STG Addict

Is It Really Done?

2007-12-10T15:51:00.001-08:00

I finally finished the 1983 shooter impressions. It took so long because the games were agonizingly boring and painful to play. I had three of them left and only one was any good at all.

The write-up can be downloaded here.

I'm not going to paste it here because it is long and I don't want that many horrible games at the top of this site.

Perhaps a Gradius V review soon? We'll see.

Raiden III: Better with Two Ships

2007-12-03T18:01:00.000-08:00

As I haven't mentioned, since I have been on a sort of gaming hiatus, I bought Raiden III a while ago. I was sort of sad that I paid $30 good dollars for it at Gamestop and then saw it for $20 at Wal-Mart, but I got over it.

I played Single Mode for a little while (2 or 3 hours), but got bored with it pretty fast. The ship was too slow and unless you used the Vulcan Shot, it was painfully difficult to kill anything if it didn't appear onscreen already within your line of fire. I was also getting stuck at the stage 3 boss. I stopped playing and shortly after I participated in STGT'07 and stopped playing videogames after that. Once I got bored with the real world and returned to enjoying the company of electronics instead of people, I decided to give Raiden III another shot. Tried Single Mode again. Still boring. I gave Dual Mode a try after that and I'll be damned if it isn't a lot better then Single Mode. Since there are only to buttons aside from movement, the PS2 controller is able to handle controlling both ships at once fairly well, and ship speed is much less of an issue since there are two of them. It certainly isn't Mushi or Galuda, but I now feel those 30 bucks weren't wasted. I might write an actual review, although since I have to clear it in order to try Boss Rush or see any of the Extras, I might not.

Hooray for jumping on abandoned bandwagons.

STGT '07 Week 5 and Scores

2007-10-24T06:05:00.000-08:00

Week 5:

We played Giga Wing, much to the delight of most contestants.
Restart Syndrome, Activate!
shoe-sama> reflect teh bulletz
shoe-sama> reflect 'em good
Milking boats, trains, and planes is dumb
COME ON!
Use only Ruby and Stuck. Ever.

My scores are shown at http://arcadepirates.blogspot.com/, which is where I will be posting my scores at from now on.

STGT '07 Weeks 3 & 4

2007-10-16T16:41:00.000-08:00

Two more weeks and two more pathetic showings from me. I got busy with other things.

Week 3:

We played Darius Gaiden. Progear would have probably won if It hadn't been excluded from the vote for reasons I don't fully understand. Something about making week 3 too similar to week 5. Bologna says I. Progear isn't even a vert.
Playing with autofire more or less broke the damn game, although it made those never ending bosses die much quicker.

Week 4:

Omega Fighter Special. To be honest, I really didn't play this game and my score/ranking shows it. I played 4 credits and then got lost in other things (education and such). Although It's scoring system seemed akin to Ketsui's. I never fully grasped some of the aspects, like how your end of level bonus as calculated. At first I thought it was based on how many X10 multipliers you scored, but that wasn't it. Oh well. I'll probably end up going back to it to get my old-school fix while avoiding the old-school frusteration.

Wrap up of STGT '07 next week with Week 5 and the final results (and my scores, which I've neglected to post)

STGT'07

2007-09-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

Alright, so the first two play weeks of shmupsforum's Shooting Game Tournament 2007 are over with and the third week is coming up. How did the first two weeks go? Let's review:

Week 1

Collectively, the competitors agreed that nobody likes Gradius III.
The competitors also agreed, collectively, to play Twin Bee Yahhoo, disregarding the fact that a majority enjoyed playing Parodius more.
We like it better with extends.
Juggling bells is almost as appealing as eating hot glass.
*Kling*
SiKrAiKeN still needs to release his superplay video.
Edge doesn't have excel skills.

Week 2

Raiden Fighters 1/2 are unloved by the masses.
Vote manipulation results in lulz
100% seems easier in your head.
Posting videos on youtube is what the cool kids do.
Most players spent 75%-90% of their playtime restarting level 1.
We love snipers and medal pods.
SiKrAiKeN wins again.

