! Though that means skips Marion can Tavia may not be able to do.

This is the ZeroDiv port on Nintendo Switch.

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[ストライカーズ1945/Strikers 1945] Normal Messer Bf-109 Stage 2-1 (Score: 739,400) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-05-03 | When people review Strikers 1945 series, people would think of Capcom's 1940 series. By name and choice of ships alone, it makes sense. But that's all the similarities they have; their game design philosophies are quite different. Strikers 1945 is a Psikyo game condensed even further although still rough. And for those anyone privy with Psikyo's history and their beef with Video System, the IP owner of Sonic Wings series at the time, this is Psikyo's actual Sonic Wings spiritual successor and also to rub it to the Video System team's face, which they would say "THIS IS HOW SONIC WINGS 2 SHOULD BE!". I love the game enough, though overall I'm kinda apathetic with the game. Probably because I 1-ALL-ed the better sequel first.

Strikers 1945 is basically Sengoku Aces episode 3. People accuse Psikyo for being lazy, and to be fair, this is a damning evidence...! Like, look. You can move, shoot, and charge shot with the old charge time. That's it. This is the 2nd time in a row they copy pasted Sengoku Aces' systems! To the game's defense, the notable difference is the resulting charge shots. Instead of a specific charge shot not tied to the power level, the charge shots order your options into doing a formation attack. It's like switching the option mode into a more powerful one but sacrificing the old function. This is very notable for example with Messer Bf-109. By launching the charge attack, the lock-on options are too busy with the straight stream of bullets. It's a commitment! This thing will get revisited in the 3rd game. But I don't like how long the charge times are. Those down times of not shooting feels dull and there is not audio feedback of me charging. This is a pretty fast game. I want my dopamine intake fed constantly! Not to mention you're defenseless. I think in this 3rd game it's was when Psikyo said let's make the charge shot require MP-like resource instead as a trade off for the almost instant charging time!

The crux of Strikers 1945 stage design is memo. But they still stuck with what made Gunbird 1 successful, so they played it kinda safe in comparison. But they really made sure the pacing is brisk. 1 loop is around 12 minutes or so! Shorter than Gunbird 1's! Plus, like that one contrarian kid in the classroom, instead of slowing the bullets down like in Gunbird 1, which makes Gunbird 1 more bullet hell-ish among Psikyo IPs, Strikers 1945 bullets are much faster! Gunbird 1's patterns are fairer since they give more room to have the bullets get read, so I still prefer Gunbird 1. This is the era where Batsugun had become the trendsetter for slower but denser bullets, by the way! Though I'm aware that Batsugun bullets can be pretty fast.

It's a well-made title, but honestly not that remarkable overall. It is a start for the monster that is Psikyo bullets, though. The Rank is there, but isn't that notable. It is part of Psikyo's and shmup history, so give it a strike when you can. If there is one thing that Psikyo succeeded in this title, they've made a shmup better than Sonic Wings 2.

This is the ZeroDiv port on Nintendo Switch.

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[ストライカーズ1945II/Strikers 1945 II] Normal Flying Pancake Stage 2-2 (Score: 1,282,800) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-04-29 | Psikyo bullets. It's a moniker given to bullets that are unspeakably fast and complex that to survive it, you have no choice but to see the future. Or the closest thing to it: MEMORIZATION. Memorization isn't a new thing in shmups. It always had been there for decades. It was also in Toaplan games! But Psikyo took it to an even further step with complex choreographies and the reason the bullets are as speedy as they are, are unexplained by many, but a sinister one. RANK! It's always Rank System, isn't it? Memo patterns and Rank are the worst combinations ever!

Strikers 1945 II is Psikyo at their peak: It's the culmination of what they have done the best and it's where they started to stall. Their graphics work, the stage design, the overreliance on old-school pattern design veiled with modern bullet curtains coat of paint! It is as what it is, an expertly crafted game with mediocre scoring system. But in the period where other shmup developers were following Batsugun's footsteps, even Treasure shrunk their hitbox, Psikyo refused for the last time! When you learn how the game speaks, that's when the game grasps your brain with very quick high dose dopamine hits of quick successive destructions and satisfying macro dodges. I LOVE and HATE this game a lot!

A reverse of the first game, Strikers 1945 II is the older sibling of Gunbird 2. You can shoot, bomb, and charge shot. Shots are the usual Psikyo affair, the bombs have their own complexities regarding their defense function. The main thing about the bombs are it summons shield ships. These HAVE THEIR OWN HP, by the way! So at high count bullet patterns these go away very fast! Some make your shop do a loop de loop, which grants i-frames, others not. Interesting. The charge meter is not interesting at a first glance, but I think it was pretty innovative at the time. Before Daioujou’s Hyper, there was this thing. On some ships at Lv. 3, in most cases, it CANCELS OUT BULLETS AND EVEN GRANTS I-FRAMES. Yep, it’s ONE OF THE EARLIEST ITERATIONS OF SECONDARY BOMBS! Sadly in practice the Lv. 3 bombs are too risky to prepare since the lower charges are more reliable for quick DPS work. But it’s something! Depending on the ship the charge time varies too. This makes the ship selections notably diverse! The ones with long charge time usually have potent bullet clearing charges. While another can do it at any charge level but the bomb sucks despite the loop de loop i-frames.

The thing that makes Strikers 1945 II stand out is its stage design. Memo, memo, memo! Its precision rivals R-Type, at times! Couple that with insane bullet speeds, and BAM! The only things that you can reliably read ahead of time are the bullet sources! At least in terms of visual distinction. With this approach you have no choice but to scramble and find a way to DPS the targets before they kill you! Remember, this game was in 1997. It was the vogue to follow Ikeda's formula! In a way, it's admirable, and the benefit of this kind of design is macro-dodges are uniquely satisfying for its era. You read the enemy movement, you react accordingly. Read where the turrets are aiming, what the boss is doing, etc. Old-school flavor. As satisfying as the charge shots are, it only bolsters its memo-heavy design.

As if fast bullets aren't enough, the enemies are thick and often you're demanded to pointblank for survival alone! Not to mention, the way damage registers is kinda tricky too! For the normal shots, there seems to be Garegga-style i-frames for the enemies. When there are more than 1 normal shots hitting the enemy, then the damage only counts as 1. This is to ensure that on power downs, it primarily affects the shot width, not the DPS itself. This design is underappreciated and I don't hate it, but I wonder if it was done more as a rank control red herring than a part of rank control meta.

Oh, Rank! This is the primary reason for the notorious Psikyo Bullets! The longer you survive, the faster the bullets get! Bullets that are by default, slow, are not that affected. The ones that are already fast, though, becomes ridiculous! Contrary to popular belief, I do think excess Power Up pick up will upset the Rank, but no, under-powering yourself won't make the Rank any kinder either! Max 4 Power is the way to go! The only way to really lower the rank is by dying! Thankfully the rank down is very tangible! So it'll be tempting to try to no-bomb some patterns at lower rank!

There are other nasty stuff too like the random 4 starting stages, constant popcorn spawning that makes ships with homing shots notably safer and some bullet blending, but with its super fast 15 minutes per loop pace, this game is just hard to put down! If you wanna try the game, if you're ready to taste its harshness, you'll have a great time! But for its difficulty, wouldn't it hurt the port dev to add Stage Practice!?

This is the ZeroDiv port on Nintendo Switch.

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[スーパーアールタイプ/Super R-Type] JP Normal 1-ALL (Stage 2-2) [CC Commentary] (Score: 545,800)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-04-19 | This is my first R-Type game 1cc! I didn't hear much of this game's legends, save for the fact that it's a remix of R-Type II, and the very infamous lack of mid-level checkpoints! Yeah, as a casual observer that is super, duper suck! But if you're a shmup addict like me and understand a good amount of reasonings behind many design decisions shmups have taken, IMO it's at worst a lazy solution to make things in grand scheme of things, more bearable. Was Gradius Syndrome an absolute mandate at the time, so bad that they can't just place power ups on recovery points before the bosses? In exchange of the infamy, the Gradius Syndrome dampened out at least on Normal. I'm not joking!

Yeah, I love this game! And kinda hate it.

I heard Super R-Type is one of the most difficult games within SNES' library. If that standard is based on the rather ridiculous Hard 2-ALL clear including the HP boost on enemies that prevents fun quick kills, I agree! The Normal is I think just as hard as Zero Wing's MD port on Normal. While Zero Wing's checkpoints are pretty abundant, the recovery process can be cruel. Super R-Type only has 6 recovery spots to remember. Nice, huh? That was semi-sarcastic. Also Super R-Type has dizzying amount of movesets that you can do. Option throws, back or front option attachments, option kissing, charge shot, full charge shot, or half-charge shots, many, many more. Boy! That being said, I believe the Mega Drive has more meaner shmups, though those can be for no good reason like the jacked up bullet speed Twin Cobra MD had. I guess Super R-Type's infamy and actual difficulty illustrates more about how lenient SNES shmups are, or how cleaner the roster quality is...

Anyway, controls! This game is pretty forward thinking for its time! You can shoot, 2 separate buttons for rapid fire, so no worries for carpal tunnel! Then the option control button. A separate rapid fire button! I've never heard of that before for a game this old! Usually SNES titles don't bother to do that! Or the rapid fire is already he default shot type. You can charge up to a single charge, then the much more unwieldy but OP spread charge! Not sure if this is trolling or conscious design decision, but if you don't let go of the spread charge when it's full, the charge will revert back to the single charge. This skips the starting charge, and at times the spread charge is the inferior attack to do so it's kinda understandable, but it's still annoying!

Super R-Type's language is pretty alien. Switching between rapids or charge, which side to keep the option, or should you throw the option or not? Which to kiss? The things you can do must be done with full dedication and the game's right answers are few! But this dance of methodical precision is so addicting and rewarding! It's even more so when you get to feel how OP-feeling your attacks can deal! This option juggling is what makes R-Type, R-Type! But this game is memo-heavy and the process to find the right tactic can be pretty obtuse too. I don't find the game's memo that tight. It would help if some memo paths have good telegraphing, though! Especially Stage 7!

The ridiculous thing that is also worth noting is how surprisingly fast some bosses can be killed with precise moment of when you hold the charge! The bosses has no i-frames at all despite they like to hide behind barriers, so with the rather low HP, a well positioned spread charge will kill them quickly! Fighting them normally is super annoying anyway especially the Stage 3, so I'll take it! Normally this can be considered bad game design, but it was what it was. I learned how to do it consistently. Let me take glee on it.

The thing I'd say is the worst about this game is its performance and how much the game relies on it! Early SNES shmups were also notorious for their slowdowns, but here is the thing. Were the slowdowns due to technical inexperience? Or did they embrace it exactly because they wanted it to be like that? The lag is due to CPU processing. SNES was notorious for having weak CPU for its console generation. This game has no bullet limit at all, a rarity for its time. The lag is very notable on boss fights, but what happens when you start charging and your normal bullets are gone? THE GAME SPEEDS BACK UP! This is especially dangerous at some sections! Plus, the slowdown moments are inconsistent and object-amount dependent! Very horrible! When surviving, please take this in mind!

It's a shame that the game is more well known for its lack of checkpoints. This is a pretty sane game with satisfyingly R-Type-tight stage design. It's short, but very packed and chaotic! Please check out Super R-Type!

This is the NSO version. Aside of US version's change of Kids mode name to Novice mode, I don't know if there are any other notable changes. Oh, for practicing convenience, there is a cheat for stage select! The game demands precision, so use the stage select to practice when needed!

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[ガンデュエル/Gun Duel] Normal ALL CLEAR (Score: 1,413,200) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-03-03 | Of all shmup sub genres Game Center CX can clone, instead of branching off to for example, Gradius or Toaplan clone, they stuck to caravan shmups! I know they're iconic for the era, but at this point I think this is because these are Arino and the dev team's favorite, lol!

Gun Duel, included within Game Center CX 2, is the 3rd (or 4th if you count Cosmic Gate MASA-X as a new title) shmup of the series. Now it's heavily inspired by Compile shmups with its impressive visuals, scrolling, less blocks but more enemies, weapons, and bullet-cancelling weapons! This game is less deep in terms of scoring but at times, having better spectacle feels better to play. I love this game!

In this game you can shoot, with rapid fire already built-in, of course, and switch weapons. The game's main gimmick is you get to carry 2 weapons at the time. 1 as the main weapon, the other as the sub weapon. The weapons behave differently when placed at different slots! For example the Vulcan will fire straight ahead as the main, while it will shoot diagonally as the sub.

The stage design is brisk and fast but not too strict with the solution. I like the freedom of arsenal the game lets you do! The ideal setup is to have a piercing shot ready and the other with good range and firepower. For example, Fire Wave.

Unique to this game, there is RANK SYSTEM! This is the only game in the 1+2 Replay collection where there is dynamic difficulty! How to control it other than cheats? It takes the Xevious approach, kind of. On occasions including in the middle of boss fights, you'll see gray enemies. These are spy cameras! If you manage to beat them, your Rank will go down by 1 level. If you let them go away, the Rank will go up by 2! The higher the Rank, the more bullets and enemies get spawned! I don't know if there is any benefit of letting the Rank as high as possible, so for safety, you sure don't want more danger!

