Topic: Arcade SHMUP High Score Thread

@DashKappei Yep, I will add some instructions on how to post a pic under the current challenge details.

Any chance we could get an ongoing leaderboard for TENGAI on here. E.g. From the scores posted on here so far. Just rank them in text form. Then every other day, copy and paste it with any amendments?

Be cool to see how each of us are doing. Imagine we're all pretty close together and the prospect of moving above our peers might be good motivation?

This game is incredible, the artwork is stunning, the music is wow and the gameplay awesome. I have got 416,000 with Miko so far, really like katana as well.

My current highest score is 460, 502, reaching 1-5 and dying on the second appearance of the giant hand. Played with 'Tengai'.

Current high for me is 432K. Slowly getting there.

While playing Tengai my left joycon stick (that started giving me a hard time weeks ago) eventually went bananas. Since I'm not too fond of the "disconnected" d-pad I'll take a break from the competition for a couple of days while waiting for a working one from Amazon (hopefully on Tuesday)... Time to give Mario+Rabbits some love

It seems like Ayin is the way to go. His bomb and sword swing make for quick takedowns of most bosses. Also he seems to have some invincibility frames during his sword swing (like maybe at the end of the animation?) but I haven't been able to figure out how to consistently take advantage of that. I could be wrong though. I find myself saying "How am I not dead?" about every 5 seconds in this game.

Il post this just for fun and to give less skilled TENGAI/SBLADE players a lower score to aim for. Bought the game today and I’m baaaad at Psykio-like horis.... turns out this game is no exception lol!

@GrailUK thx buddy damn it’s difficult to always get 2k points tho, more often I get 1k

Sucks to hear that @RetroGamerAndrew Anyway you prolly know already but if you grabbed your Switch from Amazon they’ll exchange the busted joycon for a new one, otherwise if you bought it in-store it’s better you deal with Nintendo yourself, bypassing the retailer so that you can just send the joycon instead of the whole console (and risk your saves, bloody hell Nintendo give us cloud saves already!)

My high score so far.

Just passed 646K. Once some of the really good players here start to crack this game open I bet a few will break 1M.

Some great scores posted already.

I'm really good with Katana for the opening 2 levels but then after that I struggle with him. Getting in close to the bosses when the enemy bullet count increases is tough.

I've said it before but I'll say it again, what a game!

@Lroy I'll make up a leaderboard with the scores posted so far when I get home. 4am and I'm still at my mates playing Darts, just won 10 legs to 7 though so it was worth it. If only I could take my Darts form into Tengai.

Well I managed just over 18000 whilst in the back of a tiny car on a cobbled road in Belgium. I was over the moon with that. 😂

@DashKappei bought a mint, previously-owned Switch from eBay last fall, so I'll eventually send the faulty joy-con right to Nintendo...
I ordered a new joy-con right away because I couldn't afford not being able to play on the go for weeks... and the stick is in an almost unplayable state: yesterday while I was playing Tengai my toon started moving back and forth without me touching anything: definitely not something I want to happen while I play anything, let alone a SHMUP... :-/

Well I'm wanting to repeat myself too: TERRIFIC game!
Psykyo delivers, as usual.

I like to be Switch friends with all the fellow Arcade high-score pilots on here. We've had an influx of new folk these past couple of weeks (some have only posted once or twice and disappeared?!) anyway, I think I have sent you all an invites. Welcome!

EDIT: Anyone I missed or for those that haven't shared their friend code by putting it in their sig. Feel free to shoot me over a friend request.

Btw i found that Miko is a real good toon for starters because of homing shots, but once you start to get a grip on the game basics (pattern, positioning, etc) Ayin is too good to pass. His bomb can 1-2 shot bosses and his sword swing can tear to pieces even non-popcorn enemies. It's quickly become my favourite!

Hi!

I'm signing up for this Tengai challenge. I'v been following these challenges since they started but I haven't thought about participating myself because of lack of time (work, children and other hobbies). It's been fun to follow these threads though, you have made some great scores on some of the games definitely and great way to give incentive to dig deeper into these games.

Short introduction of myself. I'm currently closing in 40, but I started gaming already as a child, around age of 6-7. Couple of the very first games I was into, were actually arcade shmups (Dragon Spirit and Truxton) located at nearby gas station. At that age I didn't have much money to play myself (or skills), but I remember fondly going there just to see the older guys playing those games and it was really exciting. Eventually I got C64, then 8bit Nintendo and continued gaming in different forms until I started playing guitar and got kids and didn't have time anymore. When my older kid turned 7 last year, it was good time to start to get back to gaming a bit, as it's something I can do it now together with the kids. Anyway, playing these shmups is real nostalgic trip for me, even got arcade stick to re-live those childhood memories.

Back to Tengai. I have been playing it a bit since it came out on Switch (really been waiting for the Dragon Blaze which still isn't out in Europe store) and I have this love/hate relationship with it. After you picked it for this weeks challenge, I resetted my scores (played on "monkey" difficult before, which isn't that easy either actually) and changed settings to defalt and now my highest score is a bit over 620k, which is really not that good (world record I think is somewhere around 2,5 mil or so) there is the second loop after first one and I still haven't got even to the end of the first loop!. I'm playing now only with the "extra" dude Ayin, which is not easy for beginner as you need to be so close and really remember patters, where enemies pop up to do well and also to have great timing, reactions. It's very stressful and I'm dying a lot, but for some reason I enjoy playing with this character the most. It should be he best guy for scoring when you get to the level that you get through the whole game and it's really time to optimize. If you just started now and you try to do well for this challenge, I would think it would be easier with some of those basic characters.

Anyway:

• As this is not caravan mode, I don't think any of the levels are worse than others for scoring before you are on the level you pass both loops and start to optimize the scoring on each level. Still, the order in which they come has a lot of effect as they are not equal on difficulty and the later they come, the more challenging they are.
• I read from web (see below) that there is some rank system behind the scenes, meaning if you do well, the difficult goes up (faster bullets etc.)... I really do not like such design myself, but I can see the strategy potential in there.
• The character hit-box is quite back and hard to evaluate. I think it starts around the waist/butt area (legs are definitely not part of it) and that is one thing which takes a lot of time to adjust and learn (bullets are also often huge).

For those who are interested, here is a "hardcore" strategy guide for the game: https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=40721

ps. Switch is the best gaming machine ever for me, by far. You really learn to appreciate the fact that you can play "anywhere" when you have family and kids and very little time.

@GFoyle Welcome and great first post. Thanks for sharing your gaming origins and the TENGAI tips. With a score of over 600, 000, you are the man to beat 👏

EDIT: What's your Switch friend code buddy?