I wasn't around the forum for the first half of last year's competition, although there seemed to be much less bitching and moaning then there is now. Granted the only horrible game played during the last half of STGT'06 was Star Force.

So far, the forum has (for the most part) shown ineptitude when it comes to picking good games for scoring competitions. Here's hoping this changes for Second Place Week.

The unofficial results can be seen at http://www.stgranking.com

I'm Bad at G-Darius

2007-08-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

I saw a copy of Taito Legends II at Gamestop a few days ago and snatched it up for $15. The price was more then a deal. I'd pay more then that for G-Darius alone. There are 39 games total. The shooters included are:

Darius Gaiden
G-Darius
Gekirindan
Grid Seeker
Gun & Frontier
Insector X
Metal Black
Ray Storm
Space Invaders '95
Space Invaders DX
Space Invaders '91

There are problems with a few of the games in Taito Legends II. An example is Metal Black. The MAX Beam can be either focused or unfocused. If you release the MAX Beam button to unfocus the beam, it won't refocus if you hold the button down again. Some will not like it but I assume most will be able to forgive and work around the problems because you get so much for your $15.

Many of the games are emulated in MAME, but you also get G-Darius and RayStorm, so there's still something there for those of us who have no qualms about using ROMs of long forgotten arcade games.

Shikigami no Shiro II: A Review

2007-08-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

Also known as Castle Shikigami II for those of us who purchased the hilarious translated version.

I originally didn't plan to ever buy a Shikigami game but seeing this used at Gamestop for $7.99 changed my mind.

Story:

(From the manual of Castle Shikigami II)
A dark twisted castle appears in the sky.

A war has begun between humanity and the Demon Gods of Castle Shikigami in the skies of Tokyo.

In the recent past, a band of champions gathered to engage this threat. Using weapons forged by the great magicians and masters of arcane sciences, the heroes managed to banish the demons, quelling their thirst for conquest!

The time: 2006, the distant future. The Demon God's and their mystical castle have re-appeared above the skies of Tokyo City with the goal of continuing the domination and conquest of humanity. Can the heroes of recent legend return to defeat the nemesis of all mankind? The tools for defeating the gods are trapped within the very castle in which the demons reside. The hope of the world lies on the shoulders of these heroes, they must succeed or the world is no longer...

Castle Shikigami's story can be described in one word: Throwaway. It probably made sense in Japanese, but what I typed above is about as comprehensible or deep as it gets if you bought the english release.

Sound:

The music in Castle Shikigami II is actually pretty good. There is the original music and the remix soundtrack to blast demon ghosts to. It's just too bad that everything is forgettable.

The sound effects are generic and boring. Nothing stands out except the sound of hundreds of coins being collected at once. Which is awesome.

Graphics:

The visuals in Shikigami no Shiro II remind me of the look of Homura...but worse. Both graphically and artistically. The characters look like typical anime characters and the enemies are mostly what I imagine are phantoms or demons. Although all they manage to look like is that horrible clay figurine you made in 2nd grade. Abstract garbage.

The scrolling backgrounds are varied, ranging from city streets to waterways to dark corridors.

You can also unlock pictures in a gallery by meeting certain requirements. These pictures are much better looking then anything else in the game.

The bullets have 4 predominant colors: Yellow, Green, Purple, and Red. For the most part you won't have the 'invisible bullets' problem that so many people bitch about when discussing Battle Garegga.

Let's just finish up saying that you aren't going to be buying this game for the eye candy because the "candy" is like that Hershey Kiss from Halloween last year.

Gameplay:

Alright, gameplay-wise, Shiki II is leaps and bounds ahead of it's presentation. Scoring revolves around collecting coins and the "Tension Bonus System".

"Tension Bonus System" is a different way of saying "We want you to play with fire and if you don't get burned, you win!". It appeals to those of us who like to do really stupid things like juggling knives or eating funny looking berries that you find in the forest.

