The Sunday Night Shmup thread

It’s been many years since I played all the way through Raycrisis but it was definitely my least favorite of the three. Gameplay, levels and bosses just felt weak and not as cohesive overall compared to the first two games somehow, also didn’t care for the AI/VR environment graphical style. It also didn’t help that it was the final entry in the series and didn’t go out with a bang.

Glad to see I’m not alone then! Hahahaha :slight_smile:

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I couldn’t resist, had some extra time tonight and I’ve been wanting to put more of these together so I assembled another one of my Shooting Historica figures, this time it’s the R-90 from R-TYPE III. Had to get out the crazy glue this time as all of the connectors on the dorsal fins were super loose and one of the lower ones broke, it all came together though, well worth the extra effort:

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Played Soukyugurentai tonight. I booted up my Saturn just to make sure to keep the battery and my current saves going. Souky was in the system so I thought “Eh, I’ll play a quick round.” Ended up playing for about an hour and got new scores for each of the three ships. lol

Then I enjoyed several rounds of Raiden DX which is what I was going to play earlier in the evening before getting sidelined by Souky. Raiden DX is so hard, just getting through the first stage is rough but man is it fun. Just a gritty old school shmup and the shrapnel and explosion effects are great and so satisfying.

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I’m of the same mind, that RayForce (Layer Section) is great, and RayStorm is just as good, or nearly as good. I tend to prefer RayStorm, but realistically, both games are essential shooting action in my book. RayCrisis is a step down, I feel. That’s when ZUNTATA started to lose the balance between melodic and weird, and veered more in the weird direction, but w/o the trademark melodicism that made their mid-late 90’s stuff so memorable. RayCrisis is also a bit short, but made more difficult by the ridiculous amount of stuff on screen, and the 3D graphics aren’t as crisp as those in the predecessor, because some of the palette choices make it harder to see what’s going on. As a result, I would also say it’s the least of the 3 games in the series, though still worth playing.

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Souky is pretty great. I haven’t dug into it too much, as I’ve only had it for a year, but I can see why there’s been a certain degree of fanaticism for it over the years. I do like the game’s particular take on the Xevious/Ray series lock-on mechanic, with the field effect, and despite the use of pre-rendered sprites, it still looks pretty good, especially on a good CRT. I haven’t played Raiden DX yet, but it looks plenty difficult. I was hosting someone on Twitch yesterday who was practicing the game, and the enemy bullets look incredibly fast, so you really have to be on your toes, and know how they target you, and when to dodge.

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I do think Rayforce is better than Storm, and I think for me a big part of it are the graphics. Like GameBoyGuru said, the 3D of Storm just isn’t as crisp as Force, and enemies and bullets just don’t stand out as much. Gameplay wise overall they’re pretty close, but I feel like Force has the overall edge. If I’m going to play one of the two I find myself going back to Force far more often than Storm.

I was actually saying Crisis isn’t as crisp as Storm, but your point is well taken, and would still apply. The 2D graphics in Force are definitely easier to see and have a higher level of fidelity in their style than the later 3D games do in theirs. But for Crisis specifically, the slightly muted color palette, as compared with Storm’s more vibrant look, makes some spots harder to play, because bullets and projectiles blend in more.

My Sunday shooting session was on Thunder Force AC, off the Saturn Gold Pack 2 collection. What a soundtrack!

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Not Sunday or night time, but we had a delayed opening this morning, and I felt like putting some Shienryu time in.

On a single coin, I can manage to get to the end of the 3rd level, and can usually do around 2 million. I had my best run today at 2.139 mil and then proceeded to barely crack a million each subsequent run. Isn’t that always the way. Obviously I’m not particularly good at this game or shmups but man do I love both.

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Which version are you playing? That looks pretty crispy.

Nice! I really need to dig out my Saturn copy of Shienryu, been too long since I played it. And I can’t get enough pics of your amazing giant TATE rotating TV set up, it’s number one thing to do on my list whenever I am able to revamp my entertainment center.

In other news yesterday I scored a complete copy of Tatsujin for PC Engine on ebay. I got it for about $100 less than what it normally goes for. I could have gotten Truxton/Tatsujin Genesis/MD for a lot less but according to the Battle of the Ports video I watched the PCE version is still a great port and I seriously need more Toaplan love in my PCE library.

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It’s the Saturn version (running through the framemeister), which thankfully supports tate mode. I’ve got the PS1 US version, but it lacks tate mode, and I THINK its 480i only also. If I remember right the PS2 version is supposed to be pretty good with both a tate and 240p mode, but I could be remembering wrong. The Saturn version when not tated is 480i but when you set it to tate thankfully its 240p.

Thanks AgentUnknown! When we moved into the current space we’re in it was one of my priorities in getting a tate set up again. Back in the days of CRTs, I kept a small 19inch on its side as like a permanent tate set up. Since I wasn’t going to be doing that to my big ass heavy Sony. Congrats on the Tatsujin score. That is a fantastic game that I am absolutely terrible at. I have the Genesis version of it, and the PCE one is costly enough to keep me from going looking for it lol.

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Nice! I only have the PS1 version, but will have to play around with that whenever I can get cables to hook my PlayStation up through my OSSC.

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My copy of Tatsujin for PC Engine arrived, so excited to play this. This is my second Toaplan PCE port along with Kyukyouku Tiger. :sunglasses: The manual has some great art of the enemies/bosses:

Some pics:

Yeah, just got done playing the first stage and it’s as amazing as I thought it’d be. I put on my vinyl by the heavy metal band “Truxton” and rocked out!

Seriously though, this is a great port so far. Aside from playing a bad rom of the game briefly on a friend’s MAME cabinet years ago this is my first time with the game and I’m having a blast. :sunglasses:

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That art is pretty rad. Truxton is an all time great game. Is there a lot of differences between this one and the arcade?

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Both the Genesis/MD and PCE versions seem to be very solid arcade ports aside from the cropped ratio of course. The PCE version has nicer music and brighter colors that are more accurate to the colors in the arcade game. If you want an excellent breakdown I highly recommend watching the Battle of the Ports video for Truxton/Tatsujin which I linked a few posts above, it compares the arcade game, Genesis and PCE versions all at the same time and goes over the various pros and cons of the Genesis and PCE ports and helped me greatly in making my decision to get the PCE game.

So maybe it’s me… but watching that Battle of the Ports, I thought the Genesis version color was a lot closer to the arcade original. The Genesis version is on the right at the end.

Anyway, they both are good.

Whether or not they’re actually more accurate as the video also went over, the colors just look better and more crisp. And I much prefer the softer, more ambient tones of the PCE version’s music as opposed to the Gennesis version’s tinny sounds. In any case they’re both great and excellent alternatives to the actual arcade game.

In between playing Tatsujin last night I was able to put together yet another Shooting Historica figure, this time it was the Red fighter from Soukyugurentai.

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