It was strange to me at first too, it took few runs before it asked whether I want to register my score for the first time (then it worked after I got a better one). Maybe there is some minimum score or something.
@OorWullie, great to have to back participating, no need to feel awkward. I used to run gaming events and such things back in the day and I know it's very easy to get burned out or distracted by life, which makes it feel stressful and a burden very quickly. Better to share the responsibility or pass the torch once in a while. I also recommend having some breaks occasionally between the challenges. Having those challenges back to back for months burns out the participants too.
As for game choices in future, I don't recommend selecting something which just came out immediately, even if it would be quite cheap as it can reduce the number possible of participants. Alpha Mission 2 was great idea because it has been out for a long time and is also now on discount
Anyone know what triggers the 1up about halfway through stage one? I've got it 3 or 4 times out of about 20 runs and I can't work out what causes it to appear...
I have created a separate topic for this challenge. This way I can update the first post with the current standings and we can maybe challenge each other a bit.
The game looks decent, I think I'll give it a try once(/if) i'm done with Octopath tonight, before tackling Dead Cells (once I'll start up that one I'll have little time for... basically anything else!).
It's been a while since I've played a SHMUP on Switch (it might as well be since my last Strikers 1945 high score challenge attempt ) but It's nice to be back where it all started!
The original fire has died and gone, but the riot inside moves on.
Struggling with Alpha Mission 2. I only realised yesterday it's for High Score Mode rather than Caravan. I'd been playing the latter.
I bought Omega Fighter yesterday, really like it. It's like an early bullet hell in a way but without being overly challenging. For a 1989 shooter,I'm impressed. Looks great in TATE mode too.
Anyone bought or familiar with Argus? It released a couple of weeks ago.
I’m having a real hard time getting any score near the top. The best I seem to do is 100k. I don’t know why I’m struggling so much with this one. Anyone have any tips?
@Agent721 Glad to see I'm not alone, I feel like the first time I've picked up a SHMUP! I think my top score is around 100k-ish... the problem is I never feel in control of the ship so I often run into bullets and enemy ships like a total noob
The original fire has died and gone, but the riot inside moves on.
We'll, get all the power ups in the beginning, which will make your speed too much, but you have the option get power downs quite quickly after that (recommended). Then you can also get the 3 parts of the first armour too quite early too.
Then it's mainly to survive and shoot everything you can. I guess there is some milking spots, but better to focus on just getting as far as you can. The score I have, 300k+ is from first two levels, I got killed by the second level boss. I haven't played yet as much as I had intended yet though.
I think one of the tricky part are the land targets and your slow rate of fire with missiles which you need to destroy those. If you don't destroy those effectively enough, they shoot you from behind which is really annoying. Oh there there are those suicide ships which come really suddenly too.
There is some rank effect in play, if you do too good until the first level middle boss, it shoots you those annoying homing bullets at some point for example.
One thing which annoys me in this one is the dodging the power downs which come very frequently when you have powered up your ship fully.
I don't think the first level is too hard after you get the hang of it. There is also a bunch of videos in youtube where you can get good idea what to aim for.
Also, remember to use the first two armours you have/get (you start with 1 and can get the second very early) in spots which give you difficult time as it can prevent a bullet or two when it's on. Remember not to waste shots when the armour in on as it drains the armour energy (depends on armour is it the main shot or the armour shot which drains it).
Thanks for the tips , I’ve done some of what you said but I didn’t think of powering down the speed. My main problem, as @RetroGamerAndrew said, is avoiding the bullets. For some reason, I’m playing like a noob. It’s embarrassing, really! I’ll look at YouTube.
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Like many have said already, this is quite a challenging game to get good at or even get a score on the leaderboards. A lot of stuff happens seemingly random, different patterns, items that appear. The score I have is for about reaching halfway through the second level.
I don't think the patterns are that random actually, it just takes a while to learn. A lot of pickups aren't either. There is some rank-effect going on though which might throw people off, but I don't think it has nearly as much effect when compared to let say Tengai.
I think this game just requires few hours of play to get into and then you start get better scores more often. It's nowhere near as hard as Psikyo ones.
Progressed to third level finally on the weekend and got slightly higher score as result.
Things I have learned:
If you dye at wrong point without any "K" (which let's you keep you power ups after dying), it's automatic restart no matter how many live would be left. Extra lives do not matter if you are stuck without power ups. There is specific places where you can get power ups and those aren't that frequent.
Watch out those ground targets close to you, if they happen to shoot at close range, there is very little time to react and dodge and usually it's coming from bad angle and hard to notice.
Thunder is good armor to replenish if you have the G's after first level. It helps a lot in difficult sections of level two.
Shotgun armor helped me to kill the second level boss quickly so it seemed to good fit for that
Just a little bit more than 24 hours to get your final scores in! Please post a screenshot here with your highscore if it is below the threshold set by Hamster to enter the leaderboards (somewhere arround 150.00). @GFoyle great job on improving an already impressive score!
@Corneel That is an impressive top score! I don't see myself improving on my own score.
I'll be honest, I didn't really get into this game. The patterns obviously aren't random, but they are hectic and I felt like I was dying too often in cheap ways. I ended up playing the Touhou game Azure Reflections more last week.
Struggled with this one and couldn't motivate myself to improve my score. Ended up playing Omega Fighter instead which is superb!
Not really a fan of High Score Mode either. I'd rather dedicate my time to improving my 5 minute score. Just find Caravan Mode more fun overall for score chasing.
Apparently Thunderforce AC and Columns 2 have had online play added to them. That's great news!
Yeah, it was difficult game to get into. I would have played more myself as well if there would have been more competition, but that is mainly the sign that the game really didn't grab me. The base game is good, but there is also too many odd or even bad design choices which makes it hard to enjoy it fully. I'm still glad it was picked because it game me motivation to play the game enough to understand it better and make my mind whether I like it or not.
I personally much prefer high-score / normal mode to caravan, which feel really artificial way of playing these games. IMO you should first try to beat or even 1cc these games before starting to focusing on the score and when you play in high score / normal modes at this skill level, usually the further you get the better score you will have (excluding games which have some kind of chaining mechanism like Ikaruga). Going straight to score changing is a bit like trying to run before you can walk.
btw. Thunder Force IV has infinite scoring possibility in the first level, which do not require any skill. Kinda makes the score changing pointless in that one unless we make gentleman agreement that nobody uses that in the challenge if the game is chosen at some point.
And the challenge is over! Congratulations @GFoyle your score was difficult to beat or even come close to. Also amazing job @riccyjay just a few extra points and it would have been second place. And @Zkibu for getting a score high enough to be on the leaderboards. I guess a lot of people have been struggling to do so with this challenge. Hopefully we get a bit more people on the leaderboards next challenge. @GFoyle what wil be our next challenge?
Alpha Mission II High Score mode final leaderboard: 361700 - 1st - @GFoyle 263900 - 2nd - @Corneel 258400 - 3rd - @riccyjay 162000 - 4th - @Zkibu
@OorWullie Omega Fighter is an amazing game and I'm sure we'll be chasing high scores for that one soon. And Caravan mode is also a lot of fun, trying to perfect your 5 minute run and maybe doing things a bit different for extra points. But I also like the high score mode where it is just trying to get as far in the game as your can.
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