The way it works is when you kill an enemy it releases a base amount of coins. A multiplier will be applied to this base value if you are close to a bullet or an enemy when you kill the enemy. The closer you are to an enemy or an enemy bullet when the enemy dies, the bigger your multiplier, up to x8. The number of x8 actions will be kept track of and at the end of a level you get bonus points that correlate to how many x8 actions you had. Naturally, this means that you want to constantly be grazing bullets so that enemies are nice and generous about how many coins they drop and the size of your after level bonus is sizable.

x8 Action is important for more then just score however. If you are close enough to a bullet (close enough to get a x8 action) then when you fire your standard shot, it will be an uber-standard shot (a.k.a. Hi-Tension attack). So you can increase your firepower by doing something stupid like sitting in the middle of a bullet pattern.

The weapons at your disposal aside from that standard shot and the Hi-Tension attack are your Shikigami (Mobile Light Force in the English version) and a bomb.You use your shikigami like the laser in DoDonPachi. By holding the shoot button down you will slow down and your Shikigami will unleash itself. Characters have two Shikigami types each. Each character's shot, Shikigami, and bomb are unique to that character. This leads to a wide variety of attacks, but unfortunately a whole bunch of them are really dumb. An advantage to using a Shikigami is that, instead of the released coins falling down to the bottom of the screen, they are auto collected into your inventory. So the ideal position for scoring is to use your Shikigami while in a state of High Tension.

Levels come in sets of two, and each pair of levels shares a similar setting and enemies. The first sub-level's boss is a generic enemy blown up to several times it's size. The second sub-level's boss is a generic anime character that you talk to before you begin to brutally murder each other.

The game has a Practice Mode and a Boss Rush mode along with the two arcade modes (Normal and Extreme).

When you don't feel like beating up clay ghosts and the equivalent of playing with razor blades via the Tension Battle System, you can visit the Story Recollect Mode. Possibly the greatest part of this game, it does just what the name implies. It lets you re-watch any of the cutscenes (by cutscenes I mean boxes of text with stills of the characters) that you have seen before. This may seem boring until you realize just what you're getting into. This game gets "The Engrish Ever" award. The translation was so butchered that Jack the Ripper would blush. I'm talking laugh out loud horrible. And since there is a unique script for each of the characters and each of the character combinations (since you can play 2 player co-op) you have plenty of comedy material in that little disc in your Playstation 2.

Closing:

If you like bullet-scraping and using your secondary shot more then your primary one, then Shikigami no Shiro II will probably suit you fine. People who don't like to intentionally fly near lethal things for money would do better to play a different game.

Shiki II is the average-looking duckling that tries to teach you that doing dangerous things will make you a winner instead of believing that inner beauty will overshadow physical appearance.

The Collection Grows.

2007-07-14T20:55:00.000-08:00

So I just received ESPgaluda in the mail from Play Asia. I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised. I was less then ecstatic about ESP Ra.De. so I was cautiously optimistic about Galuda, but now I have cast all doubts aside. The scoring system is different from Ra.De.'s and simple enough to grasp but I'm still having trouble with the intricacies and learning when it's best to use the Kakusei Mode. Still, I have to agree about it being one of Cave's easiest titles. Not that that's a bad thing. Sometimes it's fun to not be molested when playing videogames.

I suppose I could write a review for it a while down the road. You know...after I write the reviews for Shiki II and Gradius V like I said I would.

...and when I get back from Cross Country Camp on Friday I plan to knuckle down and finish that 1983 project I mentioned

My First Experience With Vegas

2007-06-29T14:16:00.001-08:00

I did a small project to help me get used to Sony Vegas and this is the result. It's only 1:35 seconds, but I didn't want to bite off more then I could chew as a first project with Vegas.

If anybody happens to know who the player is in the video (It's a Mushi Original Mode All clear) then please tell me. I want to be able to give proper credit if possible.

Now Accepting Requests

2007-06-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

Ok, now that I've got A better video editing software program then Windows Movie Maker, I'm eager to try it out. I'm not feeling too creative at the moment, so if you want me to make a video with a particular song or game, then get in touch with me and I'll see what I can cook up.

Update on the 1983 shmups impressions: I'm now done with 6 games and have about 5 more games to go.