This game captures what made the Compile shmups great and condense it even further! Which shmup in the collection is legitimately the best is up to debate, but of the trilogy, I love this game the most!

This game is only a single-loop game. My major complaint is, it's too good to be this short. One criticism one can employ to these old console shmups is oftentimes they overstay their welcome, like their 1-loop can be around 50 minutes+! Compile is guilty for this. But 15 minutes only when the game feels this good? I want more! I wouldn't mind to have a 2nd loop, honestly.

In regards of survivability, this is quite the kind game. You don't have bombs, though you can pick up an instant-use bomb item from spy enemies. But when you have power ups intact, it acts as a shield. You won't die upon getting hit in exchange of losing all the weapons. If you're not careful, though, you will enter the recovery hell. Good thing this game is not a checkpoint game!

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[からくり忍者ハグルマン3/Haguruman 3] No Continue CLEAR (Score: 262,200) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-03-02 | In-game Haruguman series is setup as the Megaman equivalent, so to speak. In parallel to Action 52, this game is Game Center CX's Cheetahman. In other words, the main star! Heck, when selecting the 1st game at the main title screen, the icon is Haguruman!

They've made 3 Haguruman games in a single game release just to show how hard the game went! And at a great success at that! Not perfect, but you'll have a great time with this game! It's so good I couldn't help it but record a no continue run!

It's a Ninja Gaiden + Rygar + Castlevania inspired game. You can jump, shoot shurikens at limited range, cast out special jutsus like in Ninja Gaiden, and contextually, use the melee attack. Nothing too weird, but the star is, of course, the oddly non-linear stage design. You can take the quick route and skip some upgrades that can make your life much easier, or you grind some gears so you get to collect them all! It's up to you! The game doesn't have time limits, by the way, so if you want to grind, the game won't judge you.

There will also be upgrades that you need to frequently swap back to back since it's required for navigation like high jumps, bullet limit boost and so on. It freshens up each of the stages well! But since this game replicates the Famicom hardware and it refuses any quick-swapping by for example, using the shoulder buttons, it can get pretty annoying.

Other contexts that is good to know is the previous games in the package are cutesy platformers! They sharpened Haguruman's edge super, duper hard! He becomes proportionally taller just for this game! He reverted back to his old self in Triotos DX, but probably timeline-wise that game is set 5 years before Haguruman 3. The graphics work in this game is amazing!

Its not that hard, but challenging enough to give good entertainment in a no continue run like this. Of course, you can continue and still have a good time with it! There is penalty for continuing, though. Continuing will cut your money by half. That sounds pretty bad! Also the knockback is the most annoying thing in the game! It will be the most frequent cause of your death.

This game is within Game Center CX 1+2 Replay.

#platformer #gamecentercx #nintendoswitch

[スタープリンス/Star Prince] 2-ALL CLEAR (Score: 1,984,600) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-03-02 | The Game Center CX games may not be technologically faithful games, like this is more convincing as a PC Engine title instead of a Famicom / NES game, don't you think? But what these games are good at and I'm certain is the priority, is to smoothen the gameplay experience while preserving what made the games of that era click. Star Prince is a great example of it. I love it!

Star Prince is the Star Soldier parallel of Game Center CX 1. This is one of the more cynical game of the collection, funnily enough! Star Soldier was the game that popularized the use of turbo controllers at home, and it was marketed heavily together at the time of release. And pretty necessary too! Don't believe me? Try to beat the 1st Star Soldier boss without turbo controllers on the Nintendo Switch Online without timing the boss out, which when that happens, you must start the stage ALL OVER AGAIN while the time limit hidden but VERY SHORT! And people think old games were pure!

Star Prince also needs this! Although less severe since the enemy HPs are not that thick and the bosses seem to have a healthy time limit duration, if it has any. Initially, the rapid fire is disabled so you gotta taste how to play the game without rapid fire! The in-game story teases the Meijin, by the way, the face of Hudson and renowned for his 16-per-second button press. Impressive! But not healthy for 5 minutes+ campaign! Worry not, Arino will BUY YOU THE ADVERTISED TURBO CONTROLLER!!! The Y button becomes unlocked and this is the rapid fire button! With hindsight Star Soldier might had been considered a bad example now, but maybe it's just me. The funniest thing is this is the only game in the 1+2 Replay has a separate button for rapid fire! Gun Duel? It has rapid fire by default. It is done intentionally like this as a joke / tragedy!

Anyway, Star Prince. It's a caravan shmup in vein of Super Star Soldier, for example. This is the console-favorite sub genre of shmups. You can move and shoot. That's it. No bombs either. However, you can shoot down the weapon change items to act as bombs. Neat! Just be careful to not shoot down the weapon that you want. Don't shoot willy nilly!

There are 4 weapons you can pick up with varying usefulness. The default, of course, should be the S weapon. This is the spread shot and it's the general purpose weapon. The other weapons shine greatly at the right times, but dangerous to use at the worst of times. The P increases the bullet limit considerably so it's a good DPS boost. The coverage, of course, is bad. M explodes! But the bullet limit is very low. Not good when popcorns abound! B is the weakest, but there are technical scores, staple of the sub genre, that requires the B shot and you'll need some score extends, so take it when the time is right.

The other mechanic that sounds too good to be true for its time is the barrier! By holding the shot button down, hence, the separate button for rapid fire, you'll deploy it. It won't block enemy contacts or lasers, though. Remember this! But for each 3 bullets absorbed you'll shoot out counter bullets. Neat! Remember this well for survival!

This game's single loop is actually quite short for a console caravan shmup, around 11 minutes. But the stage is super packed and intense! This game stands on its own even without the historical context. Sounds brash, but probably this game can be one of the primary reasons to buy Game Center CX!

Yes, this game has TLB! But this is not the only one. Haguruman 2 has TLB too. On the 2nd loop there are some enemy arrangement buffs and the PRINCE caravan blocks are repositioned. Otherwise, no notable buffs like counter bullets and such. So it's a great beginner's 2-ALL. Please note that this is a checkpoint game! If you die, you'll be thrown back to the latest checkpoint. Funnily enough, in 1+2 Replay this is the only shmup that uses checkpoint system. If you don't learn the stages properly, prepare for the pain!

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[コズミックゲート/Cosmic Gate] GC Normal CLEAR (Score: 413,810)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-03-01 | This is the original Cosmic Gate. It's a ridiculously long repetitive shmup that boasts whopping 64 STAGES! There are formation differences, but otherwise identical. It is a retro-styled game that aimed to replicate Galaga, so I can't complain that much... This also means this game has no bosses.

It has the piercing shot and the titular Cosmic Gate lets you skip stages! It's not good for your score, of course, but let's face it, for a completion do you even want to go through all of its 64 stages? This is the more normal playthrough using normal gates, so to speak. To open the cosmic gate, hit the flashing enemy as the very first target. If you hit other enemies, then the gate won't come out. When it appears, shoot the gate. Shoot enough and you'll get teleported to the next stages beyond.

If you want to speedrun the game, you can intentionally miss 64 shots until a red cosmic gate pops up on Stage 1 if you manage to hit 0 enemies. Yes, it's in the game, and yes, it's the final secret that got revealed 5 years after the game's in-game release on the in-game magazine. "HOW COULD THIS SECRET GET KEPT FOR THIS LONG!?"

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[コズミックゲート/Cosmic Gate] MASA-X Normal ALL CLEAR (Score: 385,240) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-03-01 | Cosmic Gate is the very first game introduced in Game Center CX series! This series is dedicated in replicating the technological progress of retro video games. Not necessarily the tech and design 1:1, but more about how trends pop up and evolve over time. Cosmic Gate on the 1st game within the Game Console console (lol) itself is said to be a port of the arcade game of the same name. So this MASA-X system is a port of that same arcade game on another platform, MASA-X, that expands the game further in exchange of not being faithful. Think of Capcom arcade ports on the NES.

Cosmic Gate is primarily a Galaga clone, really. The titular cosmic gate aside, its primary offering is its piercing shot power up! When it's gained, for each 3rd shot, you'll shoot out a piercing bullet! The multiplier goes up as it hits more enemies in a row! It makes the game addictively brisk!

I'd say this is the definitive version since here, it added bosses and it only has 16 unskippable stages instead of 64 stages. The fat is trimmed and this is the more compact version thanks to that. It's a cute, short clear if you're interested!

This is within Game Center CX 2's game shop selection. It's not a game required to progress the main campaign.

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[炎の格闘サラリーマンヤッタロー/Flame Fighting Salaryman Yattaro] Good Ending No Continue Clear [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-02-29 | Game Center CX 1+2 Replay is a satisfying sampler plate of surprisingly full-fledged indie-ish faux-retro titles! These are tied to the Game Center CX name, as an overly simplified explanation, Japan's Angry Video Game Nerd. Much less angry, but it is as influential.

Let's focus on the brand new game for the remaster: Yattaro! The one genre that is missing within 1+2 is the beat em up in 3D lane. Just like the other titles, it has its own spin of the genre focusing on being... a salaryman! It's a uniquely peaceful beat em up that is proactive with the peace method. Other games tend to lean on time outs or parrying, which, are fine game design choices, but I'm not a big fan of those. On the other hand, Yattaro lets you make peace aggressively by handing out business cards!

The game takes heavy inspiration from River City Ransom and Mighty Final Fight. You have the usual combos that has to be unlocked too. It's a very responsive game! Then there is the grab where within that state, you can grab-attack, throw, or the primary mechanic, business card. Pressing jump in this state will start the QTE sequence to give the business card! This is the snappiest and quickest way to beat an enemy up, by the way. Quickly handing out cards one after another is both hilarious and addicting, to be honest. But other than simply fulfilling the fantasy of doing the more peaceful option, surely there is another incentive to hand out business cards, right? Yes.

Finishing enemies off via business cards won't make them drop the IC chips, which to put it simply, how you get money to both heal and learn new moves. In a no-continue run, though, thankfully you don't need to! Business cards are important to increase your max HP! Another interesting note is the same enemy, which yes, will respawn, won't take your card the 2nd time, so it won't count towards the business card EXP. You can't farm your way out of this for the precious, precious HP upgrade!

It's not like business card-giving is very easy too. Some enemies will evade a lot from getting grabbed at all, so you need to learn how each enemies work!

Overall it's an easy game to no-continue. I think this is a great game to start your beat em up 1cc journey! The main problem has to be the language barrier. It has RPG elements including fetch quests for accessing each stage bosses. Worry not, you can use this video as your guide! Also if I'm not wrong, this is the 2nd game in the collection that has multiple endings. The 1st one being Guardia Quest Saga. There is Dark Yattaro too. I guess the decision between full assault and business card greetings is to let you express how you make Yattaro resolve conflicts. I don't know if the Good Ending is related to the early choice or how the final boss is finished either.

#gamecentercx #beatemup #nintendoswitch

[FixEight] USA Cull-Horn Normal Stage 2-3 (Score: 1,378,840) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-02-17 | FixEight is OutZone's (spiritual) often undiscussed sequel. Bigger, badder, better! The thing is, overall I still prefer Out Zone. Out Zone has a more solid identity as an overall product. It's a butt-kicking top down run n gun that gives well adjusted challenge regardless of the version. You have noticed why I put USA as the region instead of JP on this video's title, right?

The JP's subtitle is "Legend of the Heroes of Hell". THEY WERE NOT JOKING!

Then it comes with the dilemma. USA scaled the statistical difficulty down too much, makes it easier than Out Zone of any region. In the not-JP versions, the enemy arrangements very slightly get toned down. But more notably, in the USA version enemy HP is halved, bullet speed is halved, so the undiscussed Rank system also barely tangible. FixEight JP and USA are two different beasts of opposite spectrums! JP version horribly limits the viable characters for 1cc due to the DPS vs time limit considerations. The USA version is meanwhile the enemy HP are so little it makes it hard to appreciate how much effort the game differentiates each of the characters' shot type.

FixEight is basically Out Zone with 8 (-1) selectable characters, which even compared to console offerings and Sonic Wings, that is a ridiculous amount of characters available! You can shoot and bomb, as usual. There is the aimable shot that can be aimed at 16 directions, the spread, which makes you aim strictly forward and on a spread pattern. On occassion, you can use the Special weapon unique to each character, which is may or may not be a boon. I'll explain why later.

The bomb got nerfed by having its damage zone restricted to aim directly upwards compared to a full screen strike. But it gained a buff to let you safely jump between platforms. Neat! By the way, it's not checkpoint game. Any hoarding still matters, but at least your progress don't get pushed back!

The cool part is instead of the C item, you can change the shot type using a panel!

The other thing is the shot type difference between different characters are quite bold! Except between Henry and Lucy. Notable ones include the purple hair lady. Her normal shot throws very strong grenades! Bound by the bullet limit, but that makes when to press the shot button much more strategic! Her spread shot Is a pretty slow homing missile but very powerful when the big initial missiles hit the target at pointblank! There is also this lizard guy where the normal shot is a flamethrower but with bubbles. The spread shot with normal taps are serviceable straight shots, but it's a shot meant to be charged. At full charge, it's a very wide and ridiculously strong Bazooka! So the niches each character fulfill is very distinct! You don't see that often!

