Comments on: SHMUP: It’s A Shmup

By: RobF

RobF — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:25:10 +0000

To be honest, I don’t really go looking for originality in shooters – in fact, most of the time I’ll value “how wot it plays” over any innovation or originality. JnG though, I dunno – it’s hard to know where to start with it.

Most of the time you’re in one of two states – ridiculously underpowered or ridiculously overpowered and inbetween the cosmetic destruction, it’s multi-hit baddie after multi-hit baddie and little else there. I brought the space crate example up because I’m not sure what kind of person when putting together a shooter thinks “oh yeah, what we need is a ‘you need to shoot x crates’ level now” y’know?

It just feels like a checklist of things thrown in without any care as to whether they work -well- or not, at its best it appears to do the job, at its worst it’s a tedious experience for me.

I should clarify that I don’t really fall into the “want complex scoring or a curtain of bullets” camp for the most part, although I do occasionally dip my toe into that sort of thing, I just like a more designed experience.

There’s a wealth of better (and in many cases cheaper or free) shooters out there I’d recommend over JnG anyday.

By: jon_hill987

jon_hill987 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:18:01 +0000

Yes, a lot of the media are reporting this as a Windows 7 bug when it is actualy mallware that can get you on XP or Vista (and probably 2000) as well

By: tom@nullpointer.co.uk

tom@nullpointer.co.uk — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:21:09 +0000

O shmups how i love thee. This genre still keeps to the old ways, where games were short, replaying meant improving your skills, mechanics provided (in good games) various levels of challenge, tiny hitboxes make you feel cool and things go boom! I’ve done quite a bit of research into this malarky ….self promo… http://www.nullpointer.co.uk/content/?p=50 http://www.nullpointer.co.uk/content/?p=114
Theres a purity of mechanics in shmups that is sadly being lost in our aspirations to ‘play movies’

By: Richeh

Richeh — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:56:39 +0000

SPACE crates. Jets n guns is probably the best shrump I’ve played in years. Tbh, criticising it for being unoriginal is kind of missing the point, it’s a dumbass shooter with sexy graphics, tons of guns and varied, interesting levels.

It’s sexy, it’s fun, it’s great in the sack. Granted I wouldn’t marry it, but… yeah. It’s still the best shoot em up I’ve played lately.

By: robrob

robrob — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:38:14 +0000

Thindows 7.

By: DERP

DERP — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:02:45 +0000

Sorry, I’ll stick with touhou.
GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE DEATHBOMB GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE GRAZE…

By: ChampionHyena

ChampionHyena — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:44:12 +0000

“Our Space Navy will not be effective unless all our starships fire directly forward.”

I dunno how jazzed I am about this. As much a Kenta Cho fan as I am, I’ve never been much for the minimalist aesthetic so many SHMUPs have.

Also, someone mentioned Tyrian. I’d like us to all take a second to bask in Tyrian’s greatness.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.

By: RobF

RobF — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:19:17 +0000

Ok, space containers of some variety. They’re crates in all but name ;)

By: Sp4rkR4t

Sp4rkR4t — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:29:04 +0000

Alec, the black screen of death is in no way windows 7′s fault, it’s yours as it’s caused by a few different pieces of malware and software screwing up the login stack.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/02/black_screen_u_turn/

By: Charcoal

Charcoal — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:46:12 +0000

It was never meant to be in the same”area” as the many, many “bullet hell” SHMUPs out there.
I liked the idea of piloting a ship and killing stuff, but found those SHMUPs to be too hard for me.

So, I made this instead.
In the later levels, it does get very more intense, but your ships can soak up hits just like the enemies can; making it a different game to the others out there.

All I can say is try the demo.
If you like it, yay!
If you don’t like it, that’s still cool (but still tell your friends, please!).

By: Bhazor

Bhazor — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:31:09 +0000

That looked incredibly tame for an eastern shmup not just in terms of enemies in terms of firepower. I really can’t see how this gets it’s own post.

Especially when Undefined Fantastic Object (released in august) hasn’t even had a mention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_MMSL4kejE

Speaking of bullet hell. The Bullet Hell mod for Unreal Tournament 2004 is a lot of dumb fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJTJowpL0zA

By: Demtor

Demtor — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:13:13 +0000

Ahhhh, always good to see someone giving the SHMUP genre some more love. Thanks for pointing this out!