Another Video

2007-06-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

Two posts in a day! Huzzah!

Well, it's a bit late, but I made another shmup video. You can download the better quality version here or watch the lower quality youtube version here.

This video concentrates on Hori shmups rather then a mix of hori and vert. Better quality and the music didn't get ripped on as much.

I still plan to do more, once my computer has more free memory and I get a video editing program better then Movie Maker.

Dredging up the past

2007-06-18T09:37:00.000-08:00

During a discussion on shmupsforum, a particular member suggested that somebody play every shmup from the 80's and write brief impressions for each game. Well, being the fool I am, I offered to do a single year and asked him which I should do. He gave me 1983. So, I'm writing my impressions down of all the shmups from 1983 according to this piece of writing. If it's interesting enough I might just keep doing it. Although I'll only be going up in years. I can barely withstand 1983 so anything before it might kill me. I'll put up a notepad file of my impressions when I get done.

Note: I still plan on putting up a GradiusV or Shikigami no Shiro II review, but who knows when that will ever get done.

An experiment with Movie Maker

2007-04-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

I was bored the other day and I discovered Microsoft Movie Maker on my computer. This is the result. It is also youtube'd here. The video quality is pretty terrible and it's in wmv format but I thought it turned out pretty good besides that. Lots of people have complained about the choice of music and I assure you that I will try my best not to disappoint next time. Personally I thought it wasn't that awful. At least it wasn't a Linkin Park song.

I s'pose I could write up another review here shortly for something or other. Shiki II or Gradius V maybe.

Ikaruga: A Review

2007-04-09T20:30:00.000-08:00

I figured that to jump start whatever this blog is, I would write a review for the wildly hyped Ikaruga, by Treasure.

Treasure is famous for being the developers behind the 'King of Shmups' Radiant Silvergun. Personally they are one of my favorite developers of any type of videogame and for shooters are right up there with Cave, Psikyo, and Raizing.

Story:

(From the manual of the Gamecube version)
Several years ago in the small island nation of Horai, one of the most powerful men of the nation, Tenro Horai, discovered the Ubusunagami Okinokai -- The Power of the Gods. This energy emanated from an object he dug up from deep within the earth and gave him powers of unimaginable strength. Soon after, Tenro and his followers, who caled themselves the "Divine Ones," began to conquer other nations one by one. They considered themselves "The Chosen People" and carried out their conquests in "the name of peace."

Meanwhile, a freedom federation called Tenkaku emerged to challenge the Horai. Using fighter planes called Hitekkai, they fought with the hope of freeing the world from Horai's conquests -- but all their efforts were in vein. They lost battle after battle and were eventually almost completely wiped out. Miraculously, however, one man one young man survived. His name was Shinra.

Refusing to accept defeat, Shinra set off again for Horai to wage another battle. He was shot down and crashed in a remote village called Ikaruga, inhabited by a group of aged people who had been sent into exile there by Horai's conquests.

Kazamori, the village leader, and the other inhabitants pulled Shinra from the wreckage of his plane and nursed him back to health. Shinra regained his strength and announced that he was determined to continue the battle against Horai. The villagers entrusted him with a fighter plane that they had built themselves, called the Ikaruga.

While not terribly unique or interesting, the story sets itself up in such a way that you are treated to lots of deep, quasi-philosophic quotes and several passages from The Art of War by Sun Tzu. So while not groundbreaking by any standards, it sets the game up well enough and you can tell that it wasn't thrown in "just because".

Sound:

I love the sound in this game. The sound effects are nice. Perhaps a little minimalistic, but so is the art and music so it fits. The sound is standard shooter fare: Explosions, laser-esque sounds, etc.

The music is done really well too, although probably a bit too synthesized for some. Not something you'll be putting on your iPod, but you'll recognize the various tracks and a few are sorta catchy.

Graphics:

The graphics are in one word, beautiful. They look fantastic and if what I hear is true, the Dreamcast version is even better. Everything on the foreground like your ship, the enemies, and bullets, look crisp and clean. I never had trouble discerning bullets or enemies from the background, seeing as all of the enemies and bullets are of two predominant colors: black and white. Not only is this important to gameplay, it also creates a polarizing sort of visual.