But of course the game is flawed! Before I elaborate the flaws, I need to tell you about the game's Rank system. Simply put, the bullet speed becomes ridiculously fast in the JP version if you no-miss up to Stage 3! It makes the JP version an unfair HELL!

The rank system by itself is not something I'd complaint. There are 4 major complaints I have with FixEight:

1. There is no time limit indicator. The only hint you get is the Go Ahead arrow and it becomes an anxiety inducing horror that tells you you're taking too much time. How can I gauge properly how much time I have left when the game doesn't tell me!? Fatal in the JP version!
2. Poor DPS calibration between characters. It's for different reasons, but in general some DPS differences make no sense. Ridiculous DPS with short range or long shot intervals? Fair enough. But then there is Cull Horn where he has basically 2-way normal Out Zone vulcan but has better damage without any drawbacks!
3. RANDOM ITEM MARKER. Literally! The Special weapon is the worst. For example, Lucy's Special is a terrain-piercing laser! Sounds great! Except the DPS is mediocre, it's hard to aim, it's thin, and has lower fire rate compared to the normal Vulcan. These are basically debuffs! The worst thing is you don't know if you get these instead of the more desirable Speed Up and Shield! These share the same item icon! It's a gamble and it's super, duper annoying!
4. Gradius Syndrome. It's one of the worst iteration of this in a Toaplan game. The risk of chain death is high!

If you can accept those thorns, you get to enjoy the high quality stage designs. It cranks up the variety to a notch! The corridors, bullet traps, stealth guirella, they get to try out more stage design tricks in this game! Especially the bosses. They can get really quirky! Amazingly, they managed to keep the brisk pace of Out Zone. Even at the seemingly slowest of parts.

If you love Out Zone, or just like top down run n guns in general, you'll have a great time!

This is the Bitwave port on Steam.
store.steampowered.com/app/2023180/Fixeight

#stg #shmup #fixeight

[ヴィマナ/Vimana] Stage 2-3 [Rapid Fire ON] (Score: 1,527,740) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-02-15 | Vimana is one of the most interesting Toaplan titles I've ever played so far. I love it, but less about the game itself. It's more about its spirit and how much the game believed in its distinct offering: Being an easy shmup for beginners to start so they can take the step towards the spicier titles! But ultimately it failed. I'm sure it succeeds in entertaining the players, but I'm certain the operators HATED this game a lot!

Vimana is a Toaplan-formula shmup where you can shoot and bomb. The game had setup unique innovations, actually! It's one of the earlier examples of changing into different shot types while still keeping as few buttons available as possible. Sounds familiar? DonPachi's SHOT AND LASER! Tapping the shot button lets you fire straight shots. Only 2 of them straight forward, but you can shoot these out without charging and at rapid fire rate. This is your default offensive tool. Charging the shot will widen the shot out. By prolonging your press period, you immediately switch to the wide shot! Heck, it can even reach exactly left and right of the ship! Great for some defensive maneuvers! This will be revisited in Batsugun with the Type C shot without the charging, of course.

The bomb is also deceivingly potent! No, no i-frames will be granted. However, upon pressing the button bullets will be immediately gone. You'll get orbs that will home into targets when they are present and also still cancel bullets upon contact. When there are no enemies around, then the bomb orbs linger around! So a mis-press is not punishing! It's one of the most potent bombs ever among Toaplan titles!

In exchange of the weapon switching on the spot, so to speak, this is also one of the very few Toaplan shmups where you can't switch weapons with any weapon item. There are 4 items of note: Power up, bomb, bonus, and extend. No power switching, no wrong weapon syndrome! Yippee!!! There is still Gradius Syndrome, but with Rapid Fire on, it's not much of a deal.

Last but not least, the game is not a checkpoint game. Weird since later titles like Tatsujin Ou brought back checkpoints. Then the extends? 70k first then every 200k. Every. Like, Twin Cobra-every! Games like Ordyne only let you have 2 score extends per run, yet this game provides you at EVERY! At around 28 minutes duration it's possible to get around 6 extends! That is unheard of for a no-checkpoint shmup! Aside from Toaplan, of course. Vimana is the poster child of this!

The stage design too. These are varied and fun to plow through, but one notable thing is the bullets are relatively slow, as if this game is a bridge toward Batsugun. Enemies also rarely shoot, relatively speaking. Very friendly for newcomers, huh! There are many enemies that synergizes with each other like there is this enemy that will make the popcorns that reach them bigger. This is to make you decide between focus fire or the wide shot. I love that! To compensate the easiness the game has to have unique setpieces to keep the players entertained.

Now that I've explained the reasons why the game is so easy, like, this is actually PC Engine-shooter easy! I'm sure many players managed to sit for a long time with a single credit alone! For arcade operators, there is this 5 - 10 minute rule: 1 credit per 5 - 10 minutes. This is Vimana's mistake. The game is so easy to 1cc but it's also a long game! Worse, the 2nd loop is not tough at all, not even shooting any counter bullets! When at average the game only brings in, at rough estimate, 1 credit per 20 minutes, of course the operators see the game as a flop!

This is also why these days the popular format is either the rent system or rhythm games format. Rhythm games give fair challenges to the player without the need to right-out kicking them out, while with a single credit and giving the player 3 tracks to play where at average the playtime is around 3 minute per track, that fulfills the 10-minute rule just fine without resorting to dirty stage design tactics! Easier arcade shmups later on employed smarter tactics to adapt too, for example the Psikyo games tend to have short one loop length, ranging around 15 - 20 minutes. Psyvariar simply just make the game 11-minute short to 1cc! Heck, Batsugun's 1 loop is short at around 15 minutes!

Vimana is an interesting look at how to please beginner players while completely forgetting the arcade operators. I totally recommend this game as an object of study! Also as a Toaplan shmup to start with.

This is the Bitwave port on Steam. If you have a PC, then give it a go. It's Slap Fight. It slaps! Why Easy mode, though? Dunno. Was it the default dip switch? At least the Bitwave port says so? Also I recommend setting the autofire at 20Hz? At 30Hz the autofire breaks as you progress further. Why? I don't know.

#stg #shmup #vimana

[現風少女ブリューテの代償] Mira & Mai Extra CLEAR (Score: 515,785,426) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-02-14 | As a Touhou clone of course there would be Extra stage! You start at max stat including full HP max and full bomb capacity. And also the boss is BOMB IMMUNE during spell attacks. Great! :)

In an ironic twist, not saying it's easy overall, it makes the Extra Stage easier than Normal because it has to remember that the boss is at half of the time, BOMB IMMUNE. Another thing to remember is when you no-miss the patterns, of course bombing is still welcome, the game will straight up give you a 1up! Play well and know your limits!

One more thing: The Replay feature is so COMPLETELY BROKEN, the Extra stage Replay data just doesn't work! :(

Nintendo eShop:
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000074777.html

#stg #shmup #angelatdusk

[現風少女ブリューテの代償] Mira & Mai Normal ALL CLEAR (Score: 8,737,468,132) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-02-13 | Genfuu Shoujo Blute no Daishou? Or Modern Girl Price of the Blossom (Engrish isn't just using English. It's a German word?) at shallow-level research seems to be a Japanese doujin dev's first game and shmup that just clones Touhou without shame. The thing is, googling Genfuu Shoujo shows another series of shmups of the SAME NAME, equally CLONING TOUHOU, with THE SAME LIFE COUNT ICON IMAGE, but not listing this specific game yet it's from the circle AMUSEMENT MAKERS??? If you're not lifeless enough to browse literally every article within the Touhou Wiki, Amusement Makers was the Circle that published ZUN's TOUHOU 1 TO 5. So the circle, to an extent, assuming this is the very same series, HAS A PRETTY DIRECT CONNECTION WITH THE TOUHOU SERIES ITSELF! Then the cloning, may or may not actually use a Touhou engine or may just be Danmakufu, but I digress, makes much more sense! SanaeF, the developer, I'm not sure if they are the very same guys or at least related to Amusement Makers, but I don't have time to dig this seemingly random doujin shmup's history. Let's just talk about the game itself. Seems to be a reboot or something. Let's call the game Genfuu Shoujo from this point and on. We don't call Touhou "Way of the East", right?

Genfuu Shoujo is a vertical shmup that borrows a lot from Touhou! Let's start with the similarities: Humanoids, slow button instead of normal and rapid shot buttons, bombs but no secondary bombs like Hyper, main shots with low bullet count, and the most blatantly of all, spellcard phases. At least the spells are not given any names, but then what's the point aside of flavor? That's a good lot. But it has some significant differences to differentiate itself from Touhou. The life count max is capped per see and the indication is in reverse. The major implication is when you get the 1up item while you're clean from any damage markers, then that item is wasted. The extend is purely shop-based by unlocking the marker slots, though later on you can heal from the damage markers instead. You start with 0 bombs and getting hit will not reset your bomb, nor you gain any. Undisturbed. However, the bomb can be charged by grazing. Very quickly too! This game is mainly a bullet clearer where you need to maintain your bomb charge so you don't get trapped. Even in Normal, believe me, you'll need it. The last and major differentiator is how the game handles grazing. In a nutshell, grazed bullets will SHOOT BACK BULLETS FOR YOU! This will be your primary way to sink in the DPS! Pretty cool!

I'll tell you this upfront: I love the game! Don't get me wrong, it's far from a good game in normal aspects. A lot of things to criticize, in fact. But it's so confident with its design decisions, I can't help but to admire the game, you know? It's just due to lacking experience, there are a good lot of rough spots within the game.

First, how the game handles its rapid fire. Some characters has properly working rapid fire. Others, notably Mai, doesn't have proper rapid fire, leaving gaps between shots. It's not a shot cooldown, by the way! Rapidly pressing manually makes her shoot more than the built-in rapid fire allowed! By design? Or inexperience? Who knows! I sure did hurt my hands doing this. Bad QoL!

Second, it extends to the game's poor DPS balance! Mai's shot type is the prime example of this. Even worse, the bombs also has clear DPS discrepancy! The bomb is determined by the first character chosen (The character selection has its own baffling quirks, so your bomb and shot type possibilities are much more limited than it looks). Nothing beats Mira's giant clock. Very long duration, and yields the best damage too. This game has one of the most awful DPS balancing in any shmup I've ever played! Don't do that! Mira's shot type? The grazing shot is homing, but the graze spot is awkward and the main shot is pathetic. Don't use her as the one who do the dirty job.

If you can overlook these design problems and some... amateur doujin-ish presentation... the stage design for what it is is pretty solid, which is the main reason the game is still fun. It spews out lots of bullets that can get seemingly hilariously unfair! But well, your bomb is very easy to recharge and these are patterns that beg to be grazed. It'll make you say "lol, the dev is serious about this pattern!" Some are fast, or tricky, or just so impossible the game trolled you for not stocking enough bombs. By the way, bombing isn't punished! Deploy them as needed!

It needs a fellow shmup junkie to appreciate what this game offers. It's hard to recommend to casual players since it's not exactly a pretty game or even that polished. Psst, the Replay is broken. But I can at least assure you that it's fun enough to be worth your time.

Nintendo eShop:
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000074777.html

#stg #shmup #angelatdusk

[アカとブルー/Aka to Blue] Fire Bird Auto Bomb Off ALL CLEAR (Miss: 6)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-02-07 | Aka to Blue, despite on a mobile platform, is AMAZIIINNNNGGGG!!! Its systems are as mobile shmup as you can get, but the presentation, execution, stage design, it's as superb as you may expect from shmup veterans! I LOVE IT!

You move, shoot and bomb. Normal controls, really. It may be just me, but typically (Japanese) mobile shmups tend to be bullet clearers: The bombs charge very easily and the key for survival / scoring often involves keeping the bomb stock status quo. Aka to Blue is no different. The bomb is a normal big bullet clearer ball with... very short i-frames, but potent bullet cancelling property. The bomb gauge is recharged by cancelling the enemy bullets! So deploying the bomb while there are no bullets to clear out is a very bad idea! At 1 Bomb it only clears out surrounding bullets. Well, better than being completely naked...

The bomb uniquely enough is subject to bullet limit rule. Only 1 bomb bullet can exist at once. The usual implication is if the bomb is hitting and drilling through big enemies, typically the boss, you're defenseless! It creates its unique way to make the player naked without making that period happen for a too long of a period and not being overly punishing. Though it is stressful to wait the Heat to cool off like this! You don't have the luxury to look up at this state!

The controls otherwise are the typical mobile shmup. No secondary shots here, but it's sufficient. Fire Bird is the wide shot ship and the bomb only shoots directly straight and can't be aimed, which makes it the more intuitive ship to use. Lower DPS concentration, though, so you'll have more trouble with bosses.

The scoring also has its unique twist for rewarding self-imposed difficulty, which probably is one of the reasons why this game has no difficulty options. The chain builds up as you destroy stuff, but the chain resets when you use the bomb. Sounds easy? Kinda, but to compensate the very available bullet cancelling opportunity, the bullets are incredibly DENSE! What? You haven't seen Daifukkatsu before? It's basically Daifukkatsu's philosophy. Make it still comfy enough to no-bomb, but make them ridiculously dense! Good luck doing that especially on the smartphones, though!

