It's a game by Cactus. On the subject of Cactus, anyone know what happened to BDTUW?

Did you know: Your answer to my question tells me absolutely NOTHING! After all, I've never heard of this "Cactus" of which you speak.

Except I dislike shmups

Nobody's perfect. Some gamers just don't have the type of skill bullet hell shooters require. It's nothing to feel bad about.

Wow, I guess you're not into indie games then. Trust me, hear about Cactus. Anyway, linkys:
http://willhostforfood.com/users/D/dorkman/clean_asia.zip
http://cactus-soft.co.nr/

Yeah, I notice you ignored my edit, Corbie. There really ARE exceptions to that rule. I quite liked Star Prince in Retro Game Challenge, for example. Xevious from Namco Museum Virtual Arcade wasn't bad, either. I couldn't stand to over-saturate my gaming time with the genre, though.

Also, knowing our tastes almost match perfectly will likely give your reviews a little extra weight for me from now on. That's a good thing, I think. Just don't go misleading me, okay?

Which reminds me, you scored The After Years a point too low! pointless nitpick

EDIT: Edit your post with an insult, will you, Corbie? Maybe some of us know better than to have any desire to build that particular skillset! So there!

@Kim-Jong II: I like indie games, but don't go around following companies, generally, especially not ones making shumps.

Do I get free cookies for beating Clean Asia in one sitting? Even Cactus hasn't done that.

Actually, I see no merit to the skillset involved in bullet hell shooters. It's more about self-humiliation than anything.

And yes Kim Jong II, here's your cookie.

My least favorite genre? I don't know if I can describe it any other way than "XBox"
Almost every new game coming out for XBox, (and even PS3 now) seems a clone of one another.
Shadow Complex, Max Payne 3, Resident Evil 5, Red Faction, Halo, Singularity, Mafia II, Uncharted II, Generic Shoot-'em-up 2...oh, sorry, that's not one, is it? Now all of these might have great storyliines and cinematics, but to me they all look exactly the same. Yes, Even RE5. It's like there was RE4, which was this revolutionary thing, and then RE5 comes out and tries to copy the same look as every other game like that. What it comes down to is, let's make the graphics amazing, and add lots of blood and foul language. Now, here's a weapon, destroy everything.

^^Tru Dat. What I hate more is them calling themselve "hardcore," then claiming actually hardcore games like Ikaruga and Aquaria are "gay." And they're true, because these "gay" games are the ones that like REAL MEN, and those shooters prefer women. EoR!
And have you beaten Clean Asia both ways Bertram? As the attractor I've beaten each zone individually, but not the whole thing in one sitting. downloads again

@Corbie: So I'm smart enough to not want to humiliate myself in that way. Glad we cleared that up.

@grenworthshero: There's a BIT more to the PS3 than just all that. I particularly take exception to your mention of Uncharted 2 in that list, because that game is gonna be AWESOME (I played the multiplayer beta, and LOVE Uncharted 1, so I can say this with 100% confidence)! A lot of the best and most original stuff on the system is on PSN, though. The quality there easily trumps WiiWare, imo.

I have no real argument with your post regarding Xbox, though. Well, there are some good exclusive RPG's on the thing, but still...

Being a big fan of bullet hell shooters is about wanting to be good at something that only a select few are. Anyone can play a bullet hell shooter, and many can become good at them, but only the best can be great. And if you want to be a part of that group, you'd better be willing to put in the time to do it.

Faves: JRPG, exploration based adventure, shmup
Least: FPS, edutainment, wrestling, roguelike/MMORPG

So you specialize in being good at an exceptionally self-torturous pasttime just so you can brag about it. That just makes you look braindamaged.

Of course I know there's more too it than that; I'm not that naive. I don't really have any gripes against PS3. And I don't doubt you're right about PSN, because I haven't seen too many WiiWare titles that have made me excited. However, the only games that are really promoted anymore are shmup clones, and I think that's because XBox is kind of controlling the face of gaming today. They've got Mountain Dew on their side, and "Major League Gaming" is just a bunch of douchebag bros who get together to play 360. XBox is what's really out there in front of everyone right now and that's why those crappy games are all I see advertised. My mom kept calling my Gamecube an XBox for a long time, and it annoyed the crap out of me.

It really has nothing to do about bragging. It's just about knowing. I just go visit the Japanese arcade records page and see what the best of the best can do on a particular shooter and then I try to see how close I can get. No one ever sees me playing the bullet hell shooters and other than the occasional mention on here, I don't talk about them or share my passion for them with anyone. I was talking more about bullet hell fans as a whole, not really me personally. But the self-humiliation is good for me. It keeps my overblown ego in check somewhat.

If you say so, Corbie. I was thinking after I posted that last post, and came to realize that what I do to earn Trophies can sometimes fit my description as well (Platinum in Eat Lead was horrible because the hardest difficulty was damn near impossible!). So myabe I'm braindamaged, too.

I see even less point striving towards a hard-to-reach goal and NOT bragging about it. That's why I like Trophies. Without them, I'd never play harder than "Easy" on much of any game. Incentive.

@grenworthshero: Uncharted 2 is a PS3 game, y'know.

But seriously, I get what you're saying. I'm quite anti-Xbox myself, only using mine for stuff I want to play that I simply can't get on any other platform. And I would DEFINITELY hate it if somebody called my Gamecube an Xbox, so I sympathize muchly on that one. Makes you miss the old days when any video game system tended to be called a "Nintendo" by the know-nothings, huh?

It's like that Japanese guy that won the Cave tournament last year said, "those who are great video game players don't have to go around telling people about it. Knowing it themselves is good enough for them." Of course he said it much more eloquently in Japanese, but that's what it said on the translated page, so-to-speak.

Me I'm fairly average, and perfectly happy to be as such. Gives me something to shoot for.

Well, I usually require SOME sort of reward to want to do something "great" in gaming. I do like me some bragging rights! Though I have done things in gaming just because I wanted to, only to tell people later, such as doing EVERYTHING in FFXII (finished Bestiary, beat every optional boss, forged all ultimate equipment...blah blah blah...). That's what I do with RPG's, I guess. I do wind up talking about it, but I do it because I'm a nutsy completionist.

I stand by what I said about difficulty levels, though. No Trophy for beating the hardest mode? I won't bother, then.

Well everyone's different. I think I was always more concerned with my knowledge of video gaming, rather than my actual video gaming talent. Maybe that's why I ended up doing what I do on this site. Because I certainly never set out to do it, that's for sure.

Really? I could have sworn it was on both. 0.o... Oh, well. You get my point.
And yes, I remember that! My parents would ground me from the "Nintendos" and I would still play computer games and get in more trouble...Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein 3D, baby! Unfortunately it looks like they're giving Wolfenstein the old "360 treatment" as well...