December Shmup Competition Thread

[JerryGreenwood]

Stage 1 warp: To activate the warp to stage 3, you must destroy each of the four hatches that appear on this stage when the thousands digit of your score is even. Of the four hatches, three are on the lower portion and one is on the upper portion.

Stage 3 warp: To activate the warp to stage 5, you must destroy 10 or more Moai statues. Use missiles to destroy bottom lying faces, and double-shot or options to destroy top lying faces.

I always destroy those hatches, must be a huge coincidence that I've never gotten the warp. I destroyed a lot of Moai heads on that run...that makes sense now.

So warps are bad for your score. I got to the same point as MetalFRO, but he played level 4 and outscored me by about 100,000.

EDIT - Just saw banana's post. I didn't know the warps give you points. Hmmm......I'm still gunna say you'd get more points by not warping but I'm not positive.

[techwizard]

i'm sure i could do better eventually, but this is probably the best i'm going to get. i can rarely finish the first level, let alone get far enough to come anywhere near the scores you guys are hitting.

[GrayGhost81]

Here's my best so far for R-Type. As for Gradius, it sure did bring back a lot of memories, but I couldn't even beat the stock high score of 50K to even take a picture of anything. Playing both of these games is not a very good mix, as R-Type is rather smooth and slow (but you you still need to be precise) but Gradius is just shit flying all over the place like crazy. I might give it another shot but I may wait until Saturday as I can really it feel has raised my anxiety levels and it's too close to bedtime for that.

[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20141204_193022_805_zps6eba2ac2.jpg[/img]

[MaterialHandlerMike]

I will be honest. SSB for WiiU is making it hard for me to put time into this ATM. That being said, I have a small score (no pun intended) to put me on the board:


[img width=700 height=933]http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag478/michaelrancourt/ADD1A739-A551-4982-90E3-5605B8688434_zpsm8bk2dzt.jpg[/img]

[singlebanana]

Creepin' while you sleepin'..........

[img width=700 height=522]http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y359/necrom99/Video%20Game%20Scores/8E054EC5-6C26-4105-84EC-BA73D706A6FA_zpsaf0grab1.jpg[/img]

[singlebanana]

I played some R-Type Final last night, but could not figure out how to retrieve my score after I died........  Any info on this is appreciated.

Looks like the Gradius competition is heating up and I'm pretty determined to beat this game at least before the month is over. We still need some R-Type scores, so don't forget to play and post.

[GrayGhost81]

I played some R-Type Final last night, but could not figure out how to retrieve my score after I died........  Any info on this is appreciated.

There's a menu option called "War Chronicles" that will have your best score among many other stats.  Also, make sure when you're done playing you save your game. I think it auto-saves after the first time you do it, but you definitely have to hard save at least the first time.

[singlebanana]

I played some R-Type Final last night, but could not figure out how to retrieve my score after I died........  Any info on this is appreciated.

There's a menu option called "War Chronicles" that will have your best score among many other stats.  Also, make sure when you're done playing you save your game. I think it auto-saves after the first time you do it, but you definitely have to hard save at least the first time.

Good to know. I haven't been playing out my continues, but also haven't saved either. Oh well, no big scores to report anyway. Good practice.

[JerryGreenwood]

Nice score Banana! You have achieved total shmup and you will beat Gradius soon

I tried last night, but I could not improve my score.

To those struggling:

- If you die, it's because you weren't positioned properly. The goal in a shmup is not to kill everything on the screen. It's to get your ship to a certain spot at a certain time. This could be for offensive or defensive reasons.

Gradius specific tips:

Stage 1 - To easily pass the volcanoes, stay back and have your 2 Options (with missiles) underneath you with the bottom one parallel with the top of the left volcano mouth. Spam fire and don't move. If you have Lasers, you will hit most of the rocks from the right volcano too.

Stage 2 - Know where the hatches are and destroy them asap. The enemies that come out of these fire a ton of bullets.
             - For the part where the blue tiles swarm you, use the same strategy as the volcano, but have the Options above you. This will take care of the tiles from above and the missiles will hit below. You may have to move up and down a little bit for this one, but for the most part you can spam fire and just sit there.

Stage 3 - This is where I switch to Double shot, but if you don't have it it's probably best to take the upper path. Try to kill the turrets near the Moai heads. You can destroy Moai head shots, but not turret bullets.

Misc - If you're fully powered up, do everything in your power to keep your power up slot on Shield. The second your shield runs out, power it up again and try to get the slot back on Shield.

[singlebanana]

Misc - If you're fully powered up, do everything in your power to keep your power up slot on Shield. The second your shield runs out, power it up again and try to get the slot back on Shield.

+1 on this. This popped into my head last night and is the reason for the big run I had. I will even sometimes take a stray bullet after my shield turns brown to put up a new one.

[techwizard]

Misc - If you're fully powered up, do everything in your power to keep your power up slot on Shield. The second your shield runs out, power it up again and try to get the slot back on Shield.

+1 on this. This popped into my head last night and is the reason for the big run I had. I will even sometimes take a stray bullet after my shield turns brown to put up a new one.

i attempted to do that last hint there once and killed myself Lol. worked on a second attempt though. i looked up some suggestions on setups for each levels and it seemed to agree with what jerry said, lasers or double (i prefer laser) for the first couple levels, double for the next couple.

[techwizard]

gave gradius another attempt, pretty much matched my previous best two times but i can't pass it, i'm still having a lot of trouble on the first level during most runs. it's improving that's for sure, but not by much.

[MetalFRO]

You definitely score more by playing through and not warping. I haven't had time to play anything the last couple days because of work and other commitments, but maybe I can squeeze in time this evening...

[MetalFRO]

Okay, here's my latest score. Still using the NES Max controller, but I am NOT using turbo fire:
[img width=700 height=525]http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q388/MetalFRO/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-12/92D937A8-3F1C-4ED3-A3DD-B6013C20EAED.jpg[/img]

[singlebanana]

Great score! All scores updated on initial post.