The set pieces and variety are amazing! Target priority, multi-directional threats, chef's kiss! The game also isn't sadistic. It's just my major complaint is some MOMENTS OF BULLET-BLENDING! Blue bullets at the top of the BLUE SEA! WHAT, WERE THEY, THINKING!? Very much watch out for those, especially when you have just fired a bomb!

I don't have any other criticism regarding the game on its own product. It's just that well made! The game has no extends, but like DDP Maximum the life count (and score) is reset. No particular rewards to do 1cc like this, but why not? The game gives us the option to do so and we'll enjoy it! Please, please play it when you can!

Regarding console ports, they probably are still bound by EXA's contract. I don't think they can just port the EXA version either. It will still be a long time to wait for it. Except if you can buy the EXA version right out of the gate...!

[Angel at Dusk] Arcade Chronicle TLB Catastrophe ALL CLEAR (Score: 50,815,796) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-02-06 | Angel at Dusk seems to be primarily designed with its Euro-Shmup mode, Original, in mind. Stage routes, multiple end points, stats, loots, and so on. The stages are well constructed and it has no major Euro-shmup awful tropes like inertia, and I can accept some stat requirements, but oh boy, the stages get recycled over, and over, and over again and the bosses also get recycled! You need to finish all the end points, yellow nodes, before you reach the TLB 32-A, by the way! It eventually gets old and repetitive!!! You need to do this mode to unlock the Angel of Eternity Arcade course! Even worse, though understandable, at higher nodes 1 hit can deplete up to FIVE LIVES AT ONCE! The philosophy is you strategize the stat building / score farming from the previous zones so you have the built-up advantage when you enter the intended zone.

After you finish this on the Original mode, this route-ful mode becomes available in the Arcade mode! The Euro-shmup elements like loots and stats are removed and all damage will only be just 1 Life per hit as usual. Awesome, but it doesn't alleviate the repetitive nature of the map nodes... Well, at least you can choose to take the shortcuts!

Catastrophe is the ultimate form of the Chaos family. You start out ridiculously chonky and with ridiculous power too! This is a very long trip anyway and as a mere showcase, I chose the very OP shot type! Note, in exchange of this super ridiculous power, your EXP gain rate is very nerfed.

There are some bosses exclusive to this mode, by the way. One of them is the rotating wall thingy.

Steam Page of the game:
store.steampowered.com/app/1405500/Angel_at_Dusk

Regarding QoL, no, it has no replays or stage selects to practice.

#stg #shmup #angelatdusk

[Angel at Dusk] Angel of Eternity Extinction Chaos ALL CLEAR (Score: 26,245,813) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-02-06 | Angel of Eternity is the 3rd and final arcade course. As the name implies this is where you get to fight the true final boss! To unlock it you need to beat the titular final boss in the Original (read: Euro-shmup) mode. The process to unlock it is pretty horrid, but that's an entirely different discussion.

This course is ironically just the middle difficulty just for the simple virtue it spits out a lot of medals to fill your Life and power you up. But hey, it also contains the most exciting set pieces in the game!

Chaos is the base form of the Chaos family. This is already pretty OP in comparison and it's already available from the get go! I used Chaos to illustrate that fact here! It's the orthodox shot type with the piercing normal shot, DDP-like laser attack and bombs. The full firepower package! Also since Chaos is the base form, the EXP gain rate is at 100% max. With unbridled firepower you can expect to gain lots of extends! Assuming you don't make too many mistakes to reduce the EXP gain rate too much.

Steam Page of the game:
store.steampowered.com/app/1405500/Angel_at_Dusk

Regarding QoL, no, it has no replays or stage selects to practice.

#stg #shmup #angelatdusk

[Angel at Dusk] Fallen Extinction Decay ALL CLEAR (Score: 12,998,202) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-02-05 | Fallen is the 2nd arcade course. It is the easiest route to tackle! The bullets are very slightly easier, but it doles out a heck ton more of score medals. Yippee!

Pain seems to be the intended shot type. Its base form DOESN'T HAVE V.O.Ms! The later variants, however, like Decay, does. Note, the stronger the variant is, the lesser EXP gain max the game will provide you. For Decay, for example, it's 70%. The implication is with the same destruction pacing and medal gain, you'll gain less levels and to its extension, less HP max! Keep this in mind.

The Pain family is notable for its bullet-cancelling buster attack that needs to be charged. Pretty weak in comparison to the straight-up laser shot and the lightning shot, but it will do its job well.

Steam Page of the game:
store.steampowered.com/app/1405500/Angel_at_Dusk

Regarding QoL, no, it has no replays or stage selects to practice.

#stg #shmup #angelatdusk

[Angel at Dusk] Awaken Extinction Dastard ALL CLEAR (Score: 12,945,071) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-02-05 | Angel at Dusk, or its very literal translation, "Paradise at Dusk and the Angels Dyed in Red", sure does like to bluff! Its Very Easy mode is called Very Hard, for example. Don't take it from me; that's what the game said! Extinction is this game's equivalent of Normal mode, and fittingly so. While I don't believe it's as difficult as 80s / 90s shmups, since it gives a heckton of resources even with the Covetous-family ship type, it sure is fun and electrifying. I love it!

As far as I've known Akiragoya games, this title is no different and a culmination of the developer's experience and expertise: Extreme pointblanks, lots of bullets and very, very chonky ship! You can shoot, use the alt shot either charged or firing automatically depending on the shot type, bomb, if the ship is able to, and that's it. The devil is in the details. The primary damage dealer is the normal shot. When you pointblank, it yields the best damage and drops lots of green hearts to recover the Life count! In case of Covetous-family, it's the only way to truly gain the extends! Yes, extends DO NOT recover Life! Only Life maximum! Meanwhile the alt shot is the bullet canceller. This is why some shot types don't have any bombs, because the primary bullet canceller is free! Not the best for scoring, but you'll have to use this to survive! In case of this shot type, it's the primary damage source. Meanwhile the V.o.M. effect varies between ship types. In case of Dastard variant, thankfully you don't have to consume your Life to bomb and spawn the new option. You can have up to 10 options, I think

This game in short is a very aggressive Yagawa-style shmup. It's about the medals and part breaks! Keep the medal values at max as long as possible since it also affects the Life and V.o.M. recovery. EXP is your score, and as you level up, your Max Life gets increased and your shot power gets upgraded, and your ship size becomes MEGA-CHONKY! Please take a great note of this! The hitbox may get smaller, which is not a lie, but the much larger sprite of your ship obscures your enemies and it'll make it hard to aim at stuff! So rewarding yet so dangerous...!

The game's pacing and enemy arrangements can outstay their welcomes at times, but it has many, many exciting moments, notably part breaking. The boney organ designs are grotesque, but their silhouettes are still easily identifiable so it's not hard to remember what each enemy does. Some has boobs, others don't. Don't worry, this video has the R-15 toggle turned on. It's more SFW, so to speak.

Awaken is a pretty hard stage route since its scoring opportunity is rather lacking compared to the other 2. And why Dastard? Because the Covetous line is the hardest one to use just by the virtue of Level Ups do not recover Life! This playthrough also demonstrates how Covetous-types in general plays. Dastard is the strongest variant before the OP variant. so this one fits best for the playthrough.

I'll post more videos of other routes. But certainly from the volume alone it should entice you to buy this game!

Steam Page of the game:
store.steampowered.com/app/1405500/Angel_at_Dusk

Regarding QoL, no, it has no replays or stage selects to practice.

#stg #shmup #angelatdusk

[雷凰/Raioh] Hard Auto-Bomb ALL CLEAR (Score: 1,820,450) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2024-01-18 | Raioh is an unabashed tribute of Raiden, Kyukyoku Tiger and Daioh and it's not even hiding it! But it is aware of what is too painful to bring back and it's a fun game to play. I love it!

It is as simple as it gets. You can move, shoot and bomb. That's it. Rapid fire is already built in too. This game is a weapon switcher. There are 3 weapons available:
* Red: Wide. Works like Raiden's wide vulcan. It gets affected the most by the bullet limit, so to maximize its DPS, easier said than done, is to pointblank! At long range, it's quite weak though its big hitbox is reliable. Best for open spaces.
* Yellow: Cross. Looks like the rather-useless yellow shot of Twin Cobra, but it also has 2 diagonal shots so that alone makes it more potent than the Twin Cobra inspiration. It has good DPS at long range and at full pointblank on ground enemies, it's super devastating! The recommended default weapon since you'll have to deal with enemies from left, right and bottom!
* Blue: Forward. The boss buster. The strongest shot against single targets, but otherwise very dangerous to use on stage parts! Refrain from picking this up until the boss fight.

Its stage design encourages you to switch the weapons since there are mazes and such! It has various gimmicks to keep you entertained. The power level is 5 at max and you'll reach max power by the 1st boss. The game will lower your shot power when you lose a life, but worry not, you'll only have your power get dropped by one, not a complete reset. To power up you also don't need to pick the same weapon item. Any weapon works! It's just when one spawns it always starts with the red power up! If you want to switch to yellow or blue, then you must wait! It's more annoying than it sounds considering the ship's relatively slow ship! There are no item switch prevention mechanic too like one can do in Raiden V.

The bomb is strictly a radial bomb that stays on screen and get deployed instantly unlike Twin Cobra's. However, like Twin Cobra while it does cancel out bullets, there are exceptions like lasers. The most dangerous of all, NO I-FRAMES! Fair enough. This prevents pointblank DPS exploits. But when Auto-Bomb comes into the equation, it makes the Auto-Bomb basically a dud against piercing attacks like lasers and body slams! It'd be nice if the thing works as advertised, wouldn't it!? It still works to protect you from sudden normal bullet shots, there is that.

Truth to be told, it's refreshing to see a new shmup with less bullet quantity. The market is kinda oversaturated with bullet hells, which is, rich coming from me... And this is a more lenient, fun and varied take of the older Toaplan formula. Give it a shot!

Steam Page of the game:
store.steampowered.com/app/2554950/Raioh

Speaking of QoL, the game does have practice mode, but it won't let you practice directly to the bosses. No quick experimentations for us, I guess. No replay features too, which, I won't be harsh at all about the lack of such feature, but it is still worth telling if you plan to buy the game yourself. There is also no Tate screen option.

#stg #shmup #raioh

[怒首領蜂大往生/DoDonPachi DaiOuJou] Arrange L ALL CLEAR (Score: 298,248,200)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-12-25 | Arrange L is the main mode that introduces the Tensei mechanic. Build up by lasering a high HP enemy then destroy it, you'll cancel all bullets like a bomb. A perfect fit for the popcorn-piercing Laser augment! But this one uses the 1st loop patterns and the Hyper rate is normal. It's great to play but in comparison to the ridiculous Arrange EX, it's bland.

Gotta appreciate the M2 Arrange modes that adds new mechanics. CAVE themselves are hit-and-miss with their own Arrange modes.

This is the M2STG port on Nintendo Switch.

#怒首領蜂大往生#nintendoswitch #STG

[怒首領蜂大往生/DoDonPachi DaiOuJou] Arrange S ALL CLEAR (Score: 504,067,570)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-12-24 | This is more unique than I thought. The Rinne mechanic, honestly, is like whatever, just a mere score booster. The patterns are also based on the Super Easy patterns. But as you progress and see the Rank is at max, 15, the bullets game becomes Toaplan-fast!

The arrange is super kind with extends, but remember that you're in perpetual Hyper! No Hyper, no Bombs! For a Toaplan-flavor of DOJ, this is the mode to enjoy.

This is the M2STG port on Nintendo Switch.

#怒首領蜂大往生#nintendoswitch #STG

[怒首領蜂大往生/DoDonPachi DaiOuJou] Super Easy B-EX No Death ALL CLEAR (Score: 527,122,710)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-12-24 | It's... Super Easy. M2's Super Easy. Auto-Hyper, Auto-Bombs, dozens of extends, the usual. Also Hibachi!

You know what's funny? Despite the nerfed patterns, like far slower bullets and literally fewer bullets, Hibachi is still BOMB IMMUNE!

This is the M2STG port on Nintendo Switch.

#怒首領蜂大往生#nintendoswitch #STG

[怒首領蜂大往生/DoDonPachi DaiOuJou] Arrange EX ALL CLEAR (Score: 404,772,190) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-12-23 | Arrange EX is the best one of the arranges! Simply for the fact it lets you access the 2nd loop without going have to the 1st loop first. But since this is an Arrange, it's made much easier to survive including a heck ton of lives, an M2 arrange staple.

In this mode you're stuck with Exy. Similar to Arrange L, there is this Tensei gauge. Build up by lasering a high HP enemy then destroy it, you'll cancel all bullets like a bomb! For a CAVE game bullet cancelling enemies are rare notably so on Stage 5, so this is a pretty genius upgrade while keeping the combo game intact!

