December Shmup Competition Thread

[MetalFRO]

This is my final run, & just under the wire, too. Again, "Human" difficulty, using the R9WB AH ship. Reached the Stage 4 boss & nearly defeated it!
[img width=700 height=525]http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q388/MetalFRO/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-12/2B0B2A8F-4AD8-4758-84D3-462E92C9CFE3.jpg[/img]

[singlebanana]

Alright, so the first week of the shmup competition is over and we are moving on to Week Two's games: U.N. Squadron and Xyanide. A big shout out to new member MetalFRO for posting high scores in both Week 1 titles, Gradius and R-Type Final! Please remember that if you didn't play one or either of the games in Week 1, it's not too late to join us. As the rules to the competition state, "At the end of the month, each participant's lowest score on the retro and modern side will be dropped (this means you can miss one game on each side and still be in the championship running)."

Scores have been updated and the points system has been initiated. Please check your scores to make sure that I didn't miss one of your posts. Current points standings are as follows:

MetalFRO - 20
RetroRage - 17
singlebanana - 15
GrayGhost81 - 12
JerryGreenwood - 9
techwizard - 6
Duke.Togo - 5
EngineerMike - 5

I hope everyone is enjoying themselves this month.

[GrayGhost81]

Damn, I am shocked that I was able to place so high simply by virtue of having played both games.

I hope MetalFRO is missing a bunch of the games we have left to play.

[techwizard]

i have a lot of catching up to do, but i'm glad to see i wasn't the very lowest...though close to it. unfortunately i don't have either of this week's games, so i'll have to try for a strong comeback in week 3 and 4

[RetroRage]

AHH!!  My Xbox 360 can't play Xyanide!!!  AND I CAN'T FIND MY POWER CORD FOR MY ORIGINAL XBOX!!!!!

Also, U.N. Squadron is tough.  I should have practiced a little more before the week started.

[JerryGreenwood]

Yeah, it's tough, but it's such a great game. It brings me back to the magical time when the SNES was brand new. I remember hearing some of the music (the pilot select screen specifically) and thinking how futuristic it sounded. My Genesis and NES could not make those sounds.

I forgot which pilot I like and which weapons and planes to use. I'll have to relearn all my patterns.

[GrayGhost81]

Haven't played UN Squadron in a while. Are we just going with whatever the default difficulty is?

[RetroRage]

I love the music in UN Squadron.  It's so 1990 Capcom

[singlebanana]

Haven't played UN Squadron in a while. Are we just going with whatever the default difficulty is?

Yes, always default difficulty unless otherwise stated. Thanks

[MetalFRO]

Damn, I am shocked that I was able to place so high simply by virtue of having played both games.

I hope MetalFRO is missing a bunch of the games we have left to play.

Unfortunately for you guys, the only games in the competition I don't have are U.N. Squadron (which I suck at, anyway), and Otomedius Excellent, because I still lack the Xbox 360 in my collection.  I haven't touched Xyanide yet, so I may suck at it, but I'm pretty sure I'll dominate on Lightening Force, and I'll hold my own with RayCrisis.  Haven't touched S&P:SS either, so who knows, you guys may still have a fighting chance

[MetalFRO]

Okay, so I plugged Xyanide in for a few minutes at the end of my lunch break (the benefits of living 3 blocks from the office!), and WOW is it hard.  Maybe I need to read through the manual, but from what I gather, it's a bit of a twin stick shooter, with the left stick moving the ship, the right stick moving a cross-hair that is activated by holding down the left trigger, and then once a vessel is targeted, you let go of the left trigger to fire at them.  I tried a bunch of other buttons, and found no additional weaponry, so unless I'm missing something, the game is quite simplistic in design.  However, it's REALLY HARD to concentrate on moving around the screen to avoid projectiles and colliding with other ships, while also concentrating on targeting.  It's certainly going to take some getting used to, that's for sure.

[singlebanana]

I played a little of Xyanide a few weeks ago. It has a really beautiful and sinister introduction that is a must see.

[RetroRage]

I played a little of Xyanide a few weeks ago. It has a really beautiful and sinister introduction that is a must see.

I was gonna say that!  It has a gorgeous opening that's good enough to pass as current gen (xbox 360 at least).  Previous gen games often get unfairly abandoned, disrespected and marginalized as "junk", but a good chunk of the games still hold up.  It's only a matter of time before the hidden gems begin popping up.

I played Xyanide for a few minutes tonight, the controls are a little strange and I can't tell if I'm hitting the enemies sometimes.  It sure is pretty though.

[JerryGreenwood]

What are we going to do with UN Squadron? The score disappears after you lose all your lives, so you have to take a picture before you die. I was thinking one of two things.

1 - Pause and take the picture at the last second when you're about to die.
2 - When your lives total reaches 0, just take the picture. Kind of like pretending you always have one less life than the game gives you.

Neither are perfect solutions, but we have to work with what we got. Anyone else have an idea?

[JerryGreenwood]

This picture was taken when I had 0 lives left and 1 more hit left.

[img width=640 height=480]http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/a420/JerryGreenwood/2014-12-09210456_zps582dbba8.jpg[/img]