You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2009.
Been playing R-Type quite a bit lately. The first one, that is. Both on R-Types for PS1 and Dimensions on XBLA. At first I alternated between the two but then came to the decision that it might be better to focus on only one for now. Settled on Dimensions for two reasons: Firstly, R-Types has a far better (=more rapid) autofire so in playing Dimensions I can’t get dependant on it and hopefully will learn better tactics and routes.
Secondly, the main reason I bought Dimensions (a whooping -day- before it became deal of the week for a cheaper price, how’s that for timing?) in the first place was for co-op. I have delusions of grandeur plans to make a co-op superplay of at least the first game. Why? Because co-op superplays are pretty cool and there really aren’t that many of those out there. Hardest part here, it seems, is finding a suitable co-op partner. I tried it with szycag but the lag was quite insufferable for the one who wasn’t hosting. This could be due to us having quite a bit of distance between us, so I’m hoping to find one of the many, MANY finnish shmup players to partner up with.
That’s not going so well. Put up a notice at the biggest finnish gaming forum, promising glory and fame (as much as participating in a superplay video gives it) but I haven’t got a single reply yet. The other way would be to get someone to play the game with me locally, which would also be nice for discussing tactics, but that’s even harder to accomplish. Only one guy I know plays shmups and he’s not one for R-Type. Either I need to learn brainwashing or cloning techniques.
As for how I’m doing in the game itself…I have good days and bad days. On a good day I can get to Stage 6. On a bad day, like today was, I can’t get past Stage 4. The boss is such a wild card. Even though I have his pattern down now he still kills me way too often. And on occasion he even breaks his pattern which messes me up. Stage 5, assuming I get there fully powered up, is basically a push-over, no problems there.
Also, I’ve tried R-Type II few times. So much harder than the first game from the very start and I’ve only made it to Stage 2. The stages feel so much more inventive and devious. Almost makes me want to switch to that…
On being presented with my Raiden Fighters Jet simulation 30 vision dilemma, the sage advisor suggested that I should perhaps not play that level at all.
There were two obvious options for a sim50 1CC.
a) 15 -> die on 30 -> fail the criteria on 40 -> 50
b) die on 15 -> 90% medal and 98% destruction on 20 -> fail criteria on 40 -> 50
My naive assumption was that one-missing 30 with no other goals was easier than playing 20 well. Terribly mistaken. 20 is easy, even including the destruction rate and medal goals. I thought I might perhaps suffer in rank in order to hit the 20 criteria, but that’s also not true.
So now I’m on to option B. On sim40, you can pass to the real battle stages if you achieve all the criteria. ycw states that one of those criteria is no-miss. I assume that he means no-missing just that stage, since I don’t think you can reach sim40 without dying. The other two are activating special medal mode and not timing out any bosses. I’ve never messed with boss timeouts; I just stay away from special medals. This will of course all come tumbling down if I ever try to start playing like a man, but what are the odds?
I’ve only tried a few runs with the new route, and I reach the sim50 boss routinely. I’ve even gotten him into his final phase of attacks. And died with a bomb to spare. Don’t ask me why, it’s just the nature of my groove. So I’ll take a few jabs at the bossbird in Training and see if that does the trick.
And after the sim50 1CC, which is, after all, only barely more reputable than the trivial sim35 clear? Tis a mystery.
Bah to Simulation 30. Can’t see a goddamn thing. Bullets are invisible against the ground below, and when I’m focusing intently on the space right in front of my Fairy to avoid stray aimed shots, the enemy planes blur into the background planes. It’s a short stage with no tricky bits when rank is as low as mine, so it should be a cruise. Blindness precludes cruising.
My current plan actually involves suiciding on sim30, but that’s been unnecessary so far. I’m dying regardless, generally repeatedly. The suicide is to force sim40 as the next stage, and then sim50 as the final. If you no-miss through 30, you go to 45 instead, a certified crotch-kicker. As ever, all glory to ycw.
Dan Haigh
Ghegs
[DRZ] OTL-TIW
sikraiken
Alice
victoly
plasm0
Aquas
Raydere
szycag
BDA
bloocloud
Kollision