It's an easy romp and thanks to the crazy 2nd loop patterns, which honestly, sometimes it doesn't seem to be that crazy because some patterns only add 2x of the bullets, which in practice, not that tangible of a threat, it's very exciting to play! Must play! It gives dozens of lives too, so I don't think lacking skill is a good excuse to not try it at least once.

Other differences include around 3x as fast of Hyper gauge fill. That's triple the secondary bombs! How cool is that?

This is the M2STG port on Nintendo Switch.

#怒首領蜂大往生#nintendoswitch #STG

[怒首領蜂大往生/DoDonPachi DaiOuJou] White Label A-L 1-ALL CLEAR (Score: 48,752,190) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-12-23 | The DDPDOJ M2 port got released! Yeah!!! I've 1cc-ed the Black Label and the G-Mode port, now I got a good excuse to 1cc the White Label! I've done both, so what could possibly go wrong?

...A LOT!!!

There are various reasons why White Label is considered to be the most difficult iteration of DOJ, but surprisingly most of the time it's not because of the patterns! The most well known difference is how fast Black Label had the Hyper gauge filled, but even the Hyper gauge pace isn't even the problem.

SOME BULLETS ARE TOO FAST, SHOTIA'S LASER SPEED IS SO SLOW SHE IS BORDERLINE USELESS, SO YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO COPE WITH LESS BOMBS!

Compared to Ketsui, in DOJ it's easy to get stuck if you don't route well! DOJ is indeed one of the most well regarded CAVE titles, but to me, I also can say DOJ is great, but White Label is the worst-aging CAVE title I've ever played! You must score to fill up Hyper quickly, you need to understand how Hyper works despite this is one of the earliest appearances of Hyper / secondary bomb in any shmup EVER, RNG patterns that get so close to unevadable you better sacrifice your Hyper / bomb! Hyper also must be picked up as a dropped item. It's fine on stages because they get dropped at all, but on boss fights? Hyper items only drop WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF BOMBS! DOJ is the only CAVE title that does this! I get it that the development team only had very short time, barely enough to calibrate everything, but in retrospect it's a hard title to go back to after playing SDOJ and heck, DFK! Black Label is the easier and better version to chew!

But I understand why people still stick with White Label. It has fragrance of a Stockholm Syndrome game. It's that fun of a game to learn and cheese!

This run is using Leinyan, the laser booster. You can only carry 4 bombs max, but since the laser will pierce through popcorns, in other words, the popcorns won't disturb the combo gauge as you keep the gauge on a big enemy, it's easier to maintain the combo, which also means the Hyper gauge gets filled faster assuming you know how to keep the combo.

This is the spice that makes DOJ (White Label) special within the DDP series. The Hyper gauge increase correlates heavily with the Hit count. I still prefer the more intuitive ways Hyper gauge gets increased in DFK and SDOJ in particular the Aura quick-charge (yes, Aura quick charge DOESN'T WORK IN DOJ!), but I'd be lying if I say I hate it. So, so rewarding! Because the alternate result is so, so punishing...

Otherwise White Label and Black Label's 1-ALL are identical. I'll comment on mainly on the notable differences of both versions, especially since the widget shows a lot like how Rank works and how and what made the Hyper gauge increase. For the proper DOJ experience, I recommend Black Label. But if you want to taste history, where Hyper System was properly debuted, then White Label is a must try.

This is the M2STG port on Nintendo Switch.

#怒首領蜂大往生#nintendoswitch #STG

[Yohane the Parhelion BitDB] Any% Speed Run No Death CLEAR (1h 42m 33s) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-12-06 | Regarding video games, Love Live is kinda cursed. At a very rare occassion, you'll get good ones like the arcade rhythm game by Square Enix and its console port, with its, questionable business model... Then the mediocre / divisive ones like the School Idol Festival gacha games and one of them DARE to give you damage even you don't miss any note, how vicious, or something so bad or money grubby even the fans mock them and usually they defend this series like this is the very last of its kind! Try find any fans that can unironically say the PS Vita Love Live game is good! Even worse the developer, Dingo, had a good reputation with the Project Diva Hatsune Miku games, so there is no stopping Inticreates to make a bad Love Live-branded game!

I'm here to tell you that it's a good game, at least. Not on the usual Inticreates standard as an overall package, but it's a fun offering!

Yes, the Megaman Zero, ZX, Gunvolt, Mighty No. 9, GalGun and Bloodstained Inticreates. Hence the genre is not a rhythm game. This game is a metroidvania! Very strange-sounding choice for Love Live, but a natural choice for the 2D platformer king. It's on the easy side, unless you do a speedrun and no death. It also has good routing and skipping options!

BitDB is a 2D metroidvania that is on the slower side of platforming. There is no Gunvolt-dashing, but you can walk, slide, jump, and 3 whopping attack options: weapon attack, summon and secondary summon attack. When jumping Yohane maintains this weird inertia. It can be adapted to, at least. When attacking, or more specifically, summoning either a weapon or an ally, Yohane can't move and will get suspended mid-air. Also feels weird, but it's part of her fun moveset package.

The primary goal is first to save the other 8 characters that got trapped in the labyrinth: Chika, Kanan, Dia, Riko, Hanamaru, You, Ruby and Mari. After you save them by beating the corresponding boss, you'll unlock their summon. Sounds familiar? Yes, MEGAMAN! Even their effects is like straight from Megaman! Including Dia's Z-Saber slashes! The order isn't dictated, so you can pick which boss to tackle first. After all of them is saved, the last area will be unlocked so you get to tackle the final boss. Sounds like Megaman ZX.

The routing is fun and at the later half of boss hunting, the game essentially branches to 2 routes. You can take your pick at that point! Ideally you tackle the You route first so you can use the shortcuts on the Mari route. Plus, You's summon is a great speed boost!

For the weapons it's gained via crafting. The materials? Mainly from random loot drops. You know what that means... NO SKIPPING ENEMIES AND TREASURES! The RNG can get bad too! The most desirable one is the Axe type. This has a big hitbox and starting at the Battle Axe it can one-shot normal enemies with ease! You'll need that!

In normal play the thing you have to watch out is the DP. Except Lailaps, which is basically your free, weak slash, attacks consume DP, both summons and weapons. When DP runs out, you still can use them but it consumes your HP instead! There are 2 major implications: One, you need to stock up regularly so you don't consume your HP or you need to consume HP recoveries often. Two, don't skip save points! You need to reload DP and enemies won't drop any recovery drops! Not even as a mere item!

The worst part of the adventuring is the random areas. They had to pad out the game's length with RNG, huh? Despite the genre appreciates consistency a lot! Like, okay, 3 - 4 randomly shuffled room layouts doesn't sound so bad? IT GETS WORSE! For a casual clear it's a nothing-burger, but on repeated speedruns the RNG can get as cruel as having 6 floors to clear! That's minutes of the run wasted! Who forced Inticreates to do this!? Love Live!? Can't they trust how metroidvania works for a bit more!? Give Inticreates some room!

The RNG cruelty doesn't stop there! There is this weapon problem, but some powerful weapons can be get easily without deviating from the main route. The economy. Its cruelty rears its ugly head when you speedrun this game!

Buying recoveries is normal, but money is a random drop! No, YOU CAN'T SELL! Even worse, bosses DON'T DROP ANYTHING, NOT EVEN CASH! Essentially, your recovery is limited! Meanwhile the bosses hit like trucks! One can say this is a cruel design, but others may argue this is a good way of having a hidden Hard Mode. Well, opinions vary, I guess. The fact remains that you need to watch out about this. You have no choice but to ration out the healing items and git gud!

As far as I know, there is no bonus or ending difference from clearing this game quickly. But that's okay. Fun of the process is the most important thing. If you can stand the RNG, try it out!

For transparency, I did claim No Death, but 1 Musical Score did get used. Death here is when Yohane get kicked out to her home when her HP hits 0.

This is the Switch version.

#lovelive #metroidvania #nintendoswitch

[Touhou Gensou Eclipse] Reimu-Route Reimu Extreme No Continue CLEAR [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-12-01 | Let's face it, CAVE is not the same anymore since they released SDOJ. They have moved on from arcades + consoles. Gacha games and license their old games all the way, baby! And NFT projects. I don't even know if Shinobu Yagawa is still at CAVE or not, but we do know Ikeda still works at CAVE. Some notable employees have quit CAVE though, for obvious reasons. Check out Senxin Aleste, Rolling Gunner and Aka to Blue. But give them a credit. They have outlived Toaplan and Compile.

There are at least 3 things, however, that they still cling unto in their gacha games, probably thanks to Ikeda:

1. They can't keep their grubby hands from experimenting the formula, for better or worse.
2. They just have to involve curtains of bullets when possible.
3. They are too addicted to their Hyper formula to let it go.

In short, Touhou Gensou Eclipse, their latest gacha game output that is actually too good and complex for its own good! It's too solid and you can smell Ikeda's touch here. Bullet limit, pointblanking, Hyper, called Break, sophisticated scoring system, and so on! It has to be sprinkled with stats shenanigans, but personally it's similar to Deathsmiles Smartphone arrange, which I mean, not too painful. That's gacha game for you. The most surprising thing, however...

THIS IS AN IDOLM@STER SHINY COLORS CLONE!?

Have you heard of the create-your-card genre? Of all genre to implement this formula, like horse gambling, turn-based RPG, and real time card RPG, CAVE opted to make the raising process a NORMAL ARCADE SHMUP! Oh, CAVE. You sure are addicted to risks! This is a very risky genre since not many survived and it's a delicate genre where the 2 phases of rougelite starting-from-zero adventure and produced cards must be well-tuned in harmony! I don't know how the proposal went, like it was initially a Deathsmiles-branded game then when they had the license for making a Touhou game, then they converted it to Touhou, who knows. I am confident to say that they still have the touch to make good shmups, better than anyone in the industry, at least, in the gacha game space. Not even Yoko Taro could beat CAVE!

The basics are you can shoot, use skills with the spellcard that always consume 50% of MP regardless of MP max as the starter, or use a skill that consumes MP at a fixed value that gets to be inherited from the support cards, and Break, this game's hyper. It's basically DFK Hyper, just without the nerfing from overusage due to Rank System. If you're only familiar with Touhou, forget it. There is close to no trace of actual Touhou game design here. Treat it like a CAVE game. If you're used to Deathsmiles and DFK, then you'll be at home with this game! Sort of.

The annoying part, of course, is the stats management. The important stats are Attack, the main shot damage, then to simplify things, Defense, boosts the effectiveness of Shield-type Breaks, Magic Attack, boosts Spell-type Breaks, and Dexterity, boosts Shot-type Breaks. It's like Vocal, Dance and Visual, essentially. For example, Reimu is Shot Break type. Best to pick up Dexterity for more comfortable bullet cancelling using the Break! Not that other stats is completely useless, it's just this stat is more relevant for her Break.

The resources are surprisingly both generous and tight. Spellcards are your bomb, but you can use it either for scoring or defensively. Finish a boss with the bomb when Break is active, the Break items will get converted into the purple score / EXP items. That's the ideal scenario. At the result screen, aside of learning randomly chosen skills within the skill pool based on the support cards, inherited skills and stage route, you can also heal and refill your MP at 50%. Exactly the amount to use spellcards. The Shield usually will protect you from more than 8 hits and getting hit won't give you direct punishment aside of lowered stage rank, will be explained in the commentary. Essentially, you can only carry 2 bombs at a time. Don't deploy them willy nilly!

Yes, the game is quite fun! It's more of an assmbled sets of stages and bosses like Odin Sphere, really. But it's paced well enough to scratch the arcade CAVE itch, albeit in a console leniency. The enjoyment does depend on how much you like the create-your-card genre, though! Remember this well before trying.

I'll comment some nuances and frame-by-frame decisions to the raising part, because that's the point of the create-your-card genre. But my explanation would be pretty limited. I'll explain what I can from my experience.

#CAVE #Touhou

[Trouble Witches Final! Eps. 1] Yoko AC Nervous ALL CLEAR (Score: 312,542,230) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-10-27 | What is this AC? Was this the original arrange with is 4:3 playfield? Also, what is this Nervous and why doesn't it have any leaderboard? I don't know! The patterns are similar to Arcade mode's Exciting. There are some enemy positioning difference and the shop is stingier. Otherwise, there is not much reason to touch AC Nervous aside of documentation reasons. Were they embarrassed with this particular difficulty? Really?

To compensate the more cramped playfield the bullets are slower, but you can only have 160 MP at max. Be careful!

Yoko's DPS is also one of the better ones! But her bullets are thick. This will prove difficult against bosses that have narrow holes.

There is one good reason to check AC, though. The endings are unique per character compared to Story mode. Unvoiced, but better than nothing.

This is the Nintendo Switch version.
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000059419.html

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Trouble Witches Final! Eps. 1] Synfi Valpurgis Night ALL CLEAR (Score: 312,542,230) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-10-26 | Valpurgis Night is an interesting arrange. There are no difficulty selection. The difficulty seems to be a middle ground between Exciting and Nausea. Exciting and lower has differences more than bullet patterns compared to Nausea. This commentary is to mention the differences. On the player side of things nothing is mechanically different. The main difference is the stage design and the bosses. The bosses actually get more blue bullets than their Nausea counterpart. I sure with Nausea received this from the very start!

