ThunderPeel2001

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Well there's kind of two things being talked about here, there's the 2d shooters, and there's Senko no Ronde. The latter is still sort of born out of the bullet hell tradition of japanese 2d shooters, but is actually more of a mech fighting game in the style of Sega's incredibly wonderful Virtual On series. (That is an entire rabbit hole unto itself.)

I really dig Akai Katana though, so let me pimp Akai Katana.

The mechanics here are unusually layered for a 2d shooter, and it's been a while since i played, but... I think the gist of it was that you were using a spread shot to charge up a power attack that could be used to generate swords, and when you had enough swords, you could launch a larger power shot that earned you gold bonus points. Uh... More or less. (You also have a focus shot that also generates swords, but in a dramatically smaller amount than the more complicated path, but it was still important because it does more damage and allows more precise movement.)

I feel like i'm forgetting a lot, and yes, it's insane. (SWORDS!)

Edit: Wait, no! Your focus shot charged up a power mode and your focus shot inside of that mode gave you additional swords. There's also a complicated health bar, bombs, and enemy drops decaying the longer they're on the screen. Shit, that game had a lot going on. (The power-up mode also caused suicide bullets to spawn out of the enemies, which could be fed off of with the sword attack for even more points.)

I had some reasonably respectable finishes on the Akai Katana leaderboards, i think. Definitely nothing like this embedded video though, nowhere near it.

There were also other gameplay modes in there that played like completely different games, just wildly different mechanics.

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I can vouch for Akai Katana, played through it abotu 10 to 15 times and it was great. I knew there was stuff I was missing from the mechanics as I kept getting the screen to melt into gold and primary colours but wasn't exactly sure what was doing that.

Under Defeat has some really interesting mechanics and isn't quite on the level of bullet-hell. It is not the best game out there and some of the 3-D models look a bit clunky but I am enjoying it.

Thunder, if you have any interest I would say that you would be best starting off with Trouble Witches NEO!, Raiden Fighters Aces and Triggerheart Excelica (possibly R-Type but I know Sno disagrees for valid reasons) both are very simple games with a little but not too much crazy going on. Or if you want to jump right in Mushihimesama Futari is the way to go, heh.

EDIT:

I know some one who has all 1000 achievement points in Senko No Ronde.

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Death smilies on xbox360 would be a good place to start. It was the first bullet hell i played and i think it's still my favourite. Slightly more forgiving then the likes of dodonpachi and akai katana

Death smiles 2 has never been released in the UK :( they released it as downloadable only in the States

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I wouldn't worry about Deathsmiles 2, it is by all accounts a bit junk. The first game is quite an accomplished and accessible take on bullet hell though.

Raiden Fighters Aces is an excellent collection with a ton of great features. (There's also Raiden IV, which is quite good, but smaller in scope. Fighters is a spin-off of the main Raiden series.)

Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun are both available on XBLA and are both classics of the genre. (Ikaruga's XBLA version has some dumb omissions and niggling flaws, however.)

I'll throw out a recommendation for G.Rev's very underappreciated XBLA-release, Strania.

I'll also vouch for Trouble Witches Neo as a seriously dumb, but pretty competent and fun game.

Akai Katana though, holy shit, what a great game.

I think those are the main ones i'd recommend, there's definitely a ton of other ones available. (Never play Otomedius, just don't.)

...Have i actually talked about R-Type on these forums before? That's funny, i don't even remember that. Yeah, i think R-Type is terrible. If you're into R-Type though, the XBLA remake is pretty classy.

These are also all 360 games, the 360 is kind of the de facto platform for 2d shooters, including a ton more that simply never leave Japan. (The 360 being such the dominant platform for this genre is why Under Defeat HD only being released on the PS3 in North America is weird.)

Finally, of things available in the west, there's some big Europe-only releases through Rising Star Games, like Dodonpachi Resurrection. (Dodonpachi being Cave's premier series, and Cave being kind of the biggest name in this admittedly very small scene.)

Were either of the Mushihimesama games released in Europe?

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Nope, they're all a valuable on iPhone though and I've been eyeing up the bug princess games for months. I think espgaluda on iPhone is awesome. Dodinpachi is good. Death smiles didn't make the transition so well for me.

Trouble witches is awesome, apart from that bullshit circle fortress boss. I think it might only be 400 points these days?

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Right, right. Cave's iOS ports, which i always feel compelled to point out as being very watered down, but that doesn't really matter if you're just getting into things. They're an affordable, accessible entry point for the genre.

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Yeah espgaluda on iPhone was my entry point to bullet hell. And it melted my 3G ipod touch along with face

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd95jQ57_eM



Ikaruga's GC version was probably the first shooter i played that could be considered bullet hell, and even though it's not an insane bullet hell game in the Cave sense of it, it's probably actually way more difficult than many of Cave's games.

The mental gymnastics it takes to wrap your brain around its polarity mechanic and its combo scoring system is sheer, cold, unfeeling madness.

Edit: Actually, hold on a sec, i played Mars Matrix even before that. That's another great game, but i definitely played that before i had any grasp of how to deal with games like that.

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Yeah i played Ikaruga to death on my GC ;) although I never clocked on about the chaining three colour enemies. I just played it like a normal shoot um up

I kinda prefer the bullet hell games where it's all about split second reactions. I get a bit bummed out playing Ikaruga and radient silvergun because theyre is all about remembering patterns and playing the level over and over the exact same way

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Yeah i played Ikaruga to death on my GC ;) although I never clocked on about the chaining three colour enemies. I just played it like a normal shoot um up

I kinda prefer the bullet hell games where it's all about split second reactions. I get a bit bummed out playing Ikaruga and radient silvergun because theyre is all about remembering patterns and playing the level over and over the exact same way

Ikaruga is definitely a game you are trying to "solve", and i do prefer having a little more agency. I find the Cave games to really be some of the most flexible with regards to how you can play.

Edit: Thunder Force! Hell yeah! Thunder Force III is a big favorite of mine.

My first shoot em up ever was

Not a particularly interesting or at all very good game, but that music is pretty sweet.

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I rarely use my 360 anymore but registered anyway. Sent you a friend request, ThunderPeel.

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