Topic: Arcade SHMUP High Score Thread

Ha, same here. That one gets me almost every time, even though i know it's coming and i try to adjust my speed to shoot it before smashing. I actually never even thought about trying to jump it, i always shoot it for the (slightly) extra points.

Not bad I guess. I take the mines nice and safe. I think of it like the jumping sections of the Turbo Tunnel in Battletoads- I don't touch the D-pad at all, just jump when I have to and let the automatic speed take care of the rest. Not the best tactic for getting high scores, but it's consistent.

@mauhlin12 I play with my heart in my mouth on level 3. resetting became a nervous twitch!

Hi,
I noticed this topic and I wanted to join. I am a huge classic arcade and shooter fan. The Switch has been a phenomenal system with constant stream of NEO GEO and other classic titles. Lately I have been spending time with Pulstar, Blazing Star and Strikers 1945 II. I am guessing that the current game is Moon Patrol? I am currently sitting 35th with 26650 points in Caravan mode.

Add me to the list of people getting mad while playing the game. lol
Been a while since that happened to me.
The problem I think is that a single mistake, no matter how small means that you can forget getting a top score.
So even if everything is going perfectly and during the last 15 seconds in stage 4 you mess up or get unlucky with enemies firing in a certain way, it all for nothing.

I'm starting to think if it might not be better to play the games like they were played in the actual arcades back in the day, instead of these caravan challenges.
The repetitiveness and high failure rate might really put people off. Heck, I'm starting to feel it already.
I think the problem is that none of these games were created with a caravan mode in mind, while the actual Caravan games back in the day were either specifically selected to be played as such, or were created with such a mode in mind.

Right now, we're only seeing the first 2 stages of a game for the most part and and it comes down to memorising and perfecting those into a single run.
While in regular arcade play, even though you're not able to maximise stage 1, you still have a chance of putting down high score depending on how for you can get, or how good you are in a different stage.
It would certainly help with getting a better feel of the overall game and perhaps might not scare off as many people.

Just a thought.

@Zkibu Just wanted to say welcome.
I noticed you pop up on my friend list last night and thought 10 hours on Strikers 1945 II? I don't know how this is, but I like him already!

@meppi64 thanks. The second Strikers game is currently my favourite. Slowly but steadily upping the difficult level.

@Zkibu On which level are you playing right now?
I always tend to play on the standard level like in the arcades, in this case that would be 5, and so far I haven't gotten past level 4. Then again, I've been drowning in games as of late and was crazy enough to order a bunch more this past weekend, so I find it hard to play everything I want as much as I want.

@Zkibu Hiya Best of luck and remember to have fun! We have a well supportive community here ^^.

@meppi64 I think caravan mode is really good for improving yourself. It's good because you can get really familiar with some levels (bear in mind the first level is usually the easiest also!) and the skills you pick up are transferable to the rest of the game. As for resetting, that comes with any high score challenge. The top score in any sport is about the small margins. Milliseconds in 100m sprint etc. So yeah, I relate to the frustration of a run failing on a small thing. At least I'm not having to do it after mucking up 6 levels in on 1 credit! If I restart in caravan mode then I know I'm only like 2 minutes away. However, I will concede that variety is the spice of life as Danmaku showed last week

@meppi64 Third level (very easy). started with normal difficulty, but quickly dropped it to Monkey. I bought Strikers 2 and Zero Gunner 2 same time. Was much more hyped about the ZG, but ended up playing more Strikers.

@Zkibu Welcome and well done on your MOON PATROL score.

Top tip with level 4.
When you get to the brow of the hill (after the rock fall), there is a wave of yellow saucers that nets you 800 points for clearing. There is absolutely no point going any further than this as obstacles are rather spaced out and work against the time limit. Once you clear those saucers, smash in to the next obstacle (all the better if you can do it before the first rock) and farm them with your remaining lives as they are immediately after the reset. It's a bit cheesy, but nets you the most points.

@GrailUK See, while that's an excellent technique, it's that kind of thing that I don't like doing myself for some reason.
It was the same with Shock Troopers, trying to stay in the same place as long as possible and milk points.
I have no problem with doing this whatsoever though.
It just sucks any fun out of a game for me personally. Don't know why. :-/

@meppi64 It's playing the system. I'm not 100% in favour of it either. But man, I just could not see where the previous top score got his points from. There is absolutely no way you can cash in the level 4 end of level bonus. Believe me, I tried my best hahah

@GrailUK Oh yeah, I fully understand it.
It just seems to quickly drain my motivation when I see I need to do something like that.
Again, this probably is just a byproduct of the games not being made with a caravan mode in mind.

@meppi64 Ye. It's cheesy.

@GrailUK
Not a bad idea to farm those ships, since as you said it's not possible as far as i can tell to be able to complete Level 4 within the 5 minutes.

Of course, that strategy would help me more if i tended to get to Level 4 with more than one life.

@meppi64
I totally know what you mean about the slightest-mistake-frustration thing. I hate it when i'm having a really good run, then take a couple of stupid deaths and realize that the run has essentially been blown because that means i've been slowed down and won't be getting the end-of-level bonus.

@everyone
Have we figured out what the maximum possible score for Level 1 is? I blast through it at top speed to get the highest bonus (i've never been able to finish in less than 59 seconds) and obviously there's a finite amount of enemies and rocks to blast and holes to jump. The max i've been able to hit is (i think, if i'm remembering correctly) is either 6,250 or 6,300 (depending on whether or not the bomber enemies blast another crater).

@the_shpydar I've scored 6350 a few times and once scored 6400.Not sure what happened for me to get that amount as I thought I'd already maxed it. I don't think I've ever gone faster than 59 seconds though.

@the_shpydar My average level 1 end is 3250 with 59 seconds on the clock. I have managed occasionally 3300 and sometimes it's as low as 2900! Also, about twice now I have finished with 58 seconds on the clock! After looking up why this might be happening, it turns out there is a 2 frame window at the beginning of each level wherein if you jump, you gain a 1 second advantage (kinda like a speed boost hehe!)

@OorWullie @GrailUK
I was just able to get Level 1 up to 6,450, which came from the jump-speed boost trick to finish the stage in 58 seconds, along with the bombers dropping twice before blasting them to create two extra craters to jump. Of course i ended up screwing up the rest of the run and losing all my lives quickly on Level 2. Grrrr!! I haven't been able to repeat the starting speed boost just right to get the 58 seconds again though, timing seems to need to be perfect.

I did manage to bump up my score a bit, right now at 26,300 (currently #37 on the leaderboard).

@the_shpydar Ha awesome job managing to successfully do one on purpose. Both mine were flukes (I usually jump at the start just because why not). It's not something I would try to perfect...until someone beats my score hahah O.<