Unique to this mode, there are also caravan bonus enemies. This makes stacking money and score very easy! Extends should be a non-issue. Don't underestimate this mode, of course. The commentary will comment on the stage differences. At some points you may not be able to reload spell cards before the boss!

This is the Nintendo Switch version.
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000059419.html

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Trouble Witches Final! Eps. 01] Pril Story Exciting ALL CLEAR (Score: 64,094,950) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-10-25 | Exciting and lower has differences more than bullet patterns compared to Nausea. This commentary is to mention the differences.

Honestly considering the game's focus on bullet cancelling like ESPGaluda, Exciting isn't enough to sell its bullet cancelling idea enough. I know they're not CAVE, but it needs around Stage 3 until the fun of Magic Square's bullet cancelling clicks with dense enough bullet patterns that get aimed to you. This also means getting extends, both the shop and score extends, harder. Be patient! Also less money, less likely you'll buy new spells to bomb.

Pril's shot type looks very basic, but it is reliable. the option shot is strong and stable at long range! That's not a luxury other characters share. Others need pointblank range to be effective at all. Considering who Al actually is, though, it makes total sense.

Between Story and Arcade, stage design-wise it's completely identical. Aside of having the story shown at all and Story's score not getting registered into any leaderboard, there is no other difference.

Shoddy translation aside, I find the story enjoyable. Pretty worth reading all of the other characters' story.

This is the Nintendo Switch version.
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000059419.html

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Trouble Witches Final! Eps. 01] Synfi Arcade Nausea ALL CLEAR (Score: 90,202,000) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-10-24 | From what I heard this is a remake of the 1st Trouble Witches game (I heard the sequel is still in development?), originally a doujin game released in 2007, this is the most up to date release with wide-screen playfield at 16:9 and some revamps on the graphics notably on the HUD, character art and shop art. Otherwise in regards of gameplay it's identical to its previous versions.

If you're not that critical in regards of the genre, in particular in the ESPGaluda-clone bullet hell sub-sub genre (This is surprisingly popular, by the way! Check out Klorets and Senxin Aleste), it's a great experience with meaty destruction and fun patterns! But if you're experienced with the genre long enough, you'll be amazed at how close the game is to teeter to mediocre category. I still love it, it's just its well-masked questionable design decisions needs to be called out.

To clarify what a ESPGaluda-clone is, it's a sub-sub genre of bullet hell where you have a Hyper mode capability to slow down and cancel bullets limited by a resource, an extension of DOJ's Hyper-mode formula that simply increases DPS per level and multiplies the combo count alongside momentary shot upgrade. In Trouble Witches you can shoot (no laser or shot type change!), Magic Square, the bullet slow down mechanic, and spells, your bombs.

Shoot is, until magic square is in use, simple. You shoot your own bullets as well as your option / familiar, which will shoot their own unique bullets. All of the options move in a trace pattern. Keep this in mind. Both also have bullet limits so pointblanking when possible is ideal.

Then the iconic mechanic, Magic Square. The slowdown is not all-screen like ESPGaluda, but confined in a circle around your option. In use, your option stays in place! So you have strategic control over where to deploy it! Keeping it active costs MP, the green gauge below HP (Life). Don't worry, while not in use the MP gauge recovers automatically. Even faster when you don't move (shooting is still a-ok). Mind you, the recovery rate between characters are different! Though so too the MP consumption. Synfi, for example, is on the moderate consumption and pretty slow MP recovery.

There are intrigues in the bullet control, though many does feel like it's patching out design issues... Green bullets are the default. Can be slowed down to screeching halt! Spikes, REGARDLESS OF COLOR, and blue bullets cannot be slowed down. When you beat the parent of the bullets, the green bullets will turn into money while slowed down! If the parent escapes off-screen, well, it will linger until it's out of the circle, becoming yellow bullets that will aim at you. Slow down yellow bullets, they will be converted into low-value money. Better than nothing. Sounds cool and all, but you must beware of several things!

First, magic square renders THE OPTION IMMOBILE! Them staying in place isn't a problem, but THEY WILL STOP SHOOTING! In other words activating it DECREASES SHOT DPS! Okay, you're very much protected and the MP is very easy to recover anyway. So what's the problem? The devil is in the details! Some character have very, very weak shots and the main DPS source is actually their option! Others have already strong main shot so it won't be a problem in terms of defense. It's very, very apparent in Nausea where it literally vomits out lots of bullets! Its so bad, the common option for 1cc in this mode is Synfi, the canonically strongest playable character in the game! Mainly because she melts bosses like butter, but that's for the commentary.

Second, there is NO DIFFERENTIATOR BETWEEN BULLETS FROM ENEMIES THAT YEETED OUT OF THE SCREEN AND CANCELLABLE ONES! You'd be surprised that you get to die from yellow bullets that you think will just go way like it used to be before the slowdown! OFTEN!

The scoring also feels contradictory! The main way to score is to cancel bullets using spells! Enemies beaten while a spell is active will drop out score coins. However, these coins yield low money value! So going scoring all out means you won't reap much profit enough to reload bombs or more commonly, buy extends and MP extenders! Don't forget that the spells inflate in price the more often you buy them! Like, while the game rewards you for keeping life count, it punishes you to not spend on bombs! Sure, the game gives score extends, like, 3 of them? But if you're overzealous with scoring then you'll leave yourself naked from cannot buying anymore spells the further you progress!

Last but not least, BULLET BLOCKERS! It's mainly common in bosses and it makes fighting bosses rather annoying! I honestly don't think most of the bosses fit as bullet hell bosses! They're too protected though thankfully fittingly brittle. I'll explain more in the commentary.

Don't get me wrong, it is a fun game. But don't take the fluke for granted!

This is the Nintendo Switch version.
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000059419.html

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[ケツイ/Ketsui] DeathtinyType A 1-ALL CLEAR (Score: 225,857,575) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-10-20 | Deathtiny (Very punny. It reads like destiny) is the arrange mode of this port, provided by M2. It makes the strategy more lenient on bomb usage. The Lv, 1 bomb works pretty similarly to Death Label's bombs, where the bomb is deployed instantly and clears all bullets, but doesn't deal damage directly. There is a duration where you can clear out more bullets in the Lv, 1 Hyper state, though.

I like this arrange. It managed to keep itself more lenient while not compromising on the patterns themselves. In fact, you're encouraged to go aggressive and take more risks for higher score. You can do chain Destroy to extend the Hyper again with better DPS and score output, but bullets won't be cleared out on use. You really need to know when it is ideal to take the risk!

Similar to their Battle Garegga Premium arrange, there is a way to enter a higher, MEANER rank. If you enter the Stage 1 mid-boss while Hyper Lv. 2 is active (bomb twice in a row), the Die-Death gauge will be unlocked. Activating Die-Death mode increases the multiplier, but the patterns will change to 2nd loop patterns! Heck, is it Ura!? I also think some patterns get buffed even while the Die-Death mode isn't active, as if it's a 2nd loop pattern or straight out of the IKD Special 2007. Is it just me? This is the safest way to enjoy the horrors of the 2nd loop patterns!

By the way, Die-Death will be turned off if you get hit, regardless if the life is lost or auto-bomb (Destroy gauge at 30% minimum and Hyper isn't active) is active. Careful!

There are no score extends, but item extends are still around and technically bomb usage is totally okay. Instead, each time you clear a stage not counting Stage 5 you will be given an extend. Not sure if there is any requirement to get it like in the IKD 2007 arrange, but that means you can get 6 extends in total. This is also the mode where you can fight the TLB without any harsh requirements. Go nuts!

Die-Death is a multi-faceted pun. You can also read it as "Die-desu", now die, "Dai-Death", big death, or "Dai-desu", it's big.

This is the M2 STG port played on PS5.

#stg #shmup #ps5

[ケツイ/Ketsui] Super Easy Type B 1-ALL No Death CLEAR (Score: 88,476,874)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-10-19 | In general there are differences between CAVE's Novice and M2's Super Easy. Likely they'll provide auto-bombs and nerfed patterns, at similar scale downs, in fact! CAVE's Novice, like in Mushihimesama and DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu, they generally keep the resource count the same aside of some boosts like 2x bombs. Meanwhile M2's Super Easy is super kind with resources to the point of setting the default extend score to Every.

Super Easy is duh, so easy if you're a veteran probably you'll not lose a single life, though certainly auto-bombs provide protection. Try it out!

Yes, Super Easy lets you access the TLB in a single loop, no requirements necessary. Not a fan of this, but understandable. CAVE Novice modes keep the TLB requirements intact, in general. Perhaps M2's Super Easy is... too easy.

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[ケツイ/Ketsui] Arcade Type B 1-ALL CLEAR (Score: 74,964,601) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-10-18 | Ketsui. When translated to English, its meaning is more or less determination. Determination in English itself has various meanings, but the closest one to its Japanese meaning is the firmness of purpose. Resoluteness. To at least 1-ALL Ketsui, one needs to understand the very first hint of the game: Determination.

Especially since Ketsui on the insides is much more of a unique oddball than it looks. I LOVE IT!

When people say Ketsui is one of CAVE's best works, I sure do agree! But I'd still pick SDOJ as my personal THE BEST CAVE game yet. Also speaking of its time, it's also surprisingly experimental despite it's back with the no-hyper formula they have properly established with Daioujou. Ever since DOJ, CAVE shmups that don't provide you another resource to use for either slowing down bullets or clear out bullets outright are few and far between, among Ikeda titles there are only Mushihimesama and Mushihimesama Futari that carried the old no-hyper formula.

On the Surface Ketsui seems to be the good ol' return to CAVE's old DonPachi formula: shots, focus shots, and bombs. No augments, no shot type mix-and-matching, no frills. The shot is also the classic thick curtain fire, with Type A being the wide shot and Type B being the focused shot. But after playing Ketsui properly, I can't really say Ketsui is vertical Progear anymore. Sure, it shares the lock-on shot, but Progear's lock-on will do its job at any range. The difference ends with how the lock-on works: Ketsui's lock-on is more like RayStorm! This thing is both amazing and something I'd criticize.

In a nutshell Ketsui is a pointblank-heavy bullet hell shmup, but not many people mention why, so let me explain: How fast the lock-on is initiated per option is determined by the ship and the range. Type A is more lenient with the lock on than Type B. But remember that Type B moves faster than Type A, so Type B will have the easier time to move into anything. The closer you are to the target, the quicker the lock on is initiated. But remember that while not locked on into anything, NO FIRES ARE BEING SHOT! Even in the M2 STG port the hint says that when the target is too far away, best to just use the normal shot. If you initiate the lock on from a range too far away, it's too weak! Okay, fair enough. But there is another factor: The closer you are when you're locking on, the better the DPS. My main criticism here is the visual indicator is very lacking! Things are very fast and the bullet limit is barely visible when you shoot from far away! Even perhaps the DPS decay is hard-coded? But boy, when you know this the DPS difference is very, very apparent! It's to the point you get to skip boss patterns earlier than you'd think! This is the most infuriating and the most satisfying aspect of Ketsui. Ketsui is like RayStorm with great polish.

This is also where "determination" comes in: it's not only about the courage of pointblanking, it's about being sure with your answer and have your faith in it. You'll see several times that I back off and use my normal shot instead because it is the best thing to do at those moments!

The game is also notorious for the ura loop requirement. Several of them is to NO BOMB AND NO MISS! Sounds very sadistic! But when you try to learn it, it's not that harsh. On its 1st loop when you know how to deal DPS properly I think it's slightly harder than Mushihimesama Maniac? Well, the harder part IS to learn how the DPS works. The resource count is also similar, all the while the game is shorter per loop and actually can give you 2 ITEM EXTENDS! These are hard to get, but it's worth it!

There is also the scoring but I think that had been explained to death everywhere. So I won't repeat it here except go pointblank a target with the normal shot, then profit it off with the focus shot, which reinforces further its pointblank focus. It's also rather lenient considering there is no combo to maintain constantly like in DDP and bombing doesn't outright drop the multiplier. So for a 1-ALL, go nuts with the bomb!

You know how awesome Ketsui is. Go play it! This is the M2 STG port played on PS5.

#stg #shmup #ps5

[Super E.D.F.] JP Normal ALL Clear [CC Commentary] (Score: 10,714,700)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-09-16 | When discussing best SNES / SFC shmups, well, this game certainly won't be likely to be brought up, but personally it deserves to be at least be within top 20. It has more to offer than its generic coating, at least the JP version which arguably is the worse version. I love it!

It's a pretty loose arcade port of Jaleco's EDF arcade game, in vein with Capcom's Area 88 port. You can shoot, change formation and change speed. There is more to the formation change and if I recall, pretty innovative for the time? There are 4 formations, unlocked as the Level bar progresses: Fused, which has the least amount of bullets but the shot's DPS is boosted to heck, rotating, trace, and SEARCH! Hello, baby! Trace though is locked until Level 3. SEARCH is until Level 5, which is the Max level. The shot power of non-fused formations are weakened, but you get to fire the normal shot and the options shoot out the weaker shots but at higher quantity. There is more to the strategy though and the mechanics has good synergy with each other, which is why I love this title.

