December Shmup Competition Thread

[GrayGhost81]

I decided to pop in Sin & Punishment today just for the hell of it. It is a damn superb game, but it is hard as hell, even playing on easy as Kachi. I'm about halfway through the game and honestly I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish it. We're definitely going to have to decide for this game what difficulty and character for people to use for the score to count. 

In that case, let's make it interesting.

Easy = score x 1
Medium = score x 1.5
Hard = score x 2

That may work, but let's think about it for a sec. Your score only accumulates through one life (you only have one life and then it's game over and your score goes to zero whether or not you continue) so if you play on hard you only have to live half as long. It's an interesting thought. I'd like to experiment a little with it and check back in tomorrow if it's all the same to you.

[Fleach]

That scoring system seems to be OK for me because you can sort of go all in on hard mode. A little bit of risk/reward don't you think?

It's like 1 minute of Easy is roughly the same as 30 seconds of Hard. Unless you plowed through waves of enemies on Hard.

[techwizard]

That scoring system seems to be OK for me because you can sort of go all in on hard mode. A little bit of risk/reward don't you think?

It's like 1 minute of Easy is roughly the same as 30 seconds of Hard. Unless you plowed through waves of enemies on Hard.

this makes sense to me too, it sounds like it balances the scoring system so that people can play on any difficulty they want but still have a fair score in our competition here. the only consideration is does the game already score things differently on different difficulties?

[GrayGhost81]

That scoring system seems to be OK for me because you can sort of go all in on hard mode. A little bit of risk/reward don't you think?

It's like 1 minute of Easy is roughly the same as 30 seconds of Hard. Unless you plowed through waves of enemies on Hard.

Hey, you're the host. I was just trying to help.

[Fleach]

the only consideration is does the game already score things differently on different difficulties?

That's what I'll have to find out.

Hey, you're the host. I was just trying to help.

Appreciate it. I'm just trying to make this competition as fun and fair as possible.

[RetroRage]

I've been messing around with R-Type Final a little bit...what mode are we playing in?  Standard mode or Score Attack?

Seeing as there's a Score Attack mode I think we can use that. I'll add that info to the main post.

I've been messing around with the game a little more, and I don't think Score Attack would be the most fun to play.  I think Normal mode would be the way to go.  But it's up to Fleach, so whatevs.

[Fleach]

Normal mode should be fine then.

[RetroRage]

Lightening Force get!  3 games remaining and I'll be all in.

[singlebanana]

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!  We are playing Gradius (NES) and R-Type Final (PS2) [play R-Type in Normal Mode] this week.

Be sure to send in photos of your scores.

[RetroRage]

uhhh I thought we were decided to play R-Type Final in normal mode?

[singlebanana]

uhhh I thought we were decided to play R-Type Final in normal mode?

Sorry, I was going by what was listed in the initial thread. Normal mode it is. I will make changes. Thanks.

[RetroRage]

Thanks.  Sorry for the confusion.  Maybe I should leave the show running up to the guys who actually run the show

[singlebanana]

Thanks.  Sorry for the confusion.  Maybe I should leave the show running up to the guys who actually run the show

Ha! Ha! We actually appreciate the community input. We are playing a good portion of these games for the first time ourselves, so any pointers or things that might make the competition better for the month are greatly appreciated. If any of you have input on the other games we are playing this month, please let us know. Thank you.

[RetroRage]

Here's the bench mark!

173795.  That's the high score on one credit. 

[img width=700 height=933]http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w365/adsanislo/20141201_012221_zpstdmox7xo.jpg[/img]

[MetalFRO]

Why on earth did they not call it Thunder Force IV in the US?!

It had something to do with licensing, though I don't know the details. Not sure why it was "Lightening" and not "Lightning", either.

@singlebanana - I don't recall how you unlock WR-03, it's been years since I did so. You may want to consult a FAQ on the matter. But as I said, you can spam the lock-on laser pretty hard to track up 50+ chains, resulting in a clear advantage in favor of that craft, so it may be in the competition's best interest to disqualify it.