The background seems to have recieved as much attention as the rest of the graphics. Oftentimes if you take the time to glance into the background you'll see enemy ships as little ants buzzing to and fro in the background around carrier ships. These enemies will sooner or later go off the screen only to reappear as enemies on the foreground. You'll see bosses lurking ominously beneath you, so on, so forth.

The visuals wouldn't be nearly as pleasing with out the great art to base it off of. Like the music, the art is very minimalistic, concentrating more on the overall picture and the contrast of black and white rather then fine, intricate detail and color. Personally I like it, and you can unlock galleries of sketches, screenshots and such by meeting certain goals or playing for a certain amount of time.

Gameplay:

Now for the meat and potatoes of any good game. Ikaruga's gameplay revolves around 'polarity'. In the world of Ikaruga, enemies and bullets are of either black or white polarity. Your ship can change it's polarity to black or white. When you are black, you can absorb black bullets and your ships weapons do double damage to white enemies and vice versa for when your ship is white. Because of this approach, the bullet patterns more closely resemble bullet curtain games Perfect Cherry Blossom or Imperishable Night instead of manic games like Dodonpachi. They require careful use of the polarity to navigate through. Most of the patterns after the first stage are impossible to get through without switching polarities. This adds another level to the dodging aspect.

There are also no bombs in Ikaruga. What you have is a release shot. As you absorb bullets, a meter fills up on the side of the screen. The meter is split into 12 equal parts. Once at least one of the segments is full you can release the shot and however many segments of the meter were full, that many homing missiles will be unleashed upon the enemy. This is necessary for defeating many enemies as they will appear from behind you, or you simply cannot destroy everything before they begin to leave the screen.

Scoring in the game is based on a chaining system. Since enemies are already conveniently of either a black or white color, you can create a 'chain' by destroying 3 enemies of the same color. Destroy three more enemies of the same color (they don't have to be the same color as the first 3) and you will create a chain of 2 and the enemies base point values will be multiplied. Simply put, higher chain equals higher score. This combined with the nature of the bullet patterns turns Ikaruga into a twisted sort of puzzle game. You have to dodge and absorb bullets while Chaining enemies together for points while strategically using your release shot. One of the most satisfying things about Ikaruga is the feeling you get when you finally find the perfect route through a tricky part of a stage and pull it off flawlessly.

Ikaruga also includes a Practice mode and a Conquest mode to help you learn the patterns and pacing of the stages.

There are three difficulty modes. Unlike other shmups that make a game more difficult by making the bullets faster or adding more enemies or bullets, in Ikaruga the three difficulties affect suicide bullets. On easy, no enemies release suicide bullets when they die. On normal, only enemies of the same polarity release suicide bullets, and on Hard all enemies release suicide bullets. If you're not prepared, these bullets can cause you a lot of headaches.

An interesting thing you can do is if playing the game regular has gotten a bit stale then try a bullet eating game. The rules are simple. Get as far as you can without firing a single shot. Theoretically you can 1 life clear the game doing nothing but absorbing bullets.

Closing:

If you own a Gamecube or Dreamcast and prefer your shooters a little more intricate and planned out, then Ikaruga will probably suit you. If you dislike 'gimmicks' or chaining, then Ikaruga will probably frusterate you to no end.

You can tell Treasure put a lot of effort into Ikaruga and it turned out really well. It's a nice complete package with nearly endless replayability since the point of the game is to improve your highscores instead of finishing the story or beating the last stage.

Another Blog!

2007-04-09T19:40:00.000-08:00

Why hello there. Fancy meeting you here. This is my blog about shmups and anything related to them. I am currently short of ideas about what to do with this place at the moment so things will start out slow.

Not much else to say, so I guess I'll just post some links to some sites where you can maybe learn more about me, if you're into that sort of thing.

Myspace (It's private...and fairly stagnant)
Blogger Profile Here!
DGemu Profile I hang out there every now and then.
Shmups Forum Profile I frequent this forum daily.