The thing people often don't mention is how exactly the Level system works and how the scoring works. For one, the EXP gauge increases in tandem with the Score! That's right, the better you play, the sooner you get stronger! The scoring is simple but nuanced in execution. It mainly involves destroying formations. You clean the formation up, you get the bonus. Simple. That's where shot and positioning management comes to play! Getting constantly rewarded for destroying the enemies clean just don't get old. On the early stages one important scoring factor is the No Miss Bonus. In the US version, it's called Secret Bonus, because saying No Miss is too Engrish to be localized, apparently. The check is kinda buggy, I think? It's not a literal no-miss, but as long as you clear the stage with more than 2 shields, you'll get it. If you manage to get it, you'll be given 100k score! That sounds low compared to the every 600k extend later, but to raise the weapon Level ASAP, this is quite beneficial!

In terms of survival, if you understand what's going on it's a forgiving game actually. Each time you clear a stage, you'll always start at 3 HP / Shield MINIMUM. Minimum! It's essential since no-missing a stage is very memo-heavy, but it is further rewarded if you can maintain the shield excess! You can store more than 5 shields, actually, so hoard them up! Yes, if your shield is in excess, it's carried over to the next stage. How cool is that!? After the 1.3 mil Score threshold, that's the Level 5 requirement, by the way, you'll get a new shield every 600k score! The game is so aware of this you'll notice this on the final stage!

It is not perfect though and it personally hinders the game to be among the top 10. 1, the weapon viability is so, so so limited! Not, useless, but with the right weapons at the right stage it whittles down the difficulty very noticeably! The main causes are either too weak for the fire rate early on, the shot coverage isn't wide enough, piercing property is only exclusive to Search Laser, or the final boss just bamboozles you by deploying minions that will confuse the heck out of not only the Search formation but where the homing bullets get homed in! It'll be pretty fine if there is at least a briefing before each stage so you can judge beforehand which weapon seems to be the best like in Area 88, but this game gives you no preview of the upcoming stage!

2. The final boss. The 1st form, the giant mech thing is awesome, actually. No complaints except explained later. The 2nd one though, the bullets are just too fast and too narrow for the fat ship to slip through! Nope! If you make too many mistakes on Stage 6, yes, the game as hard as it is, is that lenient, you're screwed unless you painstakingly try to no-miss the pattern which is not worth it!

Give Super EDF a chance, as generic as it looks. Its substance is much deeper than people often has said about this game.

This is the NSO version. The US version has some improvements and buffs done. The Stage 1 is cut short at the early part, which kinda messes up the Level up pacing, they addressed some bullet blendings, which personally they didn't need to do but much appreciated, and the Homing shot is buffed to be a slightly weaker Search Laser! Making this weapon viable significantly makes the US version easier! Must be the Stockholm Syndrome, but limiting the homing viability to Search Laser makes the game strategically more meaningful.

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[スラップファイト/Slap Fight] Arcade Easy 1cc Area 140 (Score: 452,650) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-08-25 | I've tackled the MD port before, but now at last I have the opportunity to tackle the original Arcade Slap Fight. Good ol' Slap Fight. I love it!

The MD port, similar to the Zero Wing MD port, is faithful to the arcade version? But looks like the bullet speeds got nerfed and boss HP got decreased, making the MD version the smoother and friendlier experience. Felt like the MD version made the secret thingy basically gone, but several stuff needs other weapons to make them appear in the Arcade version. There is at least 1 major difference that makes me think the Arcade version is indeed the intended experience:

THE SHIELD FADES OUT OVER TIME!

In the MD version the shield sound beeps ad infinitum as long as you still have it intact. Meanwhile unlike Gradius the shield fades! The beep frequency becomes lower as the shield weakens over time. So that's why the shield beeps. I dunno, sounds like a mean game design, but I like deploying my shield strategically like properly plan when to use it or keep it maintained as long as possible as I collect more power ups in succession. Otherwise the MD port is a great one.

Oh, the bomb and laser had been bad and they didn't even bother to improve it in the port. Don't bother.

This is the Bitwave port on Steam. If you have a PC, then give it a go. It's Slap Fight. It slaps! Why Easy mode, though? Dunno. Was it the default dip switch? At least the Bitwave port says so? Also I recommend setting the autofire at 20Hz? At 30Hz the autofire breaks as you progress further. Why? I don't know.

store.steampowered.com/app/2022980/Slap_Fight

#stg #shmup #slapfight

[ゼロウィング/Zero Wing] Arcade JP Stage 2-1 (Score: 1,325,710) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-08-12 | The more memorable version to the public is certainly the Mega Drive version, but even though there are many improvements to the MD port and overall it's a surprisingly faithful port, there are notably difficulty nerfs and the nerfs are either the much kinder extend count without the luck factor or the technological compromise that they had to do, most notably on Stage 5. I love the arcade version more in terms of stage design.

We know how Zero Wing works. It's a hori shmup, the prisoner beam, bomb shield, 3 shot type, the green shot is superior, much more so in the arcade version, which also means the shot types are more balanced in the MD port, yada yada. Surprisingly for a checkpoint game the extends are not that kind. Which means every recovery attempts matter. In this run I did get the 10up item, so that contributed a lot to my success. It's a 1/64 pickup chance but the roll actually happens when you move! The roll stops when you don't, so with the widget you can manipulate the RNG to get what you want. Convenient! M2's enemy indicator and map widgets are also helpful. The widgets also show you the amount of HP left for the bomb shield. Certainly the most practical way to play Zero Wing.

The cool thing, annoyingly cryptic, it had to be mentioned, but nonetheless cool, that the red orbs from certain big enemies can be captured! That has great tactical implications! In the arcade version these things are very hard to be destroyed, but capturing practically makes them gone in an instant. This kind of thing is gone in the MD version. It makes the fights involving the aforementioned enemies much more manageable, but I'd say it's less memorable.

Another main difference on the MD version is they keep the play area intact, but by letting the game scroll vertically. That makes the enemy scales on the port faithful to the arcade version! For better or for worse, the arcade original doesn't have that. No bullet cancelling off-screen for you!

The biggest dealbreaker is the iconic intro involving the CATS guy. There are no intro story whatsoever in this version. It got added later and exclusive to the MD. The PC Engine version? Very different set of characters and much lamer. Bitwave's PC port did do the effort to port the intro back to the arcade version, but while M2 certainly has the capability to use Bitwave's intro to their version here, I'd say they chose to not to for accuracy reasons. Who knows, probably adding the intro will break their Replay feature or something. That being said, the ending in the arcade is hilarious. It's worth it.

Gameplay-wise for the ultimate Zero Wing experience, the arcade version is the version to go with. The arcade version is stricter, though. Be careful with that.

This is the Nintendo Switch version within the Zero Fire port by M2:
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000051147.html

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[ヘルファイヤー/Hellfire] PC Engine Normal ALL CLEAR (Score: 709,950) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-08-11 | I love the original Hellfire! But while the 2P ver. is considered to be the definitive version, its Gradius Syndrome is EVEN WORSE than Twin Cobra's! Unlike Twin Cobra that still retained its very generous extends, Hellfire is quite stingy! Wrong move and you'll very likely game over before you get to recover! And unlike Twin Cobra, THE ARCADE VERSION HAS NO BOMBS! NO SHIELDS EITHER! It is, what it is. Which makes the ports handled by different developers hilarious since they added new, different defensive movesets on each version.

Enter the PC Engine port, named Hellfire S: The Another Story. It's probably more well known for its FMV cutscenes featuring Dirty Pair-ish anime girls! Heroines are a rarity among Toaplan games. It's not saying much considering on different ports the games can feature very different characters like between Toaplan's Zero Wing and Naxat Soft's port, though. They just did what they had to do to sell more copies in the PC Engine CD-ROM² platform. I personally prefer this version for 1 simple reason: Shields. The alternative is the Bomb on the Mega Drive version, but this is where anime girls do their work :P

Hellfire is a multi-directional hori shmup. It's not a twin-stick shooter, though. The main mechanic is you change your shot directions to front, back, vertical and diagonal. Yes, no room to add the bomb button! Except the Mega Drive version. For the shield it will protect you for 3 hits. The thing is the shields are rather rare, so make sure to play well! And also this is based on the 2P version. No checkpoints. This is why the Shield makes the game much more bearable. Multidirectional shmups at the time aside of Commando clones was quite rare, wasn't it?

There are notable differences for the shots in the PC Engine version, also. The gaps between shots for the front and back shots are notable, but now that the fire rate and laser length are more or less identical to vertical and diagonal, vertical and diagonal received some DPS buff! It's more important than you think! Also the enemy HPs are kinda nerfed in comparison? Especially the bosses to the point of you get to skip a lot of patterns! Which is still in the welcome range, if you ask me.

And since you can change your shot type on the fly, technically this game has no Wrong Weapon Syndrome! It still can happen, but you're not stuck with it. Just change it, in time. Though you need to memorize the weapon cycle well for maximum efficiency. The order is front, back, vertical, then diagonal. You'll find yourself switching between them in the heat of battle often,, so you'll even remember the rhythm of the weapon switching.

The stage design is also a highlight! It sure does want you to switch weapons! But they still give you some room to use other shot types. There will be spots with awkward wall angles, or you get to hide to gain advantage. But there are also moments where going aggressive is the way to go. It has great variety as expected from Toaplan.

It's not without flaws, though. The lack of spawn warning rears its head here. It's especially true for the arcade version since the spawned enemies shoot their stuff quickly! It's the most notable on Stage 4. The PC Engine version nerfed it. The particular popcorns don't shoot as quickly as the arcade version when they appear. The fact that it's easier to hit stuff with the diagonal shot in this version also helps!

The anime cutscenes are actually as sparse as Nexzr. Just the intro, then some short clips, then the ending. The actual story is kinda bland compared to Nexzr where you get into the mood of enacting revenge pretty quickly, but the ending is phenomenal. Thankfully or disappointingly, they don't add any new final boss. Even more surprising the old voice actresses reprised their role to promote the Zero Fire port! They are in their 60s at the time of this video's upload, by the way! How cool is that!? This run skips the cutscenes, though. You should be able to find other runs that shows all the cutscenes on other channels.

If you're content with 1cc-ing just one of the versions, my personal recommendation is the PC Engine version! If you consider the no checkpoint 2P ver. to be the definitive one, this more humane take is the way to go! Hellfire is here to provide you with brain-tickling hori shmup experience.

This is the Nintendo Switch version within the Zero Fire port by M2:
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000051147.html

It's not the main package, of course. There are multiple save slots available, but Replay isn't available. It's a bummer, but understandable.

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Game Tengoku/ゲーム天国] Arcade+ Time Attack 2 Clarice No Miss [CC Commentary] (Score: 7,585,090)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-08-08 | Time Attack 2 is the longer run but with some differences compared to Time Attack 1. That's it. I'll probably comment more about Clarice herself than the stage design.

Clarice was one of the DLC characters on the original release. Not to be confused with the publisher / developer's name, she is from City Connection, one of Jaleco's well known game. Equivalent to Truxton / Tatsujin! Tatsujin was the name used for the company that now holds Toaplan IPs, referencing Tatsujin the game. City Connection is also the case, now holding Jaleco IPs including this very game. City Connection does more than licensing their IPs, though. They also port / develop new games. The name Clarice is also used for their online store, Clarice Shop. Just like how Microsoft used the name Cortana for their Siri clone. I'll stop shilling City Connection for now. That's for another day.

From the Data Mode HD content, this Clarice seems to be an entirely different character from the old Clarice despite their identical looks. Er, sure. By the way, did you know that like Momoko, the illustration that gets shown when bombing using Clarice changes as you spam your bombs?

This is the Nintendo Switch version:
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000000391.html

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Game Tengoku/ゲーム天国] Arcade+ Time Attack 1 Homura No Miss [CC Commentary] (Score: 2,908,250)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-08-07 | One of the highlights of Game Tengoku is as a Caravan shmup, which, considering Game Tengoku, the main game needed more time to be cooked in the oven... Anyway, this is the shorter course. This is based on the Sega Saturn Arrange Time Attacks, but with Arcade playfield. Nice!

The main key is to destroy the waves as fast as possible and optimize the eggplant collection chain. Looks like the lives available is infinite, but the game actually penalizes your score each time you get hit at the end. Careful! It's surprisingly deep and the complaints regarding weak firepower is basically gone since the stage gives you max power up at the very start, assuming you can collect them. I suggest you at least try the Time Attacks out.

Homura was one of the DLC characters based on the Jaleco baseball games. He is strictly a melee character but he can bat enemy bullets back out! No doubt he is one of the most unique characters to use in the game! Good fire power too! You need to be patient and remember how the enemies spew their bullets out, though. And since this is a No Miss run, I had to be careful.

This is the Nintendo Switch version:
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000000391.html

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Game Tengoku/ゲーム天国] Arrange Mode Selia ALL Clear Auto Bomb ON [CC Commentary] (Score: 5,109,400)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-08-06 | Arrange mode, debuted on the Sega Saturn, seems to be what Jaleco and City Connection consider to be the definitive version of Game Tengoku. This has the default soundtrack for the Arcade+ and this is also the base for the feature phone port that removed the shmup stage and the racing stage. It's also a reflection of the time where Arrange mode also means extra content with more story cutscenes like Radiant Silvergun's! ...for better or for worse.

It's the usual Game Tengoku shenanigans with its bullet blending, one extend only and surprise attacks blocked of by RNG, meanwhile this Arrange mode has 2 extra stages even though it only has 1 loop! No, I couldn't torture myself with manual bombs! The game is much more bearable with it, but considering they added this on the Saturn port, that makes you wonder if both the players and Jaleco at the time were aware of how cheap Game Tengoku could get. Game Tengoku is a game of very high highs and very low lows, folks. Arrange mode is no exception. Isn't this one of the earliest examples of Auto Bomb? And if you're wondering, no, there is no known penalties of using Auto Bomb either. It is a tacked-on add on, not one of the legit options like in CAVE games where they do give some penalties of Auto Bombing, but considering how early this is, let's give them the slack.

To its credit, they made some parts fairer for a bit... then they stepped backwards by forcing the playfield to become 1:1! Not that exact, but you get the idea. They cut off your vertical space and you can't switch into the Tate mode that Saturn Arcade mode has!

The cutscenes are amusing and creepy. How creepy? I'll explain in the CC commentary. It's fully voice acted and some scenes are unique to the chosen character, so there is incentive to play as other characters more than the endings themselves! There are also 2 extra characters on the villain side. Since the game has no subtitles, not even in Japanese, I don't really get why 2 girls stick with this pervert professor. He seems to still has some decency in front of these two, at least? That's saying something.

Arrange Mode is a fun mode to enjoy. To hamper the game's bad stuff, I recommend turning the Auto Bomb on.

This is the Nintendo Switch version:
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000000391.html

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Caravan Star 改 -KAI-] 5Way (Score: 1,508,600) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-07-15 | Caravan Star leans on the chaotic side but it has good enough bonus spots to keep the routing interesting. The weapon selection though, while they are interesting, feels like the learning curve either differ drastically or the DPS potential is just that low. At least the trusty 5-way is available and you can switch between firing above and below too! A good option to scratch your caravan shooting itch.

As far as I can find, there are 12 star box items and 340k worth of bonus score either from shooting the back of a boss or destroying some early or destroying 2 identical enemies simultaneously. If you can get them right then to optimize the score all is left is to mow down the popcorns ASAP.

Kinda strange that the game doesn't tally your life count left, but okay.

Download page (Free):
freem.ne.jp/win/game/3293

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Game Tengoku/ゲーム天国] Arcade+ Tatsujin 2-1 Auto Bomb OFF [CC Commentary] (Score: 5,999,730)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-07-13 | If there is any game that I'll mention as the ultimate example of a mixed bag, it would be Game Tengoku Arcade! It's zany and lots of fun with great variety, but this game is also unfairly hostile in some spots! I both love and hate this game!

Formula-wise Game Tengoku is basically a fusion of Psikyo and Batsugun. Kinda, Gekirindan-ish? Lots of shot types with varying effectiveness, but no stage randomization. 1 loop is short, around 15 minutes or so, and the bomb and lives count is comparable to Psikyo games. With only 1 score extend too. It's closer to Psikyo formula, upon closer inspection, but the lack of stage randomization and that alone kinda means even at the time the stage randomization was kinda unpopular, wasn't it?

Oh right, controls. It's... GUNBIRD! You shoot, charge shot, bomb. That's it. Not even Batsugun let you charge any shots! I'm very sure the proposal for this game mentioned Gunbird dozens of times! Not that's it's a bad thing per se, but for experienced players the influence is too hard to look away from. It even insisted on having too many characters with even poorer balance between them than Psikyo's efforts.

I'll say good stuff first especially in comparison to Psikyo stuff, though. The scoring system is superior. The combo thing is probably just a flavor, like what do you get from hitting a lot of things from a single charge shot? The main feature of the scoring is the BouNasu items (Stick-Eggplant, hence the items are literally eggplants on stick). Let's call them Bonus items for clarity. It's a medal-chain type item. As you gather more in succession, the score value becomes higher! But if you don't collect another within 60 frames, the value will get reset. This isn't as punishing as the extremely long medal chain Battle Garegga has but still incentivizes you on how to keep the collection chain go on as long as possible for maximum score! One weakness, though: I don't know how to make the 48050-value items appear. Is it due to RNG? Positioning? Shoot range? Who knows! The items you collected also get tallied at the end of the stage, which makes survival essential for high score! Yes, the bonus item count gets reset when you die.

The stage design also zany and unique! Turtles that will charge at you when you hurt them enough, colored cars, blocks and notes that will shoot you back if you take too long to destroy them, missile spammers where the missile lingers for quite some time, swinging body builders, 100 yen coins, vomit onomatopoeia (Really), the stages are a delight to see!

The stage design in detail though, that's the main source of mixed bagness.

Bullet blending and cheap positioning will be a reoccurring issue in this game! Red missiles that flashes too white on white clouds, literal dot-sized bullets, enemies from behind without warning or even many tools to blissfully deal them at the behind like DonPachi's aura attack, small enemies but very thick HP, when the game is playing fair, the game is quite fun! When it's not, pray tell you still have bombs in stock or prepare to cuss A LOT!

Compounding the problem is the relatively weak starting weapons and worse at max power, poorly balanced power distribution! I swear, this game has some of the worst early stages for a decent-ish game! You'll very likely encounter moments where you must ignore the enemy that has too many HP or you're screwed! At Stage 1 you're demanded to understand POINTBLANKING! Sure, all of the characters are agile right out of the gate, which was a luxury that even Psikyo is reluctant to give, but demanding beginners to optimize pointblanking this early? That's NUTS! Not even Toaplan games are like that and I've beaten Twin Cobra 1-ALL! There is a reason why Toaplan and CAVE thrived, folks! DPS check on a very short time window is also a common thing on the bosses too!

How bad is the DPS distribution, you ask? The ones effective for the game are the ones with good DPS and good fire rate. Homings usually have bad DPS or bad fire rate! Don't underestimate fire rates! The game spits out popcorns like there is no tomorrow! CAVE never dared giving shot types with low fire rate! Jaleco DID! And the early shot levels are pathetic too most of the time! To compensate you either have to run away or pointblank. Imagine forcing newcomers to adapt to a technique only experts use! I think it's possible to 1-ALL with the homings like Z-Dyne and Momoko? But good luck keeping your sanity!

There is a lot to love about this game, but the things to hate about this game will taste quite bitter! Think twice before tackling this game seriously! Hard to recommend on casuals too. It's not that easy to pick up and play.

Arcade+ is the Arcade with Miki, Time attack 1 & 2, which are basically Caravan, and DLC characters included. The caravan is no doubt fun, but that's for another video.

This is the Nintendo Switch version:
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000000391.html

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Game Tengoku/ゲーム天国] G-Mode Momoko ALL CLEAR [CC Commentary] (Score: 1,677,490)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-07-06 | I'm aware of Jaleco's Game Tengoku, but there is a... feature phone port!? I did see the City Connection sequel, but a straight port of the original Game Tengoku is surprising.

I'm not sure how faithful is the port to the original arcade game in particular the mechanics, scoring system and stage design, but on technical standpoint alone it's pretty cute and some parts are actually a miracle that they could pull it off! I like it.

Game Tengoku is a vertical scrolling shmup that's not as crazy as the DOJ and Ketsui feature phone ports. You can move, the shot is automatic, you can hold the button down to charge, and bomb. I like it that they let the shooting automatic. Gotta make sure the phone buttons don't get abused. There is underlying scoring system here but I think the game will only give you 1 extend and the scoring potential between characters are very, very poorly balanced, so let's not talk too much about it.

The game is quite easy and very short! I think it's designed mainly to be beginners' Psikyo game or some sort. A single run is around 14 minutes and there is no 2nd loop. The stage design is not the best, in particular the difficulty curve, but it's not painfully bad so I can tolerate it. I still could survive just fine and it's fun to blow stuff up. The main highlight is its style. It's just fun to see how zany the stages get!

It's biggest flaw is its very poor shot balance. At least it's possible to 1cc with all of the characters, but some are so weak the only way to survive some bosses is to time the boss out! Others have both good DPS and ridiculous reach, scoring is pretty much a piece of cake! Some are on the medium spectrum that while still provide comfortable playing experience, the scoring viability is comparatively poor. At least you still can get the extend. To compound this, you can get 2 options at a time represented by the mini versions of the characters. Some are homing shots, others have piercing, the rest their shots are too identical. As much as I criticize these, it's hard to get angry when ultimately playing the game is not a hostile experience.

I can recommended this game, just for curiosity sake. But if anything, I think this game fulfilled one goal: it made me want to check out the original.

#stg #shmup #nintendoswitch

[Blue Wish Desire] Blue Viper (Type C) Original AB Off ALL CLEAR (Score: 53,608,950) [CC Commentary]

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-06-20 | I've had been planning to try out Blue Wish Desire and now I had the time! I love it. It's a pleasant game, even with the auto-bomb off, but how should I say it... Milquetoast? It's too orthodox to have much to discuss about.

Blue Wish Desire is a bullet hell vert shmup that has heavy CAVE inspirations. You can shoot, focus shoot, bomb and hyper. These work as you can expect and the formula follows CAVE to a tee, extend count per loop and all. It's hyper is worth mentioning, though.

Its hyper works pretty similarly to Akai Katana. When you get hit while in hyper, you won't die, the hyper will just be cancelled. Also enemies destroyed while you're in hyper will cancel out surrounding bullets, making hyper usage an optimal defensive option on stages as well. Thanks to this, the game is more on the lenient side. Also lenient but not that exciting, the Hyper is at the moment seems to be strictly time-based, with no other way to make it fill faster. I think it's one of the main contributors of the game's milquetoast feel.

In its Original mode it's as well-balanced and well made as it can be. Exciting, well-paced, feels great, its obvious faults probably only lies on the weirdly very opaque Score items that is too distracting and bright, making the bullets hard to see! And in some cases there are orange bullets that blend in with the ORANGE SCORE ITEMS! Talk about yikes! Specific praises of the stage design is why I write down CC commentaries in my videos.

Speaking of scoring, the treasure thing is pretty exciting. The earlier you uncover them, the more point items you get. That's the gist of it. Feels like a PC Engine shooter! But this will sacrifice visibility, like, remember that the score items are very opaque, so take that in mind.

It's an inoffensively pleasant experience that doesn't try anything new, but I can guarantee that this game will entertain you, at least!

I heard the game has a TLB, but I don't know how to trigger it at the moment. Maybe it's on Hell mode only?

Steam Page of the game:
store.steampowered.com/app/1794300/BLUE_WISH_DESIRE

Oh, right, being a Japanese PC software, its settings can be quite wonky, especially the screen settings. Consult on other players for its settings before you commit to the game.

#stg #shmup #bluewishdesire

[バツグン/BATSUGUN] Special Saturn Type C Stage 2-4 (Score: 5,586,040)

Weeb Nerd Gaming 2023-06-11 | Batsugun Special is closer to a Black Label release before Black Label thing / Campaign was cool. I don't know who were involved in the Special version, heck, I wonder if Ikeda was still involved in Batsugun Special, but it certainly smells CAVE! Stage design-wise not much had been changed or visible aside of color palette swap, at least on its 1st loop. The shot types doesn't seem to get any revision either. No buffs, no nerfs, seems to be the exact same. The scoring system is also the same.

There are notable differences, though. Firstly, the double bomb is now the default. In other words, your bomb is buffed! Each time you level up you also gain a shield, preventing you losing a life upon getting hit. Last but not least, Tiger Heli-style multi-loop. Now the upgrades make sense, huh? The multi-loop is a long journey ahead! The game has 4 loops, but not full loops. Essentially, 2-2 to 2-5, 3-3 to 3-5, then 4-4 to 4-5. 14 stages in total? Oh, the multi-loops? IT HAS DONPACHI-LIKE COUNTER BULLETS! The counter bullets will not only shoot one bullet. Oh no. It will shoot A LOT PER DESTRUCTION! If I recall, if you go near the counter bullet source it actually will cancel them out? But that doesn't exist here! Batsugun Special is 1-ALL friendly but a full loop clear? Good luck!

Type C is the closest thing to a CAVE-style shot controls before CAVE was born. Rapid firing will spread out the shot, while holding it down will focus it out. The DPS spread is the hardest to tell though so it's for experts that wouldn't mind taking the time to check the best ways to maximize DPS on each sections.

For the music, the brand new thing this City Connection has is brand new arranges. There are 4 music sets: Original, Arrange (probably the original Saturn arranges), PCB, and Boosted. Boosted features many shmup staples like Yousuke Yasui and Shinji Hosoe! This alone is worth the extra price, if you ask me! The worst flaw of the port, people will say it's the input lag, but I'd say the game has no sound test. Come on now, I don't want to wait a random Youtube channel upload the OST!

This is the Nintendo Switch version:
store-jp.nintendo.com/list/software/70010000060611.html

#stg #shmup #batsugun